Part 1. COMMENTS FROM FANS & SUPPORTERS etc.
[Click HERE for Comments from Non-Fans]

Finally a comic strip that really hits home and it is cancelled. – Bill E.

I'll miss The Gentleman from Lickskillet thank you for the enjoyment you've given me. Looks like Doonesbury won. -- Dave B.  [Well, we’ll see.  It’s up to the fans! – SJA] 

Dude, you can’t cancel.  You’re all I’ve got left.  Don’t make me read Doonesbury, man.  Really, I can’t go back there. – William G.

I have enjoyed TGFL since you started. I especially like the way that you are able to conceive arch-types of liberals such as Andrew Mophead and Mr. Mann-Jones. . . .  I am looking forward to the resumption of your strip. – George A. 

What? This can't be! I LOVE this strip! It is the funniest right-wing comic on the net! You have to keep going - that's an order! I share you on Facebook and it makes all my liberal "friends" furious! Who can I contact to show my support? Who canceled you? – Brian R. [Answer: The Powers That Be at the site that sponsored us.  Nevertheless, we’re grateful for the year or so of sponsorship, and are working to find a new sponsor ASAP. The fans can help by signing the petition of support and by getting others to sign -- friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow members of social or political or charitable or religious organizations, etc. -- SJA]

I can't believe you guys have been canceled! It was GOOD! – Michael M.

. . . LOVE the Lickskillet 'toons. I look forward to you guys on your own site. – James F.

Every day, when I received the [e-mail], I'd look at the cartoon frame and try to see where the story was going, and I couldn't wait for the strip to be complete on Saturdays so I could print it out to share with family and friends.
Especially loved the name-dropping, and have shown all my friends the superb piece on "Embellisho Festoon” [“Maggie’s Tale,” October 12-17].  I am indeed waiting for the warrior lady to ride into town and throw all the [people of easy virtue] and peddlers out of the people's temple!
Yes! I'll buy your book.
Yes! If you self-publish, I'll subscribe to the site.
Yes! I'll sign the petition. Where's the link?
. . . The very best of luck from a fellow conservative. – Mike R.

I'm really bummed that [the sponsor] dropped your Gentleman from Lickskillet strip.  It is extremely well written, very enjoyable to read, very funny and witty, and I looked forward to it every day.  . . . Please let us all know when you make it back into cyberspace. – Thomas K.

Unfortunately, I’ve become addicted to “The Gentleman from Lickskillet”. I’ve done the research, and under the new Health Care Plan to End All Health Care Plans, which will be retroactive, you are required to send me a strip every weekday, in perpetuity, or until I die of some horrible disease for which no physician is accepting new patients.. . .  No, seriously… how do we get you guys back in production? I’d pay $10/month for a direct subscription. I’d bet $10 Trillion (OK, Zimbabwean money, but still…) that you could get 1000 subscribers… If there’s anything I can do, short of donating to Chuck Schumer, let me know. – Dan F.

I hope you get published in a new place!  I love your comic strip! – Daniel E.

You guys have been cancelled? No way! You know I have always tried to find you on FaceBook and I could not. At different times, I had sent out links for people to read Lickskillet. I don’t know how big your fan base is, but if you had more exposure, it would be tremendous. Please, please, please let me know when and where you guys come back. – Bernard

Every once in a while I would catch up on The Gentleman from Lickskillet and would download and save the comic strips.  They are delightful and as an amateur cartoonist I was jealous.  So now I'm curious why your comic strip was canceled . . . I hope you do bring out your comic strip in book form.  It was a breath of fresh air in this highly charged political climate.  And I hope you will not be offended if I share a couple old ones of mine, attached as .jpg images. – Jim
[I address the question of why the strip was cancelled in my "memo to fans" here. – SJA]

I was "crushed" when I found out that The Gentleman From Lickskillet was removed from [the old sponsoring site].  I want to ask about the reason for that but I am more interested in the missing month or so of the strip from the archives!!  I think that I was following the strip at that time but it could have been a little later. Is there any chance that those missing strips will be released again?
Thank you for the wonderful strip.  I know that it would have a never-ending source of material, at least as long as the current administration is in the saddle! I do appreciate the humor. – Richard J. 
[I believe your question is about the strips for the first three weeks in July 2009.  Actually, we were off for those three weeks due to a family medical emergency, so those strips were never produced.  Someday, I would like to go back and cover that period as a flashback... but that depends on our success in getting TGFL up and running again. – SJA]

[Another political comic strip] is pure bilge compared to TGFL. Thanks for having an actual sense of humor. – Ezra D.

