The Age appears to have sacked three of its most respected cartoonists as part of a back page redesign — but seems to have failed to tell one of them her services were no longer required.

Melbourne visual bard Oslo Davis, Andrew Weldon and Judy Horacek all shared a space on the back page — but only Davis and Weldon were told they’d been relieved of their scribbling duties. The news, broken by Davis on his Facebook fan page, has been greeted with dismay by readers who often began their mornings with his wry musings.

On Twitter, Davis said he had been moved on because of “page redesign and editor cuts. Us cartoonist[s] were at the end of the food chain.” Crikey cartoonist First Dog on the Moon slammed the decision as “fucking crazy” today.

Lorna Edwards, who edited the “Melbourne Life” section encompassing the ‘toon, departed the company in the latest redundancy round. During the Olympics the page was re-jigged with stories from London appearing above the fold with the “Postcode 3000” gossip column shifted from column 8 to the bottom half.

Horacek wrote on Twitter that she assumed her cartoon had also been axed, but disgracefully Age management hadn’t called her. Weldon was also been given his marching orders, according to Australian cartoonist Jon Kudelka.

This week, Davis appeared twice on the back page. His swansong effort on Friday, titled “The Wisdom of Youth”, mocked the recent outbreak of shorts in the CBD when Melbourne’s temperature is still hovering in the mid-teens.

Davis told Crikey this morning that “there’s no ill feeling from me to The Age. There’s people worse off. And also a great bunch of talented people still there.” Fans will still be able to catch Davis in another Fairfax forum — he will continue to contribute his popular “Overheard” illustration to The Sunday Age‘s M Magazine.