Vintage fans, you’ve been asking for more comics and we’ve been listening!
Starting today and over the course of seven weeks, we’re hosting our very first bracket-style competition called VINTAGE MADNESS. Eight comics will go head to head, panel to panel in a comics competition that is anything but funny. The stakes are high. The strip that makes it to the end of VINTAGE MADNESS with the most votes will be added to DailyINK’s Vintage section.
Our VINTAGE MADNESS contenders are: Buz Sawyer (Sundays), Hi and Lois, Dennis the Menace, Johnny Hazzard, Thimble Theater, Tim Tyler’s Luck, King of the Royal Mounted and Judge Parker.
The stage has been set and the first match-up is between two beloved classics: BUZ SAWYER (Sundays) and vintage HI AND LOIS. User votes will determine which strip stays behind and which strip advances to the next round. The Archivist has provided some helpful background on each contender to help you choose a favorite.
Hello Readers,
Welcome to week one of Vintage Madness!
The Sunday BUZ SAWYER strips often featured that lovable lug, Roscoe Sweeney. His stories involved a host of crackpot relatives and wacky small-town characters reminiscent of the fictional town of Mayberry in “The Andy Griffith Show.”
HI AND LOIS needs little introduction. The clever take on young family life created by Mort Walker and Dik Browne was and is a great humor strip. The HI AND LOIS strips that are competing for inclusion in the Vintage section are from the early years of the 1950s and 1960s.
Who will win this competition?
Buz and Roscoe might be middle-aged, but they’re fast on their feet. Obviously outnumbered by the Flagston clan, they’ll probably hold back until a likely opening presents itself, and catch up easily if the wind is behind them.
Hi and Lois are good runners and have been known to double fake an opponent and make a wide run to score. They’ve been having some trouble passing to Trixie lately, who has missed catching the ball 100 out of 100 times.
These strips won’t be powerjamming through hoops, but they will be making points by collecting your votes. So help your favorites and cast your votes now!
Yours Truly,
The Archivist
Which strip will make it to the next round? Which ones go back to the archives early? Which strip will be the Cinderella story of VINTAGE MADNESS and which one will be the major upset? Stay tuned and vote as often as you like.
Fans can follow all the Vintage Madness action every Wednesday in the “Ask the Archivist” blog post on DailyINK.com, and get timely updates on our DailyINK Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Dailyink) and @DailyINKComics on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/DailyINKComics).
I want them ALL! How can I choose?
Your numbers do not workout for brackets. You have nine titles listed and eight brackets. Thimble Theater???
I agree. Why can’t they all be run? Just by looking at the titles, there’s a least four that interest me.
Love them all .
Good point. Only one new vintage comic? One?
1) Ray, Thimble Theater is the original name of the strip that was eventually taken over by Popeye. So only 8 titles are listed.
2) To be fair, the Sunday Buz Sawyer almost never featured Buz, and eventually was titled “Buz Sawyer Featuring His Pal Roscoe Sweeney.” It is a charming strip though, and while I’d like to see both this strip and the ’50s and ’60s Hi and Lois, I’m choosing the Sunday Buz Sawyer simply because it no longer runs, and this will be a rare opportunity to see it, while Hi and Lois still runs today.
3) I do get the connection with brackets and madness and the upcoming NCAA tourney, but I could do without the faux basketball reference-laden “analysis.” What I would much rather have is more descriptive content about the strips in the competition, such as: Will the strip start from the beginning? If not, what year will you start with? For strips with both dailies and Sundays, will you feature just one or the other or both? Will the Sundays for the strip be in color? (I absolutely love those color Sunday Mandrakes… wish you would offer more in color). This kind of information might help me make a more informed decision.
4) I agree with those who ask, what’s the reason you can’t add them all?
5) For those of you who aren’t sure which to choose: KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED IS A SLAM DUNK!!!!! Take it all the way to the top of the championship!
I agree about KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED. The the real question that was asked above is, why not all strips?
I’ll go one further. In responding to the DailyINK survey earlier this week, I proposed the addition of a new feature, the King Archives, perhaps similar to the online MAD’s “Classic Mad”. http://mad.blog.dccomics.com/category/classic-mad/ Note how a click beneath an opening page can lead to an entire story. Note much color. Note images same size as magazine page. Note how current events cue a past MAD feature. In a similar fashion, the King Archives could offer extended story arcs for a wide selection of strips such as “Pete the Tramp”, “Red Barry” and “Toots and Casper” which are not part of the DailyINK emails.
So, how many times can one vote? Since it appears one can vote multiple times, the results are not going to accurately reflect desire of Daily Ink subscribers, only those who take time to stuff ballot.
What is the size of the King proof sheet collection? What percentage in color? What is the earliest? How many complete runs? How is this material stored?
To say, here are eight comics, but we’re only going to let you see one… well, I guess this is what we might call a strip tease.
Agree with a few other posters … add them all! And why are neither of Milt Caniff’s classic strips, “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon” candidates? Surely King Features still has the rights … after having read the fine Caniff bio “Meanwhile,” I’d LOVE the opportunity to follow either or both from their beginnings …
Great stuff! I have an original Roy Crane Buzz Sawyer cortaon. When I purchased it years ago, there was very little out there telling about him. Nice to see some recognition now.
Jennifer, try this: http://comics.gearlive.com/comix411/article/q308-roy-crane-wash-tubbs-captain-easy-and-buz-sawyer/