The Deaths of Legacy Strips

> Probably the most famous examples are the strips where the creator said, "Okay, I'm done." Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, Boondocks... They said what they wanted to say and decided that they wanted to move on. In Charles Schulz's case, that was after after fifty years; in Bill Watterson's case, that was after ten years. Regardless of the timing or the reasons, the creator decided they didn't want to work on the strip any more.

Peanuts and Charles Schultz isn't a good example here. Schultz wrapped up Peanuts because he had terminal cancer. He died shortly afterward.

The comic strip "Nancy" has been in continuous publication since the discovery of atomic fission; at the moment produced by Olivia Jaimes.

https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/

I find it amusing once in a while. It's a daily strip in syndication, which means that it's sold by subscription (to newspapers rather than individuals), usually as part of a package deal. It isn't funny every day.

A more interesting question-- perhaps this is the actual question posed by TFA -- is, "Why are daily comic strips still like this?" Or, "What does syndication even mean anymore, and who the hell is subscribing?"

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sluggo-is-lit

It's interesting to see analyses of comic strips, because the medium itself is suffering as well. I'm in my twenties; until my teenage years, I never would have had a smartphone or anything with me, so the comics page from the newspaper was my entertainment in the morning before school. But I haven't read a comic strip regularly in years; I might read the occasional webcomic, but even those I don't check out very often.

Many of the strips weren't even ones I liked a ton, but I read them because they were there and there were only a few. Now that we have unlimited latitude to choose what we read, and it's trivial to start a new webcomic (and they're not seen as institutions so much), we're probably looking at the end of the era of the long-running comic strip. Or maybe not — what do I know?

On the other hand, there are definitely still people like my dad who care about comic strips. But the audience is probably getting older and older, which I figure is a departure from a medium once popularly associated with children.

If I had the option to convince any one artist - present or past - of any creative medium, whether books, movies, TV or whatever else, to produce just a bit more of a certain work, it would definitely be Bill Watterson for Calvin and Hobbes.

I missed Bloom County and The Far Side when they shut down.

They sort of defined an era.

(with bananawrite bananadraw bananafile and bananamanager!)

If you enjoy legacy strips you may like https://joshreads.com/ - the comics curmudgeon.