“Single and Looking” comes to an end on Sunday, June 22nd.

After 6 1/2 years of syndication, I’m sad to announce that I’ll be taking my pencil, gum eraser and 00 sable hair brush and leaving the comics pages. 

I wish I could blame my departure on cartooning burnout, the lack of square footage to hold all of my syndication cash or those crusty old comic strips that are hogging all the newspaper space ... but the reality is that my strip just didn’t attract enough newspapers.  I think it needed a talking cat.

The infamous name change from “Out of the Gene Pool” in 2007 was a last effort to reach those close-minded, hairy-noseaphobic newspaper editors who rejected OGP upon the sight of Rufus.  Once it became clear that the smaller, more focused cast wasn’t going to provide me with the lavish lifestyle befitting a syndicated cartoonist, I decided it was best to relinquish my newspaper spots to other comic strips with actual growth potential and use all of that free time to concentrate on other interests.

The past 6 1/2 years have been the most frantic, fulfilling and frustrating years I can remember.  While I’ll miss my time at the drawing board and the opportunity to have a voice on the comics pages, the desire to focus my energy on just one career eventually prevailed.  No eight-year-old kid dreams of becoming a cartoonist with an additional part-time job.

On the plus side, the demise of my strip is not without its benefits. The first-ever OGP BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE! Order your copy of "BIG, HAIRY NOSES and other comical flaws" from lulu.com at: http://www.lulu.com/content/2723579 ! Also, OGP re-runs will begin on Monday, June 23rd on www.gocomics.com! Set the time machine for 2002 and read OGP from the beginning!

Thanks to the Washington Post Writers Group for their committment to making this little strip bigger and to anyone who took 10 seconds out of their day to read my work.