Non Sequitur is a comic strip created by Wiley Miller (usually credited as just Wiley) in 1992 and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate to over 700 newspapers. The strip can be found online at gocomics.com (although archives are only viewable with an account), and it is also available via email and on mobile phones.

Translated from Latin as "it does not follow", Non Sequitur is often political and satirical, though other times, purely comedic.

The strip has undergone many changes through its history. Originally, the comic was a single panel gag cartoon, similar to Gary Larson's The Far Side. It grew more political (from a borderline far left perspective) in tone during the 1990s, to the point where it often became a borderline editorial cartoon. Today, the comic has become more traditional, with a multi-panel format and recurring characters. The single panel gag format is still occasionally used, however.

Non Sequitur has been honored with four National Cartoonists Society Awards, including the Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1995, 1996 and 1998, and the Newspaper Panels Award for 2002. It is the only comic strip to win in its first year of syndication and the only title to ever win both the best comic strip and best comic panel categories.

Characters in Whatchacallit, Maine

The Pyles

Danae

Danae Pyle is a pre-adolescent girl with a pessimistic view of the world (but not of herself), often employed in the strip for satirical purposes. First appeared in the strip in 1998 with her sister Kate and parents (it can be assumed that this was set before their divorce), she is the most famous character of the strip and frequently its leading character.

Kate

Kate Pyle is the more optimistic sister of Danae. Often used as a foil to Danae in how their personalities and view of the world differ. Her appearances became smaller with the creation of Lucy, which started acting as Danae's straight man.

Joe

Joseph "Joe" Pyle is an unemployed former host of the talk radio program "NoozTube," often frustrated by how mass media treats him, and used by the strip to comment on the media. As the cast of characters grew and merged together, he became the often-bewildered father of Danae and Kate. His brother Bob often tries to convince him to take a hold of get-rich-quick professions or become a cable news show host. The character's name may be a reference to the confrontational conservative talk show host, Joe Pyne, but is equally likely to be a tribute to beloved World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle.

His ex-wife and Danae and Kate's mother, Jennifer Pyle, is not seen and seldom referred to. She is said to have run off with a biker while the family was on a trip to New Hampshire.

Flo

Florence "Flo" Pyle is Joe's mother and owns Flo's Offshore Diner in Whatchacallit, Maine. Miller commented, "I created a series of characters that came from our visits to Maine. Offshore Flo is patterned after the Maine Diner in Wells. I wanted to capture the essence of Maine people's genuineness - down-to-earth, good-natured people - and work in the accent... It's set in Whatchacallit, Maine."

Bob

Robert "Bob" Pyle is Joe's brother, often seen having a drink with him at a bar. According to the strip of January 15, 2003, he is an attorney. He bears more than a passing resemblance to Richard Nixon. He is single and avoids relationships with women.

Uncle Reginald

Uncle Reginald Pyle is the ghost of an alcoholic elderly relative haunting Joe's house. Sometimes the reader is given a glimpse into an alternate world (or perhaps the past) where Reginald is still alive. In this reality he lives with his brother Montgomery "Monty" Pyle in a large, Victorian mansion with numerous servants including Smithers, the butler. Danae, Kate and Flo are well acquainted with Reginald, but Joe refuses to believe he exists.

Other characters

Brenda

Brenda Santa Fe runs Brenda's Clam Hut and is a frequent visitor of Flo's Offshore Diner. She can frequently be seen in the latter as a customer while Captain Eddie tells his stories. She has a crush on Joe, but after Joe showed little interest in her she ran off with another man. She used to be seen wearing a sweatshirt that had "KPT" on the front. (The acronym was never explained; it was there for filler.)

Vicki

Victoria "Vicki" Santa Fe is Brenda's older sister, on whom Joe has a crush. She is much more brash than Brenda, and originally showed less interest in Joe. They began dating eventually, however, and Joe's family frequently urges him to propose to her. She works at Brenda's Clam Hut.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey is a fairly nerdy boy in Danae's class who has a crush on her. In Non Sequitur Sunday Color Treasury, the author describes how he was inspired by a reader to create the character.

Lars

Lars is a Martian who appeared, beginning in August 2009, in a series of strips that involved Jeffrey building a spaceship and going on an expedition to Mars. Lars acted as a helper in building the spaceship and a guide on Mars. Before Lars' appearance, Danae came along to see Jeffrey building the spaceship - consequently making her appear in the rest of the story.

Captain Eddie

Captain Eddie is a captain from Maine (with the associated accent) who continuously tells tall tales of his boating expeditions to anyone who will listen in Flo's coffee shop. The irony of course, is that many of these tales often have (more than) a grain of truth to them.

The Graevsytes

Introduced on September 8, 2002, the Graevsytes bear similarities to The Addams Family. The Graevsytes also appeared in Danae's Halloween series in October and November 2002. In the Non Sequitur Sunday Color Treasury, Wiley Miller said he decided to stop using them after some violent images came out of Iraq . However, he left the door open for future appearances, which happened on Sunday, October 1, 2006.

Horace

Horace Graevsyte, the father, carries his head on a plate (he seems to be a ghost of a decapitated man).

Miranda

Miranda Graevsyte, the mother, floats around the house.

