Cleats (comic strip)

Cleats
Author(s)	Bill Hinds
Website	Cleats on GoComics.com
Current status / schedule	Concluded, in reruns
Launch date	November 26, 2001
End date	October 31, 2010
Syndicate(s)	Universal Press Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor, Family, Sports

Cleats is a comic strip by Bill Hinds. Cleats features a group of young kids, coaches, and their parents as they deal with the day-to-day trials and tribulations of being on a soccer team (Although there are storylines that have the kids engaged in physical sports other than soccer). Cleats was carried in over 75 newspapers^[1] The last iteration of Cleats had been run on 31 October 2010, in the form of a special Halloween 'exit' strip. Bill Hinds stated that he had ceased producing Cleats because the strip "had suffered in many newspaper comic polls over the past nine years."

In many newspapers, editors have chosen to run the earliest Cleats strips again, allowing readers to compare Hinds' initial style and characters against their more recent development. This has resulted in previous Sunday strips appearing on weekdays, but has opened to broad examination the processes by which a professional cartoonist evolves his work over years of production.

Characters

Abby Harper, 11, "competitive but not mean."
Peri, Abby's African-American best friend.
Jack Dooley, 10. Dreams of playing in the World Cup.
Armando "Mondo" Ruiz. Jack's best friend. Has a crush on Abby.
Dee Radomski, a goalkeeper. Has a major crush on Edith.
Edith Tippet, also a keeper. A reluctant athlete who would rather read. Does not reciprocate Dee's crush, but enjoys his weirdness. Just before the strip ended, she accepted Dee's invitation to go to the movies. This was correctly perceived as a sign that the End was coming.
Jerome, son of the assistant coach and grandson of a curmudgeon who makes sarcastic remarks about modern sports. Jerome and Dee are best friends and play baseball together as well as soccer. Dee and Jerome like to send each other text messages, even while they are sitting a couple of feet apart from each other. Just the thing to drive Grandpa nuts.

The Final Strip - Halloween 2010

The October 31, 2010, strip showed Peri, Mondo, Abby, Jack, Edith and Dee as ghosts playing soccer in the Comic Strip Graveyard. Abby has her giant ponytail back. Jack asks a trick-or-treater in a Spider-Man costume for help in getting back the soccer ball, which has fallen outside the cemetery wall.

Return, on Reruns

GoComics began, on December 2010, to show reruns. These go back to November 26, 2001.

Special Guests

Fictional characters who have made special guest appearances in the strip include:

Books

A compilation of Cleats comics named Who Tracked Soccer Through the House ?: A Cleats Collection was published in March, 2004 by Andrews McMeel Publishing.^[1]

References

1 2 Andrew McMeel Publishing. "Cleats Information Page". Retrieved 2007-09-12.

Andrews McMeel Universal

Andrews McMeel Universal Uclick (Universal Press Syndicate Uclick) AMUSE

Comic strips	Adam@home Argyle Sweater Baker Street Puzzle Baldo Biographic Bloom County Brainwaves Calvin and Hobbes Cathy Cleats Close to Home Condorito Cornered Cul de Sac Doonesbury The Duplex The Elderberries The 5th Wave The Flying McCoys For Better or For Worse FoxTrot Fred Basset The Fusco Brothers Garfield Gaturro Ginger Meggs Heart of the City In the Bleachers In the Sticks Ink Pen James Bond Judge Dredd La Cucaracha Liō Mutt and Jeff Non Sequitur Overboard Peanuts Phoebe and Her Unicorn Pooch Café Real Life Adventures Red and Rover Ronaldinho Gaucho Shortcuts Stone Soup Tank McNamara Thatababy Tom the Dancing Bug W. T. Duck You Can with Beakman and Jax Ziggy

Editorial cartoons	Tony Auth Bad Reporter Stuart Carlson Lalo Alcaraz Glenn McCoy Pat Oliphant Ted Rall Ben Sargent Tom Toles Kerry Waghorn

Editorial/ commentary	Ann Coulter Maggie Gallagher Georgie Anne Geyer Ted Rall Richard Reeves David Shribman Cynthia Tucker

Lifestyle	Ask the Headhunter Cookbook Nook Dear Abby Eugenia Last Figuratively Speaking Focus on the Family On Ethics The Needleworks Pet Connection News of the Weird Scott Burns 7-Day Menu Planner Smart Moves Supermarket Sampler Tell Me A Story

Other	Daily Front Row Dare to Ask Do Just One Thing Earthweek Hidato The Independent Magic Eye Mini Page The Motley Fool RealStyle Religion News Service Roger Ebert Tim Parker Whatzit? Wheels Wonderword

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, June 07, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.