Comic News – Kits and Caboodles
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With First Amendment Essay and Editorial Cartoon Contest young winners; half a billion views for animated feature K Pop Demon Hunters; Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra on the cover of the 2026 New Yorker wall calendar; Scott Adams waiting for his “come to Jesus” moment; and praise for a retiring cartoonist Walt Handelsman.
2025 WNAF Editorial Writing & Cartoon Contest Winners
From the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation:
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 WNA Foundation Editorial Writing & Cartoon Contest, now renamed the First Amendment Essay and Editorial Cartoon Contest.
Returning for a fifth year, the contest asked students to convey their opinion about an issue related to the First Amendment through editorial writing or an editorial cartoon.
Cartoon entries were judged by Phil Hands, the editorial cartoonist for the Wisconsin State Journal.
Cartoon Contest
High School
1st Place – Leela Benson – Middleton High School – 12th grade
2nd Place – Kohl Zahn – Vel Phillips Memorial, Madison – 10th grade
3rd Place – Naomi Lukas – Adams-Friendship High School – 12th gradeMiddle School
1st Place – Declan Ghaboussi – Velma Hamilton Middle School, Madison – 7th grade
2nd Place – Theodore Zvenyach – Hamilton Middle School, Madison – 8th grade
3rd Place – Esmae Klewin – East Troy Middle School – 7th grade
500,000,000
Mercedes Milligan at Animation Magazine reports on K Pop Demon Hunters clocking half a billion views.
Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters continues to rack up accomplishments: in addition to grabbing the No. 3 spot on the streamer’s English film list with 7.9 million views, the film has reached another milestone by surpassing 500 million total views since its premiere.
The movie is one of the biggest contenders for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and has already landed on many of the year-end best-of-the-year lists and critics’ group awards picks. It also collected three Golden Globe nominations (Best Animated Feature, Best Song (“Golden”) and Best Box Office Achievement.
Vancouver Cartoonists Cover the 2026 New Yorker Wall Calendar
Shawn Conner at The Vancouver Sun reports area cartoonists Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra get an honor.
Vancouver cartoonists Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra have landed a rare distinction: Their work appears on the cover of The New Yorker’s 2026 calendar.
“I was about to buy the calendar online and suddenly realized our cartoon was on the cover,” said Guerra. “It had been out since June, and we had no idea.”
The duo has been contributing cartoons to the magazine since 2017, shortly after one of Guerra’s editorial cartoons for The Washington Post went viral.
Scott Adams Will Come to Jesus at the Last Minute
Cartoonist and influencer told his Christian followers that he will convert to that faith when the time comes.
From Ian M. Giatti at The Christian Post:
Scott Adams, the creator of the nationally syndicated “Dilbert” comic strip, says he hopes that living a “good life” will lead him to Heaven as he announced plans to convert to Christianity in the face of terminal prostate cancer.
In a Jan. 4 episode of his podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” the 68-year-old cartoonist revealed his intention to embrace the faith, saying his view of Christianity means that he would “wake up in Heaven if I have a good life.”
He added that “out of great respect” for those efforts, he is committed to converting before his passing and expects to have his lingering skepticism “instantly answered if I wake up in Heaven.”
Likening his decision to a low-risk wager, Adams said, “I’m now convinced that the risk-reward is completely smart. If it turns out that there’s nothing there, I’ve lost nothing, but I’ve respected your wishes, and I like doing that,” he explained. “If it turns out there is something there, and the Christian model is the closest to it, I win.”
Elizabeth Russell at World notes it don’t work that way:
He said he would not convert immediately or spend a long time in that phase, but he promised to do so.
Adams said he believed that converting was the best decision given the risk and reward. He also stated that he believed the predominant Christian theory was that he would wake up in heaven if he lived a good life. (In fact, Christian doctrine teaches salvation by grace through faith.)
Walt Handelsman, You Betcha
Jack Ohman has nothing but praise for Walt Handelsman.
I admire Walt on every level.
He’s a great, very funny editorial cartoonist. He won the Pulitzer Prize—twice. He was in with me at Tribune Content Agency in national syndication since 1988. I started in 1980. I was 19. My face hadn’t cleared up yet. Seriously.
We talked this morning about the tragic death of a mutual friend, Walter Mahoney, who was last president of Tribune syndicate. Mahoney got us both into syndication, and there was never a moment of tension between Walt and me.
But let me tell you what’s really great about Walt Handelsman.
He is a great human in world of a lot of non-great humans…
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