Wiley Miller’s Non Sequitur has introduced a number of characters to the comics reading public. The Pyle family and associates are regulars, but there is also Obviousman, Ordinary Basil, The Bears, The Gravesytes, Congress-Man, and others. We’re going to take a look at Homer, the Reluctant Soul.
Homer first appeared in a Non Sequitur Sunday page dated March 3, 1996 (above). From the very beginning the tales of Homer was serialized, running several consecutive Sundays in a row. Also the reincarnations of Homer were instantly popular and became a regular part of the Sunday Non Sequitur, at least for the better part of two years when…
The December 14, 1997 Non Sequitur announced that a new comic strip was coming.
That is why, of all Wiley’s characters in Non Sequitur, Homer was picked for a first and last entry; because Homer, the Reluctant Soul succeeded to his own Sunday comic strip on March 1, 1998.
Oh, and with that introductory Homer strip Wiley went vertical!
above: March 1 and March 8, 1998
The Homer strip, like its previous embodiments in Non Sequitur, was a continuity strip.
Unfortunately it only continued for 17 months, ending August 1, 1999 (below). Like returning to Heaven after each life, Homer occasionally returned to Non Sequitur after the strip ended. But The Homer strip influenced a future action: Wiley decided he liked the vertical format and the following year he went vertical with his popular Non Sequitur Sundays, beginning May 7, 2000 (below). And the Sunday Non Sequitur has remained that way for the past twenty years.
The last (that I know of) Homer story in Non Sequitur ran from January 19 to April 6, 2014.
But then…
