Filed under: Comic Strips

Universal Press Syndicate: News Release:Despite some digital ballot-box stuffing, or perhaps because of it, MIT has won the poll that asked where Alex Doonesbury should go to college.”A careful check of the applicable rulebook indicates that queering the results was not specifically prohibited,” noted a Friday post on Doonesbury.com, where the poll was conducted.  “And by tradition, engineers, hackers, and techfolk will assume that in a problem-solving situation of this nature, there is no box out of which they are not expected to climb.

The Daily Press, Newport VA, has dropped “Opus,” “The Pink Panther,” and “Jump Start” in order to make room for three kid’s features such as a crossword puzzle, “Ask Shagg” and “Doodles.”The editor also points out that Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks” has been replaced by Darrin Bell’s “Candorville” for the remainder of the hiatus.

“Non Seq” will move to Page 1 of our comics when it returns next month.In “Mr. Boffo”‘s former home on Page 1, you’ll see “F Minus” by Tony Carrillo, which gets its shot to wow Free Press comics lovers….  And no, it had nothing to do with pole dancing.According to distributor United Features Syndicate, the comic “tackles life’s serious issues, pins them to the ground, and steals their lunch money.”

“Non Seq” will move to Page 1 of our comics when it returns next month.In “Mr. Boffo”‘s former home on Page 1, you’ll see “F Minus” by Tony Carrillo, which gets its shot to wow Free Press comics lovers….  And no, it had nothing to do with pole dancing.According to distributor United Features Syndicate, the comic “tackles life’s serious issues, pins them to the ground, and steals their lunch money.”

Mike Belkin, creator of “Unfit” writes in to tell me that while “Unfit” will close as a print cartoon at the end of this month, it will continue to be found on line in some form in the next few months. He’s created a form on mikebelkin.com where you can sign up and be notified […]

Today at 1 p.m. (EST) the five nominees for the Reuben Award will be guests on the Washington Post’s chat forum.  The five guests and nominees are: Bill Amend (Foxtrot), Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), Brian Crane (Pickles), Mike Luckovich and Dan Piraro (Bizarro).You can submit questions ahead of time on the wp site.

He is co-executive producer of the Baldo TV show, currently in development at Paloma Productions, and author of two Baldo books: The Lower You Ride, The Cooler You Are and Night of the Bilingual Telemarketers.The comic strip’s lead characters are quickly working their way onto the American pop culture stage, from car-crazy teen Baldo and college-obsessed sister Gracie to tradition-conscious Dad and lottery-playing Tia Carmen….  Baldo is Universal Press Syndicate’s fourth most-successful comic strip launch, after The Boondocks, For Better or For Worse, and Calvin and Hobbes.In addition to his work on this successful comic, Cantú is an editor at Quick, a daily news tabloid in Dallas that targets young readers.

‘Zippy’ Comics Part of Exhibit About Diners:Eight “Zippy the Pinhead” strips will be part of an exhibition called “Counter Culture: The American Diner.”The show open tomorrow and runs through Oct. 2 at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, Calif.Bill Griffith’s “Zippy” comic is distributed by King Features Syndicate.

On Scott Adam’s blog, you can read a small statement on the end of Mike Belkin’s feature, “Unfit.”  While details are limited, he did mention that United Media was going to relaunch the strip with Justin Thompson’s new artwork, but Mike decided that to discontinue the feature altogether.

The Chicago Tribune has a story of a “Mr. Boffo” cartoon (created by Joe Martin) that depicted White Sox slugger Paul Konerko hitting a home run…. Joe was going to use Barry Bonds in the comic, but decided against it because he wasn’t sure if Barry would be in jail.

The new Garfield movie “A Tail of Two Kitties” opens up in theaters on June 16 and the first Garfield movie will be re-released on DVD as a collectors edition by Fox Home Entertainment.  The collectors version will have several special features such as: games, 10 jigsaw puzzles, 17 deleted scenes, a Garfield documentary, story board and of course the ever popular feature often called “and a whole lot more.”If that wasn’t enough, two new Garfield books will be published next month according to E&P.

From the press release:The lively team of characters in the comic strip include Ronaldinho?s brother Asis; sister Daisy, number one fan Diego, his mother and two lovable dogs named Champ and Fireball. Readers can follow their adventures on and off of the soccer field in this daily and Sunday comic strip.De Sousa has already taken Ronaldinho to star status in publishing, licensing, animation, television syndication and social campaigns.

If I posted a story for every headline about Dan Piraro, I’d have to rename the Daily Cartoonist to the Dan Piraro web site….  Mike Peters, the columnist for the Dallas Morning News takes a look at all things Piraro.

To tell a story without text while updating the pantomime concept with a modern audience in mind.”The result is a funny journey into the darkly detailed world of young Lio and his bizarre creature co-stars.In addition to his cartooning experience, Tatulli also is an accomplished filmmaker and animator and is the recipient of three Emmy Awards for his television work.  His recent experience includes graphics and animation for such shows as “A Wedding Story,” “Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls” and “Epicurious.”

Last week I mentioned the 2006 Glyph awards, of which three newspaper cartoonists Aaron McGruder, Darrin Bell and Keith Knight were up for “Best Comic Strip.”…  Keith Knight with “The K Chronicles”Congratulations Keith.