Gasoline Alley Ĭreated by Frank King, this strip was originally called The Rectangle, but one corner was devoted to a group of men talking about those newfangled automobiles, called “Gasoline Alley.” This feature, and one of the men, Walt Wallet, slowly took over the strip. (And after she retired in 1980, all of its subsequent writers and artists were also women.) And Bungleton Green, which was created by Leslie Rogers, ran for 44 years from 1920-1964 and is the longest-running strip by a Black creator.Ģ. With all that said, I want to tip my hat to some notable long-runners: Brenda Starr, Reporter, was created by Dale Messick and ran for 71 years from 1940-2011, making it the longest-running strip created by a woman. Plus, shrinking space for comics means editors are reluctant to take chances on new strips. Though the landscape of comic strips has changed somewhat from the 1970s on, the funnies section remains overwhelmingly white and male, thanks in large part to how resistant to change the industry is - remember, some of the strips we’re talking about today are over a century old.

There were few opportunities for anyone else to get their foot in the door in those years, let alone be supported by newspaper syndicates for decades to come. Let’s take a look at the longest-running American comic strips!īut first…given that these strips were all created between the 1890s and 1930s, it’s disappointing but not surprising that all of the original creators were white men. But just how old some of these strips are may surprise you. The format predates comic books by several decades, and most of the strips still gracing the pages of American newspapers have been around for ages.

Blondie by chic young