Filed under: Comic Strips

Book Festival puts artists in touch:Nearly every day for at least the past decade, cartoonist Doug Marlette has taken a late morning telephone call from an old friend on the South Carolina coast.It’s a way for the Pulitzer Prize-winner and his pal, best-selling novelist Pat Conroy, to continue their ongoing conversations about life in today’s culture, Marlette said.  “It’s kind of like having a witness to things that we both apprehend.”

Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott will be at Borders bookstore in West Village (near Dallas TX) to sign boosk between 7-8pm tomorrow night, according to Jim’s blog.They will also be appearing on a local morning TV show, talking with Dallas Morning News reporter Mike Peters.

There is a great article over at the LA Times about an upcoming “Sunday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books” symposium that will examine the future of comics in the newspaper…. Other cartoonists on the panel include Cathy Guisewite (“Cathy”), Jerry Scott (“Baby Blues” and “Zits”) and Lalo Alcaraz (“La Cucaracha”).Berkeley:”I don’t think you’ll ever see another ‘Calvin & Hobbes,’ ‘Bloom County’ or ‘Doonesbury’ again,” says Breathed, 48, who received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987.

Luann creator Greg Evans will be at the Barnes & Noble in Escondido CA this Sunday at 12:30 presumably to sign books.

Editor and Publisher reports that Canadian cartoonist David Illsley who does “Wrinkled — Us Older Folks” has been signed with Continental Features/Continental News Service.

Before Bil Keane made it big with “Family Circus” he had another big hit called “Channel Chuckles” which was a daily cartoon focused on television gags that would run next to the tv listings which were becoming a popular new feature in the newspaper (this is 1954).  There are a online exhibit of “Channel Chuckles” on Bil’s web site.Go read Allan Holtz’s Strippers Guide blog for more information.

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 […]