John and Allen of Cox & Forkum fame (also knows as the Imperial Ministers of Satire around here) have decided to hang it up.

Sad news indeed, it’s always tough when another member of The Old Guard™ decides that enough is enough, and John and Allen were always two of my favorite members of that exclusive “club.” Nobody I know have been able to capture the political issues of the day and comment on them more efficiently than they, always managing to say more with one cartoon than any of the rest of us blowhards could express on 40 column inches.

On the other hand, having read their farewell, as you should too, I completely understand how they feel. The BlogoSphere, no matter how rewarding, and rewarding it IS, is hard work too, and it pays worse than lousily if at all, at least in terms that creditors will understand. I also know what Allen means when he speaks of “blog weariness” and having to wade through the sewers of politics every day, and it really gets to you. When you combine that with being as committed as he and John are to produce a consistently excellent output on a regular basis, then there will eventually come a time when you’ll have to decide whether your other obligations in life are being neglected. Again, the pay is lousy, life’s circumstances change and creditors will demand payment from time to time, so sometimes one will have to prioritize.

But it still sucks to lose two enormous talents like theirs.

I remember way back when, not long after Black Tuesday, when I first discovered their work. I was floored by their talent, and when they asked me if I’d be willing to use their material, free of charge, on my site I was wondering if they’d lost their minds. I should be paying for that! And it didn’t end there. After that, in return for the “favor” of me using their excellent material for free they sent me not one, but two copies of their first installment of “Black and White World”, both signed. One for reading and wearing to shreds, one for safe keeping.

We stayed in touch for a while after that, they even asked me for my opinion on some of their work once or twice and if I had any ideas I’d like to share, and I was at a loss for words. Not that I don’t think I do a half decent job at what I do, I’m pretty proud of most of it, but I could never do what they do, so to me it was kinda like getting a note from old Master William saying “yo, Mish, what do you think about Hamlet, Prince of Denmark? Any thoughts or suggestions?”

Yes, John and Allen, you’ll be missed.

Good news is that you mentioned that you just might not be able to resist putting out the occasional editorial cartoon anyway.

I intend to hold you to that.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 8:56 PM and is filed under Sad News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.