Favorite Comic Strips

In my recent Thirteen Thursday I listed 13 of my favorite comic strips. I should have said that this was 13 comic strips from whenever. A lot of the strips listed are no long being published. I thought I'd give a quick rundown of them. Even if most of them aren't being published today there are collections out there with these strips in them, some of them have complete runs of the strips.
1) Peanuts: Not much to say about that one, everyone knows Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Fantagraphics is publishing the complete Peanuts and are up to the year 1961. This is a must collection for any lovers of comic strips.
2) Pogo: One of my favorite strips. This strip was created by Walk Kelly and is no longer being published. I think it died out in the seventies. There are lots of collections out there, nothing currently in print, but Fantagraphics is about to start the complete Pogo soon.
3) Krazy Kat: One of the earliest strips, for the beginning of the comic strips. A great strip. Again Fantagraphics (I swear I don't work for this company, but they happen to publish a lot of really good stuff and are working at getting a lot of great comic strips in collected form) is publishing a complete collection.
4) Calvin and Hobbes: Another one like Peanuts that has become a part of our everyday life, even though it is no long published. Lots of collections out there and there is ONE collection that reprints every strip. This is one of my goals to buy. This book is three volumes in one slipcase. It is huge. But every strip is there.
5) Barnaby: This strip was published in the forties and fifties. It is by the same artist/writer that did the children book Harold and the Purple Crayon. In some ways this was a forerunner of Calvin and Hobbes, its star a small child and a small man with wings, a fairy, as his companion. This is Barnaby. It's a great strip. Nothing currently in print, though years ago Del Rey reprinted the series in a regular paperback version that last six volumes. I have the first two and would love to be able to find the remaining four.
6) Mutts: Currently in today's paper. One of the greats being published today, this strip owes a lot to Krazy Kat. It's creator wrote a book about Krazy Kat and his creator before he created his comic strip. Lots of collection out there of this strip. I don't know if the collections are complete or not.
7) Thimble Theater: Most people refer to the Popeye comic strip as Popeye, but really the sailor was the star of this comic strip. At first TT starred Olive Oyl's brother, until the creator brought in this squinty eyed sailor and as they say the rest is history. Fantagraphics (that name again) published the Popeye run of Thimble Theater years ago and I have them, but they are re-doing them again.
8) Terry and the Pirates: One of the greatest adventure strips of all time. This was published in the 30s and 40s. It's creator was Milton Caniff, the only one on this list twice. Terry was collected in book form years ago, I don't know how hard it would be to find it now. Every now and than I see ads for different collections of Terry strips. Also Mr. Caniff was one of the nicest men too. When I first started writing I happened to write a review of his other creation Steve Canyon in a comic magazine. He wrote me a personal note thanking me for the review. Now the mag it was published in wasn't a big newstand mag and I'm not even sure how Mr. Caniff happened across it and I definintely was not a big time reviewer, in fact that was my first review I had ever had published I think.
9) For Better or Worse: One of the greatest strips presently being published. This is a great strip that shows family life and has its characters aging. I've heard that its creator is talking about retiring the strip or cutting back to just a couple days. This strip has a lot of collections out there. It really needs a complete collection, starting with the very first strip and continuing to the end.
10)Bloom Country: Starring Opus the Penguin. I think some papers carry reprints of this strip now called Opus. I'm not sure. When it first came out it was derided as a imatation of Doonesbury, but it was far from that. A very funny strip. Still can find collections of these at most book stores. A complete collection like they did for Calvin and Hobbes would be nice.
11) Little Nemo In Slumberland: Another strip from the beginnings of the comic strip. These were wonderful drawn strips that starred Little Nemo sleeping and dreaming. A complete collection is out there.
12) Steve Canyon: The second creation by Milton Caniff. After he left Terry because he didn't own the strip he went out and created another one of the greatest adventure strips in Steve Canyon. Years ago they reprinted these strips in a magazine, but since than I'm not sure what type of collections there are of Steve Canyon.
13) Wash Tubbs: This strip started out as a big foot strip, which means mainly a humor strip like Blondie or Hagar and than became one of the earliest adventure strips. There was a complete collection of this out years ago, but now there is nothing. I have a book or two and would love to get more, but everytime I find a volume the price is out of my range.

There you have it. More oldies than current ones. There are a lot I didn't mention, like Foxtrot and Get Fuzzy that I enjoy.