The Butler Eagle dropping Non Sequitur over the F… Yourself Trump hidden message
in the Sunday February 10 comics sections was only the tip of a growing iceberg.
Other newspapers are also banishing the Wiley Miller’s comic.
Among the papers ending their association with Non Sequitur are:
The aforementioned Butler Eagle
“We apologize that such a disgusting trick was perpetuated on the reading public. The Butler Eagle will discontinue that comic immediately,” Vodenichar said.
This foolishness from Wiley has cost him publication in The Joplin Globe as well as a good many more newspapers, based on some of the internet stories I’ve read.
Mistake or not, we can no longer count on this cartoonist.
We will no longer run the daily or Sunday “Non Sequitur.”
The replacement cartoon is the family-friendly “Nancy.”
The Effingham Daily News will discontinue publication of the syndicated “Non Sequitur” comic strip after learning Monday that a panel of the weekend strip published Saturday contained a scribbled, vulgar message to President Donald Trump.
The Herald Bulletin will discontinue publication of the syndicated “Non Sequitur” comic strip after learning Monday that a panel of the Sunday strip contained a scribbled, vulgar message to President Donald Trump.
The Herald Bulletin, which does not publish the daily “Non Sequitur” strip, will drop the Sunday strip, effective Feb. 24. The Feb. 17 Sunday comics section has already been printed with the “Non Sequitur” strip included. There are no offensive messages in the Feb. 17 strip.
The Tulsa World has carried the comic “Non Sequitur” for many years as part of our daily panel of comics in the Scene section on Monday through Saturday. We do not carry it as part of our Sunday comics package.
Regardless of anyone’s political views, to insert a vulgarity as a secret message in a comic that is read by thousands of people is unacceptable.
The Tulsa World will no longer carry Non Sequitur as part of its comics coverage.
The comic strip panel “Non Sequitur” has been dropped from the Winston-Salem Journal’s comics lineup, effective today.
The Journal was unaware of the hidden message until news accounts began to spread on Monday. Sunday comics are printed several days in advance.
The Journal has replaced “Non Sequitur” with a strip called “Off the Mark.”
We have decided to immediately replace the “Non-Sequitur” syndicated comic in the daily and Sunday editions.
Sunday’s version of the strip — under the guise of a children’s coloring activity — contained an obscenity directed at President Donald Trump.
The language crossed a profanity line for us.
We immediately are introducing the comic “Macanudo,” by Liniers.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch will no longer publish the comic strip “Non Sequitur,” effective today.
On Sunday, our Comics section included a “Non Sequitur” strip by Wiley Miller that contained a vulgar rebuke of President Donald Trump.
The Sunday Comics section in The Times-Dispatch is assembled by a vendor, and the comic strip itself is sent to the vendor by syndicate Andrews McMeel. Because the Comics sections for Sunday, Feb. 17, and Sunday, Feb. 24, have already printed, “Non Sequitur” will not be replaced on Sundays until March 3.
In its place starting today, you’ll find longtime reader favorite “Ziggy.”
On Monday, multiple newspapers, including the St. Paul Pioneer Press, said they dropped the comic. “We just don’t need that kind of profanity snuck into the Sunday comics,” Pioneer Press editor Mike Burbach said.
The comic will appear for a few more weeks in Sunday comics sections that have already been printed.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has joined other newspapers in dropping a syndicated cartoon after a Sunday strip contained a profane message to President Donald Trump.
Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said Wiley Miller’s comic, “Non Sequitur,” will be replaced starting in Tuesday’s newspaper.
He said that the comic was removed from Sunday’s upcoming edition, even though the comics section had already been printed. Riley added that Miller’s work will never again appear in The AJC.
The Dallas Morning News (noted as an update in the original report)
The Dallas Morning News will stop running a cartoonist who embedded an insulting expletive toward President Donald Trump in an editorial cartoon that appeared in hundreds of newspapers last weekend.
Mike Wilson, editor of The News, said the newspaper had published plenty of Miller’s controversial comics, but this one went too far.
