Ripley's Believe It or Not!

The longest continuously published cartoon panel is not, in fact, "Peanuts". It is actually the Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoon!

Ninety years ago this month, a young Robert Ripley, faced with the task of filling the space assigned to him as an illustrator for the New York Globe, pulled a file marked "Dubious Athletic Achievements," a collection of sports oddities he had saved. He created a panel made up of nine of his favorite sports feats, and titled it "Champs and Chumps."

It was published on Dec. 19, 1918, and became an instant hit. The cartoon soon expanded beyond the sports world and was renamed "Believe It or Not!", and his legacy of chronicling strange and wonderful people, places and things was born. In 1929, Ripley partnered with William Randolph Hearst to syndicate the strip globally, and by the mid 1930s it was published in more than 350 newspapers.

Ripley's Cartoons Today!

John Graziano has been working as an artist and illustrator since 1983, when he received a certificate in illustration from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. He has designed trading card sets and a portrait series based on the 1960s cult TV show "Dark Shadows." John has also created comic strips for "Scream Queens" magazine, designed t-shirt graphics and created storyboards and concept drawings for Hollywood films. Two or three nights a week you can find him playing bass and singing in a 1960s tribute band called "Carnaby Street."