‘Comics’ page gets serious

John BALZAR’S story on the declining ranks of the editorial cartoonist (“Biting the Bullet,” Aug. 24) misses the mark. While Balzar touches on “panel” cartoons being political, he ignores the growing political nature of many so-called “gag” cartoons. The L.A. Times carries at least six daily strips that have political or controversial social topics at least 50% of the time (“Prickly City,” “Non Sequitur,” “Mallard Fillmore,” “Boondocks,” “La Cucaracha” and “Doonesbury”).

Political debate is still being encouraged by cartoon art; the setting has changed. Personally, I believe that all of the strips named above should be taken off the comics page -- a place where many children discover the newspaper and shouldn’t be exposed haphazardly to biased points of view -- and put on the editorial page.

Paul Teague

Lakewood