Editing Comic strip (section)

==Conventions and genres==
{{Excessive examples|section|date=December 2014}}
Most comic strip characters do not age throughout the strip's life, but in some strips, like [[Lynn Johnston]]'s award-winning ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'', the characters age as the years pass. The first strip to feature aging characters was ''[[Gasoline Alley (comic strip)|Gasoline Alley]]''.

The history of comic strips also includes series that are not humorous, but tell an ongoing [[drama]]tic story. Examples include ''[[The Phantom]]'', ''[[Prince Valiant]]'', ''[[Dick Tracy]]'', ''[[Mary Worth (comic)|Mary Worth]]'', ''[[Modesty Blaise]]'', ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'', ''[[Flash Gordon]]'', and ''[[Tarzan (comics)|Tarzan]]''. Sometimes these are spin-offs from [[comic book]]s, for example ''[[Superman (comic strip)|Superman]]'', ''[[Batman (comic strip)|Batman]]'', and ''[[The Amazing Spider-Man (comic strip)|The Amazing Spider-Man]]''.

A number of strips have featured animals as main characters. Some are non-verbal (''[[Marmaduke]]'', ''[[The Angriest Dog in the World]]''), some have verbal thoughts but are not understood by humans, (''[[Garfield]]'', [[Snoopy]] in ''[[Peanuts]]''), and some [[talking animals in fiction|can converse with humans]] (''[[Bloom County]]'', ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'', ''[[Mutts (comic strip)|Mutts]]'', ''[[Citizen Dog (comic)|Citizen Dog]]'', ''[[Buckles (comics)|Buckles]]'', ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'', ''[[Pearls Before Swine (comic strip)|Pearls Before Swine]]'', and ''[[Pooch Cafe]]''). Other strips are centered entirely on animals, as in ''Pogo'' and ''[[Donald Duck]]''. [[Gary Larson]]'s ''[[The Far Side]]'' was unusual, as there were no central characters. Instead ''The Far Side'' used a wide variety of characters including humans, monsters, [[Extraterrestrial life|aliens]], chickens, cows, [[worm]]s, [[amoeba (genus)|amoeba]]s, and more. John McPherson's ''[[Close to Home (comic strip)|Close to Home]]'' also uses this theme, though the characters are mostly restricted to humans and real-life situations.  [[Wiley Miller]] not only mixes human, animal, and fantasy characters, but also does several different comic strip continuities under one umbrella title, ''[[Non Sequitur (comic strip)|Non Sequitur]]''.  [[Bob Thaves]]'s ''[[Frank and Ernest (comic strip)|Frank & Ernest]]'' began in 1972 and paved the way for some of these strips, as its human characters were manifest in diverse forms—as animals, vegetables, and minerals.<ref name=toon/>