R.F.D. (Real Fine Drawings)

By Gordon Hopkins Now I'm going to give you a little insight into how a part of the newspaper business works. I'm talking about the only part everybody likes: the comics.One of my jobs here at The Fairbury Journal-News is to slap together, uh, I mean thoughtfully and artistically create the layout of, the comics page.Like most newspapers in the country with “the funnies,” we buy a syndicated package of comics. Every week, I create the funny page with files made available by the syndicater. (Is that a word? Autocorrect says no. It seems like it should be though, so I'm gonna keep using it).Yes, I'm the guy that decides what comics go on the page. That is why there will always be a place for “Flash Gordon” as long as I'm editor. (Sorry, “Prince Valiant” fans.)I try to be consistent. If you've noticed a change in the page, such as a favorite comic suddenly disappearing, that wasn't my choice. All good things come to an end and that includes comics. Sometimes comics are dropped by the comics syndicater (it really feels like it should be a word) and sometimes artists just retire.The particular package we purchase is ideal for a small town, middle-America newspaper, mostly because some of the comics have a distinctly rural feel.One of those is, or rather was, “R.F.D.” Most big city dwellers have no idea what those letters stand for. They think its something you put at the end of a text, “Just saw M3GAN. What's up with that freaky dance? LOL RFD.”We here in Where-the-heck-am-I-anyway, Nebraska, know it stands for “Rural Free Delivery.”It was also the name of a comic that has been around for about thirty years.Recently, while downloading the comics for the page, I saw something I hadn't seen before. You didn't get to see it but, on the bottom of the R.F.D. comic was this note: “R.F.D. will retire on 1/30/23.” After 30 years of syndication, the artist that drew R.F.D. decided to bring his pen-created world to an end.The reason is pretty straight-forward. Like many who retire, Mike Marland, the man behind the pen behind the comic, simply felt he couldn't do it anymore. In an interview with The Daily Cartoonist, Marland said, “And yes, I quit editorial cartooning back in 2021 due to the fact that my drawing skills had declined dramatically (though some might argue they saw little difference as they’d always been pretty bad!) due to arthritis and essential tremor…”No longer able to draw, Marland has been using Photoshop to continue R.F.D. since August of 2020, manipulating scans of various characters and backgrounds. Again from the interview with The Daily Cartoonist, which is where I got most of this information (credit where credit is due), Marland said, “It worked, but I missed drawing the strips with pen and paper and they definitely had a stiffer look to them. I’m slowly shuffling my way into retirement and the time just felt right to end the strip.”Although, R.F.D. has been syndicated through King Features Weekly Syndicate for 30 years, it actually began its life ten years before that, with Marland's hometown newspaper, The Littleton Courier of Littleton, New Hampshire.Like most everyone else in the newspaper biz, cartoonists have suffered a lot of setbacks in the internet age. A lot of folks were not happy when a major newspaper chain recently announced plan to eliminate a big chunk of their comics pages. I, for one, certainly hope the comics persevere. Newspapers are regularly filled with tragedy and disasters and lots and lots of bad news. There's usually some good news, too, but often not enough. It's nice to know the back page is there to lighten the mood.Anyway, see you in the funny pages.

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