In the comic-strip business, a zombie strip is one whose creator has died (or retired), but which continues in publication. The strips are taken over by others, often relatives of the originator. Zombie strips are often criticized as lacking the "spark" that originally made the strip successful.^[1]

The usual reason for continuing a strip as a zombie is to keep the profitable business going. Both the creator's relatives and the syndicate stand to make money.^[1]

Continuing a zombie strip is commonly criticized by cartoonists, particularly younger ones, including Bill Watterson and Stephan Pastis. Pastis addressed the issue in six consecutive Pearls Before Swine strips in 2005. Charles Schulz, author of "Peanuts", requested that his strip not be continued by another cartoonist after his death. Schulz's family has honored his wishes and refused numerous proposals by syndicators to continue "Peanuts" with a new author. However, "Peanuts" continues as a "rerun" strip.^{[citation needed]}

The principal criticism directed toward continuing a zombie strip is that the second cartoonist is viewed as generally less funny or compelling than the creator, and that the new cartoonist does not have the same style of writing or understand the characters as well. An additional criticism is that continuing such strips prevents newer cartoonists from entering the business by filling the newspaper space that might be devoted to new strips.^{[citation needed]}

Zombie strips include “Blondie”, “Dennis the Menace”, “Hagar the Horrible”, and “The Family Circus”.