Older Americans are getting a lot of attention in the comics because they are ignored by the media.
Readers of all generations are drawn to comic strips about the lives of older characters. They are being removed from the supporting cast in order to become central figures in the story arcs.
The phenomenon of allowing their characters to age by the year was once rare. Mike Doonesbury has aged from college freshman to graying grandpa and he has never seemed more contented with life.
Here are some of the creators who are at the forefront of this trend.
When Brian Crane set out to become a cartoonist in the late 1980s, his goal was to find something that nobody else was doing.
Pickles appeared in some 900 papers around the world, as well as online, after its debut in 1990.
He says he draws his inspiration from everyone, including his wife and himself.
Crane says he tried to mellow the two over the years, but the humor in Pickles often involves a bit of arguing between Earl and Opal.
Earl complains in a recent strip that the chicken bouillon in their kitchen cabinet is decades past its expiration date.
Crane says he rarely gets complaints about portraying older people in a negative way, and when he does, they usually come from younger readers.
He says that he is looking to find humor amidst the trials of getting older.
Crane has plenty of material to draw on and no plans to retire at 72.
Crane says it has gotten a lot easier.
The title character Flo is a 65-year-old raising her teenage daughter.
The comic was the brainchild of John Gibel, an active volunteer who wanted to create a strip for older adults. Jenny Campbell is a local writer and artist. When Gibel died of a stroke at the age of 56, his family signed the strip over to Campbell for the price of a Starbucks Grande Caff.
I made Flo 65 when I started because I thought it was old. The characters have become good friends of mine.
Campbell steers clear of politics and religion because they can cause hate mail. I have a career where I can make people laugh. I have never been into controversy.
Campbell takes up difficult issues that older people face in real life with a light touch. I don't mention Alzheimer's, but I do poke a little fun at it. I am experiencing the same things as my characters.
Campbell works on children's books when she isn't busy with Flo and Friends. She drew the cartoon dog and cat that appeared on Ohio's pet friendly license plate, which raised money for animal shelters and related causes.
Sally Forth will turn 40 in 2022. It will be 25 years since it was written by its writer, Francesco Marciuliano. Jim Keefe is the strip's current illustrator.
Sally, a 40ish working mother, and her extended family, including her and husband Ted's parents, are the focus of the strip.
In recent years, the older crew has appeared in the plotlines. Ted's father died of an illness that lasted many months. Sally's mother, Laura, has been downsizing her home as she prepares to move in with Sally, her sister, and her husband. He wants to change careers but is too old to do it.
Like many writers, he draws on his and his friends experiences. He used the death of Ted's father to explore dying, grief, and the awkward, unfamiliar situations that survivors can find themselves in.
Ted has to use the internet to find a funeral home because no one had made plans before. In one panel, a funeral director suggests that if Ted pays with a credit card rather than a check, he will earn rewards points. Both came from the experience of the man.
The story line led to some complaints from people who had lost a parent.
In portraying his older characters, he tries hard to avoid the goody-goody older person.
Laura, Sally's mom, is not likely to be described as either goody-goody or cool. She is a sharp-tongued and opinionated woman and takes pleasure in tormenting her son-in-law Ted. She is moving in with her daughter.
The message in these movies is that you can find love again when you are sad and old.
Longtime admen Andy Landorf and John Colquhoun saw a niche for a strip about a group of friends who are adapting to a new phase of life in a changing world. Both men write and draw the strip. If the characters look like the Little Caesars pizza chain mascot, that is no coincidence. Colquhoun drew him as well.
The new60comic.com has a new strip every Tuesday and Friday. instant feedback is given by publishing it digitally.
The comments that I love are the ones that say "Did you put a hidden camera in my kitchen?" Colquhoun notes that they get put-down from their GenX fans when the characters say something that irks them.
A Superman comic book sold for over $2 million. Is it time to think about investing in these collectibles?
The New 60 draws on how the world has evolved since the baby boomers. In a recent episode, the character Sam is shopping for a new pickup truck. Sam just wants a simple pickup for chores like hauling lumber after the salesman talked about the new features.
He asked where he could find a truck like that.
Greg Daugherty is a writer who has written for Next Avenue. He was the editor in chief of Reader's Digest New Choices and Money magazine.
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