Brett Waldon was my successor as the Daily Nebraskan cartoonist. He started off working a few days a week as I was winding down, and he took over full-time in the fall of 2003.

What was really amazing about Brett was that he had “it” right away - a well-defined style, a very well-defined sense of humor, and (what has always impressed me most about Brett’s cartoons, which might come from his theatre experience) an amazing sense of comedic timing. Brett is a master of manipulating pacing in a relatively small, two-dimensional shape. That is a skill that some people go a lifetime without figuring out, and he had it from the beginning and has only gotten better at it as time has gone on.

Well Brett’s two-and-a-half-year career as DN cartoonist is going to wrap up here in the next few days, and he’s using a technique I always wanted to try - using his editorial cartoons to tell a serial story.

Here are the first two episodes of what will be Brett’s four-part farewell series:

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Well, the Daily Nebraskan is once again under fire from the Greek system, who can’t seem to understand that the DN has much better things to do than attempt to bring down their shaky little society.

The Daily Nebraskan recently ran a fantastic series on college drinking, sending reporters across the country to campuses in California, Wisconsin and Colorado, among other locations. Well, a few of those stories, a year after a drinking-related student death in Colorado, looked at drinking and the Greek system at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (try this, and this , both by Jenna Johnson).

And once again, the Greek system has responded by claiming the DN is trying to bring them down and destroy them. One letter even suggested that, since Greek recruitment is down, the DN should sweep issues like this under the rug, because reporting reality might make people not want to join up.

Recently, a Facebook group started up called Greeks Against the Daily Nebraskan (you need to have a facebook account to view that, unfortunately). Here’s their mission statement: “This is s (sic) group for all the greeks that hate the Daily Nebraskan because they have managed to take the greek system one more step backward, when we are trying to move forward!”

A few of us joined up, but they sniffed us out and booted us from the group.

But there are still people out there who think that their self-appointed social superiority entitles them to immunity from news coverage. I guess in that way, the Greek system is good preparation for the real world.

That animation is by DN photographer Greg Blobaum; the DN “X” logo is by the Greeks Against the Daily Nebraskan group.

HappyYoungPeople.com, a website that I contribute cartoons and occasional posts to, was mentioned in today’s issue of The Metro.

Being in Nebraska, I don’t know anything about this newspaper, but according to Tony Bock, “That’s a free daily for NY, Boston, Philly, Jersey - it’s huge, man. They have people everywhere passing them out around here. Their NYC circulation is a half-million.” So that’s exciting.

If you’re in New York, pick one up and look at the top of page 14 -

Web site of the day - The web site www.HappyYoungPeople.com features cartoons, movie trailer reviews and other witty jabs at pop culture. Its contributors describe it as the “‘Saturday Night Live’ of web sites - only funny.”

Or click here to download a pdf of the issue.

HappyYoungPeople.com was started by Tony, Chip Huffman and Matt “Guy” Fiorita. I post occasionally, and then this new guy named Joe Praino just came on board. They’re all based in New York City. I am the Midwest Bureau.

San Diego mayor Dick Murphy announced his resignation today. Although it is a bit of a shock, it’s not like it’s completely out of the blue. Just last week, he was named by Time magazine as one of the worst three mayors in the United States. Follow those links and you can get a taste of the things plaguing San Diego these days.

Politics aside, it’s sad to see anyone have to resign so soon in their term. And considering how many shots I’ve lobbed his way, it probably sounds like I regret being so hard on the guy. Not really - but it’s things like this that remind you that everyone, even those playing the big political game, is still human.

And beyond that, Murphy was the mayor back in January 2003 when I first started cartooning for The Reader. So there’s a little bit of selfish sentimentality thrown in too.

Hopefully his resignation doesn’t turn out to be in vain, and the big mess that is San Diego’s political structure can get cleaned up a bit.

The first week of Night Knight is in the bag. Week 2 begins today.

I had the series finished about a week before it started running, so it’s been a lot of fun just sitting back and watching the whole saga play out with no pressure hanging over everything.

Last week was the big media blitz - the advertising, the interview on KLIN - and this week, hopefully that all took hold and everyone will enjoy the ride as the story moves out of the introduction phase and into the series of unfolding events.

The good folks at Trade-a-Tape informed me last week that the reaction was mixed - mostly positive - but that at the very least, a lot of people were talking about it.

So far, the response people have been giving me has been overwhelmingly positive. People have also been extremely congratulatory simply because the thing exists, which is flattering. I have the Journal Star to thank for that - it was editor Kathy Rutledge’s idea from the beginning to do a serialized graphic novel. I was lucky enough to be the first artist that came to mind.

If you’re outside the Journal Star’s coverage area, go to their website and tell them you want to read Night Knight.