Dave Strickler (born 1944) is an American reference librarian noted for his compilation of Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index, regarded as a major reference work by researchers and historians of newspaper comic strips.
Prior to earning a library degree in 1988, Strickler was involved in linguistics, hotel management, entertainment coordination at Walt Disney World and professional gambling.
Since 1988, he has been employed as a reference librarian at the University of Southern California, a library automation specialist in Provo, Utah and Emeryville, California, an abstracter/indexer of nursing journals, a motel owner/operator and, since retirement, an editor of financial documents and a lower brass musician.
His introduction explains how he began the project in 1992: Strickler, who lives and works near William Randolph Hearst's castle in San Simeon, California, maintains an online searchable index of comic strips in the Los Angeles Times from 1904 to the present (August, 2011).
Kevin Roderick's influential blog LA Observed described the database in the August 21, 2008 posting "Every comic, ever, in the LAT": Strickler explained: “The United States has five major national newspapers with long back runs widely available nationwide in microfilm.