Wilson called it one of “the easier editing decisions we will make all year. We’ll have no trouble finding a better way to spend the $8,000 we would’ve paid for that strip.”
The Columbus Dispatch (noted as an update in the original report)
The Dispatch has canceled Wiley Miller’s “Non Sequitur” comic strip, daily and Sunday, because of foul language the author used in an attack on President Donald Trump in a comic strip published on Sunday, Feb. 10.
Editors at The Dispatch did not see the words scribbled in fine print before the strip was published. That will not happen again.
Wiley Miller has lost our trust. Therefore, we will not publish his work going forward.
Others, no doubt, will be joining the movement.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is mulling the matter:
“It’s nothing we would have sanctioned, had we seen it,” said Sally Stapleton, Post-Gazette managing editor. “I can assure you, had we spotted it, we would have pulled it out.”
The Sunday comics are sent directly from Andrews McMeel Syndication to the Post-Gazette’s production facility in Clinton, where they are printed two weeks before they are distributed to customers. The Eagle has a similar process.
The Post-Gazette is considering its options to replace “Non Sequitur.”
The Chattanooga Times Free Press offered the syndicate’s and cartoonist’s apologies,
but doesn’t seem to be cutting the comic.
Some readers were upset about the “Non Sequitur” cartoon that appeared in Sunday’s edition and included an obscene expletive regarding President Donald Trump.
The syndicate that represents the cartoonist, Andrews McMeel, on Monday, issued an apology.
The cartoonist, Wiley Miller, also apologized.
A day later the Chattanooga Times Free Press had decided to drop Non Sequitur:
The Times Free Press has decided to discontinue the comic “Non Sequitur” after an expletive was tucked into the version…
February 12 Update – and the hits just keep on coming!
The Orlando Sentinel
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Hartford Courant
The Chicago Tribune
and other Tribune Publishing newspapers
The comic strip Non Sequitur in Sunday’s Orlando Sentinel and others papers across the nation included a vulgar comment directed at President Donald Trump.
When Sentinel editors heard what was done, we decided to stop publishing Non Sequitur. Other newspapers in our group, Tribune Publishing, are taking similar action, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Hartford Courant and the Chicago Tribune.
Julie Anderson, editor-in-chief of the Orlando Sentinel and the Sun-Sentinel, said the cartoonist’s action was “a breach of trust with our readers.”
The Spokane Spokesman-Review (dropped into the syndicated Washington Post story)
Many newspapers pre-print their Sunday comics sections – including The Spokesman-Review – meaning the Non Sequitur strip will appear in this coming week’s Sunday comics section because it already has been printed. As at most newspapers across the nation, the Sunday comics that appear in The Spokesman-Review are sent directly to the newspaper’s printing and production facility, where they are typically printed two weeks before they are delivered to subscribers.
“There are so many moving parts that you worry about when you publish a newspaper, that you don’t even think about the Sunday comics,” [Spokesman-Review editor Rob] Curley said. “The newsroom doesn’t even see them before they run. You just trust that they’re fine. Well, that trust has been violated in regard to Non Sequitur.”
Because of other logistics issues, the Non Sequitur daily strip also will appear in The Spokesman-Review’s weekday papers until later in the week, when the strip will be replaced, Curley said.
A message to our readers: The Post Bulletin will no longer publish the Non Sequitur cartoon. A recently published cartoon included vulgar language semi-hidden in an illustration.
The Olean New Times
The Bradford Era
The Olean Times Herald and The Bradford Era are dropping the comic strip “Non Sequitur” over a profane message about President Donald Trump drawn into its Sunday edition panel for this past weekend.
Jim Eckstrom, executive editor of the Times Herald, The Era and Bradford Publishing Co., said the decision was made when he learned of the controversy over the vulgar message…
“It’s just disappointing that someone who has benefitted from working with the newspaper industry for so long would break a trust and pull something like this,” Eckstrom said. “We count on cartoonists and syndicated writers to send material that is witty and forthright, while reflecting what we believe are the values of the families that read our newspapers.
