A Campaign to Restore Non Sequitur – update

While newspapers continue to drop Non Sequitur (though at a far slower rate), those who have dropped it continue to get letters about the action. With the pro-Wiley Miller faction far outweighing those who agree with the papers’ decision to drop Non Sequitur.

Now there seems to be an organized push to return the comic strip to newspapers.

 

Friends, and Lovers of Truth, Justice, Freedom and Comedy

Comedian Elayne Boosler has started one such effort:

The great, multi-award winning cartoon strip, Non Sequitur, by humanitarian and genius Wiley Miller, has been canceled by over 100 newspapers this week over last Sunday’s cartoon. After decades of award winning genius, and producing over 9,896 funny, brilliant and touching cartoons, last Sunday Wiley included a “wink” to the Resistance in the strip. Though invisible to the naked eye, a reader caught it and a swift mobilization by the haters who cheer when reporters are attacked and beaten at Trump rallies led these newspapers to cancel him. Even though the comments in the papers were pro-Wiley 10 to 1, emails hold more weight. That is why I am asking you to send an email to save Non Sequitur (info below)…

 

Even providing the mock-up of a letter for supporters to send to newspaper editors:

Dear Editor,
I am writing to vehemently state my objection to the canceling of the cartoon strip “Non Sequitur”, and to appeal to your better angels and responsibility to serve the public. The “offending” word in Sunday’s cartoon was basically invisible, yet became a cause celeb by the same people who cheer when reporters are physically attacked and beaten at Trump rallies…

 

Our voices are slowly being shut down.
We cannot let them destroy one of the bravest, smartest and best.

Read Elayne’s full defense and full letter, with a follow-up response to editors.

 

 

Mark Streeter

 

Ed Hall

 

 

UPDATE February 20, 2019 –

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Facebook page notes that Elayne Boosler is a longtime fan of newspaper comics and cartoonists:

We would like to point out that Elayne Boosler is a long-time fan and vocal supporter of cartoonists. She was the keynote speaker at the annual AAEC convention in 2004 and just killed it. Here she is paling around with cartoonist Gary McCoy.

In 2004 Dave Astor, for Editor and Publisher, reported on Elayne appearing at the convention:

Boosler ended up flying to the AAEC convention because of a chain of events that began last fall when she read a Los Angeles Times article about Berkeley Breathed, the “Bloom County” creator who was returning to syndication with the “Opus” strip. Boosler was upset that Breathed criticized some comics for being uninteresting, past their prime, and/or no longer done by their original creators. So she wrote a guest column for the Times about how she likes various kinds of comics — including those that are new or old, topical or purely funny, adult- or kid-oriented, gag-a-day or story-oriented, and done by the original creator or a successor.

“Non Sequitur” creator and former editorial cartoonist Wiley Miller of Universal Press Syndicate contacted Boosler after reading her column. They started corresponding, and the AAEC appearance eventually resulted.