Filed under: Comic Strips

The Austin American Statesman has a really good write up regarding Patrick McDonnell’s new book “Art.” Patrick’s first book “The Gift of Nothing” featured characters from his comic strip “Mutts,” but this new book is a complete departure from his Mutts strip.”‘Art’ is about a little kid who likes to draw and makes messes and I think it’s pretty autobiographical,” he says by phone from his New Jersey studio…. I actually took a photograph of my desk before I cleaned it because it looked sort of like one of Art’s drawings ? splotches all over the place.”To help promote the book, Patrick is having a ART Coloring Contest (ends April 28).

Tony Cochran, creator of “Agnes” will be the official mascot of the Taking the Reins’s walk-a-thon in Van Nuys, CA.

The Lima News (OH) has put Dennis the Menace back on the funnies page after readers protested.  The editor, in a brief story, writes about some of the reactions people had when Dennis disappeared.

The Detroit News has made some changes to their features section.  Part of the change involved adding Pooch Cafe to the line up.

The Dallas Morning News has an interesting story about how Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman got together to create their hit feature “Zits.”Sketches in hand, he ran into Jim Borgman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from Cincinnati, at a conference….  Drawing.”Then the conference broke up and everybody went home.”But every once in a while, the fax would bleep,” Mr. Borgman says.

News columnist Mike Peters (not the Grimmy Mike Peters) interviewed the Brevity duo and filed a quick six question story.  Questions include: What made you do a comic strip?How do you describe Brevity?How does your collaboration work?How does creating the comic strip compare with your day job?Can we believe anything on your Comics.com bio page ? where, for instance, Guy claims to be a member of the 1987 Olympic team?What’s new?On the last question, Guy reveals that there will be a new Brevity book coming out later this year.

Lewis’ “Over the Hedge” movie is starting to create some buzz as it gets closer to it’s May 19 nation-wide opening.  Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation CEO had this nice thing to say about the movie:”That was the genius of the strip.

Chad Carpenter’s “Tundra” has beaten out Bound and Gagged at the Standard Examiner (Ogden UT).  The editor reported that in the two week trial run and ongoing poll – 80% of the readers polled preferred Tundra over Bound and Gagged.

Darrin Bell, creator for “Candorville” has taken credit for the recent resignation of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. I’m sure most of his blog posting was in jest, but Darrin certainly is passionate about his views about this White House. But obviously, all this is just a smokescreen. We all know McClellan resigned just […]

Andrew Feinstein and Justin Borus, self syndicated creators of “Girls and Sports,” will be featured on ESPN2’s morning show, Cold Pizza. Check them out between 10am and noon EST. Girls and Sports has over 175 clients across the US.

Not sure what was going on with Darby Conley’s Get Fuzzy yesterday. Both yesterday’s Pearls Before Swine and Get Fuzzy had the same Pearls artwork but in Get Fuzzy, Satchel was Photoshopped over the artwork. Judge for yourself if this was a successful crossover.

I thought The Daily Cartoonist had carved out a small niche in the blogosphere, but last night I came across one even more narrowly focused – yet nicely done. If you haven’t visited the Silent Penultimate Panel Watch – do so now. The SPPW is appropriately subtitled, “Each and every day a comic strip abuses […]

Tony Carillo continues to get favorable press from his home town area – as well as subscriptions. This story from the East Valley Tribune talks about the “F Minus” launch as well as mentions that he’s launching with 75 clients now.“Almost all my comics are about stupidity,?”Tony Carrillo says, “about failure or losers. I think […]

Earlier I mentioned Tony Carrillo’s “F Minus” had received a glowing review (and client pick up) at the Arizona Republic. Now he’s picked up the Arizona Daily Star starting today.Fans of sarcasm and those in need of a quick jolt of comedy are in luck. “F Minus” debuts today in the Accent section and will […]

There’s an interesting article in the Journal Gazette, (Ft. Wayne) about the new hip-hop generation, their message, and their impact in the African American community. The article cites Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks television show and some of the language used to make political statements. But some worry that members of the hip-hop generation are delivering their […]