Comic Strip Trivia
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48 free Comic Strip trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
43 free Comic Strip trivia questions with answers. The newspaper funny pages have produced some of the most-loved characters in American culture, and a surprising amount of good trivia. This quiz starts with the Yellow Kid and the Katzenjammer Kids, runs through Krazy Kat, Little Nemo, Blondie, Dick Tracy, Pogo and Li'l Abner, and lands on Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Doonesbury, Bloom County, Dilbert, Zits and Pearls Before Swine. Questions cover creators, debut dates, character names, running gags and the odd fact behind the strip: why Schulz was called Sparky, where Garfield lives, what a thagomizer is. About a third are easy for anyone who reads the comics page, a third are medium and the rest are for collectors. Every answer is checked against the strip's reference page.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1890s Richard F. Outcault comic character gave sensationalist journalism its name?
The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid: when Hearst lured Outcault away, Pulitzer had George Luks keep drawing the Kid, so two rival papers each ran one.
Q 02As of 2026, which strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 is the oldest comic strip still in syndication?
The Katzenjammer Kids
The Katzenjammer Kids: after a court fight, Hearst kept the title, so Dirks drew the same boys for rival papers as The Captain and the Kids.
Q 03Apollo 10's lunar module shared its name with which Peanuts character?
Snoopy
Snoopy: the lunar module was named for him because it would 'snoop' around Apollo 11's future landing site.
Q 04What was the original title of Schulz's weekly panel cartoon before United Features renamed it Peanuts?
Li'l Folks
Li'l Folks: the name clashed with an older strip by Tack Knight, so the syndicate picked Peanuts, a title Schulz hated.
Q 05What does Lucy van Pelt sell from her booth in Peanuts?
Advice
Advice: her most regular patient is Charlie Brown, the same boy whose football she keeps yanking away.
Q 06Charles Schulz's nickname "Sparky" came from a horse in which comic strip?
Barney Google
Barney Google: an uncle named him after the strip's horse, Spark Plug, and Schulz later signed his early cartoons "Sparky".
Q 07Which comic-strip boy's name was licensed by an American maker of children's shoes?
Buster Brown
Buster Brown: the shoe line also used the name of his sweetheart Mary Jane, which is why strapped girls' shoes are called Mary Janes.
Q 08What is the first name of Garfield's owner in Jim Davis's comic strip?
Jon
Jon: Davis first pictured the cat as sidekick to shy Jon Arbuckle, and the strip ran as Jon until it was renamed Garfield in 1977.
Q 09Calvin and Hobbes take their names from which pair of historical figures?
A theologian and a philosopher
A theologian and a philosopher: John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes, though the tiger's personality came from Watterson's own cat, Sprite.
Q 10Bill Watterson refused to allow what for Calvin and Hobbes during its 1985-1995 run?
Merchandise and animated adaptations
Merchandise and animated adaptations: he fought his syndicate for years over licensing, so almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes merchandise exists.
Q 11What is the name of Calvin's babysitter in Calvin and Hobbes?
Rosalyn
Rosalyn: a high-school senior, she demands advance payment and raises from Calvin's parents, and in her final story she beats him at Calvinball.
Q 12Gary Larson's The Far Side coined which term for the spikes on a Stegosaurus's tail?
Thagomizer
Thagomizer: the joke word stuck and became the informal name for the real spikes on stegosaur tails.
Q 13Which scientist's institute protested a Far Side cartoon that joked about her?
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall: she found the joke funny, overruling her institute's complaint, and later wrote a preface for a Far Side collection.
Q 21Winsor McCay's Little Nemo dreamed his way each week into which fantastical land?
Slumberland
Slumberland: however wild the dream got, each weekly page ended the same way, with Nemo waking up in the final panel.
Q 22Walt Kelly's Pogo, an opossum, lived in which real swamp?
The Okefenokee
The Okefenokee: Pogo began as a side character in Albert the Alligator's comic-book stories before getting his own newspaper strip in 1948.
Q 23Al Capp's Li'l Abner was set in which fictional hillbilly village?
Dogpatch
Dogpatch: its Sadie Hawkins Day race, where single women chase down bachelors, gave America the Sadie Hawkins dance.
Q 14Why did Dilbert lose its distributor and hundreds of newspapers in 2023?
Its creator's racist remarks in a video
Its creator's racist remarks in a video: Scott Adams then moved the strip online as Dilbert Reborn, available only by subscription.
Q 15Which heroine did Dalia Messick create after she began signing her strips as Dale?
Brenda Starr
Brenda Starr: Messick felt editors were prejudiced against women, and when she retired, women writers and artists took over the strip.
Q 16The name "Doonesbury" combines prep-school slang for a clueless person with the surname of whom?
Garry Trudeau's Yale roommate
Garry Trudeau's Yale roommate: Charles Pillsbury, and the strip's liberal politics later led some newspapers to run it on their editorial pages.
Q 17Blondie, created by Chic Young in 1930, features her husband Dagwood, famous for his love of what?
Sandwiches
Sandwiches: his towering creations became so famous that English gained the term "Dagwood sandwich".
Q 18Beetle Bailey, created by Mort Walker in 1950, is set at which Army post?
Camp Swampy
Camp Swampy: Beetle began as a college student, but in March 1951 he quit school and joined the Army.
Q 19Who created Hägar the Horrible in 1973?
Dik Browne
Dik Browne: the title came from a Browne family nickname, and his son Chris later took over the strip.
Q 20In Krazy Kat, what does the mouse Ignatz constantly throw at Krazy?
Bricks
Bricks: Krazy takes every brick as a sign of love, while the police dog Offissa Pupp keeps throwing Ignatz in jail.
Q 24What coincidence marked the March 12, 1951 debut of Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace?
A British namesake launched
A British namesake launched: The Beano's unrelated Dennis the Menace went on sale that day, while Ketcham's boy was inspired by his own son.
Q 25What was Bil Keane's round-bordered strip about the Keane household originally called?
The Family Circle
The Family Circle: when Family Circle magazine objected to the name, Keane changed the second word to Circus.
Q 26Cathy Guisewite's Cathy struggled with the "four basic guilt groups": food, love, family and what?
Work
Work: Cathy's long-time boyfriend Irving finally married her in 2005, five years before the strip ended in 2010.
Q 27Which animal characters star in Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County?
Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat
Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat: after Breathed retired the strip in 1989, both turned up again in his Sunday strip Outland.
Q 28What is unusual about the format of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant?
It uses no word balloons
It uses no word balloons: short captions tell the story, leaving Hal Foster's richly detailed, illustration-style panels uncluttered.
Q 29Which gadget did industrialist Diet Smith give detective Dick Tracy in 1946?
The wrist radio
The wrist radio: Chester Gould is said to have got the idea after visiting inventor Al Gross, who built miniature two-way radios.
Q 30Little Orphan Annie took its name from an 1885 poem by which Hoosier poet?
James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley: the orphan began as a boy, Little Orphan Otto, until publisher Joseph Patterson told Harold Gray to put a skirt on him.