The Wisconsin State Journal has decided to search for a new comic panel to replace “Non Sequitur” after eagle-eyed readers across the country found that Sunday’s comic contained a vulgar message directed toward President Donald Trump.
Miller’s tweet on Sunday about the inclusion of the vulgarity, calling it an “Easter egg” and encouraging readers to look for it, was a deciding factor in the newspaper’s decision to drop the strip, [State Journal editor John] Smalley said.
“We just can’t abide that kind of careless offense on the comics pages,” Smalley said. “It’s a great comic in general, but Miller really violated our trust. We feel we have to move on without him.”
The State Journal intends to find a new comic in both the weekday and Sunday newspapers. Until a choice is made, we are offering “Cornered” by Mike Baldwin.
The Montana Standard has elected to replace the “Non Sequitur” comic panel and strip in daily and Sunday editions. The change will be made as soon as production requirements allow.
The reason for the cancellation is that the cartoonist, Wiley Miller, inserted a profane message in very small lettering in last Sunday’s cartoon.
To readers who noticed and were disturbed by the message, we apologize.
And to fans of Non Sequitur, we apologize for having to take this step. Again, it’s not about whether or not we approve of the President. It’s about standards.
The Post-Standard is dropping the comic strip Non Sequitur after the artist’s Sunday strip took a hidden profane shot at President Trump.
Said Trish LaMonte, vice president of content for The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com: “Mr. Miller made a juvenile and vulgar decision that does not meet our standards for the syndicated content we pay to have in the newspaper and is offensive to our readers, regardless of their political affiliations.”
The comic strip runs daily in The Post-Standard. It’ll take more than a week to get the strip out of the newspaper because the comics pages are produced in advance. The strip will still be there next Sunday.
In Sunday’s comics section, the “Non Sequitur” cartoon by Wiley Miller contained a vulgar message hidden in an illustration.
The Virginian-Pilot considers this a breach of trust with our readers and has halted publication of the “Non Sequitur” cartoon.
We are replacing “Non Sequitur” with “The Middletons” as of today.
However, The Pilot’s Sunday comic pages are prepared in advance, so readers will see one more “Non Sequitur” this Sunday.
The News & Observer will no longer will publish the “Non Sequitur” comic strip by Wiley Miller, and we want to explain our decision…
While the cartoonist has apologized for including the profanity, The News & Observer has decided to end publication of his work. Because comic strips are handled by outside vendors, N&O editors do not review the content before publication and must trust the content creators to maintain appropriate standards. In this case, we no longer have that trust.
Beginning Monday, readers will see the comic strip “Wallace the Brave” in place of “Non Sequitur.”
The Herald-Tribune is canceling the daily and Sunday comic strip “Non Sequitur” because of profanity that the author used in reference to President Donald Trump in a strip published on Sunday, Feb. 10.
The other editors and I at the Herald-Tribune must be able to trust that the people who provide content to the media company will uphold the high standards we have set, including artists and writers who produce comics.
The Indianapolis Star will no longer run the comic strip ‘Non Sequitur’ in its daily and Sunday newspapers after discovering its author used the cartoon as a platform for a profane, vulgar message aimed at President Donald Trump.
The Star requires its staff to adhere to stringent editorial and ethical standards. We expect the same from the vendors with whom we contract.
Wiley Miller, the author of the strip, failed to adhere to those standards when he included a profanity aimed at Trump in a semi-scribble in the comic.
This is adding up to a big income loss for Wiley. The 700 newspaper client list for the comic cited in some stories includes separate counts for a daily and Sunday client. So the Indianapolis Star and Sarasota Herald-Tribune (directly above) carrying both daily and Sunday count as four toward that 700 total, and plenty of the of papers did carry both weekday and Sunday. Also the larger the circulation of a newspaper the more it is charged for a comic strip – there are a lot of medium to large-sized newspapers above joining the list of those banning Non Sequitur.
Some papers who haven’t announced cancellation
are being urged by their readers to do so.
From the St Louis Post-Dispatch:
I have seen no response in the Post-Dispatch to the highly offensive insult hidden in the Non Sequitur comic strip Sunday. The paper owes everyone two apologies: first, for publishing the offensive material; and second, for not responding promptly with termination of the strip and a disclaimer of the message it conveyed.
