Little Orphan Annie Bows Out, Mysteriously

Comic strips ends 85-year run 'for now'
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2010 3:50 PM CDT
Little Orphan Annie Bows Out, Mysteriously
This undated image provided May 26, 2010, by Tribune Media Services, shows Annie and her dog, Sandy, from an early stage of the "Annie" comic strip. It ran for 85 years before today's final strip.   (AP Photo/Tribune Media Services Inc.)

After 85 years of adventures, Little Orphan Annie made her final appearance in the funny papers today, and she left behind a cliffhanger. The last panel of the strip consists of a yellow background with black lettering reading "And this is where we leave our Annie. For now—" She won't be forgotten, and in fact, she won't even really be gone, writes comics expert Michael Cavna of the Washington Post.

Annie was living on borrowed time even before she became a casualty of the crisis in the newspaper business; toward the end, she wasn't even in 20 outlets. But musical theater guarantees she'll live on, says a rep for syndicator Tribune Media Service. "The musical refashioned the property and gave us another 30 years of original Annie in print," he explains.
(More comic strips stories.)

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