Comic strips and the long goodbye

The reboot of Lynn Johnston's comic strip "For Better or For Worse" got me thinking about how some other long-running strips ended their runs. Here's how five other continuity strips handled it.

Dick Tracy - Like the characters in Johnston's strip, the cast of Dick Tracy aged and matured, albeit at a much slower rate. When Chester Gould started the strip in 1931, Tracy and Tess Trueheart had just announced their engagement. 46 years later, when Gould retired shortly before his death, they were a middle-aged married couple with two preteen children.

When it was clear Gould could no longer produce Dick Tracy, two people were picked to take the reigns. Max Allan Collins, a mystery author, became the new writer, and Rick Fletcher, Gould's assistant took over the art. Gould's final strip was for the Sunday paper, with no goodbyes. His name remained on the credits even after his death.

Terry and the Pirates - Readers watched Terry Lee grow up while wandering around China. When Milton Caniff started the strip in 1934, Terry was a young orphan of about twelve coming over with family friend Pat Ryan to claim his inheritance (stolen by the pirates of the strip's title). By the time Caniff left the strip in 1946, Terry had grown into adulthood and had fought in the Second World War as a combat pilot.

The Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News syndicate owned the strip and characters, not Milton Caniff, and when his salary demands were rebuffed, he quit. His final sequence ran on New Year's Eva, 1946. Terry says goodbye to a girl he's in love with. In the very last panel there's a poster on a wall, ostensibly celebrating the new year -- "Ring out the old, ring in the new." George Wunder took over the strip until its cancellation in .

Steve Roper and Mike Nomad - This comic started out as a humor strip in 1936 as "Big Chief Wahoo." Elmer Woggon handled the drawing, and Allen Saunders the writing. Steve Roper was introduced as a supporting cast member, and during the Second World War he enlisted. During that time, the strip became more serious and after the war, Big Chief Wahoo and his milieu were gone. The strip ran as "Steve Roper," for a number of years. Roper was a photojournalist and later a magazine editor whose nose for news lead to many adventures.

In the 1960's one of his war buddies, a trucker named Mike Nomad started taking center stage. Nomad was a little younger than Roper, and a lot more impetuous. He was eventually given co-billing. In the declining years of the strip (now drawn by Fran Matera and written by John Saunders), Roper retired and moved to Florida where he continued to have adventures for the Sunday strip. Nomad finally reached the end of the line when the strip was canceled. In the final sequence, Roper returns to New York to deliver a message to his old friend. The last words of the strip are Steve Roper's: "Mike, it's time to retire."

Steve Canyon - After leaving "Terry and Pirates," Milton Caniff started Steve Canyon in 1946. In many ways, it was a continuation of Terry. Canyon was an Air Force pilot who had several globe-trotting adventures, but more often than not ended up in Asia. Characters also grew over time, and when Caniff retired in 1988, so did Canyon.

An attempt was made to continue the strip by starting it over. Unlike Johnston's reboot, there was no new art. The last original panels Caniff did had Canyon dictating his memoirs, setting up the flashback to the first sequence.

Unfortunately, the size allotted to an individual comic strip had shrunk significantly over the years, and Caniff's intricate artwork looked like mud when squashed down to smaller dimensions. It was canceled after Caniff's death with a farewell panel signed by many of his colleagues in 1988.

Gasoline Alley - This strip is probably the closest to "For Better or For Worse" in many ways. It, too, involves the everyday life of a family. The characters age at a more or less normal rate, and there's a continually expanding cast of characters. Frank King began the strip in 1918, initially centered around a group of guys hanging out in the Gasoline Alley garage. Soon a baby was left on the doorstep of main character Walt Wallet, and the strip took a new direction.

The founding, Skeezix, grew up over the years, fought in the Second World War and raised a family of his own. When Frank King retired in 1951, his assistant Dick Moores took over the strip (although the masthead didn't change). He introduced some new characters and let some of the older ones go by the wayside. When Moores died in 1986, his assistant Jim Scancarelli became the new artist and writer. He, too, has introduced new characters and retires some of the ones that Moores introduced. The strip continues today, going in the same general direction it always has.

- Ralph

Day 80 of the WJMA Web Watch.

The Age of Gould

October 4 marked the 75^th anniversary of the premier appearance of Dick Tracy – which led me to a contemplation of newspaper comic strips. When Chester Gould started the strip, the field was bursting with possibility, sort of the Internet today. By the early 1930's the funnies had settled into fairly high level of sophistication, and appealed to readers of all ages.

Newspaper editors, who for most part endured rather than nurtured the genre, continually pressed for smaller panel sizes, not to squeeze more comics in, but to make room for more advertising. While the gag-a-day strips coped with the compressed formats, the adventure strips suffered greatly. And that's a shame, as there was (and is) virtuoso storytelling going on here.

While I followed Dick Tracy in the Washington Post throughout my formative years, I've since given up on the strip. The creators are clearly hobbled by strictures to not stray far from the Dick Tracy staples – grotesque villains, the return of classic villains, character traits spelled backwards or used as puns for names. What's left is a living dead strip.

When Gould drew and wrote the strip, it crackled with energy. Gould never plotted – he would dump his hero into a fix, and then figure out how to get him out of it. Some of his most memorable sequences involved elaborate crimes that unraveled quickly and then degenerated into a long, drawn out chase.

Some of these sequences lasted six months to a year, but the public loved it. Today, all strips with a continuing story are pushed to keep the story arc short. And I've heard friends dismiss the adventure strips because the stories move too slow! What's the rush? As long as you're looking forward to what's going to happen next, who cares how long it takes? Some of the best strips still manage that feat today – even with reduced panels. Gould was the master at it.

While Dick Tracy has not fared well after the death of Gould, some other strips have managed to not just continue, but actually build on the accomplishments of their original creators. Below is a short list for your consideration.

So what does all this have to do with consumer electronics? Simply this: as new things come along, old things get discarded (like your eight-track tapes). And while change is good, sometimes its worth taking a moment to realize that some of what we're leaving behind is worth our appreciation, too. See you in the funny papers.

- Ralph

Brenda Starr – started in 1940 by female artist and writer Dale Messick, the strip continues with Mary Schmich, who draws on her journalists' background for stories, and artist June Brigman.

Judge Parker – started in 1952 by Nicholas P. Dallis (writing as Paul Nichols) and drawn by Dan Heilman, now written by Woody Wilson, and drawn by Eduardo Barretto, who worked for DC Comics.

Prince Valiant – started in 1937 by Hal Foster, now written by Cullen Murphy, who has a degree in medieval history, and drawn by Gary Gianni, late of DC Comics.

Rex Morgan, MD – started in 1948 by Nicholas P. Dallis (writing as Dal Curtis) and drawn by Marvin Bradley, now written by Woody Wilson and drawn by Graham Nolan who had previously done comics work for both Marvel and DC.