"Queen Victoria" makes a difference!

The strip reproduced above, from nationally syndicated comic The New Adventures of Queen Victoria, is a sampling from a storyline lambasting this newspaper for suspending, not canceling, the daily cartoon strip Non Sequitur. Readers who have followed this little dust-up will recall that a Non Sequitur strip carried a white-robed Ku Klux Klan chicken character - yes, chicken - with a voice bubble that it, “only lays egg whites.” We heard from a number of readers who were offended, and took the cartoon to be racially insensitive.

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So it's time for an announcement: Non Sequitur will return to the pages of the newspaper, starting next week.

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On the positive side, we heard from a lot of people who are serious, if you will, about their comics. Knowing readers care is always a good thing. Readers overwhelmingly supported Non Sequitur's return.

The Daily News garnered a bit of national publicity over the chicken affair, though not necessarily the kind we'd want. There's a big difference, of course, between suspending a feature and canceling it. Non Sequitur, like other features that run in the newspaper, are there by invitation. That invitation can be withdrawn at any time, for any reason. That's not censorship. That's business.