Non Sequitur's Sunday Color Treasury

By Wiley Miller

Non Sequitur creator Wiley Miller truly broke the cartoon mold when he first published his strip in 1992. This hugely popular cartoon is chock-full of witty observations on life's idiosyncrasies. The name of the comic strip comes from the Latin translation of "it does not follow." Each strip or panel stands on its own individual merits. Strips do not follow in a sequence and are not related. Non Sequitur's characters are not central to the plot; the humor is.

Before it was even a year old, Non Sequitur was named the Best Newspaper Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. With an ever-expanding cult following, this quirky cartoon is set in no specific time period or place. It is a whimsical yet flippant look at everyday life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jul 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9780740798665

Book preview

OTHER NON SEQUITUR BOOKS BY WILEY

The Non Sequitur Survival Guide for the Nineties

Non Sequitur’s Beastly Things

The Legal Lampoon

Why We’ll Never Understand Each Other

Lucy and Danae: Something Silly This Way Comes

CONTENTS

Introduction

First Process-Color Editions

Santa Dude

First All-Color Cartoons

First Homer Series

Anthropomorphic Theater

Raising Kane

Danae Christmas Series

First Regular Danae Editions

Before Eve

Lost Leonard (Horizontal Format)

Lost Leonard (Vertical Format)

First Vertical Format Editions

Pierre of the North

Obviousman (Horizontal Format)

Obviousman (Vertical Format)

Legend of Obviousman

Comics Getting the Most Reader Response

Ele Series

The Graevsytes

Offshore Flo

Captain Eddie Christmas Series

Danae and Jeffery

Danae and Lucy

Santa’s Gnome Series with Lucy and Danae

INTRODUCTION

One of the great joys in my baby boomer childhood was the weekly ritual of reading the Sunday comics. Sure, we all liked reading the daily comics, not to mention going down to the corner market to peruse the racks of comic books. But there was something different and special about the Sunday funnies.

The comics at that time were printed much larger than they are today. Some took up an entire page, while most were run in half pages—twice the size of the comics you see today. This gave cartoonists of that era more room for both art and text, allowing for both detailed artwork and complex stories. One could languish with the Sunday comics, soaking them in and losing oneself in fantasy.

But after reading the comics, normal kids would simply toss the comics aside and go on to do something else—play baseball, ride their bikes, annoy their parents—just everyday kid stuff. That’s what my brothers did, as well as every other kid I knew. But that’s not what I did. Not satisfied with just reading the comics, I would take them down to my room and try to draw them. That’s when it all starts. And perhaps that’s why well-adjusted cartoonist is an oxymoron.

I guess part of what made the Sunday comics so special was that they were in color. Back then, the only time you saw color in a newspaper was in the Sunday comics. It was kind of like Dorothy opening her front door when she first lands in Oz, going from her black-and-white world into Technicolor. That, of course, has all changed now. We went from the Sunday comics being the only place you’d see color in a newspaper to the Sunday comics having the worst color in the newspaper. The latter was due to the development of offset printing in the mid ’70s, which rapidly became the standard in the newspaper industry.

My first job in newspapers was as a staff artist (which I