A Miss Cellany Cartoon Roundup
Skip to comments
Recommended Reading, Public Domain 2026, Cartoonist Writes,
Recommended Reading
PEN America has released the Longlists for their 2026 Literary Awards
The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography is awarded for excellence in the art of biography.
The only comics-related book on the various lists is Dan Nadel‘s Crumb: A Cartoonists Life.
Filled with comics is The Comics Journal’s just published lists of The Best Comics of 2025.
We both know the history of superlatives creates a flattened, reductive interpretation of our world. But they’re also the quickest way to label a praise for those recommendations we give in order to connect with one another, and isn’t that why we’re here?
While we here at The Daily Cartoonist don’t concentrate on “comic books,” we do frequently feature books of and about comics. There are more than a few books we have mentioned here that make a list or five of the dozens of Comics Journal contributors that share their opinion of the best of 2025.
Among the TCJ listed that have been noted here at TDC we find:
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: Times of No Money The Early Years, Gilbert Shelton
The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco
Spent by Alison Bechdel
The New York Trilogy, featuring Paul Karasik as editor
The Art of Milt Gross Vol. 1: The Judge Magazine Comics 1923–1924 by Paul C. Tumey
Drawn to MoMA: Comics Inspired by Modern Art an anthology by assorted cartoonists
The Smythes by Rea Irvin
How Comics Are Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page by Glenn Fleishman
Back to Black: Jules Feiffer’s Noir Trilogy by Fabrice Leroy
Comic Book Apocalypse!: The Death of Pre-Code Comics and Why It Happened, 1940–1955 by David J. Hogan
Arthur Ferrier’s Pin-Up Parade! by Rian Hughes
Three Rocks by Bill Griffith
And to Think We Started as a Book Club … by Tom Toro
The Essential Peanuts by Mark Evanier
Snoopy, The Story of My Life: The Myth, The Legend, The Beagle! by Andrew Farago
E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey by Gregory Hischak
Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, Dan Nadel
Peter Kuper’s Insectopolis
Quino’s Mafalda
January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day
1930 works of art are entering Public Domain status in a week and as is our wont we turn to Duke Law:
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.
The 1930 appearances of comic strip Mickey Mouse, Blondie and Dagwood, Joe Palooka, The Little King, and Scorchy Smith become public domain fodder, as well as other comic strip characters.
When Cartoonists Write
Not just captions, or tags, or balloons sometimes cartoonists write novels. Take David Horsey f’instance:
Can a cartoonist be a novelist? Charles Johnson [link added] thinks so.
I met Johnson about five years ago. He was pleased to meet me because he seldom gets a chance to talk about cartoons. In passing and almost apologetically, I mentioned to him that I had a novel I’d been working on. Johnson quickly told me that I should get serious about it; that a novel is the rare chance to tell a story and get every word right.
Well, I did get serious, and now I have published my debut novel, “Beach of Stars.” Johnson has called it “amazingly good.”
David Horsey writes about writing a book (or here). An edited version of the article is on his substack.
Comments 1