To our readers:
The Wichita Eagle will no longer publish the “Non Sequitur” comic strip by Wiley Miller, and we want to explain our decision…
While the cartoonist has apologized for including the profanity, The Eagle has decided to end publication of his work. Because comic strips are handled by outside vendors, Eagle editors do not review the content before publication and must trust the content creators to maintain appropriate standards. In this case, we no longer have that trust.
Beginning Monday, readers will see the comic strip “Lio” in place of “Non Sequitur.”
To our readers: The Fresno Bee no longer will publish the “Non Sequitur” comic strip by Wiley Miller, and we want to explain our decision.
While the cartoonist has apologized for including the profanity, The Bee has decided to end publication of his work. Because comic strips are handled by outside vendors, Bee editors do not review the content before publication and must trust the content creators to maintain appropriate standards. In this case, we no longer have that trust.
Beginning Monday, readers will see the comic strip “Lio” in place of “Non Sequitur.”
The Fayetteville Observer will no longer publish the cartoon Non Sequitur after its creator put profanity into his strip that published in Sunday newspapers across the country, including this one.
The Observer’s publisher, Bob Gruber, and I were shocked and disgusted by the profanity, especially because it appeared on the Comics pages that are read by children. We are in the process of replacing Non Sequitur with other content in the daily and Sunday papers.
We sincerely apologize to all our readers for this serious lapse in the high standards we expect and demand from all our content providers.
The Journal Star is canceling Wiley Miller’s “Non Sequitur” comic strip over an attack he made against President Donald Trump in his Sunday, Feb. 10, comic.
While the offending strip did not appear in the Journal Star, as “Non Sequitur” is published Monday through Saturday and not on Sunday, we have a concern about Miller’s work and his treatment of the president.
February 13 Update – new day, same shhhtuff
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
The Courier is one of many newspapers around the country that suddenly dropped the popular comic strip “Non Sequitur” over a profane message about President Donald Trump drawn into one of its panels over the weekend.
Editor Nancy Newhoff, in conjunction with Publisher Roy Biondi, made the decision to replace the comic strip Tuesday morning after news broke Monday…Newhoff said the offense was too much to overlook.
The Courier has replaced “Non Sequitur” with “Macanudo.”
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
The News-Journal has decided to drop “Non Sequitur” from our Sunday comics section. We made this decision because cartoonist Wiley Miller placed an obscene comment directed at President Donald Trump in the strip this past Sunday, Feb. 10.
But anyone who has worked at a newspaper should also know this basic rule: Never put anything into a story (or comic strip) that you don’t want published. In this case, the violation was more egregious because the Feb. 10 “Non Sequitur” strip was intended for children to color. Obscenity never belonged anywhere near it. So we’re dropping “Non Sequitur.”
The News-Journal will replace “Non Sequitur” with a strip by Brian Crane called “Pickles”
News-Journal editor Pat Rice went on to describe the process for readers:
As readers, you deserve to know how something like this could end up in one of the comics we publish in the first place.
Like hundreds of newspapers across the country, we have published “Non Sequitur” in our Sunday edition for years. We get this particular comic strip from the Andrews McMeel syndicate, which also supplies us with a number of other comic strips.
All those comic strips end up at a company called Reed Brennan, which builds our Sunday comics section and then sends it electronically to our press room, which prints the section about a week before it appears in print and online via our E-Edition at news-journalonline.com.
When we receive comics, they arrive with the expectation that both the strip’s author and the Andrews McMeel syndicate have edited them to ensure that they’re suitable for a “family” newspaper. Obviously, those expectations weren’t met this time.
Notably, the obscene comment in “Non Sequitur” was in extremely small print — so small that this editor needed a magnifying glass to read it. So it’s not a surprise that the Andrews McMeel staff didn’t catch it.
The Bellingham Herald no longer will publish the “Non Sequitur” comic strip by Wiley Miller, and we want to explain our decision.
