original February 17 item:
In The New Mexican Rhymes With Orange will move into Feuti’s Retail space.
The comic strip Retail, a fixture on The New Mexican‘s daily comics page for years, is closing up shop.
Saturday’s strip will mark the end of Retail‘s daily syndication run after more than 14 years. The strip’s creator, Norm Feuti, said he’s ending the comic to focus on children’s books.
New Mexican readers will find a familiar replacement starting Feb. 24, when the newspaper will add Rhymes With Orange to its daily comics lineup. Rhymes With Orange, a single-panel comic created by Hilary Price in 1995, has been a mainstay in The New Mexican‘s Sunday comics section for years.
The New Mexican informs its readers.
update February 19, 2020
In Dubugue, Iowa Telegraph Herald executive editor Amy Gilligan
is making that dreaded change to the comics page.
Three years ago, when I was brand new to the role of executive editor, I thought it might be a good idea to make a change on the comics page. You know, freshen it up a bit…
And boy, did I get feedback…
Lesson learned. I haven’t touched the comics since.
Until now.
But don’t freak out — this one can’t be helped. Norm Feuti is ending his run drawing “Retail.” This is the last week for “Retail” in the TH because it won’t be available anymore.
The Telegraph Herald will offer readers two options – Macanudo and Between Friends.
update February 22, 2020
The Toronto Star replaces Retail with two strips it is already running: Dustin and Six Chix
We’re disappointed to lose Retail, but we can now give you more of two reader favourites: The Dustin strip is being added to the Saturday paper’s comics section starting next week; and Six Chix, which has appeared only on Saturdays, will now also run Sunday through Friday. This puts both strips in the Star seven days a week.
update February 23, 2020
The Deseret News will be replacing Retail with Olivia Jaimes’ Nancy.
Sunday is the last “Retail” comic as the Grumbel’s store sign comes down and Marla, Cooper, Val and crew are moving on to new opportunities — not unlike creator Norm Feuti.
Starting Monday, the Deseret News will start running “Nancy.”
Comics from Olivia Jaimes, a pseudonym for the 18- to 35-year-old woman now behind “Nancy,” started on April 9, 2018, for daily comics and on May 6, 2018, for the Sunday comics, [AMS Director of Comics and Acquisitions Shena] Wolf said.
Jaimes’ 8-year-old Nancy is on the robotics team, uses a cellphone and laptop along with being friends with Sluggo and a new friend named Esther. Also, twins named Agnes and Lucy have been introduced and the strip still has Aunt Fritzi.
“The comic strip Retail, a fixture on a few daily comics page for years, is closing up shop.”
I hate to learn of this (although it’s been led up to in the strip); I’ve been reading it ever since it started. If you’ve ever worked retail, you’d get the jokes about working for a large department store. And I’ve gotten to like the cast of characters in a funny comic strip.
Thanks, Norm Feuti, for a fun fifteen years!