Soon after The Daily Cartoonist last week issued a First and Last installment featuring Homer, the Reluctant Soul we received an inquiry from creator Wiley Miller. He thanked us for the story but … “I’ve got to ask…is this mere coincidence, or do you know what’s coming up in Non Sequitur?”
Reading between the lines The Daily Cartoonist assured cartoonist Wiley that the circumstance was pure happenstance, but then asked Wiley: Can we infer that there is a Homer story in the pipeline for Non Sequitur?
Wiley graciously replied and gave us permission to pass on the news:
Homer was the most popular series with the readers over the years and I haven’t done a new storyline in quite a while, so I thought this was a good time for Homer to reemerge, as the most frequent response I got from readers is that it gave them hope. The new story arc begins next Sunday, and I have no idea how long it will go. These stories are far more labor intensive than my usual fare, both in writing and art. That’s why I did two weeks of reprints recently to give myself more time to work on it.
Anyway, I’ve done the first 7 episodes of the new Homer story so far and have barely scratched the surface.
So the Good News: After six years since the last Homeric adventure a new, months-long, Homer, the Reluctant Soul epic will appear in the Sunday Non Sequitur beginning May 31, 2020!
About those recent reprints giving Wiley some time for upcoming strips he also noted:
Then at the same time, my new character, Jack, has been an enormous success with readers, so I’m doing more story arcs with him, which also takes more time and effort.
I’m sure all of you noticed that this past week Jack had shifted
from the Sunday page to a week-long daily adventure.
Back to the Homer epic starting tomorrow, Wiley adds:
I’ll be taking a slightly different approach to this storyline
because…you know…that’s what I do.
If past performance is any indication of future returns
then Homer’s return to Non Sequitur will be a Godsend!
above: Non Sequitur excerpt from July 29, 2001