See Update Below

As I mentioned before, Judge Parker artist Eduardo Barreto fell ill several weeks ago, and was temporarily replaced by a ghost artist.

It was announced recently that artist Mike Manley has become Barreto’s permanent replacement.  I’m not sold on Manly’s interpretation quite yet, but it always takes a while to get used to a new artist.  We’ll see how the strip progresses over the next few months.

Update: I was under the impression that Manley was the ghost artist and had been recently awarded the job full-time, but many astute readers pointed out that this was incorrect.  The interim artist is John Heebink.  Mike Manley’s strips will start on March 15th.

Here’s a side by side:

Barreto - Judge Parker - 02/21/2010

John Heebink - Judge Parker - 02/19/2010

If you’re up on all the latest comic strip news, you may have heard that Judge Parker artist Eduardo Barreto has fallen gravely ill, and will likely cease drawing Judge Parker - at least for a while.  The new artist has already started drawing the weekday strips, as you can see here:

Judge Parker - 02/15/2010

Quite different from Barreto’s style, to be sure.