LAST CARLSON CARTOON

Well, here is Stuart Carlson's last cartoon. It appeared in the August 17 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, almost exactly 25 years after he began working for the company.

The letter I spearheaded never ran in the paper. Here it is...
To: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The undersigned, all Milwaukee area cartoonists, consider the upcoming dismissal (via buy out) of editorial cartoonist Stuart Carlson a great loss.
The editorial cartoonist, unfortunately a dying breed, is an important part of the identity of any newspaper. It is a tradition as old as the medium itself, and a valuable part of American culture.
We strongly urge the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reconsider its priorities and keep a local editorial cartoonist on staff instead of giving its readers recycled material from a syndicate package, or worse, nothing at all.
Keep it real.
Sincerely,
Tea Krulos, Michael Cothroll, Max Estes, Tim Demeter, Jennifer Janviere, J.Jason Groschopf, David Beyer, Jr., Derek Stuart, Chris Miller, Terry Haller
Milwaukee
To date MJS has run syndicated cartoons, many by conservative cartoonist Michael Ramirez. I don't think he does bad work, but of course he is based in L.A. so there is no local angle.

AUGUSTUS

One of my favorite regulars was Auggie. He disappeared at some point, he was in poor health, so he probably headed to a nursing home or the graveyard. Or maybe he jumped on a train one last time. He was a train conductor. I was reminded of this whenever he pulled out his giant pocket watch like the white rabbit. He waddled like a penguin in a cardinal red suitcoat, three times too big for him. In winter he wore his cardinal red suitcoat with a scarf and a furry hunter's hat, with giaant earflaps covering his ears. He had a very gruff, slow, baritone voice.
He was a little insane and drove some of the waitresses crazy, but I loved the guy. He gave me one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever- a package of cheap fruit magnets from the dollar store. The glue was cheap and the fruits fell off the magnets, but I reglued them. He also clipped out his favorite 'Cathy' comic strips and gave them to me. I forgave his shitty taste in comics because it was such a nice gesture.
He asked me one of the strangest questions I've yet to field at work...
"You ever hear of a Nympho-MANIAC?!" He asked.
"Yeah, sure, Auggie." I said. "Have you? Are you one? Should I be worried?"
"It's someone who can't get enough of the sex act." He told me matter-of-factly.
"Well, thanks for that definition." I told him. He waddled off to order a bowl of soup.