Comics return to the City Paper

The City Paper's redesigned itself and has this to say about comic strips -

Comics Page. Like many of our readers, we were sorry to see the paper's comics go a few years ago. Starting next week, they'll be back, on a single dedicated page that will feature Derf's excellent The City, Shawn Belschwender's Clown Time, David Malki's Wondermark, and Michael Kupperman's Up All Night. You'll still find Dirt Farm in its usual place.

- and we note that Ben Claassen is the cartoonist of Dirt Farm.

City Paper's Faustian bargain?

Did the City Paper's editors make a Faustian bargain? This week's issue again has no strips beyond local Classen's -- but it does still have new artwork by Ullman and Belschwender! Was the trade the cost of the syndicated strips vs the original spot illos?

Shawn Belschwender also out at City Paper

December 30, 2005 City Paper.

The editor confirmed this in a comment under the Rob Ullman post. Shawn's been illustrating News of the Weird for about twenty years now - he was the George Washington University's Hatchet comic strip artist around 1987. I don't know if he does any other cartooning anymore.