A look at the career of "Non Sequitur" cartoonist Wiley Miller (2024)

Leaves Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Works for a number of employers in the Los Angeles area — most notably, Aero Products Research of Los Angeles, where he helped make training films for airplane pilots.

Wiley — known as David Miller in those days — started out his newspaper career as a staff artist at The Record, the afternoon paper in Greensboro, North Carolina, providing spot illustrations and graphics for use throughout the newspapers. Shown: Wiley at his desk in 1978.

He begins doing editorial cartoons — at first on his own time. Only years later would he find a job where editorial cartooning was part of his job.

Wiley’s first syndicated comic strip, “Fenton,” starred the curmudgeonly assistant to the mayor of a small city named Cynical Falls.

Wiley says the strip wasn’t a huge hit — it ran in about 100 papers. It would last for about three years.

Hired as editorial cartoonist by the San Francisco Examiner. In addition, his work was syndicated to papers around the country.

Wiley would give that up, however, for “Non Sequitur.” Wiley feels like too many cartoonists try to do editorial cartoons and comics strips. “That’s two full-time jobs,” he says. “The quality of the work goes down. There’s too much stress” in the deadline-laden life of a cartoonist.

This was Wiley’s very first “Non Sequitur” comic strip from Sunday, Feb. 16, 1992.

Hardly any papers ran it, he says. Eventually, “Non Sequitur” would appear in more than 700 newspapers around the U.S. That first year, the National Cartoonist Society names “Non Sequitur” Best Comic Strip.

It’s commonly done now. But Wiley was the first.

Wiley also pioneered a way to change from old-style flat comics colors to a more artistic “process color” style. This, too, has become standard.

And how did Wiley make changes like this happen? He had support from his syndicate, of course. But mostly: “I asked,” he says.

One gets the feeling that Wiley himself might make at topic for a great “Non Sequitur” strip one day.

Wiley’s first book collection — “Dead Lawyers and Other Pleasant Thoughts” — is published.

The National Cartoonist Society names “Non Sequitur” Best Comic Panel. The strip wins the same award the next two years as well.

A second book collection — “The ‘Non Sequitur Survival Guide for the Nineties” — is published.

“Non Sequitur’s Beastly Things” is published.

“The Legal Lampoon: A Biasted, Unfair and Completely Accurate Law Review” is published.

“Why We’ll Never Understand Each Other: A Non-Sequitur Look at Relationships” is published.

The first “Non-Sequitur” calendar is published.

“Lucy and Danae: Something Silly This Way Comes” and “Non Sequitur’s Sunday Color Treasury” are published.

Publishes his first children’s book: "The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil."

His second children’s book: "Ordinary Basil: Attack of the Volcano Monkeys" is published.

Two e-book collections are published: “The Non Sequitur Guide to Aging” and “The Non Sequitur Guide to Finance.”

February: Many papers — including The Spokesman-Review — cancel “Non Sequitur” after a hidden expletive is found in one of his daily strips.

June: Spokesman-Review readers vote to have the strip reinstated in the paper.

August 4: After Spokesman-Review readers voice their appreciation of Wiley’s work, “Non Sequitur” is reinstated in the paper.