Downstown

Last updated
Downstown
Author(s) Tim Downs
Illustrator(s) Tim Downs
Current status/scheduleConcluded
Launch date1974
End dateFebruary 1, 1986
Syndicate(s) Universal Press Syndicate (1980–1986)
Genre(s)Humor

Downstown was an American syndicated comic strip created by Tim Downs that ran from 1974 to 1986.

Contents

History

Origins

During his junior year at Indiana University at Bloomington, Downs created the comic strip Downstown for the campus newspaper, Indiana Daily Student, which immediately began to publish the strip as a daily feature. [1] [2] [3]

Downs said, "I went to college to be a sculptor and a painter. In my freshman year, I became a Christian and soon my attitude began to change toward a career in the fine arts. The problem was that sculpting and painting were intensely personal, almost like therapy, and I had things I wanted to communicate. That led me to graphic design, then comic strips…." [4]

Downstown was syndicated to other college newspapers across the United States. [5] The second college to publish the strip was the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. Between 1974 and 1979, the strip expanded to 30 college newspapers and one non-student paper, Vidette-Messenger of Porter County, of Indiana. [6] [1] [7] [8] The editor of the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois, one of the first to purchase the strip, said, "I think Downstown is the most consistently funny and insightful strip I had ever read. Ever." [8]

Syndication

In the fall of 1979, Universal Press Syndicate agreed to begin syndication of Downstown. [5] While Universal and Downs made plans for national syndication, the 30 newspapers that carried the strip in its college version had a gap in service as Downston was no longer available. [6]

Universal felt that a college setting was too narrow for a commercial strip, so Downs changed Downstown to be a strip about singles. [1] [5] The first syndicated Downstown strip was released on March 24, 1980, in 46 newspapers. [1] [5] Downstown appeared as a daily and Saturday/Sunday feature for the next six years. Universal promoted it as "a comic strip that captures the humor and lifestyle of a new generation." [8] This snapshot of current singles life "appealed strongly to baby boomers who recognized themselves and their friends," [1] One reviewer said it "bore a resemblance to early Doonesbury , before Garry Trudeau turned political." [8]

Through syndication, Downstown appeared in more than a hundred major newspapers worldwide, including Chicago Sun-Times, The Detroit News, Edmonton Journal , Miami News, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tokyo Student Times, and Washington Star. [6] [7] [9] [3] Along with Bloom County and The Far Side , the Los Angeles Times called it "one of the few new comic strips offering original and relevant humor for the '80s…." [10]

After 11 years and about 3,000 comic strips, Downs discontinued Downstown on February 1, 1986. [1] Downs said, "It’s gotten harder and harder for me to do Downstown. I finally had to ask myself if it was the kind of strip I wanted to be drawing 10 years from now, and realized that it wasn’t.” [1] In short, Downs was living a married life with a son in San Bernardino, California, making it challenging to continue writing about characters based on his college roommate. [11] [7] He noted, "In some ways, the strip is the victim of my growth. To bring it in line, I would have to make radical changes—like marrying Chuck and giving him kids. I'd rather fold it up and start something new." [1]

However, Jim Creighton, features director of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , noted, "Tim Downs decided to give it up because the strip was not being purchased by enough newspapers to make it worth continuing." [12] If fact, the Los Angeles Times dropped Downstown in 1985, only to bring it back when "extremely loyal" readers sent a "flurry of angry letters." [1] When it ended, Downstown was only in 15 newspapers, representing about 2 million readers. [1]

Downs ended Downstown with a week-long farewell party attended by characters from other comics, including Charlie Brown, Duke from Doonesbury, Cathy, Little Orphan Annie, Garfield, and Spider-Man. [13] [5] [12] [1] (In what appeared to be a collaborative effort, Garry Trudeau killed off Duke the same day.) [12] The last day, the character Josh used a pickaxe to break through the panel border, letting the characters fall through, with the final panel being empty white space. [5] [14] [7] Downs says, "I feel that the Downstown characters will always be floating in the margins of the newspaper somewhere." [7]

