Those sharp-eyed readers may have also noticed the syndicated comic is now absent from a few newspapers around the country, including the Independent Record, as a result of this little trick.

Sunday’s strip featured a character named Leonardo Bear Vinci and included a vulgar message hidden in the bottom right corner: “We fondly say go f*** yourself to Trump.”

Andrews McMeel Syndication later apologized for distributing the comic, noting “we are sorry we missed the language in our editing process.”

“If we had discovered it, we would not have distributed the cartoon without it being removed. We apologize to Non Sequitur’s clients and readers for our oversight,” a statement from the company says.

Here at the Independent Record, we also want to apologize for allowing this to slip by undetected. We are responsible for what ends up in our newspaper, and we are severing ties with “Non Sequitur” to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

While we generally try to avoid publishing profanity in the newspaper, the problem is not the opinion itself. The problem is that the cartoonist intentionally deceived hundreds of paying customers and their readers by disguising his message to get it published.

We know many of our readers have enjoyed "Non Sequitur," and we are sad it had to end this way.

We just can't use content providers we can't trust, and we hope our readers will enjoy seeing some new material on the comics pages.

Thanks for your understanding.

Jesse Chaney is the editor of the Independent Record. You can reach him at editor@helenair.com or 447-4074.