TIME Magazine comics columnist Andrew Arnold has had a big influence on the ligetimization of comics over the last few years, lending many “Time Magazine Sez!” pull quotes to comics press kits, and in general being a hardcore supporter of the very finest and most challenging in comics for a major press outlet. Now, after being one of scores of Time employees laid off in recent weeks, he’s hanging up his column:

Originally TIME.comix ran on a weekly schedule. Gradually it has slowed. This is mostly due to my own increasingly busy life, but also reflects a shift in the market. When TIME.comix began there were far more chapter-length comic books than there are now (manga excepted). Gradually the focus in the “alternative” comix industry has become more on completed long-form books that can be sold through regular booksellers, beyond just comic specialty shops. This reflects the major shift in public interest towards graphic novels that TIME.comix has born witness to, and I’d like to think, in some small way contributed to.

Arnold hints he’ll be back however, and we hope we haven’t seen the last of him.