Author Topic: And it's goodbye from Horace....  (Read 11565 times)

Offline Roger Kettle

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And it's goodbye from Horace....
« on: August 03, 2015, 09:29:47 AM »
After 26 years, our Horace strip has been dropped from the Daily Mirror and Daily Record. The financial situation at today's newspapers has been given as the reason but it's still a wee bit sad. It would have been nice to bow out on our own terms.
To have written a strip that ran for more than a quarter of a century is an achievement I'm proud of and I'm grateful to all of you who followed it over the years. Thank you!


*Nige, the Twitter/Facbook side of things will probably be ending in a week or two. Andrew and I have various decisions to make about the future of the strip.

Offline The Peepmaster

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2015, 11:49:29 AM »
Unbelievably sad. First Cilla, now this. It's a real bombshell.

I don't suppose it's worth you carrying on producing it unless you have another heavyweight title take it on. I do hope that the 25 years of comedy gold is re-run in some form.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Rob Baker

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2015, 02:00:44 PM »
Nooooooooooooooo!!!    Very sorry to hear that Roger.   This is so sad.   

To save money, the Mirror should have stopped buying in so much "celebrity" crap.  And stop printing bloody photos of bloody David Beckam and bloody Simon Cowell every bloody day.
Grrrrrrrrr.

A week of 'conclusion' strips would have been respectful to you and Andrew (and all the fans).   

Don't suppose the Sun would be interested in running Horace?

Am so going to miss Granny   :'(

Offline Mince

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2015, 03:38:02 PM »
Well, that's sad and dumb of the Daily Mirror. I guess we'll have to rename the forum to "In Memory of the Saloon Bar".

So, Roger, what would your conclusion strips have been?

Sandy Buttcheeks

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2015, 03:46:42 PM »
Outrageous. A story of this magnitude will be front page news in any quality publication...not so quick, Mirror !! I'm actually surprised that we still have newspapers in today's high tec times, they must have dropped huge amounts in circulation, I would guess.

That aside, 25 years of superb humour is a major achievement and to do it without any drop in quality is brilliance. Horace will be sadly missed, but his fame will live on.

I'm with Rob...poor Granny. She can come stay with me if she falls on hard times.

 :(

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2015, 03:53:59 PM »
I can't speak for The Sun unfortunately, but I'd love it if they snapped up Horace. This is very sad and disappointing news, and yet another very significant nail in the coffin of newspaper cartooning.

I also think it is totally misguided, but the unfortunate reality seems to be that people who love great cartoons, as Horace undoubtedly is, appear  to be the least likely to complain when they are dropped. I'd suggest what is needed therefore is a coordinated campaign using social media to find and encourage Horace fans to speak out loudly through whatever means available (and there are quite a few), letting the paper know in no uncertain terms how much the strip is missed (this would have to be timed for after the strip stops appearing, unless the paper announces it ahead of that time - unlikely).

Editors do listen when their readers speak, sometimes even when it's only a few. I personally witnessed the resurrection of Biffo The Bear in The Beano back in the 70s (when it had a bigger circulation than most newspapers have now), after the editor took just one call from a long-time reader...in his 50s as I recall, tearfully pleading for the recently dropped Biffo to return. Roger will know that the Editor concerned, one Harold Crammond, was no soft touch, but immediately reinstated the Bear to the comic. Different times perhaps, but voices do get listened to.

Unfortunately, due to my association with a rival newspaper, I'm not really in a position to kick off such a campaign, but if I was, I'd be scouring the web for any groups or forums with Mirror connections and imploring anyone who feels this to be the misguided error it certainly is, to make their voices heard at the very top. Newspaper switchboards are usually very accommodating when it comes to imparting contact details, even for the editor.

Shame I can't get involved. I wonder where we might find anyone who can...
« Last Edit: August 03, 2015, 03:56:49 PM by Tarquin Thunderthighs lll »
I apologise, in advance.

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2015, 06:59:08 PM »
Firstly, thanks for the kind words, everyone!
Steve, the strip ended in the Mirror and Record on Saturday. Andrew and I have known for the past month that August the 1st would be its last appearance. I didn't feel that I should say anything until the coffin lid was shut! We WERE asked if we'd like to produce a closing week's series but, as we'd already completed more than enough work to cover the remaining period, we declined. Basically, it would have meant doing a week's work for free (The Mirror would not have paid us for it) so we decided just to leave things as they were. I dare say I would have written something horribly corny that allowed Horace and Kitty to end up together. We made the right choice!
There already has been some response on the Horace Facebook page, which is nice, but I genuinely see no way back. A decision has been made.

Rob Baker

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2015, 09:34:35 PM »
Well I've been busy putting out loads of   ?#?bringbackhorace?   tweets -- it appears there's quite a few people out there who are very disappointed by the Mirror's decision.   I've written to the Mirror Editor, and also several national newspapers who I thought ought to run Horace, though I've had no responses so far.

In hindsight I should have asked first --  could Horace run elsewhere, Roger,  or does the Mirror own the copyright etc ?

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2015, 03:55:10 PM »
Rob, there is a SLIGHT ongoing situation regarding copyright which I hope to resolve shortly. I'd love to tell you more but I can't!

Offline Mince

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2015, 10:14:54 PM »
Perhaps we should end the Horace era with some Horace caption competitions.

Sandy Buttcheeks

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2015, 03:30:00 PM »
Perhaps we should end the Horace era with some Horace caption competitions.

No chance. Horace gets a reprieve and all of a sudden Rogers got weeks worth of comedy gold for nought? Hardly fair.

 :P

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #11 on: August 07, 2015, 06:42:15 PM »
 ;D ;D ;D

Egg

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Re: And it's goodbye from Horace....
« Reply #12 on: August 11, 2015, 06:31:16 PM »
Bugger!