The daughter is GREAT. . . . Keep up the good work. – Cecil

The funniest and best satire I’ve seen and read EVER. – Chris W.

[In response to the question] What do you think about "The Gentleman from Lickskillet"?  I think it's witty, original, very clever and timely. – Duke of URL

I really hope this [the Operation: Lickskillet storyline, November 16-21] is going to continue - it's WAY too good a premise, too good a set of characters, too good an opening for really horrible jokes, to be dropped after only one week. – Duke of URL

[Regarding the “Classic Gentleman from Lickskillet” storyline, December 7-12, 2009] I think you should check your Automatical-Excuse-Generating-Machine.  It appears to have been left on and unattended, with the gearing set to "High"... – Duke of URL

Love your work. . . . "The Gentleman from Lickskillet" is the first place I go when I turn my computer on each morning.  Thanks for the entertaining and thoughtful commentary on current events, disguised as comedy. – Natureboy

Fantastic job on every strip! It's become a high point of my day! – Philip N.

My husband and I are so excited with your strip. We are hoping that you will soon have a book with your strips in it. If you already do please let us know as we would like to order one.  Keep up the good work!! We llok forward to seeing your strip more and more each day!! – Julie

Where has this been all my life?!? – Jay T.

I just found this strip yesterday and have read the whole archive - amazing! Funny, pertinent, great artwork, current, biting - please never stop! – Brian R. 

I saw the premiere of the strip announced in another blog so I've been reading since the beginning . . . The Gentleman from Lickskillet became an instant favorite and I have recommended it to many friends.
What I think is the most brilliant thing about the strip is that each one is clever and funny as a stand-alone on a daily basis, but the carrying of threads through the week makes one anxious to "tune in tomorrow", and the six-day chapter is funnier than any of the individual strips. I believe the strip borders on brilliance, the nationalized pastime [May 4-9, 2009] and changing the speed of light [April 20-25] certainly being worthy of Pulitzer consideration. You are unparalleled at pointing out the ridiculousness that busies most of our politicians and you do it without profanity or vulgarity. . . . Best of luck; you've got a real winner.  – Laurel J.

The Gentleman From Lickskillet is one of the best strips around!  I keep up with it every week (read it every day, but like the format you have to get the whole week on the same screen). . . . Keep up the great work!! – Tom K.

Verrrry funny... and on point. [“People of Color Club,” March 9-10] – Tillman

I especially liked it when the congressman turned down the lobbyist with “Get thee behind me Satan.”  And the response was “No offense taken.” [February 7, 2009] – Mike

Keep up the great work.  We enjoy it very much. – Joe M.

Love it! I like the bit with the plotting cats [June 8-13, 2009] and Maggie Dill has the best mind of the bunch – Stu C.

I love everything about it from first to last: the complexity of the plots, the numerous characters, the intellectual humor, and the light tie-ins to current events. Wouldn't change a thing. It's one of the first things I read each day.

I would like to see more of the commie-cats [June 8-13, 2009]. Those characters in that story line remind me of the underground comics movement (think Crumb, for example, or the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cat) stuff in reverse, and I can't stop laughing. I was in stitches for days after they put one of them in a dress: "For the cause, Armand. *For the cause*." – Evan S.

A conservative web comic. I Like!
I can has mor Lickskillet?
I likes it so…
Plz? – Sean

I think Lickskillet is the funniest comic strip ever.  It has a snowball's chance in Hell of ever being in any newspaper.  . . . I like Dill, and the Sarah Palin look-alike character was great.  I expect to see much more of her.  . . . Have you guys considered putting your comic strip in a book, perhaps a compilation for the year?  Even a quarterly paper back would be cool!  I use to have an ole collection of the Peanuts that did the same thing with his comic strip.  Keep the good work up! It is GREAT! – Bernard
[Answer: We are working on a collection, provided there’s sufficient fan support. – SJA]

. . . "The Gentleman from Lickskillet" is some great satire for those that appreciate a little conservative values in their humor. – Comic Nut’s Jar

HILARIOUS! – Caulfield 

I do enjoy reading your strip and recognized Embellisho [October 13, 2009] immediately. – Bob B.

I love Margaret. I wish my kids were like her! – Michael M.

