The Hots has gone the way of all comic strips. I am sorry to see it go, as it was really the second time I had enjoyed the work of Stephen Hersh as a comic strip author, this time with the work of artist Nina Paley backing his sneering, no-hugging-no-learning peeks into our mean little reptilian brains.
It just vanished off the King Features site this week. Last week, there and funny -- this week, zap. I emailed King, and they advise that the cartoonists requested its elimination -- too much work (entirely believeable), and Ms. Paley in particular looks forward to pursuing her independent animation projects. I have read that Hersh is a successful adman, involved in those delightful French Maid ads for yogurt, and so we can hope that he too will have new things to do.
Nevertheless, I mourned the passing of the marvelous Bliss a few years ago, and I mourn The Hots again. I adore comic strips -- I have read them daily almost as long as I can remember, now on the Web instead of in the paper. It makes me sad that the business is as bad as Paley says it is in her open letter. I doubt it will get much better, although we can always hope.