Breaking Industry News: Tea Fougner, Editorial Director of King Features Syndicate, has left her position and the company, possibly for a variety of reasons (see comments for details). Fougner was responsible for bringing in Jules Rivera as part of a general shakeup of the syndicate and its online comics site. Will her replacement exert any influence on the future of Mark Trail? I imagine that Mark the Contrarian Commenter will be salivating at the possibility! (Source: The Daily Cartoonist.)
Well, if being right was money, I’d probably be poor. Now, if you bet against my prediction on the diversion, pay up! Then again, I think this situation was about as predictable as the return of Haley’s Comet. Apparently, Mark doesn’t follow astronomy, so he followed the diversion, instead. And what did he do when he finally discovered he’d been fooled? He stood still (panel 3) and issued a monologue for the sake of a joke.
The more clever of you readers will have also discerned that Mark apparently left the truck unlocked. All along we have seen an alarmingly shoddy regard for proper security measures, starting with hiring Mark instead of professional security. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an “inside” job. Ah ha! Another prediction and you heard it read it here, first!
The Daily Trail 
Interesting. I look at The Daily Cartoonist everyday, but missed that. Re-checked, and sure enough, saw the news! George, as much as I’d love someone new to step in to re-create the essence of what drew us all to Mark Trail in the first place, I don’t think it will happen. I’d love to be pleasantly surprised. It would be interesting to know if publishers measure readership. I’m old school and still receive a paper. Of course no one can see if I skip over lame strips. I’m sure it can be measured by the hits it has online. But unless a storm off correspondence is sent to the power that be, who makes the decision on whether a particular cartoonist stays or goes, I imagine they will just stay the course. We shall watch, however, in the coming months. And Hope.
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I’ve also often wondered how the popularity of comic strips is measured and I think it is often based on feedback from letters to the local newspaper. Once upon a time newspapers used to publish surveys asking customers to vote on favorites. But I don’t see that much any more, if ever. I’ve also read that some newspapers take (or are forced to take) entire predesignated spreads of comics. The McClatchy-owned newspapers come to mind.
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I don’t think it was a policy issue with Tea as much as health. She’d been on a very long sick leave, and Kettler’s comment sounds like she just wasn’t able to get back up to 100%.
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Good to know! I wasn’t aware of her illness. I reckon the information reported in Daily Cartoonist (using Tea’s post in Linked-In) didn’t tell the whole story. Frankly, I thought that Kettler’s statement about “being on leave” was code for “Amy filling in until Tea officially resigned.” Or something like that!
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