# Death in Newspaper Comic Strips **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986 "2004-10-25T03:30:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/1 "2004-10-25T03:30:36Z")
How many newspaper comic strips have killed off characters? I can think of several Doonesburry characters who died (Lacey Davenport, Andy Lippincott, Phil Slackmeyer, etc.). I know Chester Gould killed off Moon Maid in “Dick Tracy”, and even Sylvia from “Gasoline Alley” finally died. Any other cases you can think of? (Only comic strips, not comic books.) ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/2 "2004-10-25T03:48:42Z")
Farley (snif) from “For Better or For Worse.” ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/3 "2004-10-25T04:21:56Z")
Didn’t Bloom County kill off a character? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/4 "2004-10-25T04:24:38Z")
Doesn’t really count, but it’s the only one I can think of: Uncle Max was retired from _Calvin and Hobbes_ a long while back. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/5 "2004-10-25T04:41:45Z")
In addition to the dog, I believe Elly’s mother also died in _For Better or For Worse_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/6 "2004-10-25T04:44:02Z")
Didn’t Clive from _Safe Havens_ just pass away? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/7 "2004-10-25T04:52:20Z")
Uncle Walt in “Gasoline Alley” also recently died. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/8 "2004-10-25T05:26:26Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Didn’t Bloom County kill off a character? Bill the Cat supposedly died, for awhile (either after a car wreck, or “of acne”), but was brought back to life. And Milo Bloom’s been MIA for a decade, now. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/9 "2004-10-25T05:33:37Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Uncle Walt in “Gasoline Alley” also recently died. No, that was his wife Phyllis. Walt is still alive and kicking. People died in the adventure strips all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Roseworm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df788c/32.png) [@Roseworm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseworm)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/10 "2004-10-25T11:22:38Z")
As **Krokodil** points out, death in the adventure strips was very common. In _Dick Tracy_, Chester Gould killed off bad guys all the time, usually in very gruesome ways. But I assume that **astorian** is referring to major, sympathetic characters. In that case, no comic strip death has ever been as wrenching, affecting or heartbreaking as the loss of Farley the sheepdog in Lynn Johnston’s _For Better or For Worse_. The heroic pooch suffers a fatal heart attack after saving April from drowning. “I didn’t think a heart that big could stop beating.” \ ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/11 "2004-10-25T12:04:34Z")
As far as I’m concerned, John Arbuckle is still under suspicion for the disappearance of Lyman. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/12 "2004-10-25T15:33:23Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Chester Gould killed off Moon Maid in “Dick Tracy” Chester Gould killed off a _lot_ of people in “Dick Tracy,” including nearly all the villains, most of them in rather unnerving ways. Who else remembers how The Brow bought the farm? ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/13 "2004-10-25T15:39:27Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > Chester Gould killed off a _lot_ of people in “Dick Tracy,” including nearly all the villains, most of them in rather unnerving ways. I’ve never read Dick Tracy in my life. What was so unnerving about the way they were killed off? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/14 "2004-10-25T17:08:50Z")
> [@Neurotik](#): > > I’ve never read Dick Tracy in my life. What was so unnerving about the way they were killed off? Some of them die pretty graphically. \*\*The Brow- \*\* impaled on a flagpole **Breathless Mahoney** - (Madonna’s character in the movie) died in prison **Flattop-** his clothing gets caught on a spike beneath a ship and he drowns **Gargles-** Tracy puts him through a plateglass window and he’s cut to pieces **Mumbles-**'nother drowning **Sphinx-** crushed to death beneath an elevator **Shakey-** slowly froze to death while attempting to elude Tracy **Mrs. Volts-** stuffed in an oven and asphyxiated by gas Especially in the early strips, Tracy gunned down a good many henchmen, lackeys, and gunsels. The bizzarre deaths were set aside for major characters. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/15 "2004-10-25T17:41:10Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, John Arbuckle is still under suspicion for the disappearance of Lyman. I think Snoopy and Peppermint Patty killed off just about everyone else in Peanuts… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/16 "2004-10-26T05:08:35Z")
The strip _John Darling_ was about a small-town anchorman who always longed to hit the national six o’clock news. In the last, out-of-the blue, strip, he got his wish: He was killed, and his murder was reported across the country. Interestingly, many years later, Les Moore of _Funky Winkerbean_ (written by the same fellow) ended up solving the murder. For other examples, I think that the grandparents in _Family Circus_ (who now occasionally appear as ghosts) were once alive, and I think a grandparent died in _For Better or for Worse_, too. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/17 "2004-10-26T05:24:27Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, John Arbuckle is still under suspicion for the disappearance of Lyman. Yeah, but who’s responsible for killing Jim Davis’s talent? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![spiralscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@spiralscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spiralscratch)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/18 "2004-10-26T07:00:03Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > Yeah, but who’s responsible for killing Jim Davis’s talent? > :dubious: It was on life support from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/19 "2004-10-26T18:18:42Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > **Shakey-** slowly froze to death while attempting to elude Tracy Actually, Shakey was the one I had in mind when I typed “unnerving.” He was hiding from Tracy and the cops underneath a pier in what we should probably assume was Lake Michigan (while Tracy’s hometown was never specified, there are lots of Chicago hints). It was the dead of winter, and the breakers that washed in over him slowly froze and entombed him in a suffocating icy grave. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/20 "2004-10-26T18:27:44Z")
Doonesbury has killed off several: Lacey Davenport’s bird-watching husband, Dick Davenport. Congresswoman Lacey Davenport; and Joanie Caucus’s law school friend Andy Limpicott (sp). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986.md?page=2)