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Comic strips

Mark Heath ends ‘Spot the Frog’

1 minute 17 comments

Mark Heath, creator of Spot the Frog, has announced that he is ending his comic strip about six months shy of its fifth anniversary. The last day for dailies is July 5th with the last Sunday running June 29th. He says that lack of client newspapers is the reason behind his decision.

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Comments 17

  1. That’s a shame. I really liked it.

  2. It’s always sad news when a new strip leaves the funny pages–but there is comfort knowing we have unlimited legacy strips to fill the slots.

  3. Spot was a wonderful, delightful character. He’ll be missed. Good luck Mark!

  4. that’s a shame..I thought it was fun..our paper here in Denver ran it for a short time…it seems papers these days either don’t give strips time to gain a fan base, or they bow to pressure from a few readers to keep legacy strips until they are PAST beaten into the ground!! I shudder to think what’s ahead for the industry…

  5. I was very disappointed to hear about this. It’s a wonderful strip and it will be missed; though not by enough people, apparently, which I guess is the problem.

  6. Excellent strip, quality drawing and intelligent.
    Mark Heath has done the professional thing, however, and pulled the strip, because it’s simply not worth his while.

  7. New concepts? Fresh ideas? Strips drawn by the actual living creator? BLAH–who wants that!

    ‘Uncle’ Walt Wallet is the model example on how legacy strips stay fresh–by the way, how old is he now–217?

  8. I’ve always enjoyed Spot the Frog. I think Mark did a great job making the humor work for any age group in a G-Rated/Shrek kind of way. Not many strips do that consistantly. The art was always fun, too.

    As with Preteena, I think Spot could find life online. Sheldon should be the guiding star for all these quality syndicated toons that don’t have many papers but have built a bigger audience through the web.

    I don’t know why all these cartoonists don’t join together and set up a website featuring their strips. They’ve built up an audience in print and online, use that as a base and combine audiences to build an even bigger audience!

    Strength in numbers…best of luck, Mark!

  9. Oh no! I loved this comic. First Big Top and now Spot. What next?

  10. Even though this strip was never in my paper, I read it regularly online and will miss it. Good luck Mark.

  11. I feel much as if I’ve lost a good friend!! Spot is such a sweet and gentle cartoon, it always gets a smile from me. I am sorry it was not truely appreciated by all the powers that count. Well, good luck Mark where-ever you are, Spot the Frog is STERLING and who knows, he may turn up again yet!

  12. Oh, I just became a fan a couple months ago via comics.com. I didn’t know it was cancelled! Bah. It’s the sweetest comic ever, I think. I just love it. There needs to be a collection of all of them in one nice cover. I would definitely buy one.

  13. Well, i know spot accidentally in the comics.com site, now here in México never saw a strip of this funny frog.
    Like Mark , i feel the same when the people drop the art and fresh humor of the legendary comics by the stupid announces or newspaper full of pornography news and trash depress news. Now here in Mexico the news dont wast his space in put comics , and by me this newspapers are bored, the last news that love with comics in his pages is the Herald, this newspaper dissapear , but now only two newspapers print ocasionally comics in his editions.

    Thanks to Mark by his Spot frogs, and think in buy his books .

    good luck Mark!

  14. This is a blow! I found Spot only awhile ago, and I have become so fond of him. Maybe Mark will change his mind? It’s about the only sweet comic left.

  15. Hi Mark, it’s your brother.
    I’m so sorry to see that Spot’s run has ended. I do think that one of the readers made a valid point in trying to revitalize your strip with other comic creators. By getting together, like a coalition, perhaps there’d be a way that you’d have more control over your own destiny. You’d all have more power over what goes on, unless there’s a legal stipulation (glitch) that would make things difficult for you to do. It’s been a while now, wouldn’t United fade away after some time?
    I know you well enough that you certainly didn’t run out of ideas for Spot, but that United Media had you right where they wanted you. This would go for anyone else that United rode the skirt tails of – as the creators of strips worked their talent. Honestly, their success is only being realized from your creativity. Right?
    Well, I just wanted to express my thoughts & I found this site to do so. I’m not certain how often you may read this site, but we’re thinking of you & want you to know that we care about your welfare.
    Drop us a line we’d love to hear from you, Mary too.
    Love, Rob & family

  16. Mark–question for you, answer only if you choose–First of course, I hope where-ever you are and what-ever you are doing, you are happy and successful!! Spot the Frog is still available on line and I cruise it regularly–charming, really. To the point—Although I know nothing of the politics re-garding the Cartoon business, it seems as if something similar happened to the creator of Calvin and Hobbs–whatever it was, I know it ended the Strip and there appeared to be a fair amount of bitterness involved. I wonder how the creators of what I consider to be truely GOLDEN strips (MUTTS, PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, etc.)manage to circumvent these issues??? Or, do they? Perhaps you could enlighten me on the process. Thanks, Linda Casazza

  17. i think that the shame is that there are no longer comics that will not be ruined by time so later generations will not be able to understand them. the ones i really like are spot the frog, peanuts and frazz and only one remains…. i hope you come back mark

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