A cliffhanger? Really? They ended the strip on a cliffhanger? I mean, if they can’t afford to keep the strip going in a market where story strips are almost a thing of the past, fine, I get that. But they couldn’t give the creators a sufficient heads-up that they could have tied up the current storyline rather than leave Annie and Warbucks separated? I don’t care if they brought in Mr. Am from nowhere and he transports her home. She deserved better than what they gave her.
PAD
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At least the last panel didn’t say “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.”
Actually, I would have liked that.
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PAD
This reminds me a little of the discussion in the previous DRAGON’S LAIR post about games that you can beat/that have an ending and games that you can’t beat/never end. Is it better to give a definitive, final end — or to not really end at all?
Both have their benefits. If there’s a clear ending, you’re left with a wrap-up, of knowing where the journey finally led, of what ultimately happened to the characters. (SIX FEET UNDER is a terrific example; LOST did pretty well.)
If there’s an ambiguous ending, it lets fans imagine what happened (THE SOPRANOS, the final battle in ANGEL). The ambiguous ending is also open, so the story can continue at another point (PUSHING DAISIES continuing in comic book form, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT hoping for a movie or network). Maybe the folks who write/own the rights to “Annie” may want to bring it back to the newspapers, or to go online with it.
Or it’s possible someone just pulled the plug in the middle of a story arc, in which case the ambiguity remains, albeit accidentally.
There is plenty of talk about “Annie” showing up elsewhere, but no discussion of continuing the current storyline.
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PAD
I had no idea Annie was still being published. I hadn’t seen it in a newspaper since the seventies. Sadly, I suppose this is the reason it ended.
Have they been reprinting recent strips in books? If so, maybe they can finish the story in the next volume.
Reportedly Annie was down to 20 papers at the end.
Recent strips haven’t been getting reprinted. There’s currently a good hardcover series of reprints from the start of the strip, but it’s only up to 1935 currently, and it’s unclear if it’s intended to continue should it reprint all the Harold Gray strips. I’d guess they might continue with the Leonard Starr strips, but doubt it’d go further than that, even if it makes it that far.
Some publishers do have more class than others, no question. One such dates back to early 40s Belgium. Edgar P. Jacob – of BLAKE & MORTIMER fame – was doing a Belgian version of FLASH GORDON for the newspapers there, the American version not being available due to the war. The Nazis came knocking on the door, insisting the strip be terminated. The publishers told Jacobs, but allowed him one last installment in which he somehow managed to tie up all the loose ends. I’d love to see it. It must have been a doozy.
Somehow, given the number of times Annie has been in similar jeopardy, it seems to me that ending on a cliffhanger like this is appropriate.
I hadn’t heard about this, but it makes the “Moderately Confused” comic strip I saw today make a whole lot more sense…
http://comics.com/moderately_confused/2010-06-14/
For those wondering about the story, ComicsAlliance have an article up:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/06/14/little-orphan-annie-ending/
From what I understand, they are planning on continuing the “Annie” strip online and that is likely a big reason for a cliffhanger. Of course, they could be following the playbook of Ðìçk Wolf and hoping that the controversy over a cliffhanger generates enough publicity and interest to revive the strip in print form since the announcement of it’s demise gave the strip more publicity that it has received in decades. I mean, twenty newspapers? I was like many who was more surprised the strip was still being published than that it was canceled. So, again, those in charge likely are hoping that a cliffhanger and the reaction to it would be a good measuring stick of public interest to see where they go from here.
I read in the original new story that it would be ending on a cliffhanger to bring readers along to the “next phase” of the strip. All I can think is that they are going to move it into being a webstrip of some kind, where people DO follow the strips they like, and adventure strips actually do quite well.
OK, relatively speaking.
“Cory Strode says:
I read in the original new story that it would be ending on a cliffhanger to bring readers along to the “next phase” of the strip. All I can think is that they are going to move it into being a webstrip of some kind, where people DO follow the strips they like, and adventure strips actually do quite well.
OK, relatively speaking.”
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I think it has been confirmed that “Annie” will continue in web form. Granted, I think the cliffhanger still sucks for those who have been reading it for yeaqrs and don’t have the time/inclination/ knowledge to follow it as a strip, but it is what it is.
I’m half-tempted to go back and read the last storyline and then write my own conclusion. It’d take a pretty bizarre turn, though.
I’ve said for years that I’d love to write the final story arc of a long-running serial strip like Brenda Starr or Mary Worth and drastically shake things up before the end. For Annie, the first thought that comes to mind is that she finally decides she’s had enough of playing the victim, bashes her captor’s head in with a rock and makes her escape without any intervention by Punjab or the Asp or any of the usual suspects…