Another incentive has been offered. MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond has offered to donate five signed original MAD parodies to donors pledging $400.

From Tall Tale Radio:

Anne Hambrock, wife of John Hambrock of “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” and colorist for the strip, is deep in the throes of organizing the 2nd Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. She threw this bash last year, and it went so well, the public has demanded another. She’s here to talk about why she loves meeting cartoonists, why it’s important that people DO meet cartoonists, and about how she’s raising money to pay for an amazing group of artists to show up, all while keeping the Festival free to the public!

The scheduled cartoonists are Stephan Pastis, Norm Feuti, Dave Coverly, Greg Cravens and Michael Jantze, with the great Hilary Price on deck and ready to show up if Anne reaches her Kickstarter goal. I am also involved as the panel moderator, so I have no shame in doing a PBS-like plea for money, so click here! Or here! Or here! (Actually, they all go to the same place…just click.) There are tons of great incentives…get moving, people!

Her Kickstarter efforts are underway. She needs to raise $10,000. I’ve donated and hope you will too.

Bill Kellogg, the seminar organizer, also tells me that the “six-month payment plan” is still available for those wanting to attend but are tight on cash. Contact Bill for details.

For more details on the seminar visit Tundra’s website.

Creig passed away in 2008. He spent his career in comic books and magazine illustration and cartoons.

Seriously, what a line-up. Throughout the weekend people were enthusiastic about the gathering, but I think it might have escaped most how unique it was to get Al, Jack, Paul, Nick and Sam all together at one time, Certainly that kind of gathering of greats has not happened since the legendary MAD trips Bill Gaines used to take the UGOI on. I was constantly pinching myself all weekend to even have been allowed in the same room as these awe-inspiring talents, let alone be billed alongside them.

The weekend was a mixture of presentations and workshops with the students and faculty of SCAD as well as members of the SEC NCS, tours, the opening reception of a public show of original MAD art from all the guests, and a free public panel discussion with all the attending UGOI. Here’s a rundown of the events I was able to attend, both public and private, with some pictures:

Great picts and write up. I was already jealous of the attendees, this makes me that much more.

Karen and I made it home from the second international “Comics & Medicine” conference in Chicago–or, as one of our participants called it, “the Coolest Conference on Earth.” I can’t disagree. Assembling a detailed, coherent trip report would take days. Instead, I’ll report some random impressions and annotate some photos to try to capture a feel for it. If you want to know more, you’ll just have to attend the next one (whenever and wherever that’ll be . . .).

This is the last batch of pics from Toonfest 2010 in Marceline MO and consists largely of random photos of the cartoonists and their families. Again, thanks so much to everyone in Marceline for making the weekend such a wonderful experience. And thank you also to all the cartoonists involved – you were all so gracious and inspiring!

Visit his blog for all of his Toonfest posts.

Convention schedule and information is available on their website.

Comic Book Resources has the best summary of the incident.

Here’s a citizen journalist’s attempt to put it all together.

They didn’t care how acclaimed the director, how bright the star, if you didn’t measure up to their very high bar, they would flay you. When the Hollywood power brokers started showing up in the ’90s, the hardcore fans who had been making the trek since the ’70s and ’80s, when Comic-Con was little more than boys with their boxes of comics to trade, were unimpressed, unintimidated.

As a result, it was the one place to find truth-tellers who would shout their likes and dislikes loud, long and on the record. Cast Halle Berry as “Catwoman” in the wake of her Oscar win for “Monsters Ball” and the screams would become howls that sent chills down the studio spine, as The Times’ own super geek, Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher, found in his analysis of the Comic-Con effect in 2005. The film and its star went on to pile up a ton of Razzies (the annual award for the worst this and that).

With the power of the fanboys finally registering — they could make or break a film — in typical fashion, there were those who wanted to harness that power. In the kingdom of the geek, no longer would sending a trailer suffice, as Tim Burton was able to do with “Batman.” The actors, directors, producers and marketers were expected to show up in person to kiss the ring. And before you could say, “Ching, ching,” the convention had blown up into a giant focus group, featured in real time on the Internet.