Norm Feuti’s Gil will exit out of syndication on December 29 after a two year run. Norm writes on his blog that the reason is due to lack of newspapers to make it profitable.
This is sad news for me as a Gil fan. I always thought the strip was clever and original. I asked him about the news and what his plans are now.
Alan: You ran Gil for a while as a webcomic. Any chance of keeping the strip alive outside of syndication?
Norm: I don’t have any immediate plans to revive Gil as a webcomic, but who knows? If I see an opportunity, I may revive the characters one day on the web, or in some other medium.
Alan: Balancing two strips had to be tough, but I know you really like Gil. How are you feeling about the end of the strip?
Norm: I’m disappointed. I think Gil was a quality strip that deserved better than it got, but so did a lot of strips that have come and gone. Producing Gil, even for a short time, was a joy and a privilege. I’ll miss it.
Alan: What are your plans now? Do you have another strip idea or project you’re working on or would like to work on?
Norm: I’ll continue doing Retail of course. I just put together a self-published collection of the first year of RETAIL comics. It’s available on Lulu.com Outside of that, I’ve been working on another project for the last year that is (hopefully) on the verge of materializing. I keep a lot of hooks in the water.
Best of luck to Norm.
Very sorry to hear Gil is ending. Maybe it will have a second life in kids animation sometimes in the future! It’s definitely unique.
Very sorry to hear about Gil being discontinued, it has been a real pleasure to read it every day.
With two years worth of strips, hopefully Norm can also release a Gil collection through Lulu.com similar to the new Retail collection.
Gil is a modern marvel of comic strips, IMO.
I love Gil. It’s very special. The writing and art are topnotch. Sorry we won’t see it anymore. All best to you, Norm.
There have been some great comic strips that deserved enough newspaper clients to provide them a chance to mature and build a large following, “Gil” was one of those strips.
It’s not fair, but it’s the crappy reality of the industry.
Really sorry to hear Gil is ending. I’ve enjoyed reading it daily.
I always thought having a strip based on a child that comes from a broken home really set it apart from the other strips out there.
It was very well written and deserved a better run. Wish you the best moving forward, Norm.
Too bad the Chicago Tribune dropped Gil from the Sunday comics in favor of Take It From The Tinkersons.