In sad news for nostalgists everywhere, today marked the final column of the long-running Annie comic. After nearly 87 years of the freckle-faced orphan’s antics, she has sung her last “Too-mah-row, too-mah-row, I luv ya! Too-mah-row.” Who among us is old enough to remember the pleasure of your mother or father handing you over that brightly colored broadsheet in the morning so you could diligently check in on the happenings of Annie or Marmaduke or Blondie? It makes me feel all of 117 years old when I go on about the old days, but seriously, has orange juice ever tasted better than when washed down with a wistful serving of my beloved Calvin and Hobbes?
Well goodbye Annie… for now. Thanks for the memories, girl. I hope not to see you bastardized on some callous and glossy remake on the Disney channel one day. Tonight I’ll rent the 1982 movie in your honor. (From a video store no less! Take that progress.)
What say you PopWatchers? I wax affectionately and yet I didn’t even realize Annie was still being printed. Am I part of the problem? Do any of you still read newspaper comics, or better yet share them with your kids? Is Calvin and Hobbes the best newspaper comic of all time? Anyone out there care to stage an argument that the 1999 movie is in fact superior to the 1982? Didn’t think so.
I thought this was discontinued about 30 years ago.
Good riddance!!!
Just kidding, the paper where I live never had Annie, so I’ve never read it. Just saw the mediocre movie from the early 80′s, so no pangs of nostalgia for me. Now, when Blondie goes away, then maybe I’ll squirt a few tears. If Family Circus goes away, I’ll throw a party and dance a jig.
Right on! Invite me to that party, & I’ll dance with you.
Its said to see such windows of the past fade away. So many cartoons, too many to list, are but fond memories. Calvin and Hobbes is a strip that is fading from memory. And yes, the little boy and his stuffed tiger toy is the best cartoon ever. There are no limits to imagination, even for an elementary school kid.
Calvin and Hobbes isn’t fading from my memory. I have The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, and I get it daily in email. I haven’t really cared about comics since C&H and The Far Side were “retired”.
How do you get it daily in email?
gocomics.com is one site.
Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic of all time. i always saved it for last, the last thing i read in the paper. kinda like a dessert. Man, I miss that stuffed tiger and his little pal..
Meeee toooooo, I keep rereading my collections!
No wonder. I thought that last bit was a little strange. I don’t follow it, but I always glance at it while I read the rest of the comics. I always thought it would be cool if they made a movie that was more like the comic, with weird science fiction and stuff, but still a musical. It would be like Johnny Quest the Musical!
Newspaper strips have been dead for a long, long time. RIP Annie.
I really like Foxtrot…funny stuff…
I liked Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County
99 version vs. 82 version….
I grew up knowing the ’82 version. Then in high school we did the musical and I realized how much the movie was nothing like the Broadway musical. The 1999 Disney film is more of a good adaptation of the stage show.
To adapt a Simpsons quote to yet another story…”Why now? Why not twenty years ago?”
Calvin and Hobbes is indeed great, but I’m going to vote Peanuts as all-time best comic strip. No other comic strip that I’ve read has maintained its rich heart and soul for as long as Peanuts did — almost 50 years — all under the guidance of its original creator.
Amen! I’m glad someone thought to mention Peanuts! It’s the gold standard which all other comic strips are measured.
I remember when the movie came out. My father worked for Sears at the time and they had all these cross promotions with Sears. They even had a line of Annie dresses that she wore in the movie.
Calvin and Hobbes, gone.
The Far Side, gone.
Bloom County > Outland > Opus, gone.
Fox Trot, Sundays only.
Luann, still around and good.
Zits, still around and good.
Was ANYONE reading “Annie” anymore? Actually, for some reason I got into reading it over the past couple months… only to see it get cancelled. Guess I WAS the only one! Well, no great loss there, really. But for comics fans, there still are a few “cool” comic strips out there: “Get Fuzzy” (Stephen King’s favorite strip), “Pearls Before Swine” (Scott Adams’– the “Dilbert” creator — favorite strip), and “F Minus” (a single-panel strip that “Far Side” fans might like.) However, serialized “adventure” strips like “Annie” just can’t cut it anymore… they move at a glacial pace and simply aren’t what people want to read anymore.