50 free Comic Strip trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1890s Richard F. Outcault character, an early comic strip, gave sensationalist journalism its name?
The Yellow Kid
Mickey Dugan in his yellow nightshirt appeared in Pulitzer's New York World and then Hearst's Journal from 1895 to 1898.
Q 02Which strip, created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897, is the oldest comic strip still in syndication?
The Katzenjammer Kids
It was inspired by Wilhelm Busch's German story Max and Moritz; the last original strip ran in 2006 but reprints continue.
Q 03Peanuts ran from October 1950 to February 2000. How many strips did Charles Schulz produce in all?
17,897
He drew every one himself, including lettering and coloring, which is why it has been called the longest story ever told by one human being.
Q 04What was the original title of Schulz's weekly panel cartoon before United Features renamed it Peanuts?
Li'l Folks
The author of the retired 1930s strip Little Folks objected to the name, and Schulz never liked "Peanuts".
Q 05How much does Lucy charge for advice at her psychiatric booth in Peanuts?
Five cents
The booth parodies a lemonade stand; one real psychiatrist called Lucy "very much the modern doctor".
Q 06Charles Schulz's lifelong nickname "Sparky" came from a horse in which comic strip?
Barney Google
His uncle named him after Spark Plug, the horse in Billy DeBeck's strip, when he was two days old.
Q 07Garfield's owner Jon Arbuckle was named after a businessman Jim Davis heard mentioned in an ad for what?
Instant coffee
Garfield himself is named after Davis's grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis.
Q 08Garfield, the world's most widely syndicated strip, ran in roughly how many newspapers as of 2013?
2,580
The strip debuted nationally on June 19, 1978, after running locally as Jon.
Q 09According to a TV special, Garfield lives in which Indiana city, Jim Davis's hometown?
Muncie
Davis was raised on a farm in Fairmount and born in Marion, but Happy Birthday, Garfield puts the cat in Muncie.
Q 10Calvin and Hobbes are named after which two thinkers?
A theologian and a philosopher
John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes lend their names to a six-year-old and his stuffed tiger.
Q 11Bill Watterson famously refused to allow what for Calvin and Hobbes during its 1985-1995 run?
Merchandise and animated adaptations
He fought his syndicate over creative control and ended the strip in 1995 saying he had explored the format to his satisfaction.
Q 12What is the name of Calvin's babysitter in Calvin and Hobbes?
Rosalyn
Susie Derkins is his classmate and Miss Wormwood his teacher; Spaceman Spiff and Stupendous Man are his alter egos.
Q 13Gary Larson's The Far Side coined which term for the spikes on a Stegosaurus's tail?
Thagomizer
The 1982 panel had a prehistoric lecturer name them after "the late Thag Simmons"; paleontologists adopted the word.
Q 21In Krazy Kat, what does the mouse Ignatz constantly throw at Krazy?
Bricks
Krazy reads the missiles as tokens of love; George Herriman set the strip in a dreamlike Coconino County, Arizona.
Q 22Winsor McCay's Little Nemo dreamed his way each week into which fantastical land?
Slumberland
The strip ran in the New York Herald from 1905 to 1911, and Nemo always woke up in bed in the last panel.
Q 23Walt Kelly's Pogo, an opossum, lived in which real swamp?
The Okefenokee
Kelly created Pogo and Albert the alligator for Dell's Animal Comics in 1941 before the strip launched in 1948.
Q 14The Far Side ran from 1980 until Gary Larson retired on the first day of which year?
1995
It appeared in more than 1,900 papers and was translated into 17 languages.
Q 15Why was Dilbert dropped by most newspapers and its distributor in 2023?
Its creator's racist remarks in a video
Its distributor Andrews McMeel also removed the strip after Adams called Black Americans a "hate group".
Q 16Doonesbury became the first daily comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize in which year?
1975
Garry Trudeau took the Editorial Cartooning award; the strip began at Yale as Bull Tales.
Q 17The name "Doonesbury" combines prep-school slang for a clueless person with the surname of whom?
Garry Trudeau's Yale roommate
Charles Pillsbury was the roommate; the strip debuted in 28 papers on October 26, 1970, as Universal Press Syndicate's first strip.
Q 18Blondie, created by Chic Young in 1930, features her husband Dagwood, famous for his love of what?
Sandwiches
Blondie Boopadoop began as a flapper dating Dagwood Bumstead, heir to an industrial fortune.
Q 19Beetle Bailey, created by Mort Walker in 1950, is set at which fictional Army post?
Camp Swampy
Beetle started out as a college student; the camp was inspired by Camp Crowder, where Walker had served.
Q 20Who created Hägar the Horrible in 1973?
Dik Browne
His son Chris continued the strip after his 1988 retirement; the Vikings were an immediate hit.
Q 24Al Capp's Li'l Abner was set in which fictional hillbilly village?
Dogpatch
The strip ran 43 years from 1934 and gave the world Sadie Hawkins Day and the Shmoo.
Q 25Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace first appeared on March 12, 1951. What coincidence marked that date?
An unrelated British strip of the same name launched
The two Dennises are unconnected and tweak their names in each other's countries to avoid confusion.
Q 26What was Bil Keane's round-bordered strip about the Keane household originally called, until a magazine objected?
The Family Circle
Its single round-bordered panel gave the strip its name; it debuted on February 29, 1960.
Q 27Cathy Guisewite's Cathy struggled with the "four basic guilt groups": food, love, family and what?
Work
The strip ran from 1976 to 2010, and boyfriend Irving finally proposed on Valentine's Day 2004.
Q 28Which animal characters star in Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County?
Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat
The strip ran from 1980 to 1989 and was unexpectedly revived on Facebook in July 2015.
Q 29What is unusual about the format of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, which began in 1937?
It uses no word balloons
The Arthurian saga runs as captioned illustrations and continues today in a half-page Sunday format.
Q 30Which gadget, introduced in Dick Tracy in 1946, became the strip's most recognizable icon?
The Two-Way Wrist Radio
Chester Gould's detective debuted in the Detroit Mirror in 1931.