BIDDEFORD — Newspaper comic strips first appeared in North America in the late 19th century and through time have come to mirror to contemporary society, provide humor or are used for political satire and poignant social commentary.

Among the most popular features contained in the Journal Tribune, every day our comic strips take readers on trailblazing adventures, examine the levity associated with raising a family and explore twisted puns and unusual word play.

During the past six months, we’ve conducted several extensive surveys to determine the favorite comic strips of our readership and new strips recommended by those responding to the surveys.

Paying close attention to those surveys, we’ve have upgraded some comic strips appearing in both the Journal Tribune’s daily printed newspaper and our color weekend edition published on Saturdays.

So listening to your thoughts and opinions, the newspaper has added Arlo and Janis and Thatababy during the week and Alley Oop, Arlo and Janis and The Born Loser for the weekend edition.

A few more new strips will be added to the Journal Tribune in the near future. It is our intention at the Journal Tribune to provide our readers with the most current, entertaining and updated comic strips and those of significant value to anyone who reads the newspaper.   

Arlo and Janis is an American gag-a-day comic strip written and drawn by Jimmy Johnson. It is a leisurely paced domestic situation comedy and has appeared in newspapers across the country since 1985.

Thatababy is a daily humor comic strip created by Paul Trap and was first published in American newspapers in 2010. The central characters are an insightful baby and an unnamed Mom and Dad. Trap describes Thatababy as “a parenting strip through the eyes of the baby.”

Alley Oop is a syndicated comic strip created in 1932 by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin and now drawn by Jack Bender and written by his wife Carole Bender. With an engaging cast of characters Alley Oop lives in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, but storylines are often satires of American suburban life. Alley Oop is one of best-known comic strips of all time and currently appears in more than 600 newspapers across the nation.

The Born Loser was created by Art Sansom in 1965 and today his son, Chip Sansom, draws the strip. It won the 1987 National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award and the 1990 Newspaper Comic Strip Award. The Born Loser focuses on the Thornapple family and their friends in a humorous take on daily life in America.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com