We’ve discussed the upcoming release of Ponyo by animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. There is now an official trailer for movie. Stylistically it is way different than American films a nod to its Japanese culture and the fact that it is not a CG film.
» The Herald Palladium is introducing Steve Sicula’s Home and Away to their readers.» The Kansas City Star is polling to see which feature should be dropped. On the chopping block: B.C., Beetle Bailey, Bizarro, For Better or for Worse, Cathy, Mark Trail, Marmaduke, Real Life Adventures, Shoe, and Wizard of Id.» Derek Donovan, the […]
Over on Steve Greenberg’s blog comes news that a proposal is being floated to give future AAEC/John Locher award winners a cash prize instead of the traditional all-expense paid trip to that year’s convention. Steve wonders if the proposed change is an acknowledgement that the profession is bleak, but then counters why a cash prize […]
Jake Thompson, a student at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, is this year’s winner of the AAEC/John Locher Memorial Award. Jake is a junior and studying advertising. As this years winner, he will receive an all-expense paid trip to this year’s AAEC convention in Seattle.
Character designer Stephen Silver will release his fifth book, Passion for Life, July 1, 2009, which gives insights into his philosophies of life drawing and life itself. “The title ‘Passion for Life’ came to me on the day that my fifty-year-old cousin Ellen Wahl passed away,” he writes in the book. “It is not only […]
The Washington Post has a comic editorial by Art Spiegelman exploring editorial cartoonists reaction to a 1939 refugee boat full of 900 European Jews fleeing Nazi German who were turned back when they reached the United States. Interesting review of editorial cartooning history and a not so subtle jab at the modern profession.
Uclick has announced the release of a new Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The app celebrates the comics industry’s most prestigious awards by providing details on Will Eisner and the Eisner Awards, as well as the entire list of award categories in a tap-and-swipe menu, with information on each […]
Comic Strips» A humorous story about Ernie Harwell who in 1953 conceived of a comic strip featuring a baseball country boy named Amby Dexter. The strip was written at the request of his neighbor who was the head of national sales at United Media. They liked Earnie’s writing, but needed an illustrator. Unfortunately the strip […]
The Naperville Sun reports that a statue commemorating the Dick Tracy character will be constructed in Naperville, home of current Dick Tracy cartoonist Dick Locher. The article goes on to summarize Dick’s career and long association with the famous detective character. The Dick Tracy Museum in Woodstock, IL closed last summer due to insufficient funds.
Reporters Without Borders reports that some 23 reporters have been arrested since the riots began in Iran and the government shut down foreign news coverage. One of the reporters arrested is Behzad Basho. I tried to find any information on Behzad’s work, but could not find any. In related news. The newspaper, Velayat, has been […]
Fifty thousand copies of a prison newspaper were pulled after “diversity chiefs” became “extremely concerned” over a cartoon sketch of a sneezing, bearded pig wearing a turban was found accompanying an article by an inmate who “suggested that swine flu was the result of a failed plot by Osama Bin Laden to â??eradicate every pig […]
A new electronic comic reader was introduced at Heroes Con, called the Longbox. It’s a digital comics platform similar to iTunes, and it is expected to launch later this year as a free download for Mac, PC, and Linux.
Interviews» Liz Kersjes interviews Jim Borgman about his comic strip Zits that he does with Jerry Scott» Tom Racine’s Tall Tale Features Radio features Australian writer and artist, Sarah Ellerton. She does the beautifully drawn and scripted web graphic novel, “The Phoenix Requiem,” and is the illustrator of “Dreamless,” over at Keenspot. Television» Dan Reynolds […]
Last fall, I reviewed the new roll out of United Media’s comics.com and compared it to other major syndicate offerings, including uClick/Universal Press’ GoComics.com. Last month, uClick released a major upgrade/redesign to GoComics improving many of the features that were eclipsed by comics.com.uClick’s mobile friendly site.uClick has always had one of the better comic portals […]
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bill Bates has passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was 79. Bill was a local cartooning legend who had worked as a cartoonist for the Chronicle and the Carmel Pine Cone. In the 1980s, Bill met weekly with Hank Ketcham and Gus Arriola, two other legendary cartoonists […]