Comic Strips

It turns that Garfield, legendary comic strip cat, is a boy after all. “Garfield is male,” creator Jim Davis said to The Washington Post. Davis then added the non sequitur, “He has a girlfriend, Arlene," as if only people who are male have girlfriends. But putting that bit of heterosexism aside, how did we get to the point where this was a statement that needed making? It turns out that Jim Davis, presumably without meaning to, started that himself.

While it's often overlooked from readers --- like me --- who tend to focus on monthly superhero titles, the Dick Tracy newspaper comic strip has been steadily chugging along as one of the most entertaining stories in the medium. It's consistently surprising and entertaining, and part of that comes from the fact that Joe Staton and Mike Curtis are always finding something new and innovative to do with their story. Like, say, providing readers with some of the most unexpected crossovers in comics. They've done it before, but now, they're kicking off 2017 with what will undoubtedly stand as the crossover of the year, as Dick Tracy meets up with The Spirit --- yes, Will Eisner's The Spirit -- to fight immortality crimes. And that's just the start of it.

A hero is defined by their villains, and comic books are filled with some of the scariest and silliest bad guys around. Rogues’ Gallery aims to settle the score and determine who is the true arch-nemesis for some of our favorite heroes, and we need your help to do it! You voted to see who the ultimate Dick Tracy enemy was, and we’ve tabulated the results and assembled a video counting down the definitive top 10. Did your favorite make this list? There’s only one way to find out!

On the evening of December 5, children across the world will set out their shoes hoping that on the morning of December 6, they will awake to find them full of treats from Saint Nicholas. But in many parts of Europe, Saint Nicholas Eve is also known as Krampusnacht, a night when Saint Nicholas's wild companion, the Krampus, roams the street looking to punish the wicked. And so in the spirit of previous holiday comics such as The Klaubauf's Wager, Tio de Nadal, and The Baker's Dozen, we at Comics Alliance are happy to present a brand new original comic by Benito Cereno and Chuck Knigge; a surprisingly historical tale of Krampusnacht.

This week we're looking at a comics character with possibly the weirdest villains, one of the most iconic stars of newspaper strips around the world, Dick Tracy. The private eye has a stunningly huge gallery of rogues to choose from, so we've narrowed it down to the best of the worst for you to have your say in which one is his ultimate enemy.

A historical marker has been raised in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, in honor of Jackie Ormes, the first syndicated black woman cartoonist, whose characters Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo broke new ground in newspapers of the 1930s and '40s.

British cartoonist Tom Gauld's new graphic novel Mooncop imagines an actualization of the lunar colony concept of moonshot-era pop culture as it might be if the colony had followed the path of our collective gradual disenchantment with space. Gauld employs his signature simple style in service of a story that is at once an accomplished work of deadpan comedy and a meditation on the passage of time. ComicsAlliance spoke to to Gauld about his inspiration and his work.

If you were to mention the name “Al Capp” to a modern comics reader, there is a good chance it would mean nothing to them at all, or maybe they would think he was the British guy with the checkered hat on the bag of hot fries. But for several decades in the 20th century, Al Capp's creation Li'l Abner was one of the most popular and beloved works in any medium, and Capp himself was a household name and national celebrity.

Garfemon is a project by cartoonist Shawn Bowers where he's mashing up Garfield's signature orange-and-black design with the original 151 Pokémon. It is easily one of the most upsetting things we have ever seen on this job, so obviously we had to share it with you, dear reader.

This week we're celebrating kids comics, and how comics inspire and influence people from an early age. Comics are often a gateway into fiction as a whole, and for many, the characters we met as kids remain some of our personal heroes to this day, whether they wear a cape or not. The question we put to our contributors this week is: Who was your childhood comics hero?