I recently opened up a old newspaper that covered the JFK assassination. There was, of course, a lot of interesting articles in this particular edition (which I had already read on prior occasions), but what I was actually looking for this time around was the comics insert.
I found it, now over 50 years old, and it was kind of like finding evidence of the influence of a time traveler in the past. In the mist of these comics I had never heard about, there were a handful that were so recognizable that I could have been looking at yesterdays paper and not known the difference. They were, for the lack of a better word, timeless.
That got me thinking of a few things. Some comics became icons, some fade out of memory. I would ask why, but the most likely explanation is that each strip had its own tale of how it got to be in the paper, and how it eventually was canceled or dropped.
I guess the benchmark of success back then was how many papers you could get your strip into. Of course, you get paid more, and your visibility also increases drastically. But what about nowadays? Webcomics have come into their own, but how will their longevity hold up against time? They theoretically have access to the entire world, but how come so few ever reach a level of readership compared to printed media?
I can imagine a lot of reasons, but It's something that will take a lot of time to thing about...