Unsuitable word prompts changes to comics pages

Profanity in the comics section isn’t remotely funny

In the Sunday edition of the Yuma Sun, a panel of the comic strip Non Sequitur contained an obscene word directed at President Trump.

The word was hard to read, scribbled in the corner of the comic, but to the Yuma Sun, that’s simply unacceptable — and we apologize for not catching it before publication.

We view our comics pages as offering something for everyone. Comics might be political in nature, or edgy — and some in our newspaper are. They might celebrate a girl and her imaginary unicorn, or the joys of childhood friendship, or the perils of raising teenagers or young children.

But the bottom line is, anyone can read them, of any age, should they choose to do so. They might find differing opinions — but they won’t find profanity. And frankly, profanity on the “funny pages” isn’t remotely funny.

We trust that the cartoonists that we publish share that opinion, and adhere to our standards, but Non Sequitur cartoonist Wiley Miller violated that trust.

In a statement issued Monday night, Miller noted that he wrote the comment in anger as “instant therapy,” and intended to erase it, but forgot. “Had I intended to make a statement to be understood by the readers, I would have done so in a more subtle, sophisticated manner,” Miller said.

Andrews McMeel Syndication, which publishes Non Sequitur, issued a statement as well.

“Regarding the ‘Non Sequitur’ Sunday comic published Feb. 10, containing vulgar language, we are sorry we missed the language in our editing process. If we had discovered it, we would not have distributed the cartoon without it being removed. We apologize to Non Sequitur’s clients and readers for our oversight.”

As of today’s edition of the Yuma Sun, readers will no longer find the comic strip Non-Sequitur, in either the daily or Sunday editions.

Instead, on the daily comics page, we moved Breaking Cat News over to fill the open spot. We’ve heard from readers that the Star Signs text and the Crossword text were both too small, so we increased the size of the text on those two pieces.

On the Sunday comics, for now, we’re increasing the size of Dilbert and Breaking Cat News, to make them both easier to read, while we decide what to do next.

Let us know what you think, readers! And if there is a comic strip you would like to see on our pages, we’d be curious to hear it. Send in your suggestions to letters@yumasun.com.