Character Derailment in comic strips.
- Bloom County:
- Probably the most extreme example out of this page, Jerkass Amoral Attorney Steve Dallas gets kidnapped by aliens and Brainwashed into a touchy-feely, effeminate hippie. Ironic, because this is also one of the best cases of Tropes Are Not Bad. Avoiding Snapback and We Want Our Jerk Back! typically associated with this trope for several years, Steve Dallas becomes a much more sympathetic character and even patches up his relationship with his mother during this time period. Steve later ended up being too annoying, and Hodge-Podge did start to want the original Steve back, so he ended up back to his old self. And in yet another case of Tropes Are Not Bad for Steve Dallas, in the current Internet-only revival, Steve has become a more caring person, befriending a young boy dying of cancer and going out of his way to make the child's hospital stay brighter and easier...and Steve still maintains his "jerk" facade towards the other characters. The strips are guaranteed Tear Jerker territory.
- Also another example of Tropes Are Not Bad, Opus was derailed from a generic Funny Animal to the neurotic, politics-obsessed, couch potato materialist we all know and love today.
- For most of the comic, when Bill the Cat wasn't in a drug-induced coma or brain dead, he did nothing but spout gibberish. Toward the end of the comic's run, he was kidnapped and had Donald Trump's brain transplanted into him.
- The dad in The Family Circus was originally a lot more buffoonish
◊, and used to be more devious — such as sneaking his own booze into a sporting event, banging on the table when Thel tries talking to him, et cetera. By the 1970s he was a lot trimmer◊ and wore glasses, and his personality became a lot more sympathetic. His is yet another example of Tropes Are Not Bad. - Luann: Summer 2023 and onwards saw Tiffany go from being a complex, interesting character with flaws and insecurities of her own, who just so happened to try to seduce Stef's boyfriend Kip away from her every once in a while; to being a delusional, attempted-homewrecking slut who not only was completely obsessed with trying to seduce Kip, but also completely believed that he was the one hitting on her.
