False. That would have been Rip Kirby.
Not even close. Pogo is probably first, followed by Doonesbury, and then Peanuts at its heyday.
Sorry, lads and lasses. I’m currently reading the second of the four volumes of The Complete Peanuts that have come out so far, and Sparky Schulz easily walks away with this one. Peanuts was great almost from the get-go, and when it truly hit its stride (late 50s to late 60s) there’s nothing to touch it.
I will aver that C&H is a great strip, and sensationally drawn. Bloom County was great in its day, but you really Had to Be There. Can’t imagine the kids today falling over themselves laughing at jokes about Edwin Meese.
The Far Side is a panel, not a strip.
Well, I really liked Bloom County. I thought it was a bit wittier than Calvin & hobbes. But the points raised in this thread are true, too, that it was topical. I’m still going to vote for
The Far Side
then
Bloom County
tied with Calvin & Hobbes.
I think so. I recently reread some of the books, and really, Watterson has outstanding touch. Top-notch in the language department, top-notch in the drawing department. Plus of course Watterson gets major points for knowing when to quit, and also for not allowing the characters to be merchandized to death. The Far Side was perfect for its time, and I always enjoyed it – but if you go back and read some of the books now, there’s something tediously one-note about it.
And I don’t want to give short shrift to Peanuts, either. Even if Watterson was the best overall, you could still give Schultz a prize by factoring the length of time he worked into his overall strength as a comic artist. Even his most recent work – from the late '90s and early 2000’s – I feel to be quite strong, though it’s derided by many.
So very, very true. I can read them again and again.
I still say that Peanuts was the best.
Thank you, Exapno. I was waiting for someone to mention the real classics.
Though Krazy Kat trumps Pogo. This is fiat: if you get Krazy Kat, it’s undeniable it’s the greatest comic of all time; if you don’t, no one can explain it to you. And if limitations are stipulated, as Padeye suggests, it’s no contest: At least 2/3rds of the Krazy Kat strips involved exactly the same situation: Ignatz trying to bonk Krazy on the head with a brick. Yet George Herriman managed to make it sound fresh every time, while offhanded writing some of the best poetry every to appear on a comic page (Pogo was second; C&H a decent, but definite third).
And Barnaby has to be listed in the top three, also.
OTOH, Calvin and Hobbes certainly belongs in the top ten. My ranking:
- Krazy Kat
- Pogo
- Barnaby
- Doonesbury
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Peanuts (though it was better than C&H in the early days)
- Dilbert
- Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend (the scariest and funniest strip ever written.*)
- Thimble Theater starring Popeye (at its peak, when Elzie Segar wrote it)
- Mickey Mouse (Floyd Gottfriedson version).
The Far Side is the best comic panel ever, but it’s different by nature from any of the comic strips above. If we were comparing apples and oranges, I’d add it between 5 and 6.
The first year of Bloom County was probably up with the greats, but the comic quickly deteriorated. Breathed developed an uncanny ability of missing the targets he set up; his punch lines were always sloppy and never went to the heart of the jokes. It kept getting worse and worse (what other comic strip had to actually print a title that said, “This really is funny, folks”?)
*I haven’t seen enough of “Little Nemo in Slumberland” to make a judgment.
Interesting question. Calvin & Hobbes’ batting average is better than Peanuts, certainly, but is that the criterion? C&H, while not derivative, could never have existed without Peanuts, and many of the subjects Watterson treated had been first handled on the comics page by Sparky Schulz 40 years before. And Peanuts may have had some slow streaks, but it also had more than one brilliant streak that were, just themselves, longer than C&H’s entire run. So I’d give the edge to Peanuts.
But then, is that fair? Saying Peanuts is the best because I’m familar with the strips Schulz was doing when Watterson was in short pants? If the contest is really going to be about forever, then we have to have read Pogo, Little Nemo, Flash Gordon, Krazy Kat, Mutt & Jeff, etc., etc., to really understand every pro and con. And I ain’t read none of 'em.
–Cliffy
My 2¢, I bought the super sized three volume complete set the day after Christmas. I’m savoring it and reading in small chunks. I’d forgotten how good it really was.
It’s too unfair to judge what’s the best ever. Like sports teams, everything evolves or builds on others. I love Doonesbury and grew up on Bloom County but the timelessness of Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbs put them in a different catagory.
Now where’s the love for Marmaduke?
False. The Far Side.
C&H is great, but Far Side for the win.
True. I was amazed to recently discover a strip showing Charlie Brown building, a la Calvin, abstract snow “art” instead of a snowman—in 1952.
I have to give the edge to Calvin & Hobbes. It’s aged much better than Bloom County.
Pogo is a classic as well. And Peanuts is a classic, deservedly. But Calvin simply resonates. Even today, there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t have occasion to remember or quote a Calvin strip – especially with a four-year-old in the house determined to equal Calvin’s propensity for making messes and disassembling things.
I love C and H but Peanuts was transcendent.
I’ll add another ‘True’ for Calvin & Hobbes - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Calvin and Hobbes which I didn’t understand or couldn’t in some way relate to … altho’ I was a big Snoopy fan when I was a kid it was, just sometimes, too American - by which I just mean I didn’t get some of the cultural references. As a European I’ve never been distanced from C&H in the same way - altho’ I accept that this could just be because we’re all more familiar with US culture these days. Anyway C&H is the one I’ll always re-read when I have the chance.
(PS I’d also like to exclude The Far Side from this, yeah there were some recurring characters but it wasn’t really the same genre, you never wanted to know “What happens next?” it was more “I wonder what it’ll be today?”)
Peanuts was the best comic strip ever for dealing with timeless themes.
Pogo was the best strip that ever delved into current topics.
C&H, Doonesbury and Bloom County had absolutely superb moments, but didn’t deliver the same excellence over a similar lifespan. Far Side, while a different format, had the same problem.
A surprisingly good topical strip in its day was L’il Abner. It’s day, unfortunately, was before Al Capp turned into a bitter reactionary.
Yeah, reading The Complete Peanuts 1957-1958 I just came across a Sunday strip in which Lucy builds and crushes several small snowmen one right after the other and then says (paraphrasing) “I am torn between my urge to create and my urge to destroy.” It’s something that would be perfectly at home in Calvin’s mouth had it been written 35 years after it was.
Again, I don’t mean to say that C&H was a copy of Peanuts, because it really wasn’t; C&H was more optimistic with more a sense of wonder and Hobbes could cut through Calvin’s self-satisfied ruminations in a way that no one did to Charlie Brown (maybe Snoopy, but rarely). But there’s a lot of Calvin & Hobbes which appeared to me to be using Charlie Brown as a launching point for the things Watterson wanted to say for himself.
–Cliffy
*Calivin and Hobbes *wins for me. I have always loved Bloom County but it doesn’t compare.
Count me this way:
- Far Side
1.5) Calvin & Hobbes - Foxtrot
- Bloom County
- Drabble (yes I know it’s stupid and pedestrian but I love that dad. I’ve always hoped that someone would make a live action movie of Drabble and cast Paul Dooley as the dad)
Short story. It was actually my mom that first saw C & H, and one day called me to say that I have to check this comic strip out because someone made a comic of me when I was a kid. I consider that the finest compliment mom ever gave me. 
Funny, no one’s mentioned Dilbert, yet I bet there’s a fair number of cubicle rats and corporate worker bees here, and I challange you to walk 50 feet down cubicle row without finding a Dilbert strip pinned up somewhere.
The strips we talk about and consider the best all focus more on life/youth things like Charlie Brown and Calvin, than on work matters.
Your resident amateur shrink will now take a seat…