Boyle

Boyle Graevsyte, a teenage boy, bears some resemblance to Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th films.

Mimi

Mimi Graevsyte is the daughter and a baby.

Pets

Lucy

Lucy is a talking pygmy Clydesdale who, like Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes, plays the silent observer most of the time. Lucy was introduced in the July 11, 2003 strip, in a storyline that had Danae and Kate going to a summer horse riding camp. At the end of the summer, Danae became good friends with Lucy and took her home. Danae, and occasionally Kate, are the only ones who can talk to Lucy, and all three of them are fully aware that the conversations only take place in their imaginations.

Petey

Petey is dog of humble origins who has found his way into Kate's ownership. He constantly lets Rölf get him in trouble.

Rölf

Rölf is Brenda's dog and Petey's friend. The size of his muzzle far exceeds his brain's. He's also a symbol of the strip and can be seen in the cover Non Sequitur's Beastly Things. Rölf has also appeared in a short-lived series in Non Sequitur called B.E.

Paulie

Paulie is Captain Eddie's cat who is always with Eddie, accompanying him on his various fictional adventures, and usually sits on his shoulder.

Other recurring characters

The majority of these characters only or mostly appear Sunday strips.

Obviousman

Obviousman is a superhero who can't stand the overly obvious or hypocritical. His symbol is the word "Duh" with a slash through it (No Duh!). Usually appears only on Sundays.

He has appeared being interviewed by Joe on his radio show. Obviousman's secret identity is Mark Cohen, a California realtor and amateur magician, who has taken on a mission in life of freeing the people from the curse of mindless obedience to the dictates of the mass media, and to at least slow, if not reverse, the dumbing down of America. His arch-nemesis is Professor Obfuscate.

In the book Non Sequitur's Sunday Color Treasury, Miller stated that he named Obviousman's true identity after a friend who had died of cancer in 1999. The real Mark Cohen was a realtor and an avid collector of comics and original comic book art. Miller explained, "This was my way of memorializing him. He was dearly loved throughout our profession as a great ambassador of comics as an art form."

An animated short, Obviousman: The Movie, can currently be found on the Non Sequitur website. Wiley Miller voices Obviousman.

Ordinary Basil

Ordinary Basil is a boy at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution who takes a journey to the cloud city of Helios. Story ran on Sundays from February 20 to July 24, 2005. Another story began on September 9, 2007 with a Sunday strip "The Return of Ordinary Basil" reviewing events thus far appearing on September 2 and concluded on January 6, 2008.

Ele

Ele (Extinction Level Event) is a cynical cat-like creature who lives in the time before man. Appearing in Sunday strips only, she has appeared in two major runs — one from 2000 up to July 2001, and one in early 2006.

Homer

Homer, called Honor in his female incarnations, is the ghost of Homer who aside from dealing with living in the afterlife has to deal with real life whenever he returns to earth. He has been an ancient Roman (who barely escaped Pompeii), a medieval peasant, a cavewoman, and a female immigrant. Homer was developed into a spin-off strip called Homer the Reluctant Soul, which Wiley attempted to market online, and featured in a book by the same title.

Pierre of the North

Pierre of the North (a play off of Nanook of the North) is a French Canadian who hates "ze" cold and finds himself at odds with very clever (and very hungry) polar bears.

Lucifer

Lucifer (that is, Satan) often appears in the strip to delegate hellish punishments, such as watching reality shows.

St. Peter

St. Peter guards the gates of heaven and has interacted with numerous characters including Captain Eddie.

The bulldog

In numerous strips that deal with the home life of upper middle-aged couples, a pet bulldog with exaggerated fangs can be seen.

Books

• The Non Sequitur Survival Guide for the Nineties (1995) ISBN 0-8362-1785-3
• Non Sequitur’s Beastly Things (1999) ISBN 0-7407-0016-2
• The Legal Lampoon: a biased, unfair and completely accurate law review (2002) ISBN 0-7407-2673-0
• Why We'll Never Understand Each Other: A Non-Sequitur Look At Relationships (2003) ISBN 0-7407-3387-7
• Lucy and Danae : Something Silly This Way Comes (March 1, 2005) ISBN 0-7407-5099-2
• Non Sequitur's Sunday Color Treasury (2005) ISBN 0-7407-5448-3

New Straits Times controversy

Non Sequitur was published in the New Straits Times, a major newspaper in the Muslim-majority country of Malaysia, as part of its weekday line of comic strips. The comic, however, generated controversy in the country and its government following the paper's printing of the syndicated strip satirizing the protests over the controversial Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons on February 20, 2006. The cartoon depicts a street-side cartoonist offering caricatures of Muhammad "while you wait" with a caption stating that the cartoonist has finally realized his goal of being the most feared man in the world.

The New Straits Times subsequently issued an apology. Wiley Miller commented on Malaysia's response of the strip, stating in a February 1, 2007 interview that it is "much ado about nothing."

References

1. As stated by Joe's mother in the February 12, 2008 strip.
2. Maine Diner
3. Bouchard, Stephanie. "Cartoonist finds Maine a creative turn-on." Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, Maine), February 20, 2005, page G1.

External links

• GoComics Non Sequitur page