POGO -- the best allegorical, political strip ever. The humor is timeless, because politicians never change.

LI'L ABNER -- The best social commentary strip (I've recently reread some from the early forties, and from the late forties). In the late forties he had the best anti-communist (note small 'c') strip, read the arc containing the Shmoos. By the sixties, though, he had just become a scold. And that he could draw luscious looking women didn't hurt.

THE PHANTOM -- My all time favorite adventure strip. I read it every day from 1944 to about 1967.

PRINCE VALIANT and TARZAN -- In the 40s and 50s, those strips were like reading a novel which also was wonderfully detailed art. It was close to reading a movie.