Andy Capp strip size in US Sunday funnies

Discuss any comic strip that has appeared in a newspaper over the years. Andy Capp, Rupert, Hagar, Fudge etc

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stevezodiac
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Andy Capp strip size in US Sunday funnies

Post by stevezodiac »

A colleague has just returned from a holiday in the West Indies and, knowing of my fondness for comics, brought me back a Sunday Funnies section. Looking at the Andy Capp strip reminded me of something that puzzled me a couple of years ago when I picked up some Sunday funnies at a comic mart and that is: In the American funnies section Andy Capp has six panels (see my scan) whereas in the Daily Mirror it has only four panels. My question is does the artist draw six panels every time or do the US papers use stock images for fillers? In all the US strips I can easily pick out the panels that are extra and in my scan you can see that panels 1 and 5 are excess to requirements. Discuss.



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stevezodiac
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Re: Andy Capp strip size in US Sunday funnies

Post by stevezodiac »

I'll reply to myself as nobody else is showing willing, the thing is I now remember seeing some original Reg Smythe Andy Capp cartoons for sale at a London comic mart and they were the traditional three/four panel format so obviously the syndicates expand them themselves. However one of the Daily Mirror ACs of last week consisted of just one large panel - I wonder how they'll make that fit a half page? They'll probably print the same panel twice and just split the dialogue into two?

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Andy Capp strip size in US Sunday funnies

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

STEVE......sorry, I can't read this properly, as the page has blown-up and left some dialogue unreadable...all I can say is, I have noticed that many US Sunday strips are designed so the first frame, or indeed entire first panel, can be removed if desired by a specific editor; the humour is usually constructed so there is no essential dialogue in the opening frames, using a normally 'speechless' introduction.......space is at a premium in NEWSPAPERS, now moreso than ever, [I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying that's how it is].


The US system, as you are doubtless aware, is totally different than here [it is royalty-based for a start], and the lucky few have struck it mega-rich; however, elements like frame construction are paramount, and it's no co-incidence that the most successful-ever comic-strip in history ['PEANUTS' by CHARLES M. SCHULZ] was, for many years, made up of 4 small frames of identical square size, so that many editors could format it in various ways, including vertical........

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