Jerry Van Amerongen Retires, Ballard Street Ends
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Jerry Van Amerongen has informed fans that he is retiring
and his Ballard Street panel will end March 30, 2019.
DEAR FRIENDS: We interrupt my normal posting for this announcement. After nearly 40 yrs. of syndicated cartooning, and a deadline each day of those 40 yrs., I’m announcing my retirement from syndicated newspaper cartooning. For me the time has come to experience daily living without a daily deadline.
The final Ballard Street cartoon will run on Saturday March 30th. After that date I have no plans, which is the most exhilarating part for me…
Jerry tells how his cartooning career began:
In 1978 I was living in Minneapolis with my wife and daughter. I was well along in my corporate Sales and Marketing career, 13 years and counting, when I was gripped by the need to get back to doing something creative with my hands. I just didn’t know what! Back in college I completed a two-year Commercial Art curriculum, after bouncing around in the Liberal Arts for three years. Cartoon-like illustrations were always my strong suite, so I thought I’d try cartooning.
I took some gag cartoons to a monthly community newspaper located in my neighborhood, which was an all-volunteer enterprise, so they could hardly turn me down. After a year I took some of my better efforts to our daily newspaper The Minneapolis Tribune, who agreed to publish my stuff on a weekly basis. Within the next twelve months I sent some of the better work to three national syndicates. I never heard from one, I got a form letter rejection from another and I got a phone call from the third, The Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate, with an offer to syndicate.
The Neighborhood began syndication on October 6, 1980 (above).
The Neighborhood began in 1978 as a monthly titled
“The Neighborhood as Seen by Jerry Van Amerongen.”*
In 1979 The Neighborhood began appearing weekly
in The Minneapolis Tribune as “Neighbors.”*
The Neighborhood was syndicated from October 6, 1980 – July 22, 1990.*
Ballard Street ran from March 4, 1991 – March 30, 2019
* information from American Newspaper Comics by Allan Holtz
Jerry’s retirement announcement continues:
I am profoundly grateful to you the readers of Ballard Street and The Neighborhood for your years of continuous interest and support. None of this would have been possible without you.
Earlier in my working life, I never imagined I’d become a nationally syndicated cartoonist, and to have my work shown around the country (and the world!). It has been a life expanding and rewarding experience, and I’m only too aware of just how fortunate I’ve been. So, thank you again dear readers.
While the comics page will be diminished without Jerry’s singular brand of absurdist humor,
we wish him all the best.
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