Comics Not in Your Local Newspaper (A Roundup)
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Sour Grapes is new at GoComics, sour grapes is an old story with newspapers, The Singh Brotherhood vexes the olde and the new Phantom, Henry Barajas presents good trouble, bad trouble for Scott Adams and revolutionary trouble with Sam Adams, MAD memories with John Ficarra and Gerry Gersten, and Keith Knight about That One Black Kid.
Sour Grapes at GoComics
For a select few Sour Grapes by Tim Jones is in your local newspaper, for the rest of us it is online.
This week sees the comic strip get a wider online presence as it is now part of the GoComics lineup.
Rachel DeSchepper at the GoComics blog interviews cartoonist Tim Jones about the 12 year old comic.
[Tim:] Aesop is a “miserable, flying dog.” A lot of people say that I am like Aesop. I can be a sort of miserable, easily annoyed type of person. Being miserable doesn’t necessarily mean that Aesop doesn’t want to help people; he’s just reluctant to go through the motions. The fact that he does anyway, in his own miserable way, can be pretty funny.
Be sure to add it (follow) the strip to your GoComics feed.
Sour Grapes at North of Boston Media Group
The North of Boston Media Group, specifically The Gloucester Daily and The Newburyport News, ridded themselves of their comics pages last month. They are still hearing from disgruntled readers of all ages.
From the kids (or here):
When I went to my Nana and Papa’s house, I went straight to the newspapers and I found out there’s no comics! Why are there no comics?
Every time I come over, the comics bring me joy. They are really funny (sometimes). I was really looking forward to Garfield. Oh, and the Family Circle is great, but gone! All of it.
Please put them back.
From the adults (or here):
I am writing to express my disappointment with the recent decision to remove the comics from the newspaper. The explanation given was that the space would be used to expand local news coverage. However, since the change was made, I have yet to notice any meaningful increase in local reporting…
Removing them has diminished part of what made the paper enjoyable to read…
I hope you will reconsider this decision and restore the comics section.
The Singh Brotherhood Returns
As seen in the current Sunday retelling of The Origin of The Phantom the Singh Brotherhood was deeply involved in the creation of The Ghost Who Walks. From the very first adventure of the current Phantom the Singh Brotherhood returns in a five part Phantom comic book from Mad Cave.
The Chronicle Chamber has some details:
In 1936, when The Phantom debuted, the first story featured a globe-trotting adventure as The Phantom battled Singh pirates, led by the cruel Kabbai Singh. While Kabbai Singh didn’t make an appearance in Mad Cave Studios‘ incarnation in 2025, readers were introduced to Asif Singh, who was arguably more ruthless, vengeful, and twisted.
This choice was deliberate as the creative team upped the ante on The Phantom’s oldest foe. Over the years, much has been added to The Phantom lore with regard to the Singh Brotherhood. One of the biggest additions was the revelation that it was Singh Pirates who attacked a merchant vessel in 1536, one helmed by a certain Captain Walker and father to the very first Phantom.
Also at the Chronicle Chamber is a note that not everything Mad Cave does with The Phantom is by the book.
Mad Cave Studios has done a lot right with their foray into the Phantom universe. They have borrowed heavily from the early Lee Falk and Ray Moore stories, and more importantly, they have learned from their mistakes.
In issue one of their regular series written by Ray Fawkes, with art by Russell Olson, first published in 2025, they did the ‘unforgivable’ and showed the Phantom unmasked. The outcry among phans was unmistakable; some did not even bother reading the rest of the comic series because of this mistake.
From Bad Trouble to Good Trouble
From comic strip writer to comic book writer, well actually he was a comic book writer before he was a comic strip writer. Anyway from Henry (Gil Thorp) Barajas and Good Trouble Productions comes ¡Huelga!
“A part of me feels robbed that I never got an education that reflected some of the most important accomplishments by Americans who look like me,” says ¡Huelga! author Henry Barajas. “I want people to not only know how resilient and important Dolores Huerta was to the labor rights movement that drastically improved the dignity of the farmworker, but I want readers to know she’s still out there fighting the good fight.”
¡Huelga! (Strike!) will be available in your local comic book stores August 5, 2026
The Adamses – Scott and Sam
Apparently the FBI wasn’t just following Wally around, the government agency was actively investigating Dilbert cartoonist and social influencer Scott Adams. Matthew Petti for Reason magazine tells the sordid tale:
But the cartoonist caught the FBI’s attention for something a little bit different: the sex crimes investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fl.) and a bizarre blackmail scheme that grew out of it.
The FBI released its files on Adams last week, five months after his death, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Reason.
The July 2026 issue of Reason is a celebration of “America 250” with the libertarian magazine taking a look at the founders, among them Sam Adams. Half way through the issue is a fairly congenial one page profile of our favorite revolutionary rabble rouser by Jack Nicastro. Futher back in the issue is a four page comic by Peter Bagge who tears away the niceties to reveal the truth behind “America’s Founding Fake News Terrorist” and his mentor James Otis. Unfortunately neither is yet available for free online.
That One Black Kid
Ya know, a lot of folks say to me, “Keef! We dig the TV show, but when are you gonna do some animation? Your drawing style is begging to be animated!” So I took it upon myself to launch my latest project: An animated short based on one of my favorite all-time K Chronicles strips: One Black Kid!
Both the animation and the crowdfunding are half way completed. As Keefer says “Let’s Do This!”
Hemingway, the Quality Paperback Club, MAD, and John Ficarra
MAD editor (1985-2018) John Ficarra remembers the Quality Paperback Book Club advertisements in the 1980s and 1990s, especially those featuring caricatures by Gerry Gersten. One caricture in particular.
The Washington Post presents “A Hemingwayesque tale, with pencils and a Mad magazine twist” (or here).
The Quality Paperback Book Club knew how to catch your eye. In the 1980s and ’90s, it ran a series of ads in magazines and newspapers, these pages included. Cleverly worded and visually distinct, many of them featured small, full-body caricatures of literary giants: Mark Twain, John Updike and, my favorite, Ernest Hemingway. The genius behind the drawings was an illustrator named Gerry Gersten.
On the day Gersten arrived at our [Mad magazine] Manhattan offices [link added]…
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