Two Strips Depart

Two venerable comic strips ended this summer.

Creators Tom Armstrong and Tom Batiuk ended their 11-year-old John Darling in a probably unprecedented fashion for a daily strip: The title character (a local TV personality) was shot to death "for no apparent reason", by an unidentified character, in the strip's next-to-last episode on Aug. 3. Batiuk continues to produce Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft (with Chuck Ayers); Armstrong continues to draw Marvin.

Jerry Van Amerongen's The Neighborhood ran in 125 newspapers for the last time on July 79 In its 10 years, Van Amerongen's panel about suburban absurdities received many critical comparisons to The Far Side. King Features Syndicate will continue to license Neighborhood mugs, cards, and other merchandise: Van Amerongen plans to move from a panel to a strip format with his next project, Ballard Street.

[Interestingly, Ballard Street would end up becoming a single panel comic eventually]