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Daily Zits in Reruns for the Foreseeable Future

Published: February 28, 2026 1 minute 33 comments

The Sunday Zits comic strip will be original material while the daily Zits will remain in rerun status.

The Daily Cartoonist contacted the creators of the Zits comic strip and Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman passed our inquiry on to King Features Executive Editor Amy Anderson who graciously responded:

Jerry and Jim will continue to create original Zits Sunday strips every week and for certain occasions for the foreseeable future, while King Features curates the daily strips from Zits’ rich archive that has delighted comics readers all over the world for nearly 30 years. Just as audiences rewatch their favorite shows over and over, this curation gives both longtime and new readers the opportunity to revisit the strips and storylines that have been making them laugh for decades.

We asked a follow up question because we knew Zits fans will ask, “Is Jim okay healthwise?” And Amy replied: “He’s just fine!”

Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman – February 28, 2026 (originally February 28, 2015)

My takeaway from this is that after 50 years (Cincinnati Enquirer editorial cartoonist 1976-2008, Wonk City 1994-1996, and Zits 1997-present) of never ending deadlines it was wearing thin for Jim Borgman.

So Zits will join Doonesbury, FoxTrot, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, and Shrimp & Grits as new Sundays only.

This might put a crimp in Andrews McMeel’s annual Zits collections but they can shorten the wait by adding the Zits title panels to the books which would use up pages and add more of that great Jim Borgman art.

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Comments 33

  1. If folks wanted to ruin the comics profession and industry on purpose, it’s hard to see how it would be done differently than what we’ve seen for the past 30 years.

    1. The strips that have gone to Sunday-only have usually had a long run. Their creators are likely either tired, or in the case of Phoebe and Her Unicorn, discovered that they make more money in the book market than in daily newspapers. The biggest problem seems to be that there aren’t many new strips popping up to take their place because newspapers themselves are not doing well enough. You have a few, like Rosebuds, but like everything else now, it’s tough to get your foot in the door, especially when you can run reprints and readers not only don’t seem to mind, they seem to prefer seeing the 10,000th reprint of Peanuts comics from 1978.

  2. Just wanted to point out that Mother Goose and Grimm has been in rerun mode for this year so far too (Thankfully, it’s various strips from various years like Peanuts, instead of just strips from a patricular year like Mutts (which currently has only strips from 2006,) and Zits (which has only strips from 2015)

    1. Sundays MG&G has been all new (1/11/09 strip being reprinted on 1/11/26 being the exeption)

    2. Other than the week of January 12, which were clearly marked ©2008, I am not finding much in the way of daily reruns. I found the February 18, 2026 is from January 10, 2005 but others?
      The daily of February 2, 2026 reuses a gag from January 26, 1998 with new art, as does the Sunday of February 8, 2026 when compared to November 30, 1992.
      I am not convinced Mother Goose and Grimm “has been in rerun mode for this year so far.”

      1. March 11, 2015 was yesterday, October 13, 2023 was Monday (There are others too that got reprinted this year, especially these past few weeks but I can’t remember which ones)

      2. So Mike Peters is now doing Mother Goose and Grimm strips with Jeff Keane style recycled art?

    3. As long as we’re looking at repeats I noticed today’s _Bizarro_ is one of those occasional redrawings of a weekday panel from years ago. Not sure just when but I believe I have it in one of the printed books so that’d be at least twenty years old.

  3. Don’t forget us old Vets. What about Beetle Bailey?

    1. As an old Vet(1968-1980) I wish the Walker kids would go to reruns as none of them have any military experience to draw on. Since Mort Walker is gone Beatle Bailey is now more like a friends strip with characters wearing funny clothes. Very few of the former main characters aside from Beatle, Sgt Snorkel, Miss Buxley, and Gen Halftrack are seen daily with Cookie and Otto now reduced to minor characters along with occasional sightings of other former major characters. It has become pointless, I no longer spend any time with it

  4. I wonder how many cartoonists are “encouraged” to go to daily re-runs. Surely, it’s cheaper for the syndicate to just do re-runs than process (and pay for!) new work every day, right? And it’s not appreciably affecting their reading audience, judging by the number of strips that get re-run without notice.

    1. As D.D. indicates, such a move might affect volumes of reprints, but probably not have a significant impact upon the daily readership (or, I suspect, merchandise sales).

  5. What? The cartoonists passed a response request on because they can’t respond about the cartoon they create?

    Something doesn’t make sense…?

    1. Without getting into details: afaik the inquiry came up in a regularly scheduled meeting and Editor Amy, having dealt with The Daily Cartoonist before, volunteered to get back to us. I did not quote the entire letter only the pertinent parts related to the daily reruns.

  6. Arctic Circle has been syndicated by King Features for nearly 19 years. I’ve never been encouraged to go to re-runs!

  7. “The Comic Strip That Has A Finale Every Day” finally ended its reruns (!) on January 31.

  8. That final Finale strip is from January 31 two years ago.
    At about the same time it ran Ruben Bolling notified us:
    “It is my sad duty to announce that The Comic Strip That Has a Finale Every Day has finally ended its eight-year run on gocomics.com on December 31, 2023. It has had its final Finale.
    “Strangely, one installment was posted a couple of days ago, but it was a rerun.”
    https://tomthedancingbug.substack.com/p/a-final-finale

    The page you and Ruben reference also has the very first strip below that last one.
    https://www.gocomics.com/the-comic-strip-that-has-a-finale-every-day/2024/01/31

  9. What are the chances some papers may drop the daily Zits strip in favor of another King Features strip – like maybe “Beware of Toddler” by George Gant? Some papers may keep Zits Sunday only.

    Speaking of King Features, the Family Circus doesn’t count as reruns 7 days a week since the recycled Keane art has at times tweaks to the TV and mother Keane mostly.

    And I know Press Reader doesn’t carry the Tribune Publishing owned papers anymore – especially the New York Daily News, but does anyone have access to a physical daily New York Daily News to find out if it the daily Zits strip now in rerun status with first run Sundays is still running in its 2 page NY Daily News comics pages the daily Zits reruns even when the New York Daily News at times never runs a strip when it goes into temporary rerun weeks (but does it still carry the in reruns since 2024 One Big Happy? The last comic pages change I remember in the New York Daily News was in 2023 when Grand Avenue replaced Dilbert).

  10. “Beware of Toddler” is a Sunday only strip right now, as far as I know.
    Two I would love to see get a bigger audience would be “Rosebuds” by Dee “$upr Dee” Parson and “Wannabe” by Debus Lucas.

    1. Are Rosebuds and Wannabe daily and Sunday strips distributed by King Features?

      1. Yes, Rosebuds and Wannabe are syndicated by King Features.

        From Supr Dee’s website about Rosebuds: “As of MAR14DAY 2024, Rosebuds is syndicated and distributed through King Features Syndicate, publishing online through the Comics Kingdom website and in nearly 50 newspapers globally, including USA TODAY, The Chicago tribune and The Toronto Star.”

        It seems Rosebuds is seeing some growing success with itself despite everything happening with the comics pages.

      2. I don’t think the Chicago Tribune is being carried in its comic pages.

      3. It might be referring to it being carried in its online newspaper.

  11. Can someone tell Will Henry to turn off the lights when he’s done with “Wallace the Brave”?

    1. If anything, we need someone to keep the lights on in the hopes that newspaper strip cartooning isn’t done yet. It would be a shame to see it go.

      1. The newspaper comic strip business is dead.
        I feel sad saying that because since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to create a comic strip. But I waited too long to be a part of it.
        Instead of freeing up space on the comics pages for new strips, syndicates rerunning comic strips is the new norm. There are comic strips on the comics page that are in partial reruns and no one even notices. Why should a syndicate take on a new strip and work building clients for that strip when they can just rerun a strip that has a nice list of clients? In this atmosphere of the Gannett list and the Lee Enterprises list and the whatever lists, the comics are in hospice care.
        There is a lot of blame to go around. The health of the newspaper industry is to blame. Newspaper companies running the same comics pages in their newspapers are to blame. Syndicates being more willing to rerun a comic strip than syndicate a new comic strip are to blame. And cartoonists who are finished creating their strip, but not willing to give up their space on the comics page are to blame.
        We also have to think that these retiring cartoonists also have to continue paying their bills and affording health insurance. It’s a tight spot to be in.
        Like I said, the newspaper comic strip business is dead and it’s time to find a new venue for comic strips.

  12. Wait. You asked about the health of Jim Borgman, but you didn’t ask about the health of Jerry Scott?
    Poor Jerry Scott.

    1. Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman’s Baby Blues continues unabated without reruns (excepting vacations). I assumed Jerry was “jes’ fine.”

      1. That’s logical thinking right there. Good point.

  13. This is the email I got from King Features/Comics Kingdom about the ZITS daily reruns:

    “Yes, the strips you’ve seen without copyright year are from the archive. Jerry and Jim continue to create original Zits Sunday strips every week, as well as special occasion dailies; meanwhile King Features is curating the daily strips from Zits’ rich archive that has delighted comics readers all over the world for nearly 30 years. Just as audiences rewatch their favorite shows over and over, this curation gives both longtime and new readers the opportunity to revisit the strips and storylines that have been making them laugh for decades. We hope you enjoy revisiting these treasured moments.”

  14. ZIts’s Jeremy has been slowly aged over the years. I was sort of hoping that the artist and writer would have aged him out to go to college and end it there. Sort of like how Calvin and Hobbes had an end.

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