Dave Strickler

Dave Strickler (born 1944) is a reference librarian noted for his compilation of Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index, regarded as a major reference work by researchers and historians of newspaper comic strips.

Born in Iowa, Strickler holds degrees from the University of Florida, Georgetown University and Florida State University. Prior to earning a library degree in 1988, Strickler was involved in linguistics, hotel management, entertainment coordination at Walt Disney World and professional gambling. Since 1988, he has been employed as a reference librarian at the University of Southern California, a library automation specialist in Provo, Utah and Emeryville, California, an abstracter/indexer of nursing journals, a motel owner/operator and, since retirement, an editor of financial documents and a lower brass musician.

Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index, published by Strickler's Comics Access in 1995, is a comprehensive compilation of American newspaper comic strips. Covering more than 4700 syndicated strips and panels, it is the largest single listing of comic strips ever compiled. The alphabetical list of strips gives dates of syndication, along with names of individuals associated with the strips. A separate section displays an alphabetical list of 3300 artists, writers and creators, providing the titles of strips each worked on with dates of their work. Another section offers a translation of nicknames and pseudonyms.

Strickler's main source of information was the Syndicate Directory published by Editor & Publisher (with the exception of the World War II years 1943 and 1944). His introduction explains how he began the project in 1992:

Strickler, who lives and works near William Randolph Hearst's castle in San Simeon, California, maintains an online searchable index of comic strips in the Los Angeles Times from 1904 to the present (August, 2011). One can search by title or by artist. Kevin Roderick's influential blog LA Observed described the database in the August 21, 2008 posting "Every comic, ever, in the LAT":

Strickler explained: “The United States has five major national newspapers with long back runs widely available nationwide in microfilm. Three of these newspapers have never carried comics (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor), and one has carried comics only sporadically (The Washington Post). That leaves the Los Angeles Times as the only newspaper with comics in the United States with a long back run that is widely available.”

...
Wikipedia