The only comic on this list I don’t have reprint books of is Cul de sac. And two are “legacy” strips where the original artist is by far the best. (Three if you count Thimble Theatre, which changed its name to Popeye, after a character who took over the strip when he was introduced ten years in!)
Yes, it’s all personal preference. What’s my favorite? Thimble Theatre. Or Dick Tracy by Chester Gould. Or Krazy Kat. Or Peanuts. Or Pogo. Or Calvin and Hobbes. Or Bad Machinery. Or Alley Oop by V. T. Hamlin. Or Cul de sac. Or Wallace the Brave. I can’t decide and it doesn’t matter. They are all great.
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress!”—the character John Adams in the play 1776.
Time doesn’t work the same in Tracyville. Most writers have referenced Tracy WWII stories without any attempt at reconciling them with Tracy’s current age.Pruneface, on the other hand, has a scifi explanation if he shows up now. He froze to death in the forties and was thawed out decades later by a mad scientist named Freezdrei.
I can’t pick a favorite comic. Vying for the top spot are not only Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, but also Pogo and Thimble Theatre and Krazy Kat and Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie and Alley Oop. And now Wallace the Brave, the only one running new strips by the original artist (that’s important),
“It’s plot exposition. It has to go somewhere.”