Next Sign from God: 253 Miles

“When Mark Addison Kershaw takes a hiatus from his corner table (with its view of all the doors, aka avenues of escape) at Hubris, I suit up in my ashes and sackcloth (a coarsely woven fabric, usually made of goat’s hair) and cover the mirrors with black crepe. I really do feel his absence when he goes dark over there in Georgia. Yes, I know things suck in America and, perhaps especially, in the wretched, red-state South that Mark and I both inhabit. But if I have to stand watch, can he not spell me every few months? Spell me, and you, Gentle Reader?”—Elizabeth Boleman-Herring

Addison

By Mark Addison Kershaw

“My drafting table, where I drew The Far Side for most of my career, faced a window that overlooked a beautiful garden; beyond the garden was a lake, and beyond the lake Mount Rainier rose majestically into the Washington sky. I worked at night.”―Gary Larson, from The Complete Far Side

“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.”―Lynda Barry

ATLANTA Georgia—(Hubris)—March 2025—Editor’s Note: When Mark Addison Kershaw takes a hiatus from his corner table (with its view of all the doors, aka avenues of escape) at Hubris, I suit up in my ashes and sackcloth (a coarsely woven fabric, usually made of goat’s hair) and cover the mirrors with black crepe. I really do feel his absence when he goes dark over there in Georgia. Yes, I know things suck in America and, perhaps especially, in the wretched, red-state South that Mark and I both inhabit. But if I have to stand watch, can he not spell me every few months? Spell me, and you, Gentle Reader? It might help if y’all wrote him a note every now and then, which you can do at this magazine (scroll down below all else in this very column). We writers (and cartoonists, and poets, and pastors, and photographers) hereabouts can use the support. (Hell, I once even wrote Senator Lindsey Graham a letter a day for 50 consecutive days, and hand-delivered it to his office here in Pendleton. Don’t write Mark the sort of comments I sent to Lindsey, however: he’s down in the jaw enough.) Let him know you noticed he was gone, and notice he’s back? It is my humble opinion as editor here that if you enjoy a cartoon, if you repeatedly enjoy a cartoon, created by a living cartoonist, you are duty-bound to write her or him to tell him. Consider this yet another of my own thank you notes to you, Mark. You make me smile; you make me laugh; you make me tear up on occasion. Perhaps I don’t tell you often enough. “Next Editorial Thank You Note: Far Fewer Than 253 Miles.”