[Dr. Sivana]

(regarding Funky Winkerbeam) I suspect editors keep it alive because leftists support it, but I wonder how many of its liberal supporters actually read it.

It probably costs less than Hagar the Horrible, the artwork is tolerable. Most important . . . inertia.

Just think of the the comic strips that have recycled the same content for decades, and have neither interesting chacters nor artwork. "Tiger" comes to mind. There are others that seem to have worn out their welcome, but still have a loyal following despite running the same joke for eons. I have run into people, and not necessarily oldsters, who just LOVE the Lockhorns, They'll Do It Every Time and Cathy.

Some of course, lost "it" after the author died or retired. Al Capp, Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson and Gary Larson had it right. Not only did those strips (Li'l Abner, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side) benefit from ending gracefully, Abner and Peanuts were spared the indignity of being adapted to a time for which they were no longer suited.

In a sense, comic strips are the most conservative of all popular culture media. The truly iconic ones suffer with major plotline or even stylistic changes. Compare today's Blondie with Chic Young's, not even a pale imitation. (Dagwood acknowledging that his one big button is strange or that Blondie is unbelievably curvy undoes the whole joke of the strip.)

Even mundane comic strips that were never rip-roaring funny or engaging have a stake on venerability. Beetle Bailey and Andy Capp are eternal characters that we would miss if they changed noticeably. If "Bringing Up Father" were still around, could you even imagine Jiggs dressed in 21st century clothes?! He was wearing spats well into the '80s, for heaven's sake. Mutt and Jeff ditto (gloves instead of spats). Take off the spats and gloves, and they are unmade.

[drbuzzard]

>Some of course, lost “it” after the author died or retired. Al Capp, Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson and Gary Larson had it right. Not only did those strips (Li’l Abner, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side) benefit from ending gracefully, Abner and Peanuts were spared the indignity of being adapted to a time for which they were no longer suited.

Actually I would argue that Schulz lost it before he died. His original strips were excellent, and had more appeal than just childish humor. In the later stuff it became very simplistic with worn out gags used again and again. The last 10 or 15 years of Peanuts were pretty bad.

I never read Lil’ Abner, but I fully agree that Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side got out at just the right time. They new when their tank was empty and didn’t drive off a cliff.

[dangus]

Not sure what you mean by “ending gracefully,” but Schulz and Capp continued to create their strips until just before their deaths. And I’m grateful for it. Conversely, “Cathy” was retired in 2010, long before Cathy Guisewite reached retirement age.

[driftless2]

When I was a youngun, my favorite characters were those incorrigible troublemakers The Katzenjammer Kids. Virtually every strip ended with the Kids getting their behinds whacked. Imagine the outrage from the usual suspects if they did that now. I still laugh when I think the of Hans and Fritz lying across Der Mama’s lap getting theirs.