Comic strips of yesteryear were a way to FastTrack fame and fortune.
Comic strips are a dying medium trapped in another dying medium.
I am a long time fan of comic strips, I had followed Bloom County and Drabble in the past. I also actively read collections of the humor and adventure strips that long preceded my birth.
The longest running strip lasting 109 years had a bizarre past, the which it was split into two strips with the same characters in both. So, The Katzenjammer Kids (1914 – 1949) when toe to toe with the Captain and the Kids (1897 – 2006). There are not many collections of either, so I have not read much of either.
The next longest is Gasoline Alley which started in 1918 and continues today.
In Chicago we have Blondie (1930) and Dick Tracy (1931). These two I read, past and present.
In the past people made fortunes and became famous for writing and drawing strips. Now they are mere shadows of their former selves struggling to survive.