The Comics Issue
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Seven Days Cartoon Issue; The Duckton Weekly #12; Alley Oop new and old; all-new Bloom County; where, oh where, has my Zoolies gone; Ed Steckley caricatures the Reuben Award nominees.
Seven Days Cartoon Issue
Seven Days has published their annual Cartoon Issue for 2025 with a charming When Harry Met Ali jam cover by Harry Bliss and Alison Bechdel (see this post’s feature image for a detail).
Dan Bolles introduces this year’s contributors:
Earlier this year, Alison Bechdel and Harry Bliss released new books within a month of each other. Bliss’ You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir is both a memoir and an ode to his late dog, Penny. Bechdel’s Spent: A Comic Novel is fiction but rooted in her life and the lives of the characters from her celebrated strip “Dykes to Watch Out For.” So we asked the cartoonists to interview each other. The results were as hilarious and insightful as you’d expect. The artists also collaborated on our cover image.
That’s not the only non-cartoon story about a famous local cartoonist. Vermont’s first cartoonist laureate, James Kochalka, released a new Dr. Seuss book in January, Green Eggs and Ham Take a Hike. It’s part of a series of books by acclaimed artists based on classic Seuss characters. Kochalka is already working on a second. And Winooski cartoonist and illustrator Julianna Brazill steps into the video spotlight for this week’s “Stuck in Vermont.”
Another change: Rather than pairing Seven Days writers with artists for every story, we gave a couple of cartoonists free rein to write and draw their own. Center for Cartoon Studies instructor Glynnis Fawkes followed her neighbor Debra to a political protest in Burlington. Cartoon school alum Clover Ajamie trekked to Calais to interview woodcut printmaker Mary Azarian.
But we couldn’t let the cartoonists have all the fun. Writer Jordan Barry teamed up with Burlington cartoonist Kristen Shull on an illustrated food diary revealing what a food critic (and her toddler) really eat — and check out Shull’s own biweekly comic on page 82.
Meanwhile, visual art editor Alice Dodge interviewed North Hero artist Sarah Rosedahl — or rather, the cartoon chickens from Rosedahl’s forthcoming book, The Chickens’ Guide to Self Care.
Finally, music editor Chris Farnsworth and Vermont artist Ethan Slayton woke up the ragtag gang from their “Doomsbury” strip to explain why Phish weren’t elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Spoiler: It gets weird.
The issue also includes the regular cartoonists: Tim Newcomb, Harry Bliss, Tom Tomorrow, Keith Knight, Jen Sorensen, Kristen Shull, and Fran Krause.
The Duckburg Ducktown Times Weekly
Got my free copy of The Ducktown Weekly a couple days ago. I am reminded of the old Jack Anderson Strips magazine that ran a month’s worth of strips in each issue, though Strips ran comics on a month delay while The Ducktown Weekly runs their comic strips without a waiting period.
The tabloid issue #12 was dated for “the week of July 6, 2025” and I received it in the mail on July 5, 2025. The Ducktown Weekly runs 18 daily comic strips and two daily panels in color. The lineup is: Pickles, Red and Rover, Daddy’s Home, Classic Peanuts, Wizard of Id, Blondie, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Pearls Before Swine, Sherman’s Lagoon, Shoe, Garfield, Dustin, Non Sequitur, Big Nate, Barney and Clyde, Zits, Speed Bump, and The Family Circus over two pages. The Sunday comics run on the last three pages except for Pearls Before Swine and Non Sequitur whose Sunday versions are not included (Barney and Clyde Sunday gets a cover spot).
The dailies were for the week of June 30 – July 5 and the Sundays were the July 6, 2025 issues. The comic strips take up a smidge over half the width of the tabloid-sized paper measuring 5 3/4″ wide by 1 3/4″ high which is no worse than most daily newspapers. Printed on pulp newsprint the resolution is good. The other half of the pages contain The L. A. Times Crossword, the Jumble puzzle, and miscellaneous filler like Bird of the Week, Poet’s Corner, Seriously Simple (recipe), and Old News. (The Old News column was a reprint of a June 25, 1925 short item praising comic strips with a Mom and Pop comic strip of the same date included.)
I have two complaints. The newest strips began in 2010 (Barney and Clyde and Dustin), the others began in the 20th Century, and they are some of the most popular (widely distributed) comics, I would have liked to see newer strips and some fan favorites that don’t have big circulation numbers – though running more obscure comics would probably affect The Ducktown Weekly’s circulation numbers.
And I will continually call the paper The Duckburg Times instead of The Ducktown Weekly.
Alley Oop Poetry
Speaking of Poetry Corners and Old News…
If you are going to bring rhyming into Alley Oop continuity do it with Foozy!
New Bloom County!
A surprise came along while scroll through my Facebook feed.
Is it a one-off or will there be a few follow-ups? We hope it is the latter.
No More Same Day Zoolies For Me?
There was one place where I could read current Jonny Hawkins’ Zoolies and that was the MSN comics page.
But this week the MSN Comics page, which carried syndicated comics strip, is no longer available defaulting to MSN Humor, which carries articles about humor including comics.
And when Tribune Contents Agency added the Counterpoint strips they still didn’t include Zoolies.
What can a poor boy do?
Playbill Cover Art for 79th Playbill
The National Cartoonists Society has released the cover art for next month’s Reuben Awards playbill.
This year’s NCS Conference and Reuben Awards Playbill cover by Ed Steckley is a showstopper, featuring the nominees for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year (clockwise from lower left): Mark Parisi, Mark Tatulli, Will Henry, Dana Simpson, Dave Blazek, and Tauhid Bondia.
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