Pokémon Newspaper Strip
The Pokémon Newspaper Strip, sometimes individually printed as Pokémon, was a short-lived daily comic strip run in American newspapers at the height of the Pokémon franchise's early popularity. The comics are written by Gerard Jones and illustrated by Ashura Benimaru.
While loosely based on the Pokémon animated series, it was primarily a gag comic. It started syndication on September 10, 2000, and ran for a little over a year. During this time, the strip faced criticism for the art-style and writing, as well as its inconsistencies with the animated series.[citation needed]
The comics can be found in a collection entitled "Pikachu Meets the Press".
Differences between the newspaper strip and the animated series
- Gary owns a Beedrill, Charizard, Machamp, and a Rapidash, which he does not own in the animated series. Gary mentions he obtained Charizard from Professor Oak. In the animated series, he obtains Squirtle instead although this is not revealed until The Ties That Bind which was released after this comic strip.
- Misty owns a Squirtle and a Butterfree, which Ash owned in the animated series.
- Ash's Charizard is a Charmander and is owned at the same time as his Snorlax. In the animated series, Ash catches Snorlax when his Charmander has already evolved into Charizard.
- Ash's Butterfree is a Metapod and owned at the same time as his Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Snorlax. In the animated series, Metapod was already a Butterfree when Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur were caught, and Snorlax was caught after Butterfree was released.
- Ash's Metapod evolves into Butterfree and brags to Brock about this. In the animated series, Metapod evolves into Butterfree before Ash has met Brock.
- Ash's Butterfree was caught as a Metapod rather than as a Caterpie.
- Ash owns a Clefairy, which he does not own in the animated series.
- Jigglypuff lives with Ash and implied to be under his ownership where it is a wild Pokémon in the animated series.
Strips
- Main article: List of Pokémon Newspaper Strip comics
Trivia
- Ash owning a Clefairy may be a reference to Red's Clefairy.
- Ash manages to steal Misty's Starmie with a Poké Ball, despite being already owned. It was not until Two Degrees of Separation! where the animated series would show a Poké Ball failing to work on a Pokémon owned by a trainer (something which had been established in the games from the beginning).
- On Page 53 of the Pikachu Meets the Press book, Mario, Peach's Castle and Ness make a cameo in the paintings in the bottom strip.
- On Page 97 of Pikachu Meets The Press, Brock tells Pikachu there are no differences between a male and female Pikachu. In Generation IV, gender differences are introduced where Pikachu is among the Pokémon who receive gender differences.
External links
- Viz press release (externally archived page)
- Review by Dogasu's Backpack
- Anime News Network
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