Industry news for the professional cartoonist
If you were one of the millions of individuals who tried to get to Berkeley Breathed’s web site on Sunday to learn who correctly guessed the Opus ending, you were not alone in your frustration that the server became overwhelmed. According to the L.A. Times, Berkeley’s website received 10-15 million hits compared to the 1,500…
Berkeley Breathed’s final Opus appeared today. The comic that appeared in newspapers directed readers to the Humane Society’s web site to see the final panel which depicted Opus in children’s storybook, “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown. Berkeley’s own web site appeared to be struggling under the traffic load. Berkeley reports on his website that…
Berkeley Breathed will be giving away $10,000 to a dog or cat shelter of a readers choice in conjunction to the Opus ending contest that was announced last week. The contest asks for readers to send in a one sentence entry guessing where Opus will be in his final paradise. The announcement says that clues…
For those who have listened to my interview with Mr. Media where we discussed the possible end of Berkeley Breathed’s Opus or have been reading the comments of an earlier post about Opus, you know that I can only report what Amy Lago at Washington Post Writers Group has told me (thrice now), they have…
Washington Post Writers Group has announced that Berkeley Breathed’s Opus will end syndication on November 2. According to the press release, Berkeley has vowed that this end is for good. “With the crisis in Wall Street and Washington, I’m suspending my comic strip to assist the nation. The best way I can help is to…
E&P caught the story before I did. In an interview with Texas Monthly (scroll down), Berkeley Breathed slips what possibly be might be the end of his Opus feature. What interesting projects are on your horizon? BB: Three: a novel; two of my books are in development at Disney; and Opusâ??s death, which approaches. Has…
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) has set their 2024 NCS Conference and Reuben Awards for August 22-24 (Thursday-Saturday) in San Diego, California. This year we will co-host some of our conference programming with the awesome team at the Comic Con Museum, located in San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park. The NCS board used feedback from the…
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,…
The guys behind Dumbrella, Topatoco, and Octopus Pie are starting a Webcomics Weekend event in Easthampton, (MA) scheduled for March 20-22. The event is also described as an open studio where artists can come talk shop, tour the studios where they make webcomics and ship their merchandise. A who’s who list webcomickers are listed as…
2008 might well be described in a word as a roller coaster or to many a third and fourth quarter stock market ride. Clearly many cartoonist achieved career highs and milestones, but for many cartoonist who live and die in the newspaper, there was a lot of dying. In writing this review, I can’t help…
The legendary Opus is leaving the papers after November 2, but which features will take its place? I’ve asked the syndicates which features are being picked up to replace Berkeley Breathed‘s strip. Here’s what initial reports indicate: United Media reports that Pearls Before Swine has picked up four papers: Columbus Dispatch, Hartford Courant, Boulder (CO)…
Retail creator Norm Feuti has a new book, Pretending You Care, is coming out next week. The Sun Chronicle has reviewed the book and interviewed Norm. Although “Pretending You Care” includes dozens of memorable “Retail” strips, Feuti’s book is unlike most cartoonist opuses in that the content isn’t confined to artwork. Instead, Feuti offers plenty…
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…
I took the full weekend off and so I didn’t see the second banned Opus strip until late last night. Personally, I thought it was even more benign than last weeks.
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…