Zombie strip

In the comic-strip business, a zombie strip (also known as a "legacy strip") is one whose creator has died or retired, but which continues to exist with new editions in publication. The strips are taken over by others, often relatives of the originator. Zombie comic strips are often criticized as lacking the "spark" that originally made the strip successful.

The usual reason for continuing a strip as a zombie is to keep the profitable business or franchise going, preserving countless jobs and allowing future generations to enjoy the work in a new form. Both the creator's relatives and the strip's syndicate stand to make significant money in royalties. In the early days of comic strips, it was commonplace for a strip to be taken over by successors once the original cartoonist died; one of the earliest high-profile cartoonists to reject "zombie stripping" was George Herriman, who decreed that his strip Krazy Kat not be continued after his death. (Herriman, along with his strip, died in 1944.)

The practice of continuing a zombie comic strip is commonly criticized by cartoonists, particularly younger ones in the new generation, including Bill Watterson and Stephan Pastis. Pastis addressed the issue in his strip, Pearls Before Swine, in 2005.Mark Tatulli also commented on zombie strips in his strip Liō in 2010. and in 2013. After an incident in which United Feature Syndicate secretly retained the services of superhero comic artist Al Plastino to continue the comic strip Peanuts in case of an interruption,Charles Schulz, author and creator of Peanuts, requested that his strip (which, in contrast to most comic strips today, he drew completely on his own with no assistants of any kind) not be continued by another cartoonist after his death; Schulz's family (as well as Universal Uclick, which currently holds the strip's publication rights) has honored his wishes. Peanuts instead is seen in reruns under the banner Classic Peanuts.

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