While the cartoonist has apologized for including the profanity, The Herald has decided to end publication of his work. Because comic strips are handled by outside vendors, local editors do not review the content before publication and must trust the content creators to maintain appropriate standards. In this case, we no longer have that trust.
Beginning Monday, readers will see the comic strip “The Flying McCoys” daily and Sunday in place of “Non Sequitur.”
The Register-Guard is canceling the comic strip “Non Sequitur” beginning Feb. 18.Our decision comes after the comic, which was published in the newspaper Sunday, used foul language to disrespect the President of the United States and as a result brought the integrity of the newspaper into question.
Our concern isn’t that Mr. Miller made a political statement — plenty of comics, “Doonesbury” and “Pearls Before Swine” among them, are known for their biting, critical observations of politicians and government institutions and policies.
But those statements or jabs are made in plain view — they are not hidden or disguised.
…Exhibit A: “Peanuts” was published in many newspapers across the country for more than 18 years after the death (coincidentally 19 years ago Tuesday) of the strip’s creator, Charles Schulz.
Why? Editors were afraid of reader backlash at saying goodbye to something that for years brought enjoyment, a smile, each day.
So for comics enthusiasts, there had better be good reason for a newspaper to make a change.
Sunday, in our opinion, provided such a reason.
Tucked into a bottom corner of the “Non Sequitur” comic that published Sunday (but not in this paper, which runs the panel Mondays through Saturdays) was an offensive remark directed at Donald Trump. It suggested the president perform an act on himself not anatomically possible.
The comics page is where we turn for relief from the fussin’ and fightin’ among our political leaders.
It is not the Opinion page, where editorial cartoons poke fun at Democrats and Republicans.
The comics page is where we nod knowingly at Dilbert’s frustration or chuckle along with the Mom and Dad in the “Baby Blues” comic.
The creator of one of our Sunday comics, Wiley Miller, hid a nasty note to President Trump in the “Non Sequitur” cartoon we published in the Feb. 10 edition of the paper.
In place of “Non Sequitur” look for the comic “Pearls Before Swine.”
In a recent tweet, “Non Sequitur” creator Wiley Miller boasts that some sharp-eyed readers noticed the “little Easter egg” he snuck into Sunday’s comic strip.
Those sharp-eyed readers may have also noticed the syndicated comic is now absent from a few newspapers around the country, including the Independent Record, as a result of this little trick.
The StarNews is canceling Wiley Miller’s “Non Sequitur” comic strip, which has appeared daily and on Sunday for more than a decade. We are doing this because of vulgar language Miller used against President Donald Trump in the comic strip published on Sunday, Feb. 10.
We no longer trust that Miller will adhere to our high standards for content.
Non Sequitur has been pulled from all other upcoming days, which means readers may see extra white space on the page on some days.
The comic strip “Non Sequitur” will soon be removed from the pages of The York Dispatch.
This decision comes after significant consideration and discussion. Miller’s action was a breach of trust built on a shared standard. By offering Sunday’s comic, he robbed newspaper editors of editorial decision-making. He made an end-run on the in-house standards that we and our readers expect.
We have begun discussions with our syndication service about a replacement. Our comics pages are created in advance by a vendor, and it could take several days before “Non Sequitur” is removed.
The Concord Independent Tribune
The comic strip panel “Non Sequitur” will be dropped from the Independent Tribune comics lineup.
In its place, the Independent Tribune will switch to a strip called “Pearls Before Swine.”
Beginning Monday, The Charlotte Observer will no longer publish the comic strip “Non Sequitur.”
Beginning Monday, readers will see the comic strip “Argyle Sweater” in place of “Non Sequitur” on weekdays and Saturday, and “Pearls Before Swine” on Sundays.
I was initially not sure whether to laugh or throw up my hands in disbelief and despair over this one…Non Sequitur aims to offer its readers “a wry look at the absurdities of everyday life.”While this is indeed absurd, we’re not laughing.
The comic strip “The Argyle Sweater” will replace “Non Sequitur.”
