"My parents died young. I would like to jump out of an airplane again and bungee jump and see the Eiffel Tower ... from the top." Fans will be delighted to know that the strip will not end. Rather, it will continue as a still-being discussed hybrid of some earlier, little seen work along with some new material."

But, with the exception of a possible book to catch readers up on what happens to the Pattersons, the characters will not age beyond the day Johnston sets aside her India ink.

"I just can't see them growing older," she says.