[“Doonesbury” and “The Gentleman from Lickskillet”:] Both strips are witty in their own way, both exhibit wisdom at times, and both manage to poke fun at their own side of the aisle, occasionally. – axiq

The Gentleman from Lickskillet [November 10-14, 2009] murders Politics and Prose Bookstore in DC! Nice! – Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I’ve read the archives of the first month’s strip and it promises to be excellent.  From chronicling the near worshipful devotion of Obama devotees at the Inauguration linked to a new designer drug, “jack-acid”; to the hero’s daughter having her sarcastic ode to Obama chosen as the song to be performed at the Inauguration; to the hero’s discovery of a new Government Agency, “The Department of Holistic Serenity” when an aide points it out with the caveat “Friends don’t let friends legislate drunk!”; the strip promises to be a hilarious examination of inside-the-beltway goings on. . . . For those of you old enough to remember Walt Kelly’s ‘Pogo’ strip, ‘The Gentleman from Lickskillet’ has that feel. But it is thoroughly modern.’ Bookmark the page, you’ll want to go back! – Blue Collar Muse

This is a conservative site, but IMO, their series of comics for February 16-21, 2009 is something that both Conservatives and Liberals can agree on, that is, that zero tolerance policies go too far. – Hell Bent for Leather

I know it's from a conservative source, but I think the punch line [January 31, 2009] is one that anyone can relate to, regardless of your political persuasion. – Iolaus

Kind of a right wing comic that is taking an interesting twist. – nu-monet v10.0

[Regarding the Malarkey scandal strips, August 31-September 5, 2009:] It struck me as being in poor taste . . . But not extremely poor taste. – Eric S. Harris

Their artwork does resemble actual human beings. – Jeff Fecke

Part 2. COMMENTS FROM NON-FANS
[Click HERE for Comments from Fans & Supporters etc.]

See, blunt-club-swingingly dumb as The Leftersons is, I actually find myself much more disturbed by The Gentleman from Lickskillet. Because while it's self-evident that the Leftersons is "written" by someone who believes satire to be literally the same thing as pointed namecalling, the Lickskillet guy appears to actually think he's an iconoclastic intellectual. – gompa

[Response to "gompa":] The Gentleman from Lickskillet seems to me to be the "best" of these not just for it's superior artwork, but because it's the only one that tries to make actual arguments for its cause, instead of just pathetic name-calling. Those arguments are wrong, of course (yes, Science evolves and isn't always right. You know what proves it wrong, though? More science, not economically-driven political ideology.) But at least it kind of tries, and has at least a whiff of humor to it from time to time.  The Leftersons is so bad it might just be a conspiracy by the "Girls and Sports" guy to look better by comparison, and Day by Day is like listening to a rant by a tripping and xenophobic schizophrenic. Mallard Fillmore is just bad. – Navelgazer

[Response to the above:] The art in The Gentleman from Lickskillet kind of reminds me of Dave Sim. I'm just sayin'. – The Card Cheat

[Response to the above:] The Gentleman from Lickskillet was cancelled in February and is appealing to fans to find it a home. Day by Day is begging its readers for money so that it can continue. The Leftersons hasn't appeared in three years. Only Mallard Fillmore thrives.     Just sayin'. – CBCC

Jesus, are the Repugs aiming for a new prohibition targeting comedy? – johnbinpt

The cartoon - as you call it - is not funny but in fact offensive. You guys need to put it out of its misery. The art it great but the writing sucks!! – Della

This [TGFL writer Steven J. Allen] is a man who knows funny. [written sarcastically] . . . On the other hand, both gentlemen [Allen & Tuma] seem to incline to the paleocon side of things. This means that their opinions may be wrong only 80-90% of the time — in contrast to the quasars of broad-spectrum quantum wrongness now blasting away in distant corners of the universe, the wormholes of which resolve to hypergons of n-dimensional failspace, such as the one created by William Kristol via an achieved rate of error in excess of 100%. – Boner’s Ark

I read a bunch of them.  They're funnier than ["Mallard Fillmore"], but stubbing your toe is funnier than ["Mallard Fillmore"].  I can't really decide if they're funnier than stubbing your toe. … Okay, I think I've got it.  They're not as funny as YOU stubbing your toe, but they're funnier than me stubbing my toe. – Mike Beede

I was expecting something like Bill O’Reilly making jokes, but this is more like Bob Novak making jokes, wheezing and har-har-ing to himself. – dcsin 

“Lickskillet,” really IS even less witty than [“Day by Day” cartoonist] Chris Muir, and lacks the wingnut surrealism that makes each “Day by Day” strip so amusingly incoherent. Hell, even “Mallard Fillmore” beats out this sad, sad dreck. – conumbdrum 