“Animal Crackers” will replace “Non Sequitur”
In its place in daily and Sunday editions will be “Baldo”
The Post plans to replace Non Sequitur with one of America’s most popular comic strips – Pickles, drawn by Brian Crane.
Anderson Is in Indiana.
Effingham is in Illinois.
As of yesterday, the Tampa Bay Times is still running “Non Sequitur” (though it’s subject to change).
The Orlando Sentinel runs “Non Sequitur” only on Sundays so it could be a while before it gets dropped (if there are plans to).
Also, the Madison (WI) State Journal has replaced “Non Sequitur” with “Cornered” for the time being.
Considering how few kids read “family newspapers,” isn’t it time for adult publications to publish adult speech?
It is beyond the pale for a cartoonist to use the sort of language Donald Trump uses.
I’m more offended by the Butler Eagle’s use of ‘perpetuated’ in their indignant response than I am by a scribbled f-bomb I didn’t even notice until it was pointed out. If an editor can allow such a word slip in a supposedly official response then i can only imagine the lack of care in their every day editing.
The pearl-clutching backlash against Wiley Miller has turned into the whole stupid “nip slip” from Janet Jackson’s Superbowl halftime show. Everyone is “outraged” over something they only noticed AFTER it was pointed out to them and then repeated ad nauseam.
Rather than admit they’ve abdicated their responsibilities to a centralized corporate production center outside of their control, they punish the cartoonist instead. Cowards and lemmings, all.
I’ll take the occasional f-bomb over Mallard Fillmore’s consistently racist, misogynist and xenophobic strip any day of the week.
The Los Angeles Times is also dropping the strip; a text version doesn’t appear to be on their website, but here’s an image of the announcement that ran in place of the strip on Wednesday 2/13: https://i.imgur.com/dilRKEw.jpg
The Tampa Bay Times is still running “Non Sequitur” as of 2/13 with no word about it’s immediate fate.
Add the Bangor Daily News to the dropping “Non Sequitur” list even though they gave no such public statement (or what they replaced it with), a reader wanted them to bring the strip back (Yeah, good luck with that pal): https://bangordailynews.com/2019/02/13/opinion/letters/thursday-feb-14-2019-protect-parents-rights-bring-back-non-sequitur-collins-and-kavanaugh/
This has nothing to do with political beliefs. Too many people have become inured to profanity. There is no need to slam coarse language in people’s face and down their throats. (Especially on the funny pages.) If you want to insult, be creative, be funny. Use wit. It has a greater effect and impresses your audience. I had a D.I. in the Army who said he didn’t use those kinds of words because his momma told him to stay out of the gutter. He could still get his point across through incredibly colorful and creative word use. (And believe me, he could really let you know when you screwed up.) Be the happy warrior. When you resort to simply yelling “FU” at the other side, you have lost the argument. You have nothing to add and have lowered yourself to sputtering crudities at your opponents. Do you need profanity to make your point? Do you have to show how tough and angry you are through profanity? If you have no other way of expressing yourself, you will not bring people to your side of the debate. Your opponents will shrug their shoulders and say “FU” too. Those whose opinions could be swayed will see you as a screeching vulgar partisan and pay you no heed. In short, using profanity gets you nothing.
I will miss “Non Sequitur”. It generally has an incise and witty approach to day to day life. (Although I generally ignore the story lines involving Danae and the horse.)
The Toronto Star’s response is 100% Canadian. Apologetically offended, yet sympathetic to Wiley’s frustration with his country’s leader.
The Sacramento Bee will be replacing “Non Sequitur” with “Baldo” next week. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article226227355.html
At some point this running tally becomes cruel.
I finally heard back from the Tampa Bay Times. They will indeed drop “Non Sequitur” this week. No word on an immediate replacement but they will hold auditions (the editor mentioned “Nancy” as one of the possibilities).
Correction: I meant to type next week. They’ll finish up this week and next Sunday then work on a replacement strip.
It looks like the Boston Globe dropped Non Sequitur as of today (Feb. 14).
I opened the paper and was happy to see Zippy among the newly restored comics, but then I realized something was missing and realized it was Non Sequitur.
