Original comic-book art once wiped up ink spills. Now it pulls in big bucks.

Big brands have been borrowing for their marketing efforts characters from “Family Guy,” which has been criticized for everything from anti-Semitism and sexism to homophobia.

A large number of classic characters for children are being freshened up to try to cater to parents’ nostalgia and children’s YouTube-era sensibilities.

A 33-year-old technology manager in Dublin has generated a flood of new Web traffic on his blog with his tweaked comic strip, “Garfield Minus Garfield.”

Amid a sea of changes at Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, a slice-of-life cartoon that has been a mainstay of the editorial page has decamped to the Leisure & Arts section.

Among the millions of clips on the video-sharing Web site YouTube are 11 racially offensive Warner Brothers cartoons that have not been shown in an authorized release since 1968.