Between Friends Joins the New Sunday/Daily Rerun Club

Comments ¹⁷

1. Grant

   This is all happening so fast. In the last 4 months we lose Graffiti, Diamond Lil, the weekday Zits, weekday Between Friends, and have confirmation Baby Blues is ending. That’s a lot, and the closest we have to getting anything new is Caroline Cash Nancy, which is only kind-of new.

2. Carrie

   It feels like the end. Even Mutts does not have new comics.

3. Julia V Zeuli

   Doonesbury, Pickles, Mutts, Zits, For Better or For Worse, Baby Blues, Peanuts, Get Fuzzy and Family Circus are all still hanging around in various forms. Full marks to Foxtrot for clearing up some daily spaces when it went to Sunday only.

   1. Stacy Curtis

      Amen.

4. Eric

   This is what happens when one gets old. On the other hand, in the old days, they would just hand it over to another cartoonist as they did with “Thimble Theater” and “Nancy.”

   While Peanuts from the mid-60s to the mid-90s was timeless (Shulz started using rerun as the main character around 1995), the rest don’t always work, sort of like Doonesbury.

   Scott should give both Zits and Baby Blues splashy endings.

   1. Betsy Ashton

      Eric,

      I think we are simply getting better, not older, while the really great comics fall away into the dust. Thank goodness for reruns and posts on social media.

5. Sharon Howe

   I was totally gutted when Pajama Games and Retail stopped and now especially with Between Friends as it was my last strip I use to read anymore. I am gutted here as well .. BUT …. I get it!!! Ten years ago I was very happy in my job but I went in one day and knew … it was time to go.

   Sandra has given us 36 years of “our girls” lives, trials and tribulations. We have no idea what is going on in her personal life and she has made this decision and I am sure she is gutted as well by it. I know to end at such a major point in all of their lives as well. We can all imagine where we hoped things would end up. Here are my thoughts …… what are yours?

   Susan has wine involved in her new job …. so she and Maeve get somehow working together ….. and what if Kim takes Helen’s place to help her with her business in Canada. What are you thoughts???

6. Debbie Perry

   Rosebuds is relatively new and still putting out strips daily and on Sundays.

7. Carol

   Hart of the City was handed off to a new cartoonist. Did not like the new style of art do quite reading it. But i think that it did get a new audience.

8. Babs TZ

   I found this via Sandra Bell Lundy’s FB page. I too am so disappointed, but didn’t realize that my other favorites are disappearing too! I subscribe to two aggregate comic pages which send me emails every day. It’s understandable, but the world needs humor and strips like these that make us feel like a community.

9. Stacy Curtis

   I hate that Between Friends is ending-ish.
   But I hate that running reruns has become an option as a cartoonist’s retirement.
   We need new strips on the comics pages.

10. Carol

    “Hart of the City” is awful – storyline and especially art.
    “Nancy” is awful for the same reasons.
    Why is it that professionals who appreciate the work and value of cartoonists do not insist on quality strips? Why laud these ridiculous “new” interpretations of old strips instead of encouraging newcomers with new strips to come forth?

    1. Emily Wu

       Because of a few things:
       1) “The old guard” of cartoonists basically prevented any chances of new artists breaking in by giving them comic space whenever they go into semi retirement.
       2)They stopped mentoring up-and-comers so the young generation has no idea how to make a newspaper comic anymore, let alone know if it’s a viable career path one can take.
       3)Majority of readers reject anything new and different and would rather want “more of the same” than be forced to try anything new.

       You ask why aren’t there new comics, but are you actually reading anything new? King Features launched several new comics on Comics Kingdom the last couple of years, Beware of Toddler, Wannabe, Never Been Deader, Nibbles and Scratch, and Rosebuds, the last one which went into newspaper dailies and Sundays. Are you calling your newspaper to tell them to pick up these new comics? Are you doing anything that isn’t just “why aren’t there new comics?” because that’s how we keep getting into this mess.

11. Stacy Curtis

    Emily,

    There are a lot of factors that make creating a syndicated newspaper comic strip an almost impossible career path these days. The newspaper industry as a whole is in horrible shape. Rerun comic strips isn’t going to help newcomers at all. Syndicates would rather run reruns of comic strips than risk losing newspaper clients by launching a new comic strip. Newspaper chains adhering to comics lists like the Gannett list is the worst thing that’s happened to comic strips. Even if you were creating a great strip, if you’re not on that list, you’re already at a huge disadvantage.

    That being said, Will Henry’s “Wallace the Brave” isn’t on those lists and Will is making a great go of creating a new comic strip. I’d say if any of the rerun strips bowed out and discontinued their strip, Will could easily double his client list. In my opinion, the writing and art of “Wallace the Brave” is the best new thing out there and with things going the rerun route, “Wallace the Brave” may be the last new comic strip we see.

    My takeaway from all this is if you want to create a syndicated newspaper comic strip, do it. Create the best damn strip you can and submit it to the syndicates. Cross your fingers and hope there’s enough of a backlash against rerun comic strips that syndicates and newspapers are forced to run new comic strips. Right now your best hope is to be a kind-of Will Henry. Even launching a strip in 2015 you’d have a much better chance than today.

    I’d hope that newspaper chains and newspaper editors are savvy enough to not pay full-price for comic strips they’ve paid for before. Make it more profitable for syndicates to launch new comic strips.
    It also hinges on whether newspaper readers (average age: 58) care whether they’ve seen the comic strip in the newspaper before. Create a backlash.

    I’d rather see these rerun comic strips online and in book collections than taking up spaces in the newspaper. There are so many Peanuts reprint books that we don’t need to see it in newspapers anymore. Why run it in newspapers when you have “The Complete Peanuts” collections? Sorry Sparky.

    And of course, if there is any way possible, have a plan for retirement for cartoonists who want to retire that doesn’t require hogging up the spots that new comic strips could occupy. Every one of these creators deserve to retire and not have to worry about how they’re going to pay their bills.

12. Tanner Riche

    There are SO MANY comics in rerun or partial rerun status now as of this year. I feel like every day thay I look at my comics pages on GoComics and Comics Kingdom, more and more change from a 2026 copyright ti an old one (on Zits they just don’t listen the year on dailies now). Pretty soon, my whole list is gonna be reruns. Sign of the times, maybe.

    1. Atanwat

       It does not help that GoComics has absolutely no incentive to eliminate outdated features, no matter how long it has been since they have been updated. Every existing GoComics feature item (no matter whether current, zombie, re-run, or orphan) works like a little bit of clickbait, making their website appear as if it had much more up-to-date information than it actually has. GoComics also uses this “content” argument to justify charging for information that used to be free, while at the same time eliminating valuable features (such as dialog search), and repeatedly breaking others (comments have not worked properly for more than a week). Caveat emptor!

       1. D. D. Degg  (admin)

          Regarding the GoComics comments: As noted in another post, “While the issue is not fully resolved yet, logging out and back in has helped restore comments for some users.” It did the trick for me.