shifted his comic's content from college life to the singles life, and added new characters such as the nerd Malcolm Magnesia and changed Chuck Laylo into a shallow lounge lizard. Universal promoted it as "a comic strip that captures the humor and lifestyle of new generation." The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the few new comic strips offering original and relevant humor for the '80s…" along with Bloom County and The Far Side. Through syndication, Downstown appeared in more than a hundred major newspapers worldwide, including Chicago Sun-Times, Edmonton Journal, Miami News, Los Angeles Times, and New York Post. In February 1985, Downs decided to use Downstown to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. His series of satirical comic strips depicting a starving Ethiopian child alongside overfed and insensitive Americans were considered offensive by many readers. Newspaper columnist Sue Ann Wood said, "It struck me as questionable taste indeed. The tragedy of starving children in Ethiopia hardly seemed a subject for crude humor in a comic. However, I thought the cartoonist was trying to make a point that some Americans are insensitive to the plight of Ethiopians. I didn't think he was very successful. I hoped he wouldn't try to do it again." Yet, Downs continued to cover this topic for six days, leading The Detroit News to cancel Downstown. Downs concluded the sequence with information on how to donate to world hunger charities, and did raise money for those charities. After 11 years and about 3,000 comic strips, Downs discontinued Downstown on February 1, 1986. Downs said, "“It’s gotten harder and harder for me to do Downstown. I finally had to ask myself if it was the kind of strip I wanted to be drawing 10 years from now, and realized that it wasn’t.” In short, Downs was living the married life with a son in San Bernardino, California, making it challenging to continue writing about characters based on his college roommate. However, one newspaper editor noted, "Tim Downs decided to give it up because the strip was not being purchased by enough newspapers to make it worth continuing." Downs ended Downstown with a week-long farewell party visited by characters from other comics, including Charlie Brown, Duke from Doonesbury, Cathy, Little Orphan Annie, Garfield, and Spider-Man. The last day, his character Josh uses an axe to break through the panel border, letting the characters fall through,