Cartoonist’s departure will allow paper greater flexibility to provide local content

Today’s edition of the Frontiersman includes the final contribution from editorial cartoonist Chuck Legge, whose work has appeared in this paper since October of 1995.

Over the years, Legge’s “The World According to Chuck” drawings have caused a wide range of responses from our readers, ranging from outright hostility to mild irritation to thought-provoking laughter. Like all good cartoonists, his best work often pushed the boundaries of decorum, political correctness and taste while also causing readers to (hopefully) smile a little bit and think a little more.

Legge was never shy about his political leanings. According to his own biography, he admits to having a “liberal” bias — something that didn’t always go over well here in a part of the state well known for its conservative views.

“My editorial cartoons have a decidedly liberal tilt, which makes me quite popular up here,” writes Legge in his tongue-in-cheek biography. “Popular in the same way that a moose with a target-shaped birthmark is popular.”

Legge’s cartoons haven’t always gone over well (he often boasts of causing at least one high-profile Valley family to cancel their subscription), but they’ve often been well received. He’s won several Alaska Press Club awards as the state’s Best Editorial Cartoonist, and he’s been a regular contributor to the “Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year” publication by Pelican Press.

Legge’s pen has been a double-edged sword at times for us here at the Frontiersman. While it’s great to have a local editorial cartoonist (Chuck and his wife live in Sutton), it’s also true that many readers were frequently prodded into complaining about his work. In addition to his admitted biases, Legge also frequently has taken time to skewer national and international politicians and figures. While this is sometimes interesting, it does not fit with the Frontiersman’s philosophy of delivering the best hyper-local content for our readers. We want the paper to reflect community values and tell Valley stories, and having cartoons about national politicians doesn’t always fit that mission.

As we attempt to become even more intensely local over the coming months, we’ll be making a few changes. One of those changes is to replace Chuck’s cartoons with more local opinion. For now, that’s going to take the shape of a rotating feature that will include voices from average citizens, interesting historical anecdotes and reader polls.

We believe these are the kinds of things our readers want to see in their newspaper, and eliminating the World According to Chuck will give us the flexibility to get more local voices into the paper. The move will also allow us to free up much-needed editorial money to produce local content for our special sections, which we plan to produce more of in the coming months.

All good things must come to an end, and we wish Chuck Legge the best in his future endeavors. Knowing Chuck, it’s a good bet he’ll figure out a way to enlighten (and irritate) us from afar.

Good luck, Chuck.