I just learned that Vic Harville, my buddy and a long-time contributor to Cagle.com, has officially reitred from his position as the staff cartoonist for the Stephens Media Group newspapers.

Vic Harville's final cartoon (click to enlarge)

Vic’s planned retirement is different than many cartoonists in recent memory who have been scurried out of the office by security after receiving their corporate pink slips. Vic drew a farewell cartoon to his readers, which I’ve posted to the right.

Vic drew cartoons for the big Stephens Media Group’s entire chain of newspapers, which stretches from South Carolina to Hawaii; he was mostly known for his jabs at local Arkansas subjects, making a name for himself at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper, before he moved on to Stephens Media’s Little Rock bureau.  Arkansas gave Vic some larger-than-live characters to poke and prod over his 25-year cartooning career, including two natural cartoon characters, governors Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee.

Even though he’s retiring, it’s hard to keep a good cartoonist down. Vic says he’ll still freelance a bit, and continue tohis series of full-page Arkansas Razorback illustrations.

Here are some of Vic’s recent cartoons. We’ll keep his archives up on Cagle.com here, where he tells me he’ll keep posting new stuff every now and then, when he’s not fishing.