Mark Pett's Lucky Cow spot has been made permanent.  Back in January, the Post-Dispatch informed readers that it was going to test four new features and ask for feedback on which one should stay.  The other features (and in the order of their popularity after Lucky Cow are: Brevity, Candorville, and Brewster Rockit." /> Mark Pett's Lucky Cow spot has been made permanent.  Back in January, the Post-Dispatch informed readers that it was going to test four new features and ask for feedback on which one should stay.  The other features (and in the order of their popularity after Lucky Cow are: Brevity, Candorville, and Brewster Rockit." />

Alan Gardner

Writer, Social Media Manager, Technical Operations

Alan Gardner founded The Daily Cartoonist (TDC) in 2005 and ran it until 2018, covering newspaper comic strips, editorial cartooning, graphic novels, and the rise of webcomics. He sold TDC to Andrews McMeel Universal in 2018 and bought it back in 2022. Alan now reports on the international beat while also managing the site’s technical and business operations. In 2023, he received the Ink Bottle Award from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in recognition of his dedication and contributions to the profession. His cartoons have appeared in The Herald Journal and The Deseret News.

Latest by Alan Gardner

Mike Lester cartoon stirs the pot in Tallahassee

by Alan Gardner July 6, 2006

News-Tribune and Cagle Cartoons.Lester drew Uncle Sam holding a copy of the Times that featured a front page with the headline “All the Treason Fit to Print” and the subhead “U.S. Anti-Terror Program: Details Inside.”… He added that the letter that “really gave me second thoughts” was from former Democrat Publisher Carrol Dadisman, who wrote: “In more than 50 years of various responsibilities for newspapers and editorial pages, I’ve defended a lot of editorial cartoons.

For Better or For Worse staffers attended licensing trade show

by Alan Gardner July 3, 2006

Two staffers with the “For Better or For Worse” team recently attended the Licensing International trade show in New York City (June 20-22) to promote the Patterson family – the main characters for Lynn Johnston’s comic strip.  According to the “For Better or For Worse” blog, this is the second year they’ve attended the show to “build alliances between companies and the Patterson Family.”While the news blog doesn’t mention the connection, I wonder if an example of these “alliances” is the news back in January that the For Better of For Worse characters would be used by the Canadian Securities Administrators to help people teach people about investing and saving.

Big comic shake up at Statesman-Journal

by Alan Gardner July 3, 2006

As a result, new features were added: Pickles, Mother Goose & Grimm, Prickly City, Stone Soup and Non Sequitur and several were dropped: Cathy, Gasoline Alley, Pardon My Planet, Frank & Ernest, Herman, Marmaduke, Baldo, The Middletons and Mallard Fillmore.Regarding the dropping of Mallard Filmore, the opinion page editor explained:We ink-stained wretches of the Opinion page hold no influence over choice of the comics, alas….  The same cannot be said for Mallard Fillmore, which had a small amount of people who listed it as their favorite.The comics page also got resized to accommodate the change in paper size, “The newspaper will be printed at a narrower width, which will make it a more convenient size.”

Lio begins 7 week run in Dallas Morning News

by Alan Gardner July 3, 2006

The Morning News has also added “Lio”, “Brevity” and “Over the Hedge” on their online comics.Regarding Lio, Mike quotes Mark: “I picked up a pen and drew in a style that I haven’t drawn in for about 20 years,” Mr. Tatulli says…. Every time I looked at his spidery pen-and-ink drawings I found something new.”And maybe because his politics were 180 degrees from my own, often depicting Abraham Lincoln as a demonic figure, I was repulsed but still appreciated the craft of his work.

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