Characters and plot

Downstown originally featured the antics of a group of three friends—Josh, John, and Fred—in a college in a place named Downstown. [11] [3] [9] In a single-cell promotional comic by Downs that ran in The Daily Illini on October 4, 1975, he describes Downstown as, "the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the joy and tears, the love and hate, the war and peace, the fear and loathing, the dribs and drabs of campus life. by Tim Downs, a student at Indiana University." [15]

The main characters were:

Downs says, "John and Jeff were based on my roommate; Chuck Laylo was the composite fraternity guy." [16]

When Downstown became syndicated, Josh and John became Odd Couple-type roommates. [8] [11] Downs shifted his strip's content from college life to contemporary singles life. [7] [1] The strip was "mostly about frustration and women; women and frustration; the ennui of late adolescence." [8] Main characters included:

Controversy

From February 18 to 23, 1985, Downs decided to use Downstown to raise support for famine relief in Ethiopia. [17] This desire linked back to Downs job as a traveling lecturer with the Campus Crusade for Christ which he started working for in 1979. [18] [19] Downs said he wanted to show the "insensitivity that sets in among some Americans to the problem of world hunger. …Humor is a good tool to communicate the message you want to get across." [17]

Downs series of "heavy-handed satire" depicting a starving Ethiopian child, "or possibly a hunger-shrunken adult," alongside overfed and insensitive Americans were considered "offensive" and "crude" by many readers who were used to a strip that "normally deals breezily with today's singles scene." [17] The first segment, released on a Monday, featured an American in a cowboy hat looking at the Ethiopian boy, and saying, "Wull now, lookie h'yar! A genuuaan Ethiopian boy." [20] [21] The man has fried chicken leg which the boy desires. [20] Rather than sharing, the American throws it away, complaining "Hey!! Ah got a right to chicken dun right!!" [20]

One editor noted, "The Downstown strip had taken a strange turn this week." [20] Newspaper columnist Sue Ann Wood said, "It struck me as questionable taste indeed. The tragedy of starving children in Ethiopia hardly seemed a subject for crude humor in a comic. However, I thought the cartoonist was trying to make a point that some Americans are insensitive to the plight of Ethiopians. I didn't think he was very successful. I hoped he wouldn't try to do it again." [20]

Yet, Downs continued to cover this topic for five more days, leading The Detroit News to cancel Downstown for a time. [17] Downs said, "Well it is a tragic situation and I'm not trying to make light of it. I apologize to anyone I've offended. I was trying to point out the callous attitude people tend to have about hunger in the world." [20]

Downs concluded the sequence with a coupon to donate to two world hunger charities, World Vision International and Food for the Hungry. [17] [22] Downs did not contact the charities in advance. [17] In the first week, Food for the Hungry attributed thirty donations totaling $555 to Downstown. World Vision expected several hundred donations as a result of Downstown, noting that a similar strip's appeal in December 1984 raised $97,000 for the non-denominational Christian charity. [17] Brian Bird, spokesman for World Hunger, said, "He [Downs] may have offended some people. But I don't feel sorry for them. We all need to learn a lesson about the importance of giving—and continuing to give even when the immediate crisis is over and people don't look like they're starving to death." [17]

When asked if he thought a comic was the right place for such a serious topic, Downs answered, "Sometimes. Not all comics are like they used to be—a simple gag line. I do gag lines too, but I think a comic strip can be a vehicle to put across serious thought. I believe that I can use humor as a tool to make a point." [20]

Christianity

With regards to Downstown, Downs says, "I wrote a Christian comic because I am a Christian. …My basic philosophy is a biblical philosophy of life." [19] However, he opted to be subtle so he would not alienate readers. [19] There were exceptions, however. For example in one strip, a child writes Santa Claus and asks, "They say you know if we’ve been sleeping; you know if we’re awake. Doesn’t this demand omnipresence? You know if we’ve been bad or good. This implies your authority to assign moral absolutes. Are you aware of the staggering theological implications of these claims?” [19]

Downs also converted Evangelical philosopher Francis Schaeffer into the character Captain Relative. [19] Captain Relative does goods deeds such as rescuing a girl's cat from a tree, but throws it in the bushes when he learns the girl has no money for a reward. [19] Downs also expressed his beliefs when broke with the usual tone of Downstown to call attention to the famine in Ethiopia and to encourage his readers to contribute to two faith-based charities. [17]

