Alan Gardner

KAL did a demonstration of the puppet at the AAEC convention in Denver and was officially unveiled at a press conference Monday (and will again on the 25th at the Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum where KAL’s exhibit “Mightier Than in Sword: The Satirical Pen of KAL”Cartoonist’s Digital Bush Puppet to Debut:There’s life after The Sun of Baltimore for editorial cartoonist Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher — and part of that life involves George W….  3 exhibit entitled “Mightier Than the Sword: The Satirical Pen of KAL.”The puppet will converse and answer questions in “real time” at the June 12 and June 25 events, said KAL, adding that digital Dubya “can be animated daily in reaction to current news.”KAL discussed and showed footage of the Bush puppet at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention in Denver, and also talked about his creation with E&P.

Pat Bagley, editorial cartoonist for the Salt Lake Tribune, was interviewed yesterday by local public radio KCPW about his new book, “Curious George is Watching You.”  They also touch on Pat’s liberal leanings that Give the interview a listen.

I’m late in getting in contact with the Garfield/20th Century Fox crowd to see if there is a prescreening of the new Garfield movie that is coming out this Friday, so I’ll try to be diligent in posting links to other reviews.First up we have a disappointed MSNBCDespite (Bill Murray) droll delivery and a couple of amusing lines here and there, Murray can?t wring many laughs out of the mostly lame script from returning writers Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow….  A sure sign of complete creative bankruptcy in any sequel, this time the action shifts overseas to England, where Garfield (voiced by Bill Murray) is given the opportunity to do the usual European vacation things, including a pit stop at Buckingham Palace where his dog pal Odie pees on the stoic royal guards.

?We get their jaws flapping, and in Sun City we get their hearts stopping.?Benson and Fairrington, two longtime Valley political cartoonists, will be the subjects of a new art show at the Ostrovsky Fine Art Gallery in Scottsdale on Thursday.?Too Hot to Handle? will feature some of the artists? most controversial work, including cartoons that never saw the light of day.Original drawings will be available for purchase, and the artists themselves will be there to greet visitors and demonstrate some sketches.Fairrington got his start at Arizona State University, and is now nationally syndicated….  His awards include a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.Gallery owner Victor Ostrovsky said that, as an artist, he has been impressed with the cartoonists? work.?With very little effort they easily could glide into fine art and be extraordinarily successful in it,? he said.Benson said editorial cartoons generally are not categorized as art; however, they have been a very important expression of artistic opinion in the history of the United States.?You can look at the chronological stream of cartoons to see where nations are at historically,? he said.

According to E&P, a weekly television show called “Party Toons” is being planned for Oregon Public Television – should the funding be secured….  A pilot episode has already been created and features Steve Sack, editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Steve Breen, of the San Diego Union Tribune.

For now, it is taking the place of ?Strange Brew? by John Deering.?Rubes? is drawn by Leigh Rubin of Nipomo, Calif., near San Luis Obispo….  Some might also recognize it from Rubin?s various books, including ?The Wild Life of Pets,? ?The Wild Life of Cows? and ?The Wild Life of Farm Animals.?Take a look on today?s comics page, A9.

Wes Hargis and Hollis Brown have renamed their “Franklin Fibbs” feature to “Little Fibbs” and changed the premise from one centered around an older senior citizen to one around a precocious child, Franklin…. Plus, the fact that they both find it fun to write and draw for a young character led them to make the change.”The change occurred last week on the 7th of May.The new description for the feature is:”Little Fibbs” is about a small boy with a big imagination.

Jim’s original work will be on display in the gallery at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis from June 22 through July 30th.  Jim is a resident of Annapolis and the local paper, The Capital has a very in-depth story about him and his “Sherman’s Lagoon” feature.

Recently the Ventura County Star replaced “Doonesbury” (while Garry Trudeau was on vacation) with Carl Moore’s “State of the Union” and asked if it was a suitable replacement for Bruce Tinsley’s “Mallard Fillmore”.  By a margin of 3-1, “Mallard Fillmore” will keep his spot in the newspaper.

Jake Fuller, the editorial cartoonist for the Gainesville Sun was recently interviewed by his own paper for a podcast (or as they call it, a ‘Suncast’)….  What is it about political cartoons that causes controversy especially in religion?

Fan’s of Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley can visit with him this Thursday at the Kings English Bookshop at 7:00 pm….  This latest Clueless George book is a sequel to an earlier book called “Clueless George Goes to War.”

On his screen then was the original Yahoo search preview image and under it a Newsweek page with a small image of the magazine’s current cover with the headline “The Haditha Question.”  Higgins made the erroneous assumption that the image in the photo preview was a photograph of victims of the killings that unproved allegations say were committed by U.S. Marines.

The AAEC convention concluded this weekend and a few stories are still trickling in. From the prolific Editor and Publisher editor Dave Astor we have several stories: Editorial Cartoonists Group Seeks Funds Beyond Herb Block Grant:DENVER The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has used a lot of the $150,000 Herb Block Foundation grant it received in 2004 to improve its EditorialCartoonists.com site….  The first three are Pulitzer Prize winners from 2005, 2002, and 2004, respectively, while Sack has been a Pulitzer finalist.Cartoonists’ Award Sparks Protest:The Cartoonists Rights Network (CRN) has given its Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award to the 11 Danish artists who drew the Prophet Muhammad.Cartoonists from Cuba and Algeria at U.S. Confab:The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) has two interesting guests at its convention here — a cartoonist from Algeria and another who recently defected from Cuba.Cartoonists from Cuba and Algeria at U.S. Confab:National Public Radio host Scott Simon discussed Judith Miller, Ann Coulter, Stephen Colbert, and the Danish cartoon controversy during keynote remarks at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) convention here Saturday night.And from the Denver Post comes this report: ‘toon townJust what state are editorial cartoonists in?Editorial cartoonists see the world through a much different lens than the rest of us (read: bent).

From a story out of Reuters comes news that Warner Home Video has negotiated a deal with Hearst Entertainment and King Features for worldwide distribution rights to all of Popeye’s theatrical shorts and television cartoons…. Warner also has licensed the exclusive rights to 220 Popeye made-for-TV animated shorts produced from 1960-62, 65 episodes of “The Continuing Adventures of Popeye,” produced from 1978-81 (and consisting of 161 animated shorts) and 26 “Popeye & Son” shorts produced in 1987.The Popeye theatrical slate includes 120 black-and-white shorts (106 of them produced by Fleischer Studios, the other 14 by Famous Studios) and 111 Technicolor cartoons (three produced by Fleischer Studios and 108 produced by Famous Studios).Warner will now have to begin preservation and restoration.

King Feature’s DailyINK has added five more comics to their list of features subscribers can subscribers to.  The new features are: Beetle Bailey, Bringing up Father, Buz Sawyer, Flash Gordon, and Rip Kirby.