# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/21 "2004-10-27T03:35:08Z")
Also in Doonesbury, I believe Bernie died in the 9/11 attacks. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/22 "2004-10-27T04:00:40Z")
Not exactly what the OP was asking for, but _Calvin and Hobbes_ dealt with death in a series of strips in which Calvin found an injured baby bird. (Or was it some other kind of animal? I can’t remember at the moment.) It was very touching. ---
**Author:** ![Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horrifying_Howler_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/23 "2004-10-27T04:33:11Z")
commasense they found a dead bird in one strip, and then in another they found an injured baby raccoon which later died. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/24 "2004-10-27T04:41:07Z")
> [@Horrifying Howler Monkey](#): > > commasense they found a dead bird in one strip, and then in another they found an injured baby raccoon which later died. Thanks. I remembered the sketch of the dead bird, but I couldn’t dredge up the raccoon. I was thinking, squirrel? Naaa. chipmunk? Naaa. ---
**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 27, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/25 "2004-10-27T05:54:37Z")
Sublight: > [@](#): > > Also in Doonesbury, I believe Bernie died in the 9/11 attacks. No, that was Mr. Bellows, Mike’s boss back in the 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/26 "2004-10-27T11:21:27Z")
Ah. In the “name the character” trivia section of the Doonesbury website, Mike’s question is “his boss died in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11”. Since the only boss of Mike’s that I remembered was Bernie, I assumed it was him. Standing corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/27 "2004-10-27T11:50:19Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > 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. Was he ever officially retired? I remember reading that Bill Waterson stopped using him because he didn’t turn out to be a very useful character. Calvin didn’t act any differently around him than he did around anybody else. The babysitter also fell by the wayside because it was getting too hard to come up with stunts that were even more outragous than the last one. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/28 "2004-10-27T13:21:16Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Was he ever officially retired? I remember reading that Bill Waterson stopped using him because he didn’t turn out to be a very useful character. Calvin didn’t act any differently around him than he did around anybody else. I read that Watterson decided to quit using Uncle Max because his presence made it particularly awkward to avoid giving names to Calivin’s parents. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/29 "2004-10-27T15:59:15Z")
Just went back and read a bunch of Calvin and Hobbes books (good times :)), and you guys are right, Uncle Max (and the babysitter, later on) just sort of… vanished. The “dead bird” strip was the only time I’ve ever gotten teary-eyed over a cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986/30 "2004-10-27T16:46:27Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > …and the babysitter just sort of… vanished. Not really. Rosalyn, the babysitter, vanished at about the same time as the whole strip. Her last appearance was just a few months before the last strip. Calvin challenges her to a game of Calvinball and once she figures out the rules (there are no rules) she becomes quite the match for Calvin. It’s the first time in their long history that they actually have fun together. Watterson may have had a hard time thinking of ways to top himself with each new Rosalyn adventure, but he didn’t drop her from the strip. She was there practically till the end, and her last appearance was a wonderfully appropriate conclusion for her character. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-in-newspaper-comic-strips/270986.md?page=1)