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Featuring Jules Feiffer, Jane Rosenberg, Quino and Mafaldo, Lynda Barry and other autobiographical cartoonists, Steve Bonello. Cyril Tighe, Matt Groening, and The Complete Calvin and Hobbes on sale.
Jules Feiffer, Playwright
Cartoonist Jules Feiffer was the author of Little Murders (1967), Feiffer’s People (1969), Knock Knock (1976), Elliot Loves (1990), among other plays and was remembered in The Tony Awards Memorial reel (at the 2:53 mark) on June 8, 2025 as Cynthia Erivo and Sara Bareilles performed “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie.
Diddy Bashes Courtroom Artist
Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs had a go at courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg on Thursday for making him look like a “koala.”
“Soften me up a bit, you’re making me look like a koala bear,” Combs said, according to Rosenberg, who was cited by Reuters.
Another trial in a federal courtroom where cameras are not allowed and another defendant unhappy with his portrayal by courtroom artists, this time Jane Rosenberg. Isabel van Brugen for the Daily Beast reports.
With cameras banned in Manhattan federal court, well-known courtroom sketch artist Rosenburg has been documenting Combs’ trial, which began on May 12.
But Combs is apparently not a fan of his courtroom makeover. He turned to the artist in the first row, asking her to make his pictures more flattering.
Mafalda, Argentina’s Cartoon Heroine, Comes to America
When the Argentine cartoonist best known as Quino died in 2020 at age 88, he left behind a child who questioned authority, hated soup and belonged to the world.
Mafalda, the eponymous star of Joaquín Salvador Lavado’s beloved comic strip, is by any measure a global sensation: statues in Argentina and Spain; a handful of animated TV credits (including an upcoming Netflix series); calendars, coffee mugs and makeup bags adorned with her trademark bob and bow tie everywhere from Mexico City to Milan.
And yet Mafalda is a relative unknown in this country…
Benjamin P. Russell at The New York Times introduces America to Quino’s Mafalda. Or here.
“This is seriously the comic that the country needs in this moment,” said Ricardo Siri, who grew up reading “Mafalda” in Argentina and now lives in Vermont … “Mafalda has her point of view, but she always accepts as friends people who are very different from her.”
Complete Calvin And Hobbes Comic Collection Drops To Best Price This Year At Amazon
If you grew up stealing the comics section of the newspaper from your parents to read the humorous and insightful adventures of Calvin and his stuffed Tiger, make sure to check out Amazon’s deal this week on The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. The three-volume hardcover box set has dropped to $94.69, which is substantially cheaper than its $225 MSRP. To get the full discount, you need to click the coupon box on the store page below the price to slash an additional $31.56 from your total at checkout.
Steven Petite at GameSpot reports on price cuts for Calvin and Hobbes Complete sets and other book collection for Calvin and Hobbes. And scroll down for Lord of the Rings box sets on sale.
The hardcover edition is actually slightly cheaper than the paperback box set right now, but the $97.23 (was $160) paperback collection is eligible for Amazon’s B1G1 50% off book sale this week.
Drawn From Life: How the Graphic Novel Memoir Takes Creative Liberties With Autobiography
In comics, authors can use the dual modes of text and image to play with or against each other to explore unique storytelling techniques in autobiography. This can be seen in American cartoonist Lynda Barry’s graphic memoir One! Hundred! Demons! In the book Barry confronts various demons or traumas from her childhood. In the introduction, she depicts herself drawing the comics page we are reading, which can be seen as a claim to authenticity. However, she complicates this in the text by questioning the nature of graphic memoir – she asks ‘Is it autobiography if parts of it are not true? Is it fiction if parts of it are?’ – a question that confronts all readers of autobiography. Barry then goes on to coin a new term for these hybrid stories – ‘autobiofictionalography’.
Artist, lecturer and researcher Damon Herd for Faber explores the ubiquity of graphic novel memoirs, and how comics are uniquely positioned to play with the truth as he reads autobiographical comics from cartoonists like Mollie Ray, Craig Thompson, David Beauchard, Alison Bechdel, Art Spiegelman, and Lynda Barry.
‘I could say that nothing is true but everything is accurate’.
No filter, no regrets:
Cartoonist Steve Bonello hangs up his pen after 34 years
I started drawing when I was 16. I’m mostly self-taught. I attended art school for a bit, but I didn’t enjoy it. My work only became satirical around 1984, during the church schools’ issue.
In 1991, I organised my second exhibition. At the time, Daphne Caruana Galizia had started writing, anonymously at first. She liked my work and wrote an excellent blurb in the exhibition brochure.
A few months later, she asked me to do the illustrations for her column in The Times, and that turned into 34 years of contributions.
After 34 years of contributing to Times of Malta with his incisive ‘Islanders’ cartoons, artist Steve Bonello has hung up his pens. He shares his thoughts on politics, life and his favourite cartoons over the years with Matthew Bonanno at The Times of Malta.
Right now, there is a dearth of politicians who possess any moral fiber.
I was naive enough to think that once we joined the EU we would mature, politically, which obviously didn’t happen. If anything, things got worse. I believe one of the reasons for this was because Joseph Muscat read Maltese people very well and appealed to the lowest common denominator.
I don’t really give a damn anymore. It bugs me that we have an incredibly corrupt government, but when I look at the Opposition, I don’t see anything promising either. I want change, but the change has to be for the better.
Discovering Cyril Tighe, World War II Soldier/Cartoonist
While looking in the window of a second-hand store, Mr Henstock came across a series of envelopes containing hand-drawn cartoons that had been stamped by the Australian Military Forces censorship board.
Closer inspection revealed the envelopes, which had been addressed to a nurse named Mary Donnellan back in Australia, had been sent by World War II serviceman Cyril Tighe from New Guinea between 1943 and 1945.
Rowan Cowley for The Senior tells of the discovery of a cartoonist Cyril Tighe treasure.
Through subsequent research, Mr Henstock discovered that after returning from the war, Cyril Tighe married a woman named Mary. He also worked as a cartoonist for The Bulletin for a number of years and created the comic strip Minnie and Matt the Cat.
Matt Groening Honored as “Icon of Animation”
The Annecy Film Festival’s tribute to the legendary Matt Groening and the creators of The Simpsons played like an episode of the iconic animated series: Funny, joyous and heartfelt, with lots of silliness and at least one unexpected fart joke.
Groening was named an “icon of animation,” and presented with an honorary Cristal award for his lifetime contribution to the form.
Scott Roxborough for The Hollywood Reporter notes the honor given to cartoonist Matt Groening.
“It’s a little-known fact that my parents’ real names were Itchy and Scratchy,” Groening joked, referring to the show’s ultra-violent cartoon-within-a-cartoon characters. “No, seriously, I have a real father called Homer, a real mother called Marge, real siblings called Lisa and Maggie and a real grandfather called Abe. So people always ask me: ‘Does that mean you’re Bart?’” Pausing for effect, he revealed his actual Simpsons alter-ego. “The truth is — je suis Milhouse.”
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