I couldn’t find a “note to readers” explaining the move in either today’s or yesterday’s papers, but maybe I overlooked it.
I agree with Mike Lester. And there seems to be a lot of Schadenfreude out there among starving cartoonists. Wiley has done so well for so long because he’s the form’s most brilliant innovator, along with Ann Telnaes. As all of these sanctimonious editors are saying, “trust” is a valid point—but what about trust in editors, on the part of creators? I have yet to see who at Andrews McMeel is responsible for the editing lapse, and whether he or she will also lose their income for not proofing the loose faux-technical “DaVinci inventor schematic” captioning in the drawing.
All that will come out of this is that all cartoonists are sitting up straighter, in a lot of cases keeping weed out of the studio—and Donald Trump is gloating.
Thanks for discontinuing the list.
He’s doing ok, but remorseful and embarrassed. He’s one of the best cartoonists in the art and someone who championed “Mike du Jour” from the beginning.
I’m sure he’d appreciate hearing from friends.
-ML
I’m also glad the running tally’s been discontinued. Wiley’s my friend and when I was starting out 20 years ago, he was the first big name who took an interest in my work and who treated me like I wasn’t just some obscure freelancing college kid, but a colleague. I considered him my mentor. He’s an icon of the profession, and more importantly he’s a great person. This should never have happened, and this has been heartbreaking.
I wonder if the Long Island, New York newspaper Newsday or the Jacksonville, Florida newspaper The Florida Times-Union will keep Non Sequitur.
Thanks for this list of “newspapers that can’t be trusted”. If you bend over to public backlash because of an obfuscated profanity, how can I trust you to provide any controversial news?
I’d love to see a list of newspapers that have kept Non Sequitur despite this incident.
#11 A. H. Janney: do you believe scribbling a barely legible profanity, among other scribbles that don’t mean anything, counts as “slam[ming] coarse language in people’s face and down their throats”? Note in particular how this got past the scrutiny of the editors. I think the *backlash* has slammed (the existence of) the foul language down people’s throats, not the comic.
While I can agree that it was a mistake to put a profanity, even if obfuscated, in a family cartoon, removing the author entirely sounds incredibly out of proportion.
Ok just looking at the one rule of commenting here “No Swearing”. The newspapers did the same thing that the blog moderator would do if that strip was published here. Also The Comment that “Eagle Eyed fans spotted my Easter Egg.” This is not an “Nuts, I forgot to white that out.” It was written there and written to not be seen or as an inside joke.
We were asked to spot the Easter Egg. Can you spot the Goose Egg in your next Paycheck.
While we’re at it, can we please send Dennis the Menace, The Family Circus and Garfield to the glue factory?
The response by some newspaper editors is grotesquely disproportionate and deprives their readers of one of the best cartoons of our time.
It’s wrong to think that newspaper readers can’t handle a little scribbled, smudged and barely legible profanity.
We live in hypocritical and hypercritical times. Shit happens. Even artistic geniuses are human and fuck up once in a while.
Who are newspapers protecting? Readers? Or their own oversized sense of right and wrong? Don’t newspapers pride themselves on being introspective, reflective and the voice of reason? Do you fire your top reporter or photographer or editor for having a bad day?
Whatever happened to bringing your readers the best content available. Wiley’s work fits that bill hands down. Where is the thought and reason here?
You’re outraged because you feel a sense of betrayal of trust. You don’t have the time or the staff to check on each strip.
I get that, but we live in the real world. When shit happens you learn from it, you don’t strangle the golden goose that delights, amuses and/or challenges your readers.
Wiley’s a supportive, generous guy, a supernatural talent who earned everyone of those shrinking newspaper spots. Hopefully newspaper editors will rethink their knee jerk reaction and stop punishing their readers by depriving them of his amazing work.
What happened? Donald Trump complain about “Non Sequitur”! We all know that Trump is “thin skinned”, but now we have his followers dictating what cartoons we shouldn’t have in our newspapers! Anti-Non Sequitur people should be complaining about how harmful Trump’s behavior is for your kids, instead of some cartoon.