TROUBLETOWN

Lloyd Dangle worked for a few years at the Village Voice and others of the ilk, then self-syndicated his Troubletown cartoon, beginning with the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 1988. At blog.cagle.com, Daryl Cagle reported that “Dangle grew his list of subscribers to upwards of 30 alternate newsweeklies and lefty political magazines before tough economic times hit the newspaper industry and slowly whittled his list down.” In March, Dangle announced that after more than two decades, he’s “retiring” his strip to move on to other projects; the last strip appeared at the end of April. Cagle interviewed him, asking the obvious question: why quit now? To which Dangle said:

“I have changed over 22 years, and the thrill is gone. Having to read so much news and opinion to stay on top of events is a grind that I would like to be free of. It has nothing to do with the state of the industry though. I’ve been satisfied with my relationships with my newspapers and thrilled that I’ve had the readership I’ve had.”

One of the projects he’ll now have time for is finishing the novel he’s writing. “Of course, [book-] publishing is a crap shoot,” he acknowledged, “but at least I’ll be able to amuse my friends with it.”

Asked about his favorite cartoonists, Dangle named “young up and coming” cartoonists like Jen Sorensen and Matt Bors. “I also love the old timer Pat Oliphant. David Sipress is my favorite of the New Yorker style cartoons.” But he doesn’t think there’s much of a future for cartooning with the models we’re familiar with. “The Internet hasn’t been our friend,” he said. “I hope they find a way to make it work.”