Today marks 75 years since Dick Tracy appeared on the comics pages. Several cartoonist are paying tribute. Here is a list of features that I’ve been able to find that mention, display or otherwise give homage to Chester Gould’s creation:
According to his blog, Scott Adams is getting married today.
CNN has posted a story about how Ziggy’s 35th birthday. It also talks about how Ziggy was created and how when Universal Press was starting up, Ziggy was a popular comic strip that kept the fledgling syndicate afloat in the early years.
Ziggy celebrates 35 years on the comics page, which debuted on June 28, 1971. The comic is distributed to over 600 newspapers by Universal Press Syndicate.
The classic feature was started by Tom’s father, also Tom Wilson, as a greeting card character but has since grown into an internationally recognizable character and brand…. Ziggy is seen in 600 newspapers around the world and is a spokes-character for the National Foster Parent Association.
The Cincinnati Enquirer is celebrating 30 with Jim Borgman as their editorial cartoonist. To commemorate, they’ve posted a Q&A with Jim, several congratulatory cartoons from fellow cartoonists (includng Dave Coverly, Jim Davis, Mike Luckovich, Marshall Ramsey, Jerry Scott, Jeff Stahler, Lynn & Rod Johnston), a video of Jim at work re-drawing the winning cartoon from the contest, a slideshow of 9 of his most favorite cartoons, caricatures of the local politicians he’s skewered over the years, and finally some of the cartoon contest runner ups.
According to E&P, the Cincinnati Enquirer will publish a special section of the paper next Tuesday on the anniversary of Jim Borgman’s arrival at their newspaper.The section will include cartoons by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Borgman, comments by people who have been the subject of his commentary, a Q&A, the results of the “Borgman Challenge” cartoon contest, and other content.Borgman told E&P that the section (which will coincidentally be published the day of his wedding anniversary) is a real honor. He added that the newspaper may be doing the special section partly to make up for the cancellation of a 25th-anniversary public event that had been scheduled for October 2001.
McPherson continued to work by day and moonlight as a cartoonist until 1990, when he decided to take up creating his frumpy looking characters in absurd situations full-time.?Close to Home? has been compared to the satirical humor of Gary Larson?s ?The Far Side? and in many papers, actually replaced the panel when Larson retired in 1995…. I think it has been for most cartoonists,? says McPherson, ?But I?d rather not deal with all of the far-out nonsense; there is so much nonsense in real life to draw from.?After 5,000 comic panels, the ink well of ideas for some cartoonists might dry up, but not for McPherson.
Universal Press Syndicate has issued a press release to commenmorate the 5th anniversary of Lalo Alcaraz’s debut as a syndicated editorial cartoonist with UPS. Lalo also created “La Cucaracha” in 2002 which is also distributed by UPS.“Lalo brings a young, fearless Latino sensibility to political and cultural critiques, and that’s saying something when you consider […]
Lance Aldrich and Gary Wise’s feature “Real Life Adventures” is celebrating 15 years. Aldrich and Wise, after working with each other for 21 years, have developed an unconventional approach to collaboration: they stay away from each other. Working together through a series of faxes and phone calls between Aldrich’s home in rural Michigan (he is […]
Jef Mallett’s Frazz will turn 5 years old on April 2. “Five years of Frazz is wonderful, but I think it says more about my readers than it does about me,” Mallett said. “I started this strip with the conceit that readers were smarter than a lot of features were assuming, and I’ve layered the […]
Local Cincinnati radio WGUC has a series of interviews with Jim Borgman to talk about his celebration of 25 years with the Cincinnati Enquirer. There are 8 interviews with tops ranging from the feedback he’s getting, Zits (his comic strip, not his complexion), a day in the life, etc.The interviews are streaming video.The Cincinnati Enquirer’s […]
Tim Whyte, General Manager of the Signal (Santa Clarita Valley, CA) writes that it will be 10 years since the passing of their editorial cartoonist, Randy Wicks. His passing prompted the newspaper to create a memorial scholarship fund. The Randy Wicks Memorial First Amendment Scholarships and their fund-raiser, the SCV Newsmaker Awards, have lasted longer […]
Big Nate, created by Lincoln Peirce, is celebrating 15 years on the comic pages. From a United Media press release:“When I started Big Nate, one of my goals was to create a comic character who seemed authentic — not a miniature adult, but a believable eleven year-old boy,” creator Lincoln Peirce said. After fifteen years […]
This day in history: the last original daily “Peanuts” strip by Charles Schulz ran in 2,600 newspapers. Schulz officially retired on December 14th of 1999 and passed away February 12 of 2000.