Terri Libenson has announced that she is retiring her The Pajama Diaries comic strip.
From Terri:
After almost fourteen incredible years, it’s with mixed feelings that I’m announcing the retirement of my syndicated comic strip, The Pajama Diaries. This is truly bittersweet. I’ve always loved writing and illustrating the strip. However, I’ve been fortunate to have other exciting and challenging projects thrown my way, and I just can’t do it all — trust me, I’ve tried.
The Kaplan family characters age just like we do, and now that the child characters are nearly grown and Jill and Rob are practically empty nesters, this seems an appropriate time as any to hang up my (digital) pen.
above: The Pajama Diaries 2006; below: The Pajama Diaries 2019
Terri also notes that,
The final strip will be published on January 4, 2020.
Here is Terri’s full goodbye to The Pajama Diaries.
The Pajama Diaries
by Terri Libenson
March 27, 2006 – January 4, 2020
King Features Syndicate
The award winning The Pajama Diaries has been collected in a few books.
Books have been and will continue to be a part of Terri creative endeavors.
When asked if her popular Emmie and Friends series will continue, Terri told The Daily Cartoonist:
I am definitely doing more books in the Emmie & Friends series. I’m finishing my fourth book called “Becoming Brianna,” and I have contracts for a fifth one as well as a guided journal/activity book for the series. Hence, no more time for the comic strip daily deadlines! Hoping to have more books in the series, and I’m excited to try some other comics-related projects…although I’m not sure what they’ll be yet. That’s the exciting and scary part.
We will miss her wonderful humor and lines on the funny pages,
but here’s wishing Terri the bluest skies in her future.
above: Terri and Jenny Robb at the 2019 NCSFest
Since only 1 major newspaper comic strip ended in 2019 – Long Story Short. The Pajama Diaries will be the first major newspaper comic strip to end after 2020 starts, but still no word on the ending fate of Get Fuzzy after it went 100% rerun mode daily and Sunday since April 2019?
I’d replace Pajama Diaries with Breaking Cat News. It is wonderful.
I hope it’s repeated from the start. I only found it a few years ago, and would love to read it from the beginning!
Damnit. Well, better to go too soon than hang around forever I guess..
Well, that’s disappointing because it was a truly enjoyable strip, but I can think of no better reason for a strip to end.
I forgot the Amazing Spider-Man comic strip may be ended in 2019 unless it gets rebooted in 2020 by King Features or maybe another syndicate (Creators? Tribune Content Agency?)
Isn’t the Amazing Spider-Man strip a rerun now?
Becky F.,
If you join the paid Comics Kingdom site, they have archives of The Pajama Diaries back to March 27, 2006. If that is not the very beginning, it is pretty close.
Clarification: It’s 2 newspaper comic strips officially ended in 2019: Besides Long Story Short, the other is Ballard Street.
Another Clarification: Actually, it’s 3 newspaper comic strips that ended in 2019. Besides Long Story Short and Ballard Street the other newspaper comic strip that ended in 2019 is Keith Knight’s The Knight Life.