Comic strip artist at small town Minnesota newspaper was a local character himself
Dan Gola, who contributed cartoons to the Echo Journal newspaper for 28 years, died in January at age 76. Written By: Nancy Vogt | ×
Dan GolaFile photo
PEQUOT LAKES, Minn. Just a month after penning his last Claude and Ernie comic strip for the Echo Journal in Pequot Lakes, Minn., Dan Gola died at age 76. He had been battling health issues for years.
“He loved doing that. He loved y’all,” his wife, Barbara Gola, said of the Claude and Ernie strip that Gola created for nearly 30 years for the newspaper. “That was a big part of his life.”
2020 Highlights: COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath is year s top story in northern Brainerd lakes area
Take a month-by-month look at some of the more important stories that appeared on the pages of the Echo Journal in 2020 Written By: Nancy Vogt | ×
14 Lakes Craft Brewing Co. s float was all ready for the Crosslake St. Patrick s Day parade, which was canceled. Nancy Vogt / Echo Journal
Traditionally, the Echo Journal doesn’t pick a top story of the year, but rather publishes a list of highlights from each month.
However, it’s next to impossible not to say that the COVID-19 pandemic and its many effects on all of our lives was the top story of 2020 - and not just locally, but across the world.
Claude & Ernie cartoonist shares final bob of the bobber
Cartoonist Dan Gola retires his cartoon strip named for Claude Schmidt and the late Ernie Musolf after 28 years.
Written By:
Dan Gola | Echo Journal Cartoonist | 9:00 am, Dec. 20, 2020 ×
Dan GolaFile photo
To all the readers who shared some laughs with me and Claude and Ernie for the past 28 years:
You are the reason it caught on and remained for so long. I thought it would be around for a while because when I went to Keith and Martha Anderson (owners of the Lake Country Echo at the time); their son, Pete (the publisher at the time); and Lou Hoglund (the editor at the time) in the fall of 1992, I had enough material for the next two years.