I do like their rugged devotion to the idea that leftist politicians are feudal barons. It’s a belief system so convoluted and openly asinine that anyone who hasn’t started from the assumption that slavery was a long con by the devious blacks is going to throw up their hands and call you an idiot.  I wouldn’t say no wingnuts can be funny. A good libertarian will, once in a blue moon, actually recognize abusive authority figures. But by and large, and especially when they’re loyal Party men, they’re just bullies too cowardly to use their fists. – Saint Jesus 

See, there’s this whole other universe called Upsidedownworld and occasionally there is leakage across from it which amazingly seems to be of conservative comic strips that they find funny, we don’t.
Or they couldn’t get a laugh at a nitrous oxide users convention. – Another Kiwi

I am reminded of a Republican sneering about the hateful liberals laughing at Cheney’s temporary use of a wheelchair being equivalent to their innocent japes at the expense of Edward Kennedy, who had evidently brought a crippling, inevitably and slowly fatal disease on himself by being the most liberal member of the Senate whenever the Democrats aren’t running a governor.  If there’s anything that will be the movementarians’ undoing, it’s just that – their complete inability to see that they’re wholly out at sea. They’ll probably never realize that their hilarious racist prop comedy isn’t even going to pull a majority of Republicans – and every election cycle, they’ve gotten weaker and weaker, more and more dependent on pandering to single-issue loons and easy PAC money. But by God, they stuck to their principles. . . . I guess ‘poorly-written character comedy wrapped around and designed for exhibiting the most recent Party talking-points’ is how you would go about doing Doonesbury if all you knew about it was why that asshole who does Mallard Fillmore thinks nobody wants to give him a Pulitzer. . . .
I do take issue with the idea that movementarians can do satire or parody. The entire ideology requires so much willful ignorance that it’s impossible to imagine one of its flacks coming to the understanding of the world or the subject necessary for pointed comedy on purpose. Thus Lickspittle (which evidently requires two authors to suck so bad), rather than actually grasping at the low-hanging branch of Clinton’s antisocial fuck-buddies allowed to enter the running [as has been pointed out elsewhere, the idea of some kind of criminal enterprise at work here is spectacularly dishonest - on problems with his nominees being discovered, Obama's response has been a collegial zip-up until they withdraw and then mea grossa culpa, not trying to force them into the Cabinet with the strategic use of lies and shiny objects], finds himself gripped by the urge to genuflect to two authority figures at once – ridiculous little Limbaugh and ridiculouser little Pournelle. The result is something that thinks it is pointed, carries itself out as if it’s making fun of someone, and then winds up concocting something so surreal and off-tune that a governor tending bar is a setup rather than a punchline. – Alec

Jokes which depend on a belief in phony facts. – Andrew

When conservatives try to do humor it usually just comes across as creepy. – Major Kong

As far as “Lickskillet” goes, I’ve seen better political comedy in “Shoe.” – Scott

Conservative cartoons have expressed great anguish in their inability to make fun of actual events. Instead, they make fun of what might happen a week after publication, however spurious and disjointed from reality.
I kid, I kid. The "empty suits" gag [January 16, 2009] made me chuckle.
But this is on the same level of comedic shlock everywhere, be it liberal or conservative or wholly disinterested - rather than exposing the heart and truth, it's mocking hypotheticals and extrapolations. The inauguration was filled with things to make fun of, but instead this runs with a bizarre multi-strip drug abuse theme, unrelated to anything in the real world? Some people go nuts about Obama, I get it. Linking that to drugs misses the point entirely, because now it's about drugs and not about hero worship. For a comic claiming to be the one strip actually making fun of the real world, color me unimpressed.
I liked the empty suits line because it hit on something a lot of people think. It showed some truth about how he's viewed, it was funny, it was good. But everything else was pretty far off the mark. I don't see how one can even begin to make fun of Obama for making the the constitution go "up in smoke" after the last 8 years.
Meh. – wibs

I’m confused, are these cartoons supposed to be funny or tragic?  I don’t understand conservatives but it does appear that they lack a sense of humor. I guess these will go the way of the conservatives’ answer to The Daily Show: FAIL. – Southern Beale

This Lickskillet thing looks like someone trying to turn Tom Tomorrow inside out but getting something more like “Gil Thorpe” set in the world of politics. – FlipYrWhig

[D]id their thinking go like this: “Doonesbury is funny and intelligent so we will [be] stupid and not funny at all.” – Tom

What I find amused about Lickspittle (gross name though) is that a party trying NOT to be the party of racist redneck Southern whites is represented by a strip featuring, yep, redneck southern whites. Way to stretch the boundaries guys! – Woodrowfan

