Industry news for the professional cartoonist
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has posted an interview Tom Spurgeon coducted with Amy Lago, editor of the Washington Post Writers Group regarding the dropped Opus comics back in late August and early September. An excerpt: SPURGEON: Are you worried about any of the potential free speech elements to this incident, that it might…
After more than 2 dozen papers temporarily dropped Berkeley Breathed’s Opus this last Sunday, many are questioning if the strip was offensive enough to warrant such action. The strip apparently didn’t offend Sheila Musaji, the editor of The American Muslim. Sheila wrote on her publication’s blog that: As a Muslim I was offended by the…
Berkeley Breathed’s Opus has been temporarily dropped by 25 or more papers today and next week as the topic involves the Lola Granola’s character converting to “radical islamist.” Salon.com, carries the strip says many editors were afraid of offending muslim readers. Another aspect to the strip was a not-so-subtle reference to sex.
Last Sunday’s Opus has riled those on the right as Berkley Breathed’s Sunday-only depicts two kids talking about David Dinkle having two moms and no dad. The last panel has one character saying, “Makes you wonder how he’ll do without a male role model in the house” while an beer drinking, cigarette smoking Steve (clad…
The Daily Press, Newport VA, has dropped “Opus,” “The Pink Panther,” and “Jump Start” in order to make room for three kid’s features such as a crossword puzzle, “Ask Shagg” and “Doodles.”The editor also points out that Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks” has been replaced by Darrin Bell’s “Candorville” for the remainder of the hiatus.
Today marks The Daily Cartoonist’s 2nd years of operation. Last year’s announcement of it’s first “birthday” was all of two sentences. This year, I thought I’d take a moment and report on the blog’s status, kind of a “state of the blog” type report. On October 2, 2005, I signed up for a blogger.com account…
It occurred to me yesterday that I’d missed the anniversary of Comic Strip of the Day, which began 13 years ago Monday with this Ink Pen, a strip about a talent agency for cartoon animals which is no longer active but can still be read at GoComics. It also occurred to me that I don’t…
Scott Stantis (Counterpoint) brings up the question of the First Amendment, which doesn’t apply to private companies except, perhaps, in communist countries where the central government controls industry. But that itself offers a lot of fodder, because moderation of media is very much on the table at the moment. The rightwing blogosphere is currently in…
Juxtaposition of the Day (Andy Marlette) (Drew Litton – AMS) The deaths of Nichelle Nichols and Bill Russell may leave me without a lot of material to work with over the next little while, since their obituary cartoons seem a large portion of everybody’s current production. I’m not much on obituary cartoons, and most…
Ninety-three-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and Village Voice veteran Jules Feiffer and his wife, JZ Holden, are listing their Shelter Island home for $1.2 million. Feiffer — who is also the illustrator of Gimme’s favorite childhood book, “The Phantom Tollbooth” — moved to Shelter Island full time in 2017. The charming, shingle-style traditional home at 5 Emerson Lane, built in 2016,…
While newspapers continue to drop Non Sequitur (though at a far slower rate), those who have dropped it continue to get letters about the action. With the pro-Wiley Miller faction far outweighing those who agree with the papers’ decision to drop Non Sequitur. Now there seems to be an organized push to return the comic…
The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) has finalized their comic page line-up after expanding their comics page last year to 42 comics. The six new comics that ran in trials since last year are: Agnes, Argyle Sweater, Arlo & Janis, Deflocked, Scary Gary and Wizard of Id. Three comics were dropped: Sylvia, Watch Your Head…
2007 was to be a year of great shake ups. Bill Amend announced at the end of 2006 that his strip Fox Trot was going to Sunday only and Lynn Johnston had maintained for years that she was retiring For Better For Worse when her contract was up in the fall. But instead 2007 might…
The Kentucky Herald-Leader has announced major changes in their newspaper – their first major shake-up in over a decade. The paper formed a committee and a ballot and after 4000 votes were tabulated they’ve announced the following features were being dropped: The Quigmans Apartment 3-G Cathy Dennis the Menace Marmaduke Mary Worth Pardon My Planet…
Tom Armstrong’s “Marvin” was dropped to make room)F Minus made the grade and will stay as will Watch Your Head and Peach Fuzz.Mark Tatulli’s new feature “Lio” has also joined the line up.Opus was dropped early to make room for the trial run of the new features. Readership protests has brought it back.Cathy was also dropped to make room for the trial; she’s been relegated to the web edition.The Phantom has been dropped completely.Complete details are available on the St Petersburg Times web site.