Topper (comic strip)

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A topper in comic strip parlance is a small strip within a full page Sunday strip drawn by the same artist as the larger strip. Toppers usually ran at the top of the page, but sometimes ran at the bottom of the page. The purpose of a topper was to allow newspapers to drop the topper and crowd an additional strip or an additional ad into the Sunday comics, or to reformat a strip from full page to tabloid by adding or dropping the topper. Toppers became rare after World War II, when there were fewer full page strips, and vanished a few decades later. Maw Green was the last, except for the brief use of the topper Sawdust in Dick Tracy and the imitation comic strip topper Fat Freddy's Cat in the underground comic strip The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Here is a partial list of toppers.

• Blondie -- Mr. Peabody and the Dutchess
• Bringing Up Father -- Rosie's Beau
• Dick Tracy -- Sawdust (bottom of the page, short run)
• The Family Upstairs -- Krazy Kat (bottom of the page, first appearance of Krazy Kat, later continued as separate strip)
• The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers -- Fat Freddy's Cat (underground imitation of the old comic strip format, usually bottom of the page)
• Flash Gordon -- Jungle Jim (sometimes run as a separate strip)
• Gasoline Alley -- That Phoney Nickel (bottom of the page)
• The Katzenjammer Kids -- Dinglehoofer und his dog Adolph
• Li'l Abner -- Small Fry (aka Small Change), short run
• Little Orphan Annie -- Maw Green (bottom of the page, the last topper in the Sunday comics)
• Mutt and Jeff -- Cicero's Cat
• Polly and Her Pals -- Dot and Dash
• Prince Valiant -- The Medieval Castle (short run)
• Thimble Theater -- Sappo (comic strip)Sappo
• Smitty -- Herby