The kids are at their grandma’s house for a week, so the Mrs. and I are off to play. I’ll be back here updating the blog on Wednesday July 8. -Alan

Editorial cartoonists from around the country (and Canada) are in Seattle of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists annual conference this weekend. Due to a family vacation this weekend, my reporting will be pretty sparse. You can catch up on some of the twitter chatter by searching on AAEC. Editorial cartoonists that are in Seattle […]

Books» Newsarama reviews Fantagraphics’ collection of Sam’s Strip, a short run comic strip by Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas from 1961-1963. Comic Books» Richard Comely is profiled in The Record. Richard has drawn Captain Canuck for 35 years and is now featured in its own hardcover compilation that has been released in time for Canada […]

Character designer, illustrator Stephen Silver will present a three-hour seminar on the topic of self-publishing for children’s books, art books and graphic novels. The presentation is on August 12th in Burbank, CA. See his site for details.

» The Press Republican has dropped Mutts in favor of Zits in an effort to attract younger readers.» Polling over at the Kansas City Star is still underway. Not sure how it is going, but since Reader Representative Derek Donovan has to explain, again, why they selected the particular strips that that did to be […]

The Musée de la bande dessinée in Angoulème, a museum dedicated entirely to comic books, has opened in south-west France. Within a converted factory visitors can now find in excess of 8,000 original drawings and approximately 110,000 magazines and comics. Of course, the best names in Europe are there: André Franquin (the creator of Gaston […]

Among the discussion items at this year’s Association of American Editorial Cartoonists gathering in Seattle this week, is an item from current president Ted Rall who suggests the organization think about merging with the National Cartoonist Society. Daryl Cagle, who is a member of both and former president of the latter offers a few suggestions […]

Starting next Monday, The Pajama Diaries will start a five-week flashback story-line that tells the story of Jill’s first pregnancy and the Kaplans’ journey towards impending parenthood. Regarding the story-line, Terri Libenson, creator of The Pajama Diaries says, “with my own children growing quickly before my eyes, I have wanted to do a flashback series […]

Starting this week, the Baldo comic strip will deal with diabetes, a disease that disproportionately affects hispanics. The story-line will run through July 10 and include a toll free number for readers to get additional information.Baldo is written by Hector Cantu and drawn by Carlos Castellanos.

A Korean cartoonist identified only as “Choi” has been sued by Wonju city for the sum of $100,000 for inserting abusive words about President Lee into a cartoon. In the cartoon, which is supposed to be in honor of Korean Vietnam War veterans, a couple of people bow in front of a monument, but behind […]

The 2009 Harvey Awards Nominees have been announced. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. They will be presented October 10, 2009 in Baltimore, MD, in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con.Final ballots are due to the […]

Mike Cope, cartoonist, illustrator and author of “Last of the Funnies” is making a generous pledge to support the Schulz Challenge that is raising money for the Ohio State’s Cartoon Library & Museum. Mike is donating $2 for every copy his timely science fiction, which explores the future of the funnies in a virtually paperless […]

I had never heard of Corey Pandolph or Barkeater Lake until a couple of years ago. He sent me an email explaining that Barkeater Lake was leaving comics.com and that he had plans to turn it into a webcomic. Back then, my news gathering operation wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now and, well, I’d […]

King Features Syndicate is launching a new interactive feature called “Captionary” for it’s Comics Kingdom product. The new feature allows readers to write the captions of cartoons drawn by Dan Piraro, Mike Peters, Hilary Price, Vic Lee and Rina Piccolo. “In the same way people are attracted to The New Yorker CaptionIt contests, news sites […]

Books» I believe I mentioned this. There will be a collection of Johnny Hart’s religiously themed B.C. comic strips.» Barnes and Noble have once again steeply discounted Bill Mauldin’s collection “Willie & Joe: The WWII Years.” The books are listed at $65 but are on sale for $17.98 (no free shipping). Books are bargain books […]