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Following notice that the strip will need to be reduced due to space limitations in the Saturday Magazine section, it was determined by its creators that Gridlock would appear for the last time on January 25, 2003.

Friday, September 21, 2001
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Gridlock has been unable to enjoy its usual weekday presence on the Spectator's front page (or any page, for that matter), due to management's belief that it would be inappropriate during these difficult days following the terrorist attacks in the USA. Meanwhile, the cartoon continues to get exposure in its longer format within the magazine section of Saturday's Hamilton Spectator.

Saturday, May 12, 2001
Dana Robbins--Editor-In-Chief, The Hamilton Spectator

Beginning today, The Hamilton Spectator begins an expanded version of Gridlock, the cartoon that appears on our front page three times a week. (Beginning next week, the strip moves to Monday, Wednesday, Friday.)

Gridlock -- the creation of our own Wade Hemsworth and Graeme MacKay -- chronicles the sometimes bizarre lives of characters who are, in many ways, typically and stereotypically, Hamiltonian -- hard-working, unpretentious, no-nonsense and a little cynical, even acerbic. All in all, not unlike Wade or Graeme.

The expanded version will appear in the Spectator's new Saturday magazine supplement.

Thursday, March 29, 2001
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Hammercab has refused the request to begin supplying a struggling dot-com company money in exchange for the continuance of a guestbook, a messageboard, and a traffic analyser. We've had the great fortune of having such services for free for almost a year. We maintain our reluctance to pay money for the luxury of having a webpage on the Internet, as well as any services offered for free by other service providers. Therefore, modifications were made to the homepage today.

Thursday, January 25, 2001
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Scratch out the previous news statement (below). It seems as though the Spectator will not go forth with its plans for a weekend magazine supplement. Gridlock will continue to be featured on the front page 3 times a week. Wade Hemsworth has been assigned new duties in the Sports Department as the Spectator's Tiger Cat football reporter. He'll continue to write for Hammercab, although it's not yet determined whether this move will impose more gridiron themes upon Gridlock. Let's hope not.

Sunday, November 26, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Gridlock's presence on the front page of the Hamilton Spectator will end in the not so distant future. The strip has been featured three times a week on the cover page since July 1, of this year. The good news is that Hammer Cab will continue to entertain with an expanded format in an as yet to be announced new weekly section of the Hamilton Spectator. Both myself and Wade Hemsworth welcome this move by Editor-In-Chief, Dana Robbins, as an opportunity to advance character development and create a sassier, undergroundish feel to the strip.

Monday, October 9, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The Home Depot Corporation has purchased an original Gridlock strip. 20010.jpg links to the image. It will be on display at the Home Depot corporate museum off I-75 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Monday, August 7, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The cartoon strip is now a month into its colourized rectangular shaped format. The good news is that it looks much more impressive to visitors to our website. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of its appearance on the front page of The Hamilton Spectator. Some people have complained that the cartoon is much too small for the eyes to read -- especially the ones where four panels are employed with three lines in a single caption bubble. Some more tinkering will be necessary to satisfy all. In the meantime, things on the internet website side look bright. The unique and returning visitor rate to Gridlock is climbing like never before from countries all over the world. After 3 months being off the top 20 banner list of The Top 100 Comc Strip Sites, we're happy to report that we're back up and surging forward.

Friday, July 7, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Gridlock marked its one year anniversary on June 30. To celebrate the occasion we presented a lengthy musical feature entitled "This Town is Gridlock Town". The Hamilton Spectator moved the strip from its current location in the Op-Ed section of the newspaper to the front page. Because of its front page exposure Gridlock will for evermore be displayed in technicolour. Due to these changes, the configuration of each updated cartoon on this page will look kinda crappy. This should be remedied as soon as the cartoonist can find time to do the necessary tinkering in order to make this site more pleasing to look at. Bear with us in the meantime.

Friday, June 16, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Does anybody read this announcement stuff? Drop us a line if you do. In Gridlock news...www.hammercab.com became official this week. What benefit it will have is unclear. See the recent strip that provoked the domain to be registered. The index page to the website has been modified to greet surfers with a more compact and user-friendly design. Several things have yet to be ironed out. For a couple of weeks now Pope Alien Comics has been featuring Gridlock as its "Link O' the Moment". We have been quite pleased with the response and encourage Gridlock readers to take a look at the funny work on display at Pope Alien Comics, good Canadian entertainment.

Tuesday, May 23, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The comic strip When I Grow Up and it's creator Jeff Rowland, are showcasing Gridlock as its link-of-the week. Consequently, the traffic flow has significantly increased to double digit figures. It is quite apparent that these link exchanges are the key to achieving greater traffic numbers. However, it's hard to find comic strips we genuinely enjoy, and there seems to be a type of online cartoon fraternity that is rather cliquey. Such exchanges will be difficult for the mere fact that Gridlock just isn't, well, as "underground" a cartoon as those which we really appreciate.

Thursday, May 18, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The Gridlock website now has a messageboard for people to engage in interactive discussion concerning anything having to do with the comic strip. A number of questions have been posted to motivate people to add their own input. We aren't expecting much activity on the discussion board, judging by the dreary number of people who leave comments on in the online guestbook.
The possibility of introducing a Gridlock chatroom is being bandied about. It would be called "The Gridlock Lavatory". It's mandate: to provide a place for solitary individuals who prefer being left alone in chatrooms.

