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John Darling
John Darling
Author(s)	Tom Batiuk
Illustrator(s)	Tom Armstrong (1979–1985); Gerry Shamray (1985–1990)
Current status/schedule	Concluded daily strip
Launch date	March 25, 1979
End date	August 4, 1990
Syndicate(s)	Field Newspaper Syndicate (1979–1984); News America Syndicate (1984–1986); North America Syndicate (1986–1988); King Features Syndicate (1988–1990)
Genre(s)	Humor, Satire
Preceded by	Funky Winkerbean

John Darling is an American comic strip, created by Tom Batiuk, a spin-off of his earlier comic strip Funky Winkerbean. John Darling appeared from March 25, 1979, to August 4, 1990.^[1]

Storyline and characters

John Darling, a talk-show host, was originally a supporting character in Batiuk's strip Funky Winkerbean before being spun off into his own strip. Much of the strip's humor came from Darling's outsized ego, quirks, and frequent displays of ignorance; in one strip,^[which?] he interviews musician Prince, asking him "Exactly which country are you a prince of?"

Other featured characters were Darling's co-workers at "Channel One", the TV station where he worked, including ratings-obsessed producer Reed Roberts; clueless old-school anchor Charlie Lord; shrewish reporter Brenda Harpy; and insecure weatherman Phil. The strip also featured a large number of parodic appearances by celebrities (often being interviewed by Darling); this was such a feature of the strip that numerous newspapers carried John Darling on their TV page, rather than the comics page. Sunday strips generally included two panels of "TV Trivia" content otherwise unrelated to the strip as a whole.

History

John Darling debuted in March 1979 in 22 newspapers.^[2] The strip's original artist was Tom Armstrong, who left in 1985 for his own creation, Marvin, though he did return to draw the feature's final three weeks.^[1] His replacement was Gerry Shamray, whose first strip was dated March 3, 1985.^[3]

John Darling wound down in 1990, as writer Batiuk by his own account was growing tired of the work it involved. Perhaps even more of a factor was that the strip was no longer financially remunerative, as it had been dropped by numerous newspapers.^[4] With John Darling having been dropped by a number of newspapers over the years, the syndicate decided the strip was simply no longer profitable, and allowed it to die.

Batiuk, who had a contractual conflict with his syndicate (King Features Syndicate) over ownership of the character, stunned the strip's remaining readers by killing off Darling in the next-to-last strip. (The final strip featured other characters gathered around Darling's gravesite.)

Darling's murder later solved in Funky Winkerbean

John Darling's murder (which had been depicted as being by an unknown assailant) stayed unsolved until a 1997 Funky Winkerbean storyline celebrating that strip's 25th anniversary. Over the course of the storyline, Winkerbean character Les Moore wrote a book on Darling's murder ("Fallen Star") and solved the case. The murderer was revealed to be Peter Mossman, alias Plantman, an occasional character in the strip who reported on gardening and environmental issues. (Plantman had actually uttered the very last words in the John Darling strip, while standing next to Darling's headstone: "Goodbye, old friend.")

While Darling himself was rarely mentioned in Funky Winkerbean in the years immediately following his 1990 demise, Darling's daughter Jessica appeared as a regular in the Funky Winkerbean strip until 2007, when the feature was retconned by moving the continuing story up several years. The book about Darling's murder was referenced again during a 2010 strip, and Jessica reappeared in 2011.^[5] By 2013, John was mentioned quite often, as a continuing Funky Winkerbean plotline had Jessica actively searching for information about the father she lost at a very young age. Phil the Forecaster also made very, very occasional appearances in Funky Winkerbean, reappearing most recently in 2021 as he retired from his weather forecasting job at Channel One after over 40 years. Several minor characters in Funky Winkerbean's other spin-off strip Crankshaft have also worked at Channel One.

References

^ ^a ^b Tom Batiuk at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved on October 8, 2016.
^ Lindenblatt, Jeffrey (March 11, 2020). "Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The Three Hundred for 1980 -- The Rookies". Stripper's Guide.
^ Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 217. ISBN 9780472117567.
^ Batiuk, Tom (Feb 4, 2020). "Match to Flame 115". Funky Winkerbean Blog. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020.
^ "So many sadnesses – the Comics Curmudgeon". 17 April 2011.