Posted on: October 19, 2006

Back in April and June, I posted stories about editorial cartoonist Joe Heller’s participation in a fund raiser for the Einstein Project.  The project involved 40 artists who decorated statues of butterflies, frogs and beetles that would be placed in several locations throughout Green Bay and later auctioned off.  Last Tuesday the auction was held and Joe’s butterfly fetched $3,700 – the third highest for the evening.

The National Press Club’s Cartoons and Cocktails fundraiser will be tomorrow night. The annual event raises money for the Ellen Masin Persina scholarship (help fund the first year of college study for a needy high school student), Young D.C. (training opportunities and hands-on experience with news media) and Cartoonists Rights Network (devoted to helping editorial cartoonists who face censorship, imprisonment, intimidation or death for their commentary).

With all the recent celebratory events and commemorations of the comic Dick Tracy‘s 75 year anniversary, one would be surprised to read that the Gould family has told the Woodstock City Council that the museum is in need of donations to keep the doors open. The museum draws 4,000 to 7,000 visitors a year and has an operating budget of $40,000. The Gould family contributes the lion share of the financial support, but requires $25,000 in annual donations to operate.  With a recognizable brand name such as Dick Tracy, one would think money would not be an issue, but TMS owns all the rights to royalties for the brand, so the Gould family doesn’t see any of that money.

Last Friday, Hilda Terry, the creator of Teena that ran in papers between 1941 and 1964 has passed away at at 92. Hilda had an interesting and full life. This story out of the New York Sun sums up much of what she accomplished. She was in many ways a trailblazing cartoonists – accomplishing many firsts.

I mentioned yesterday that several cartoonist from around the globe had descended in Manhattan to talk about cartooning, free speech and religion.  Attending from the U.S. is Mike Luckovich.  From ComicsDC blog comes news that Ann Telnaes was also there and that you can watch the streaming video.  To watch it, click the link and scroll down to the Special Event on October 16 (or do a find on “cartoon”).

New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff was in Denver last night as the featured guest at the Denver Press Club.  The event was hosted by Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe and Rocky Mountain News cartoonist Ed Stein.

Editorial cartoonist from around the world met in New York at the United Nations to discuss the topic of free expression and respect for religious beliefs. Representing the United States was Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Fifteen cartoonists from Denmark, the Middle East, US and Africa attended.  U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the seminar.

Doug Marlette will be in Hillsborough on October 29th to attend a reading sponsored by the Orange County Public Library.  Doug’s book, Magic Time has been released and is available for purchase.

Michael Jantz’s art work will be featured at Cartoonlandia in San Francisco on October 19.  Mark Fiore’s work will also be shown.

Mark Tatulli’s Lio has won the Hartford Courant’s online comics poll according to E&P. That poll was protested by NCS President Rick Stromoski (who’s feature Soup to Nutz was not comic in the poll).  Lio was up against Brevity, F Minus, On a Claire Day, and Silo Roberts.