Aaron McGruder recently was asked by Esquire magazine his opinion of the state of the American black man…. A: Displaced by Katrina, or B: Inconvenienced by family displaced by Katrina.”When Esquire asked McGruder to comment on his submission he replied, “I don?t explain the jokes.
Vietnam Veterans Group to Honor ‘Doonesbury’ Cartoonist:NEW YORK Vietnam Veterans of America will give “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau its President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts July 14 during a VVA conference in Tucson, Ariz.A Doonesbury.com note discussed the upcoming award and the perception of some critics that Trudeau has an “anti-military bias” in his comic: “It may interest — if not confuse — these critics to learn that if Trudeau has such a bias, the military itself has failed to notice. During the first Gulf War, the Pentagon organized a touring exhibition of the ‘Doonesbury’ war strips, and during Trudeau’s visit to Kuwait, where he met hundreds of soldiers, he was awarded certificates of achievement by the Ready First Brigade and the 4th Battalion 67th Armor, which made him an ‘honorary Bandit for life.'”More recently, the DOD, USO, and VA have all worked closely with Trudeau on the strips depicting B.D.’s wounding in Iraq, and last December, Walter Reed Army Medical Center presented him with the Commander’s Award for Public Service, the third-highest civilian award given by the Army.
“Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties” was number 7 over its opening weekend and only took in $7.2 million according to The Numbers.Most reviews that I read thought the script was less than stellar, but I’m sure as a parent, if I had a choice between Pixar’s “Cars” and “Garfield,” I’d take the former. “Cars” is in its second week at number 1 and took in $31.2 million over the weekend for a growing total of $114.5 million.Here are a couple of more reviews: The Patriot News in Harrison, PA thinks it wasn’t too bad, but the VUE Weekly hopes Garfield doesn’t have nine lives; The Boston Globe wasn’t impressed as well.
Cartoon Art Museum: Current Events:Artist-in-Residency ProgramThe Cartoon Art Museum will host a different professional cartoonist in its galleries as part of its new Artist-in-Residence program. Museum patrons will see cartoonists at work on their latest projects and learn everything you ever wanted to know about cartoonists–but were afraid to ask.Featured artists include Paul Madonna, whose comic strip All Over Coffee appears four times a week in the San Francisco Chronicle.Keith Knight, award-winning creator of nationally-syndicated comics The ‘K’ Chronicles and th(ink), is the resident artist on Saturday, July 17, and Michael Jantze, creator of the nationally-syndicated daily comic strip The Norm, is scheduled for Saturday, August 28.
The McCoy brothers, Gary and Glenn, will have their first book compilation available to the public this August.
Beginning June 25th a new character named “Ming Ming” will debut in Tom Armstrong’s “Marvin” feature. According to the marketing flyer created by King Features, Ming Ming is Marvin’s new cousin – adopted from China.
According to this story on ICv2.com, John Kovalic will produce a quarterly editorial cartoon commenting on the game industry for ICv2 Retailers Guide.
I received a heads up notice from a reader who says that Charles Boyce, creator of COMPU-TOON, is working with California Public Utilities Commission and AT&T to develop a cartoon character that will be used statewide in promoting training and education in the use of technological procedures. At some point the character and the educational material will be available on a web site later this month.
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.
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.
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.
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.