And indeed it is interesting times in the cartoon world, as hitting rock bottom is always an opportunity to evolve. While I mourn the passing of the traditional staff editorial cartoon position in newspapers, it is long past the time to come to grips with the reality that it’s a thing of a bygone era. Ironically, it may turn out that those who have been able to hang on to their job the longest could ultimately be the biggest losers in the long run.

I liked what I saw and heard of “Dustin” at Comic-Con and hope it gets a fair shot.

Interesting times in the cartooning world.

However, as the job market waned and insecurity of staff positions grew over the past several years, I softened my position, as editorial cartoonists needed to have a safety valve. Unfortunately, doing a comic strip is no longer a viable option, as the market has become so bad that it’s nearly impossible to successfully launch a new feature today. The few remaining cartoonists that have a staff position and don’t have a Pulitzer under their belt need to find other venues as an exit strategy today.

While many editorial cartoonists “double dip” and do a comic strip on top of their day jobs as editorial cartoonists, only one that I’m aware of (Jeff MacNelly) did multiple features (Pluggers, Shoe, weekly illustrations for Dave Berry column) on top of his editorial cartooning duties.

It’s been depressing to read about all the editorial cartoonists being shown the door, but this looks downright vicious.