Mac Backtracks

New Sally Forth artist Craig "Mac" Macintosh is responding to massive reader complaints, and is evolving the strip's look back toward the less-polished style of its writer and original artist, Greg Howard. "We went back to square one and redrew two and a half months of work," Macintosh told the Journal. "I'm still trying to keep my perspective and drawing ability intact, but get all pencils approved by Greg. I think they now look more like what we should have intended... The syndicate was overwhelmed by the response to the change. They panicked, even. In their view, you don't want to tinker too much with success."

In other strip news, United Feature Syndicate has launched Betty, described as "a savvy comic character who is unapologetically ordinary, happy and female... a very real woman for the '90s." Creators Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen first used the character in their 1976 University of Alberta student-paper strip, Bub Slug. Another UFS artist, Rose is Rosé's Pat Brady, won an achievement award from the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance for making Rose's husband Jimbo "an average sized man who admires large women and shows in a lighthearted and humorous way that beauty comes in all sizes."