Baby Blues

Baby Blues
The MacPherson family (from left to right; Wanda, Wren, Zoe, Hammie and Darryl)
Author(s)	Jerry Scott, Rick Kirkman
Current status / schedule	Running
Launch date	January 7, 1990
Syndicate(s)	Creators Syndicate (1990–1995) King Features Syndicate (1995–present)
Publisher(s)	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)	Humor

Baby Blues is an American comic strip created and produced by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott since January 7, 1990. Distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1995, the strip focuses on the MacPherson family and specifically on the raising of the three MacPherson children.

When the strip debuted, the MacPherson family consisted of Darryl and Wanda and newborn Zoe. The first strip took place in the hospital room shortly after Zoe was born. Later, two more children—Hammie, the middle child and the only son, and Wren, the youngest child—were added to the family. Both Kirkman and Scott have drawn from their own parenting experiences as a source for the strip's content.

The strip features three families, according to the strip's "Family Tree" page.

At one point early on, she was a huge fan of Barbie, though her ideas about how she is a fan of Barbie vary between wanting to become a real life Barbie when she grows up (with Barbie related items) or basically using her to beat up her toys while pretending that she's some sort of monstrous freak (the latter of which was because of Wanda referring to Barbie as a "freak of nature").

The children in Baby Blues have aged as the strip has progressed, although at a slower rate than real-time. Kirkman and Scott have stated that the strip's timeline is "about a 3 to 1 ratio." As of 2016, Zoe, Hammie and Wren are 9, 6, and 2 respectively.

In 2000, Baby Blues was adapted into an animated cartoon series which aired on the WB Television Network for a few weeks in the summer, from July 28, 2000 to August 25, 2000. The animated version's timeline was from when Darryl and Wanda first gave birth to Zoe. Mike O'Malley supplied the voice of Darryl while Julia Sweeney played Wanda.

The Baby Blues television series differed from the comic strip by focusing on Darryl and Wanda's relationship with the Bittermans, a neighbor family with three children (Rodney, Megan, and Shelby); Kenny, Darryl's co-worker; and Bizzy, the babysitter for Zoe. Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott had little creative control over the animated version.