A mere column’s width away from this editorial (in the print edition, anyway), the end of an era is taking place.
Just to the right of this text resides the final frame in Tim Nimigan’s beloved Our Town comic series. For 20 years now faithful readers of the Beaver have known every other week on the editorial page there will be a reason to laugh. If they got bored of reading whatever the editor was ranting about that particular week, they could simply shift their eyes ever so slightly to the other side of the page and see what goofy situation Nimigan had dreamt up this time. Alas, after this week, that will be no more. At least, not on a regular basis. Nimigan has at least left open the door on the possibility of submitting a drawing here and there should inspiration strike.
This writer was a sports writer when he joined the Napanee Beaver in 2008. By then Nimigan’s Our Town was a long established fixture in the paper. It was the late Dominik Wisniewski that actually pointed out one day the two Easter eggs to look for in each panel-the fluffy white dog and the name ‘Laura’.
Years later when this reporter offered the position of editor, it was comforting to know Nimigan would be staying on as cartoonist. While in that role of editor it became clear why the two people who held the chair before had appreciated working with Nimigan. First and foremost, his cartoons always met deadline (that’s rule No. 1 in the newspaper business). Along with being punctual, his drawings were funny (rule No. 1A in the newspaper cartoon business we would suppose), and also relevant to the community. Best of all they managed to walk the line between funny and offensive. That’s not easy to do, particularly in the last decade.
As editor it was great to know there wouldn’t be a flood of angry emails or phone calls waiting the day after papers hit the doorsteps of readers who took umbrage with a punchline they saw on the editorial page. As such Nimigan deserves a hearty tip of the hat in that he’s ending the series on his own terms-he hasn’t been ‘cancelled’ like so many other comedians of late. As the lone print media outlet in town, it’s also nice to know the jokes won’t get political one way or another, helping to aspire to the goal of reporting the news and letting the reader decide, doing our best to avoid any particular slant to one side of the spectrum.
And so there is an undeniable feeling of sadness as we wish Nimigan the best in his retirement from the Beaver’s editorial pages. It’s been a pleasure and honour to be the vehicle that delivered the award winning Our Town to thousands of readers every other week. It’s been a joy to work with a constant professional who took the role of being silly so serious.
All the best, Tim. Thanks for the laughs.
-Adam Prudhomme