I see what u did ther. It’s that late-70s / early ’80s strip that had a character called Gollywog, who got bashed up in an accident and whoever rebuilt his face only had that mask available. He sort of wandered through what looked like Bizarro-America but wasn’t too far off from reality. Condo bondage!
The rightwing POV is that of privilege, and that’s where its comedy comes from there. Rightwingers can do pointed comedy, like satire or parody, as well as anyone else, but only if the targets are safe, like bad movies or books, general stupidity, or really f[---]ed countries (see P.J. O’Rourke). Actually, if a country is f[---]ed because the CIA tipped its ruling junta off to massacre a generation’s worth of people who could have built the country but happened to have read “Das Kapital” once in college, then that’s not especially funny either.
Rightwingers can’t do social or political satire very well, because they occupy (or at least identify with) the top of the totem pole. They can’t aim level or high without insulting their friends or bosses. That’s what you call friendly fire.
They can attack the political opposition, as in Democrats, but it doesn’t work when their own side are guilty of worse sins than their targets are. You can’t attack hypocrisy if you’re guilty of it yourself.
So they can only aim down, enforcing the social hierarchy, like the Heathers warning the unpopular girls not to get above themselves. Or they can laugh at freaks, physical, social or economical, like on South Park.
Some of them, like South Park or late ’70s National Lampoon, claim to be equal opportunity mockers, but they aren’t really. From their position, most of their targets will be below them socially or economically. Meanwhile, they pull their punches when aiming upwards, because they know they’d be slapped down hard. After all, they’d do the same. – bjacques

I took the liberty of reading all the Lickspittle cartoons. Phew.
You know what it reminds me of? Bloom County. The situations, the characters, the cadence of the dialogue – even the art looks vaguely like early Breathed. They also take a few stabs at Boondocks-style edginess, failing miserably because, as many of you have noted, they are using the same old wingnut tropes. It’s hard to be edgy with recycled humor. Perhaps best of all, in two of the strips they use a biracial girl as a mouthpiece, ripping off (of all things) Mallard Fillmore creator Bruce Tinsley’s habit of using a Korean-American boy to spout his beliefs. Ripping off Mallard Fillmore? That’s low.
I also noticed that, in the inauguration strips, they never once mention Obama by name or show his face, and he only appears at all in a single strip. You can increase the humor by several orders of magnitude by pretending that “the President” is, say, Chester A. Arthur. – D Johnston

I looked at the Day By Day comic, and the Lickskillet comic, and I’m damned if I can find anything comic about them. In fact, I don’t even understand what they’re talking about. The Lickskillet one kind of made sense – OK, politicians take graft. A barrel of yuks, that one. The humor in it is not enough to even power a one-liner in a blog, much less a four-panel strip. I don’t even understand what point Muir is trying to make, let alone why it should be funny.There is such a thing as conservative humor that works – it’s rare though it exists. But outside of the occasional P.J. O’Rourke quip, I can’t think of any that isn’t mean-spirited, snidely dismissive and/or utterly incomprehensible. I guess I just don’t speak wingnut well enough. – Joe Max

Day by Day is funnier, from what I’ve seen so far. – Sub-Driver/Free Republic

        I dunno, I think this one has Day by Day beat. -- Beelzebubba/Free Republic

"Lickskillet" is toothless banality in search of a niche market. … [The Inauguration Week strips are] a sustained effort to pander to craziness, without having the right accent. – Quick Study

. . . [T[he strip -- like the 1/2 Hour News Hour -- just isn't funny. . . . I'd suggest giving the entire run a quick read to get the full flavor of Lickskillet and its awful aftertaste:  . . . Given the evidence -- and Dennis Miller's steep descent into utterly humorless irrelevance -- one has to wonder if conservatives lack the humor gene. – Channel Surfing

[Regarding TGFL’s take on Kennedy scandals:] What's next, an amusing take on FDR trying . . . to pack the Supreme Court?  Bet that will be a real [fanny]-buster. – Mike Beede 

Diamond Joe Quimby on /The Simpsons/ is funny.  "The Gentleman from Lickskillet” just [throws up]. – Jym Dyer

This Lickspittle comic really makes me appreciate the deep and subtle wit of Mallard Fillmore. . . . I hope they really get wild and radical and have a character named Bal Bore who is fat and who runs around claiming it’s too hot even when it’s cold! Ha! Yuk yuk!!! . . . I think “Lickspittle” is more accurate, though “Lick[excrement]tle” is more accurate still. – El Cid

Needs more Chappaquiddick. – pedestrian