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| Edmonton Journal | Edmonton Sun | Chicago Daily Herald | Norwich Bulletin | Winnipeg Tribune | Lake County News-Herald |
In
the late 1970s, a few Canadian
and U.S. newspapers began publishing the Sunday color comics
as
a comic book sized supplement within their weekend edition
paper.
The obvious
downside being that comic strips were printed smaller than
normal,
but the upside was a greater quantity and variety of
strips included
in order to fill the many pages of a weekly comic book. It
wasn't
enough to simply carry the usual comic page fare such as Peanuts,
Doonesbury, Blondie, Wizard of Id, Garfield, etc. In
addition, many
continuity
strips (e.g. action, adventure, sci-fi and soap
opera) not
typically found in most newspapers were given
a chance to see print in these newspaper comic books. During
the
heyday (1979 to 1981), it was
not uncommon to find comic strips from such diversely owned
super-hero properties as Spider-Man,
Superman, and The
Phantom
within the same issue. Competing sci-fi franchises such as Star
Trek and Star
Wars were also commonly found within
a given issue.
Unfortunately, use of the comic book format was rather short lived. By 1983 most newspapers abandoned the format and the few that continued altered their strip line-up to become primarily gag based books. Not helping matters was the fact that many continuity strips ceased their syndication towards the end of 1983 (e.g. Star Trek, Latigo, Buck Rogers, Kerry Drake, etc.).
The above timeline shows when newspapers used the comic book format between 1977 and 1993. The Lake County News Herald continued with the format until the end of 1997. The Connecticut Post also adopted the comic book format from 1995 to 1998, featuring Spider-Man, Little Orphan Annie, Rex Morgan, and The Phantom, throughout those years.
It may come as a surprise to US newspaper readers, to learn that many Canadian papers included the Sunday comics as a supplement within their Saturday edition paper.
| Country | State/Province | City | Newspaper | Comic Book Title (with links to the Grand Comics Database) |
Comic Book Format Start | Comic Book Format End | Pub. Sat or Sun? | Page Count |
| Canada | Alberta | Calgary | Calgary Herald | The Calgary Herald Comic Book | 1977-Nov-26 | 1982-Jul-31 | Saturday | 24 |
| Canada | Alberta | Edmonton | Edmonton Journal | Edmonton Journal Comic Book | 1978-Jan-21 | 1982-Aug-28 | Saturday | 26 |
| Canada | Alberta | Edmonton | Edmonton Sun | Sunday Sun Comics | 1978-Apr-02 | 1982-Feb-28 | Sunday | 16 |
| Canada | Alberta | Medicine Hat | Medicine Hat News | The News Comic Book | 1978-Jan-21 | 1981-Jan-17 | Saturday | 16 |
| Canada | Manitoba | Brandon | Brandon Sun | The Brandon Sun Comic Book | 1978-Jan-21 | 1981-Jan-17 | Saturday | 16 |
| Canada | Manitoba | Winnipeg | The Winnipeg Tribune | The Trib Comic Book | 1977-Sep-24 | 1980-Sep-06 | Saturday | 24 |
| Canada | Ontario | Toronto | Toronto Sun | Sunday Sun Comics | 1977-Nov-20 | 1982-Nov-28 | Sunday | 16 |
| Canada | Quebec | Montreal | The Gazette | The Gazette Comic Book | 1979-Sep-01 | 1987-Jul-18 | Saturday | 16 |
| USA | Connecticut | Bridgeport | Connecticut Post | Connecticut Post Collectible Comics | 1995-Jan-01 | 1998-Dec-27 | Sunday | 24 |
| USA | Connecticut | Norwich | The Bulletin | Sunday Bulletin Comic Book | 1981-Mar-29 | 1982-Aug-29 | Sunday | 32 |
| USA | Georgia | Lawrenceville | Gwinnett Daily News | Gwinnett Daily News Comic Book | 1979-Sep-02 | 1982-Aug-29 | Sunday | 16 |
| USA | Illinois | Chicago | Daily Herald | The Sunday Herald Collectible Comics | 1978-Oct-01 | 1980-Apr-13 | Sunday | 16 |
| USA | Massachusetts | Framingham | South Middlesex News | The Middlesex News Comic Book | 1978-Mar-19 | 1984-May-13 | Sunday | 32/24 |
| USA | Massachusetts | North Andover | The Eagle-Tribune | Funday Sunnies | 1978-Oct-01 | 1982-May-23 | Sunday | 32 |
| USA | Michigan | Pontiac | The Oakland Press | The Oakland Press Funny Book | 1978-Sep-17 | 1980-Apr-13 | Sunday | 16 |
| USA | Ohio | Mansfield | News Journal | News Journal The Collectible Comics | 1984-Feb-05 | 1985-Sep-01 | Sunday | 24 |
| USA | Ohio | Willoughby | The Lake County News Herald | The News Herald Comic Book | 1978-Sep-10 | 1993-Jun-06 | Sunday | 32/24 |
| USA | Pennsylvania | Chester | Delaware County Daily Times | Delaware County Sunday Times Comics | 1982-Mar-14 | 1990-Mar-25 | Sunday | 24 |
| USA | Vermont | Rutland & Barre-Montpelier | Rutland Herald & Times Argus | The Sunday Rutland Herald & The Sunday Times Argus Comics | 1980-??-?? | 1983-??-?? | Sunday | 16 |
| USA | Wisconsin | Kenosha | Kenosha News | Sunday News Comic Book | 1980-May-18 | 1989-Dec-31 | Sunday | 16 |
Use of the comic book format seems to be a decidedly northern affair. The lone exception is the Gwinnett Daily News originating from the fine state of Georgia. View the newspaper comic book map to see how the format oddly favored cold weather states and provinces.
A detailed guide to the contents of many (though not all) of the comic books is found within the following excel file. This file identifies which adventure and soap-opera style strips were carried, when, and in which newspapers; Sunday_comics_in_CB_format.xlsx
Contact info:
Mark
Taylor
mark_nems at yahoo dot com
www.nemsworld.com
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| Connecticut Post | South Middlesex News | Kenosha News | Calgary Herald | Montreal Gazette | Toronto Sun |