''Ask Shagg'' was a syndicated daily

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

drawn by cartoonist Peter Guren from 1980 to 2020.Editorial Staff (February 7, 2000). "et cetera...". ''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the news media industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry," with offices in Hendersonville, ...

''. Pg. 32 It was distributed by

Creators Syndicate Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...

; it had been distributed by

United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media ( ...

from 1980 until 1995.Astor, David (July 29, 1995). "'Shagg' to Creators". ''

''. Pg. 34 The strip has run in dozens of newspapers including ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', ''

The Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in ...

'', and the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...

''. In each strip Guren, through his Shagg E. Dawg character, answered questions from readers about the animal kingdom. The strip retired on 5 January 2020.

Characters and story

The strip featured lead character Shagg E. Dawg answering questions about animals that were sent in by readers. Questions about particular animals are sometimes answered by the strip's other characters, Rosko the cat, Mouth the myna bird, and Slippy the flying squirrel. In 1995 Guren was receiving more than 15,000 letters a year, with about 75% of them from children. Readers received a free Shagg doll if their question appeared in the strip. The strips generally featured a joke of some sort about the subject animal in addition to providing an accurate answer to the day's question. For example, one strip answered a question about hamsters storing food in their cheeks and then compared it to a human carrying their money in their mouths. The last panel then showed a picture of a person holding their money in their mouth.

Community service

Guren has often used ''Ask Shagg'' to raise money or awareness for causes. His Shagg E. Dawg character was used on information cards about endangered species that were included with kid's meals from Wendy's fast-food restaurants in 1993.Astor, David (November 27, 1993). "Wendy's promotion". ''

''. Pg. 34

Website

Guren launched his first ''Ask Shagg'' website in May 1996 and began putting the site's address in the newspaper version of his strip.Astor, David (November 23, 1996). "Syndicated Creators Have Their Own Web Sites, Too". ''

''. Pg. 24 The site AskShagg.com features a search engine with which users can search for "Ask Shagg" comic strips with questions about a particular animal.

Book

In 1985

World Almanac ''The World Almanac and Book of Facts'' is a US-published reference work, an almanac conveying information about such subjects as world changes, tragedies, and sports feats. It has been published yearly from 1868 to 1875, and again every year sinc ...

Publications published the book ''Ask Shagg'', with the attribution "by Shagg E. Dawg as told to Peter Guren". It was distributed in the United States by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

References

External links

*
Ask Shagg comics at Creators Syndicate

Ask Shagg (YouTube)
- official Shagg E. Dawg YouTube channel
Ask Shagg Facebook page
1980 comics debuts 2020 comics endings Gag-a-day comics Educational comics Comics about anthropomorphic dogs Comics about talking animals Advice columns Comics characters introduced in 1980 {{comic-strip-stub