Sunday, May 14, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The Gridlock website now has a Links page. We have unilaterally placed these links to sites which we believe to be "first rate in the areas of ingenuity, artistic merit, and overall level of humour." Wouldn't it be nice to have a link to the Gridlock site from some of webpages we now showcase?

Saturday, May 13, 2000 (From The Hamilton Spectator .)
Kirk Lapointe--Hamilton Spectator Editor-In-Chief

Later this month, we plan to move our terrific local cartoon, Gridlock, created by Graeme MacKay and Wade Hemsworth, from our Forum page to the front page. Its format will change slightly to make its point more quickly, but we want to showcase this outstanding local work in the most prominent place we can. Besides, a little humour on our front page sure won't hurt.

Saturday, May 6, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Gridlock was knocked off The Top 100 Comc Strip Sites banner display of the best 20 cartoon strips. We're dismayed that the final knock-out punch following our slow decline on the list was done by an amateurishly drawn comic strip called Flounder Wobble. Kudos to creator of that strip, as he, like many other cartoonists out there seem to know something that we at Gridlock don't know when it comes to increasing traffic flow.

Saturday, April 29, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The "imaginary cash giveaway" lure posted on our banners turned out to be a complete failure. The traffic flow to our site was actually below average.

Saturday, April 22, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

The porn lure project was a success. Our traffic flow from The Top 100 Comc Strip Sites tripled its usual weekly average. Fearing the potential that this tactic could possibly damage Gridlock's integrity, the reference to nudity has been removed from our banners. Our plan for the week to come is to offer "imaginary cash giveaways" as an incentive to visit the Gridlock homepage.

Saturday, April 15, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

In a desperate attempt to increase traffic flow to Gridlock, the decision has been made to offer surfers the choice to view some homegrown, hometown, taxi-driver porn over the next 7 days.

Thursday, March 20, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Talk is abound that the higher-ups at The Hamilton Spectator want to expand Gridlock from being thrice weekly strip to a 6/week production. Also, they'd like to feature it on the frontpage of the daily broadsheet, rather than being buried deep with the front section on the Forum page. This means colour! This means more exposure! It means Gridlock may become just one panel, which disturbs the creators.

Sunday, March 5, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

In an attempt to boost traffic flow to its internet site Gridlock has been added to a list known as Big Panda.

Friday, February 18, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Suave Hamilton city councillor Marvin Caplan leaves a delightful comment on the Gridlock messageboard. Kudos to Caplan for his interactivity. To date, just he, and some person named "Bob", are the only ones to include themselves on our guestbook. How Pathetic.

Saturday, February 12, 2000 (From The Hamilton Spectator .)
From“Five Questions for Mike Baldwin” Creator of the syndicated cartoon "Cornered".

“What cartoons do you read and what are your favourites?"
"I read Speed bumps, Peanuts, Adam, Pickles, (For Better Or For Worse), Dilbert, Drabble and Graeme MacKay's Gridlock. My favourites stopped cartooning -- Herman, Far Side, Bloom Country and Calvin and Hobbes. That's one of the reasons I started.”

Thursday January 13, 2000
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Gridlock is added to a list called The Top 100 Comc Strip Sites. It ranks internet comic strips by popularity.

Sunday August 8, 1999
Graeme MacKay--Gridlock Illustrator

Gridlock is inaugurated on the worldwide web. It'll be a simple, spartan site with me, Graeme MacKay, as its webmaster. I haven't got a clue about Aitch-Tee-Em-Elle, but I intend to learn about it. Many outside the Hamilton area won't understand these cartoons, but what the heck? The same thing can be said of my other new site MacKay Editorial Cartoons.

Saturday, July 10, 1999 From The Hamilton Spectator .)
Kirk Lapointe--Hamilton Spectator Editor-In-Chief

Gridlock, our new locally set cartoon by artist Graeme MacKay and writer Wade Hemsworth, drew some very supportive comments this week as it launched.
We decided to keep the cartoon sketched a couple of days ago in the paper today. The irony was too delicious.

Saturday, July 3, 1999 From The Hamilton Spectator .)
Kirk Lapointe--Hamilton Spectator Editor-In-Chief

The characters of Gridlock arrive today in our pages.
We are proud to introduce a locally-made, locally-set cartoon strip on page A6 by artist Graeme MacKay and writer Wade Hemsworth. It appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
We are one of the few papers anywhere to attempt such a portrait of its communities. Our belief is that our region offers great source material. We can afford to laugh at ourselves without getting mean-spirited, and Gridlock is one way we'll share a chuckle at our plight.
The first few strips will set the tone and introduce the characters. From there, we'll stretch out in different directions. The aim is to keep the cartoon current. Whatever afflicts or infects the region, positively and otherwise, will make its way into Gridlock. But there will be time and room for general musing, too.
We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Saturday, July 3, 1999 From The Hamilton Spectator .)
SAY HELLO TO THE WORLD OF GRIDLOCK

A new family has come to our pages. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, we will chronicle their lives in a new cartoon strip by artist Graeme MacKay and writer Wade Hemsworth.
We think Gridlock will allow us to share experiences, tell stories, poke fun at ourselves and celebrate our communities.
The Hamilton Spectator is one of the few newspapers anywhere to try this. Your comments and suggestions will help us make sure we don't fail.
Many local luminaries will grace the cartoon from time to time. Today, a little bit about the main characters you'll meet over the next few weeks: