Filed under: Anniversaries

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.

Congrats to Larry Wright for 25 years producing the Kit ‘N’ Carlyle’ strip.From E&P: NEW YORK “Kit ‘N’ Carlyle,” which stars a woman and her cat, turned 25 on Thursday. The Newspaper Enterprise Association comic is by Larry Wright, who’s also an editorial cartoonist for The Detroit News and a former president of the Association […]

The Kansas City Star has a story(free annoying registration required) about the 40th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas Special that will air on December 6.The plot is thin. The pace is slow. The music is decidedly not rock ?n? roll. ?A Charlie Brown Christmas? is a beloved piece of Americana, despite its flaws and […]

For those who care, yesterday markes the 20th anniversary of the launch of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes.