The strip's popularity declined over the years and was running in only 20 newspapers when it was cancelled on June 13, 2010.

The strip's medium-subverting elements became toned down as the strip gained in popularity, becoming more simplistic to appeal to the new audience.

By March 2003, the strip's popularity had faded badly, and the comic's editors were giving serious consideration to dropping it.

The strip's popularity faded, and Bringing Up Father limped along until its 87-year run came to a close on May 28, 2000.

Then Evans was lured back, because it turned out that the strip's popularity in European markets justified keeping it going for 5 more years.

Grant believes the strip's popularity was down to Belardinelli's art.

The strip's characters, relations and situations grew organically and undeliberately as the strip went on, encouraged by Herriman's officemates.

Alex and Penny married in the strip's early days and had a son called Christopher, who grew up, went to school, had work experience and has now started college.

The comic strip's popular success is attributable to its workplace setting and themes, which are familiar to a large and appreciative audience ; Adams said that switching the setting from Dilbert's home to his office was " when the strip really started to take off.

Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college student to a youthful senior citizen in the 40 + years of the strip's daily existence.

The strip's subject matter in the early months varied from the pattern it later settled into.

" The strip's humor style — quite contemporary, in contrast to its medieval setting — ranges from broad and low to pure black ", according to Don Markstein's Toonopedia.

The strip's story continuity was written by Walter B. Gibson, with plot lines adapted from the Shadow pulps, and the strip was illustrated by Vernon Greene.

The comic strip's writer was uncredited, but some of the gags certainly were lifted from the hit radio show.

Onstad has published several books: nine anthologies of Achewood comics ; a humorous cookbook featuring recipes purportedly invented by the strip's characters ; A Wonderful Tale, a book written from the perspective of a character from the strip ; and that same character's second novel A Hilarious Comedy.

This contained a history and reprints from the first 30 years of the strip's life.

The strip's humor comes from the conflict between Bucky's and Satchel's personalities, which are extreme stereotypes of cats and dogs.

As the strip progresses, Flip evolves from Nemo's nemesis to his tolerated companion to his close friend, and becomes one of the strip's livelier ( albeit still troublesome ) characters.

Later stories, in which Gould veered into space opera and extraterrestrial contacts, mitigated somewhat against the strip's being recognized for its early use of realistic police procedure, but any examination of the Tracy strip from its beginnings in 1931 through the 1950s makes Gould's status as a pioneer in the police procedural sub-genre clear.

The " Dust Puppy " from the web comic User Friendly is also commonly associated with Hackers, Internet culture, and free and open source communities due to the strip's coverage of those topics.

She married Llewellyn at the end of the strip's run in a storyarc from November – December 2008.

Metcalfe later drew the strip full-time, gradually bringing the strip's artwork more in line with his early 1990s work, until his sudden departure from the comic in 2007, after which the Beano started running re-prints of the strips drawn by David Parkins.

Subject matter ranges from the main characters ' adventures ( both present and past ) to contemporary commentary to political statements, and often makes its points in scathing and offensive fashion: for instance, in the debut strip, the strip's main character offers his opinion of an ex-girlfriend by giving her a coat hanger as a baby shower present ( alluding to its use as an instrument in back-street abortions ).

Former cadet Dolman is notable not for anything he has done yet, but for the potential development of his character in the strip's future, as he is cloned from Dredd's DNA and effectively a member of his family.

Schulz made Rerun into a main character in the strip's final years, and much of the focus during this time is from Rerun's perspective ; Schulz admitted in a 1997 interview with Gary Groth that the character virtually " took over " the comic.

One of the strip's earlier characters dating from 1951, Violet was seen less frequently after other female characters such as Lucy, Sally and Peppermint Patty were introduced and developed in the 1950s and 60s.

At the strip's end, Steve Dallas came out as gay, and eloped to California with Mark Slackmeyer from the comic strip Doonesbury.

The first few strips were drawn by Chris Donald, and most of the subsequent ones were done by Simon Donald until his departure from the comic, after which Paul Palmer became the strip's artist.

Both Kirkman and Scott have drawn from their own parenting experiences as a source for the strip's content.

Sometimes balloons can be influenced by the strip's environment: in the Italian strip Sturmtruppen they freeze and crack when the temperature is very low, or an Archie comic strip where two men from Alaska remarked on how cold it was, by saying the speech balloons froze as they said them, and the words had to be thawed out to be heard.

Part of the strip's broad appeal is due to its lack of social or political commentary ; though this was Davis's original intention, he also admitted that his " grasp of politics isn't strong ", remarking that, for many years, he thought " OPEC was a denture adhesive ".

The New Addams Family provided a cross between the original television show's mansion and the movie / comic strip's mansion.

The strip's original main character, a boy named Matt Havens who was the son of the day care operator, was dropped early in the elementary school stretch.

Lucy wears a blue dress with white and black saddle shoes for most of the strip's original run.

Though the strip's various compilations do not do them justice, the original cast of characters in Bloom County were Milo, Bess, and Major Bloom, along with a basset hound named " Rabies " whose thoughts could be read à la Snoopy ; the first year of strips are mysteriously omitted from all compilations save the Bloom Library, although a selection did find publication in a 1986 anthology collection Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness.

The fifth anniversary Madam & Eve book credits many of the strip's original ideas, including the title, to Francis.

Basset is still credited as the artist in many papers and in the Sunday strip's title box.

In the UK and the rest of Europe, comic strips are also serialized in comic book magazines, with a strip's story sometimes continuing over three pages or more.

However, Trevor Metcalfe drew several strips during 2003 and 2004, in which Ivy was given a noticeably more childlike and less malicious personality, although again the strip's style was based on Nixon's.

Though he spoke the only lines of dialogue in the first strip and was one of the strip's primary figures in its first few years, he was mainly utilized as a " straight man " for Charlie Brown and soon began to be eclipsed by newer characters who were more developed, such as Linus and Lucy.

The strip's humor is aimed more at late teens and adults, with frequent lampoons of famous pop culture icons, such as Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Cher, Elvis Presley, Barry Bonds, Dick Clark and Pamela Anderson, to name just a few.

The strip largely stuck to the stock formula of football-related boy's fiction-that of a makeshift team of amateurs narrowly winning match after match against more experienced teams ( and in this strip's case, teams of older boys ) by a combination of luck and raw talent.