Technology: The Death of Comic Strips?

Ever since I was a little girl, I've read the comic strips (or "the funnies" as my grandma called them) in the daily newspaper. My grandma used to read them to my brother and me, and even today I read the comics when I have access to a newspaper. In the last 22+ years, I've essentially grown up with the characters in the comics. Some have been retired and replaced by new comics, others have stood the test of time and are still being printed, such as Garfield, and Peanuts. But what happens when newspapers are gradually being replaced with technology? Specifically, the Internet.

As more and more people are turning to the Internet for news, printed newspapers are being put out of business because, frankly, nobody wants to buy them. This has had many negative consequences, and comic strips and their writers have been greatly affected. A new documentary called Stripped is exploring this situation, and the implications it is having on comic strip writers and artists.

There are many comic strips that are solely on the Internet, such as The Oatmeal. Some of these writers love that they can essentially do whatever they want by publishing on the Internet, but what will the older generation of writers and artists do when newspapers become extinct? Will they have to adapt to the new technology, or will they have to go extinct as well? Will they have to face the truth that their livelihood and the beautiful medium of hand-drawn comics is obsolete, or will there always be a place for printed comics, even if it isn't in newspapers? Perhaps this documentary will shed some light on the situation, even if we don't have an answer just yet.

The last "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip ended on a bittersweet note.