The Non Sequitur Survival Guide for the Nineties

by Wiley Miller

Since its debut in 1992, Non Sequitur --a comic that jabs at the feats and foibles of modern-day life--has become one of the fastest-rising comic strips in the U.S. Named Non Sequitur because no one strip has anything to do with another, each cartoon features no central character or theme. Anyone who loves to laugh will want to curl up with this outrageously hilarious collection of tongue-in-cheek philosophical musings.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Cartoon

112 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

I began my career in art illustrating educational films. But my interest was always in print and cartooning, so in 1977 I moved from film in Southern California to work as a staff artist and editorial cartoonist for the Greensboro Daily News and the Greensboro Record (they were the morning and evening papers at the time and have since merged into one).

In 1979 I moved on to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Ca.), as doing the staff art for one paper instead of two gave me more time to do editorial cartoons.

My editorial cartoons then went into syndication with Copley News Service in 1980.

Unfortunately, I was laid off in the recession of 1981, which, fortunately, led me to create my first comic strip, "Fenton", which was syndicated by Field Syndicate. It had moderate success, but my love was still with editorial cartooning.

When the position came open at the San Francisco Examiner in 1984, I went for it and somehow got it. I enjoyed a good run there until the recession of 1991 hit in the wake of the Gulf War.

Learning from my previous experience with recessions and the lack of job security for anyone in art, I decided to make my way out before the ax fell and created Non Sequitur, which went into syndication with the Washington Post Writers Group in 1992. It was met with immediate success, but it's growth with a small syndicate was limited.

When I reached that limit, I moved over to Universal Press Syndicate in 2000, where the strip now appears in 800 papers world wide.

Now, of course, I taken a new turn in my career, taking a story I did in the Sunday editions in 2005 called "Ordinary Basil" and made it into my first children's book with Blue Sky Press (a Scholastic imprint).

The second book in the series, "Attack of the Volcano Monkeys", came out a year later, with a third book now in the works.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cartoon. I hate to even call it a cartoon since most people think of them as funny, stupid things. But these are sharp as the edge of a professional chef's knife. They bite right to the bone.

And, of course, they relate to the stupidities of the current times. That's what I like best. I've often commented that liberals are sometimes relegated into the background because we don't cry "wolf!" every time something happens, or hardly ever cry "wolf!" at all. What we do is make fun of the situation.

These, and Doonesbury and others of its ilk, are not political cartoons as such. They won't be found on the editorial page with an elephant and a donkey, or big fat pigs dressed in three piece suits, doing stupid things. No, they may be one frame, but they're subtle.

I love reading the strip in my Sunday paper. It has changed somewhat since it started. It was a one-framer for a long time, but now an idea is developed through several frames. But that takes nothing away from the one-framers.

Since I lived and was politically and socially conscious during the '90s, I especially enjoyed this collection. Some of the occurrences I'd forgotten about and others I laughed at because they were SO familiar. Such as the woman at the top of the stairs to the basement saying to her husband who is sitting in the dark with only his eyes showing, "It's official, dear.....The Reagan era is over. Now turn off Rush Limbaugh and come back to the real world." (My father left the Republican Party which he had been born into during the Reagan presidency.)

Also non political ones - a desert scene; cow skull in background; man dragging self along; penguin walking along beside him, leaving little penguin tracks. "Offhand," the man is saying, "I'd say ONE of us is having the mother of all hallucinations...."

Ya gotta love it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the craziness that Miller points out, and satirizes, is not limited to the 1990's, but is still prevalent sixteen years into the 21st century. I suspect these cartoons come from the beginning of the strip, before the cartoonist developed some recurring characters, apart from his bemused everyman.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some excellent and clever panels here. Others have not aged well.

[Harold Citron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long-time fan of Wiley's Non-Sequitur strip, so finding this collection of a bunch of them from the 1990's was great fun.

Wiley's writing and artwork have a full measure of dry and sharp wit and his commentary and humor is as valid today as it was when they were first published.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hehehe lawyers suck