Design and Creation

Downstown was a horizontal four-panel strip that was primarily black and white but also ran in color for weekends. [9] [23]

Downs's cartooning style has been described as "crisp and uncluttered." [8] He followed a strict schedule for writing and drawing, creating one strip a day." [8] He says he "wrote in bunches, always carrying a notebook" in case inspiration struck. [8]

Collected Editions

The Indiana Daily Student published three Downstown collections—Downstown:This is Winning? (1977), Downstown:With Love, Chuck (1978). and Downstown:Get in There and Quit (1978). Downs self-published a collection The Laylo Papers: The Complete Guide to Relationships. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Watterson</span> American cartoonist (born 1958)

William Boyd Watterson II is an American cartoonist who authored the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. The strip was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson concluded Calvin and Hobbes with a short statement to newspaper editors and his readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium. Watterson is known for his negative views on comic syndication and licensing, his efforts to expand and elevate the newspaper comic as an art form, and his move back into private life after Calvin and Hobbes ended. Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The suburban Midwestern United States setting of Ohio was part of the inspiration for the setting of Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio as of January 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comic strip</span> Short serialized comics

A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.

<i>Dilbert</i> American comic strip

Dilbert is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title character. It has led to dozens of books, an animated television series, a video game, and hundreds of themed merchandise items. Dilbert Future and The Joy of Work are among the best-selling books in the series. In 1997, Adams received the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and the Newspaper Comic Strip Award for his work. Dilbert appears online and as of 2013 was published daily in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and 25 languages.

<i>Peanuts</i> Comic strip by Charles M. Schulz

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. Peanuts is among the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being". At the time of Schulz's death in 2000, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of roughly 355 million across 75 countries, and had been translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States, and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion.

Tom the Dancing Bug is a weekly satirical comic strip by cartoonist and political commentator Ruben Bolling that covers mostly US current events from a liberal point of view. Tom the Dancing Bug won the 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2009 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards for Best Cartoon. The strip was awarded the 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning by the Society of Professional Journalists and best cartoon in the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Awards. His work on the strip won Bolling the 2017 Herblock Prize and the 2021 Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons, and he was a finalist in the Editorial Cartooning category for the 2019 and 2021 Pulitzer Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KDNL-TV</span> ABC-affiliated TV station in St. Louis, Missouri

KDNL-TV is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios at the University Tower in the suburb of Richmond Heights and a transmitter in Shrewsbury.

<i>Rex Morgan, M.D.</i> American comic strip

Rex Morgan, M.D. is an American soap opera comic strip, created May 10, 1948 by psychiatrist Dr. Nicholas P. Dallis under the pseudonym Dal Curtis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Features Syndicate</span> American print syndication company

King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles, and games to nearly 5,000 newspapers worldwide. King Features Syndicate also produces intellectual properties, develops new content and franchises, like The Cuphead Show!, which it produced with Netflix, and licenses its classic characters and properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bil Keane</span> American cartoonist (1922–2011)

William Aloysius Keane was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic panel The Family Circus. He began it in 1960 and his son Jeff Keane continues to produce it.

<i>Nancy</i> (comic strip) American comic strip launched in 1938

Nancy is an American comic strip, originally written and drawn by Ernie Bushmiller and distributed by United Feature Syndicate and Andrews McMeel Syndication. Its origins lie in Fritzi Ritz, a strip Bushmiller inherited from its creator Larry Whittington in 1925. After Fritzi's niece Nancy was introduced in 1933, Fritzi Ritz evolved to focus more and more on Nancy instead of Fritzi. The new strip took the old one's daily slot, while Fritzi Ritz continued as a Sunday, with Nancy taking the Sunday slot previously filled by Bushmiller's Phil Fumble strip beginning on October 30, 1938.

<i>Marmaduke</i> Comic strip

Marmaduke is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson from June 1954 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Kulpa</span> American cartoonist (1953–2021)

Richard Allen Kulpa was an American cartoonist best known for his work for Cracked and Weekly World News.

