Austin-American Statesman editorial cartoonist Ben Sargent has been named one of the 10 coolest creative people in Austin Texas by the Austin Monthly magazine this last December.

Darrin Bell talks about a different approach taken by the Hamilton Spectator to the traditional comics poll – taking samples into a dark bar (or comedy club) and asking patrons whether they should be added to their comics page. The features under consideration by a bunch of randomly selected, slightly inebriated, who even knows if […]

Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles has an exhibit of his work starting tomorrow at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY. The exhibit runs through March 25. Tom has history in the Buffalo area. He worked for the Buffalo News before moving to the Post. Hat tip to E&P and Comics Reporter.

Dan Thompson has announced that he has secured the rights from the Milton Caniff family to run Steve Canyon on Humorous Maximus according to E&P.The feature begins on Monday, January 22.

Over on Jim Borgman’s blog he tackles a difficult topic of when he feels comfortable using minority characters when the editorial cartoon calls for a generic individual. His answer is interesting and he even redraws a few of his cartoons and changes the race of some of the characters so you can see how it […]

The Capital (Annapolis, Md) will be trying out six new strips: Pearls Before Swine, Non Sequitur, Pickles, Brevity, Frazz, and Candorville. The contest begins January 21. The voting will be via paper ballot (favored method for the aged), online and email ballots (favored by the younger crowd). We’ll see which method yields the winning feature.

Wee Pals cartoonist Morrie Turner is scheduled to speak at Alfred University (Alfred NY) on February 3rd during their second annual Drawn to Diversity program. The program was created to delve into equality and diversity in art and media. This year’s program specifically looks at the funny pages.The event is free to the public.

The Courier & Press has decided not to drop Bruce Tinsley’s Mallard Filmore or Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury after a two week period to collect reader input. The result was “readers of the Viewpoint page have let us know in no uncertain terms that they want us to continue running the “Doonesbury” and “Mallard Fillmore” comic […]

From the Toledo Free Press comes word that a new strip Biff and Riley will be adding to the line up at the end of this month. The new local comic strip is by Toledoan Jeff Payden and features two sibling dogs. Payden described the main characters, two dogs, as “two brothers from the same […]

I’m beginning to think that Stephan Pastis is the most written about cartoonist of 2006 and is setting himself up for a repeat in 2007. Anyway, here’s an interview with him from the Concord Monitor. They are now running Pearls Before Swine in the place of Foxtrot.From the interview: What do you think it is […]

Michael Vance, curator of the Oklahoma Cartoonists Museum writes in to alert us about a new short film on YouTube about the museum. I’ve mentioned the Oklahoma Cartoonists Museum before back in March when they received over 2000 comic books, magazines and comics strips for their collection as well as in October when they had […]

The Chicago Sun passed a milestone this last weekend as it celebrates 60 years running Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon. There is some great Caniff history in this article. If you’re a comic history buff, make sure you read this article.Hat tip to The Comics Journal

Rudy Park cartoonists Theron Heir (writer) and Darrin Bell (artist) have written one of their strips’ most endearing characters, Mort Park, out of the strip to make a political statement against Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld was a frequent “visitor” to the strip and had heated exchanges with Mort. In the end, Mort died of a heart […]

Andrew Feinstein and Justin Borus, creators of Girls and Sports were interviewed in the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier.Mallard Filmore creator Bruce Tinsley gets a write up in the sports pages of the Lexington Herald-Leader due to his loyalty to the University of Kentucky Cats.

Blogging will be light today. I’ve got Martin Luther King, Jr. day off and will be doing some family activities. Check back later this afternoon for updates.-Alan