It’s been over nine years and I still feel this strip’s loss as keenly as when it first happened. There’s so many stories that had to go untold. We only saw Dill’s dad a couple of times. We never got to see Kevin’s dad except in Petey’s drawing. Alice never remembered Susie’s name. We never got to find out much about Loris. Miss Bliss and Timmy Fretwork never got married. We never got to go to Geek’s Neck more than once, really.
The tube slide stopped growing. Mr Danders never got his degree. Petey never really learned anything definite about Ernesto. Viola didn’t get to appear at all in like the last year and a half. Was Susie Andre’s sister? Did Petey’s first comic camp teacher ever come back?
Lots of comic strips stick around decades after they should have ended, but there are fewer things sadder than a comic strip forced to end early. Good-bye Richard Thompson. We miss you terribly.
I like the implication that kids have passed down this game, from generation to generation, for over fifty years.