<i>The Boondocks</i> (TV series) American anime-influenced adult animated sitcom

The Boondocks is an American anime-influenced adult animated series, created by Aaron McGruder for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. It is based upon his manga-influenced comic strip of the same name. The series premiered on November 6, 2005. The show focuses on a Black American family, the Freemans, settling into the fictional, friendly and predominantly White suburb of Woodcrest. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, social classes, stereotypes, viewpoints and racialized identities provides for much of the series' satire, comedy, and conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George McManus</span> American cartoonist

George McManus was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Irish immigrant Jiggs and his wife Maggie, the main characters of his syndicated comic strip, Bringing Up Father.

Robb Armstrong is an African American cartoonist, best known for creating the comic strip Jump Start. Jump Start is the most widely syndicated daily strip written by an African American.

Tim Downs is an American comic artist and author best known for his Downstown comic strip and the Bug Man series of Christian mystery novels.

What the Duck is a comic strip by Aaron Johnson that was produced from 2006 to 2016. It started as a webcomic, with the first strip posted in July 2006. The strip is popular with photographers due to its accurate but humorously twisted take on the world of photography, and has been published in numerous photography magazines including Amateur Photographer. It was picked up for syndication in 2008 by Universal Press Syndicate under the name W. T. Duck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helene Hathaway Britton</span> American baseball executive (1879–1950)

Helene Hathaway Britton was an American baseball executive. She owned the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League, and was the first woman to own a Major League Baseball franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clare Victor Dwiggins</span> American cartoonist

Clare Victor Dwiggins was an American cartoonist who signed his work Dwig. Dwiggins created a number of comic strips and single-panel cartoons for various American newspapers and newspaper syndicates from 1897 until 1945, including his best-known strip, the long-running School Days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juanita Hamel</span> American artist and writer

Juanita Hamel Early Fowle was an American artist and writer whose syndicated stories and illustrations appeared in newspapers across the United States in the 1910s and 1920s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Solomon, Charles (February 1, 1986). "'Downstown' Creator is Facing a Downtime". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ Downs, Tim (1989). Laylo Papers The Complete Guide to Relationships. Communications Center. ISBN   978-0962312502.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "2 New Comic Strips to Begin Monday". The Republic. March 28, 1980. p. 1. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Moore, C. E. "Tim Downs Brings the Bug Man". www.newreleasetoday.com. The Christian Manifesto. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Laylo Papers The Complete Guide to Relationships TPB (1989) comic books". www.mycomicshop.com. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  6. 1 2 3 "Downstown". Vidette-Messenger of Porter County. January 23, 1981. p. 4. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Archibald, John J. (February 2, 1986). "Juliet Proves Hearty; Downstown Gone". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 2C. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 McGuire, John M. (March 24, 1980). "Artist Isn't Doodling; He's Syndicated at 25". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 3D. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 3 "Two Add Fun on the Daily Comics Page". The Miami News. July 14, 1980. p. 1. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Solomon, Charles (October 11, 1981). "Proof that It's the Little Absurdities that Count". The Los Angeles Times . p. 34. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 3 "Hagar Replacing Flash; Darling Going". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. March 8, 1980. p. 2E. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 3 Wood, Sue Ann (January 26, 1986). "Fans". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. D1. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Downs, Tim (January 29, 1986). "Downstown". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 7F. Retrieved January 28, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Downs, Tim (February 1, 1986). "Downstown". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 7D. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Downs, Tim (October 4, 1975). "Downstown". Illinois Digital Newspapers Collection. Daily Illini. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  16. ↑ Solomon, Charles (February 1, 1986). "'Downstown' Creator is Facing a Downtime". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Volland, Victor (March 3, 1985). "Cartoonist Tackles Famine Relief". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 13A. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Jaffie, Karin (November 2, 1984). "Cartoonist Confronts Stereotypes from Biblical Perspective". The Forum. p. 2. Retrieved January 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Clapp, Rodney (March 19, 1982). "A Cartoonist Deals with the Faith in the Funnies". Christianity Today.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wood, Sue Ann (February 24, 1985). "Making a Point in the Comics". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. C1. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
  21. ↑ Downs, Tim (February 18, 2015). "Downstown". St. Louis Times-Dispatch. p. 6E. Retrieved February 2, 2022– via Newspapers. com.
  22. ↑ Downs, Tim (February 21, 1985). "Downstown". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 6D. Retrieved February 2, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "Tim Downs". Lambiek Comiclypedia. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.