Filed under: Comic Strips

In summation, he accuses most cartoonists as failures and the reason why cartooning will never be considered a legitimate art form.The basic nobility of that cause innoculates (for the most part) cartooning against the accusations that it is a vocation filled with practitioners (98% male and white) who couldn’t draw their way out of a paper bag if their life (or their profession) counted on it.Imagine turning on the Olympics and seeing 78% of the figure skaters fall on their asses…. Individual cartoonists deserve respect, but just because they earn it doesn’t mean a positive residue should trickle down upon anyone who puts nib to paper, had a cartoon published in the Anchorage Antler and manages to squeeze into a tux for the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards.For cartoonists to believe that respect would be a given when the vast majority of them would fail to push any aesthetic envelope or embrace even a modicum of visual experimentation is as audacious as it is self-delusional.

AOL News has an article regarding the current decline in newspaper circulations across the country.  In the last six months (ending in March) the industry has seen a 2.6% drop in subscribers as more and more people turn to the internet for news and information.

Lalo Alcaraz, creator of “La Cucaracha” also has a radio show in California which is getting national attention when Lalo advocated a contest for illegal immigrants called “Name Your Baby Lou Dobbs Challenge.”According to the Universal Press Syndicate press release, the challenge is:The challenge is simple enough?the first undocumented immigrant to name their U.S. born child “Lou Dobbs,” before Sept. 16, 2006, will win $500 worth of baby nursery items from participating East Los Angeles merchants supporting the Name Your Baby Lou Dobbs Challenge.

With the launch of “Garfield 2” later this summer, The Game Factory will be releasing the video game, based on the movie, for the PS2, Nintendo DC and the PC.

The Detroit Free Press ran a blurp about some changes to their Sunday comics.  They’ve picked up Cory Thomas’ “Watch Your Head” they debuted in April to take advantage of the Boondocks hiatus.

According to his web site, he is giving away an original framed painting of his characters to one lucky individual who either emails the editor of their newspaper asking them to subscribe to Dog Eat Doug (if the paper doesn’t carry it) or thank the editor for running the feature (if the paper already susbscribes)….  The winner will be randomly selected at the end of this month and announced on his web site.You can see the artwork that will be given away on his web site.

With less than 2 weeks before the public release of Michael Fry and T….  From the New York Times, comes an article that will step you though the history of how RJ made it to the Silver Screen and the challenges that had to be overcome to get the movie to the public.

Blondie cartoonist Dean Young will be taking Dagwood’s sandwich penchant and turning it into a chain of sandwich shops according to the St….  The first show is slated to open mid June in the Palm Harbor strip shopping center.

Information Week has a story about a new California startup company that is offering a free comic strip service that includes “Girls & Sports” (by Justin Borus and Andrew Feinstein) and “The Meaning of Lila” (by John Forgetta)….  Peanuts is distributed through Namco; Dilbert can be had through Verizon; Garfield is distributed through Gocomics; and GoGags is also a newly launched product that allows any cartoonist to get into the phonesWill mobile phones be the next comics page?

After the LA Times ran a story quoting comic strip heavy weights Berkeley Breathed, Wiley Miller questioning the future of the American Comics page, the discussion has been spreadign to other publications.Today on CNN.com, they have a story called “Who reads the comics anymore?”…  On the one hand they want younger readers which would require hip-per, edgier features like “Pearls Before Swine” and “Get Fuzzy,” but such features are lost on the older generation that is the bread and butter of the newspaper subscriptions.From Tom Daning, managing editor for United Media:”They’re looking for something new and edgy, but many of their readers are over 35,” he says.

The article talks about the growing popularity of the quirky strip and how it almost didn’t make it.Even then, he didn’t have instant success.”He was in a holding pattern at [syndicate] United Media,” recalls Pastis’ friend and “Get Fuzzy” cartoonist Darby Conley…. More recently, the strip has gotten a big boost from newspapers wanting to fill the hole left by the temporary run of “Calvin and Hobbes” (tied in with “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes”) and those dopey crocodile characters, who moved in next to Zebra (or, as the crocs say, “zeeba neighba”).

Patrick McDonnell has helped raise $12,000 for the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Ramnagar, India, according to Editor and Publisher.Visitors to the Muttscomics.com store donated $2,000 (in $1 increments), which was matched by McDonnell.  That $4,000 total was then matched twice by The Corbett Foundation and the World Wildlife Foundation of India.

This section features audio interviews of actors, writers and directors of past and upcoming DreamWorks films.  If you feel there is info missing here and can help expand it e-mail me at jawad@dreamworksfansite.com.

Dave Coverly, “Speed Bump” creator has created the 2nd Speed Bump cartoon contest for fans to come up with a snappy caption to one if his cartoons….  The deadline is May 14 and the winner will be announced on the 27th during the NCS meeting in Chicago.Details can be had at Dave’s web site.

From Lynn Johnston’s web site comes news that she and several other cartoonist will be attending a book signing at the Borders bookstore in Chicago the weekend of the Reuben awards.  The other artists include: Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Dan Piraro (Bizarro), Bill Amend (Foxtrot), Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues), Darrin Bell (Candorville and Rudy Park), Jef Mallett (Frazz), Paul Gilligan (Pooch Cafe), Greg Evans (Luann), Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey) and Mark Pett (Lucky Cow).