Time grinds on, and even the Nation’s Oldest Newspaper™ must submit to its inexorable demands. Accordingly, readers will find a few changes in this edition, and in papers to come.
One is particularly worthy of note. As his term of Herculean service nears its quarter-century mark, our friend Mike Dater has elected to add Emeritus to his title, Starving Artiste.
This does not mean, we hasten to add, that we have seen the last of his work. See page three, for example.
Mostly it means Mike has been emancipated from this paper’s rigidly-enforced fortnightly schedule, and management has relaxed the harsh Productivity Quota it formerly imposed.
Leonard Seagren first drew our attention to one of Mike’s cartoons, affixed inside the front door of Federal Cigar, just a few months after our resumption of regularly scheduled publication and broad local distribution. The compatibility of interests was immediately apparent. Since then Mike has contributed at least 1,600 cartoons to this paper. They have drawn more compliments than any other feature.
Our papers are, of course, ephemeral by their nature. Fortunately Mike has collected his favorites in a series of books. An ad on page four, featuring the latest volume, aptly titled The Godawful Years, also provides the necessary details explaining where they may be obtained.