Steve Benson was a daily cartoonist for the AZ ever since I moved to Phoenix in 1990 and the AZ Republic just laid him off.
AZ Republic must be doing badly.
Benson used to be a conservative, but went off the deep end with the rest of the Republic staff. Guessing he had a fat contract, based on his years of service and the syndication of some of his work to other outlets. With the newspaper business going down the tubes, he became expendable.
You can still make a nice living as an editorial cartoonist, assuming (a) you have talent and (b) there’s a market for your work. Michael Ramirez is the case-in-point. He provides cartoons for both the Daily Signal and the Las Vegas Review Journal, and his work appears in other publications, too. His collections have also sold well. Did I mention he has never wavered from his conservative viewpoint?