This year’s Newspaper Enterprise Association’s holiday comic strip will be Mark Leiknes’ Cow & Boy.

The National Press Club’s Cartoons and Cocktails fundraiser will be tomorrow night. The annual event raises money for the Ellen Masin Persina scholarship (help fund the first year of college study for a needy high school student), Young D.C. (training opportunities and hands-on experience with news media) and Cartoonists Rights Network (devoted to helping editorial cartoonists who face censorship, imprisonment, intimidation or death for their commentary).

With all the recent celebratory events and commemorations of the comic Dick Tracy‘s 75 year anniversary, one would be surprised to read that the Gould family has told the Woodstock City Council that the museum is in need of donations to keep the doors open. The museum draws 4,000 to 7,000 visitors a year and has an operating budget of $40,000. The Gould family contributes the lion share of the financial support, but requires $25,000 in annual donations to operate.  With a recognizable brand name such as Dick Tracy, one would think money would not be an issue, but TMS owns all the rights to royalties for the brand, so the Gould family doesn’t see any of that money.

Here are the latest book signing dates for “Marshall Ramsey’s greatest hits: A collection of editorial cartoons from The Clarion-Ledger”.November 1 – 4 (Wednesday through Saturday) Mistletoe Marketplace, JacksonNovember 7 (Tuesday) Lobby of The Clarion-Ledger 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.November 9 (Thursday) St.

Last Friday, Hilda Terry, the creator of Teena that ran in papers between 1941 and 1964 has passed away at at 92. Hilda had an interesting and full life. This story out of the New York Sun sums up much of what she accomplished. She was in many ways a trailblazing cartoonists – accomplishing many firsts.

I mentioned yesterday that several cartoonist from around the globe had descended in Manhattan to talk about cartooning, free speech and religion.  Attending from the U.S. is Mike Luckovich.  From ComicsDC blog comes news that Ann Telnaes was also there and that you can watch the streaming video.  To watch it, click the link and scroll down to the Special Event on October 16 (or do a find on “cartoon”).

New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff was in Denver last night as the featured guest at the Denver Press Club.  The event was hosted by Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe and Rocky Mountain News cartoonist Ed Stein.

Editorial cartoonist from around the world met in New York at the United Nations to discuss the topic of free expression and respect for religious beliefs. Representing the United States was Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Fifteen cartoonists from Denmark, the Middle East, US and Africa attended.  U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the seminar.

Doug Marlette will be in Hillsborough on October 29th to attend a reading sponsored by the Orange County Public Library.  Doug’s book, Magic Time has been released and is available for purchase.

The are testing out Baby Blues, F minus, Lio, Over the Hedge, Red and Rover, Soup to Nutz, and Watch Your Head.You can head over and vote now.  The do ask for an email address, gender, age, etc. I took the poll twice, so unless they’re filtering it on the back end, it looks like this survey could be easily hi-jacked.

Michael Jantz’s art work will be featured at Cartoonlandia in San Francisco on October 19.  Mark Fiore’s work will also be shown.

Mark Tatulli’s Lio has won the Hartford Courant’s online comics poll according to E&P. That poll was protested by NCS President Rick Stromoski (who’s feature Soup to Nutz was not comic in the poll).  Lio was up against Brevity, F Minus, On a Claire Day, and Silo Roberts.

Nick Anderson’s latest animated editorial cartoon has been posted.  This last salvo picks on Hillary Clinton’s baggage and is a parody of Black Eye Peas’ “My Humps”.

Open Season is still doing well in theaters after three weekends.  So far the film has grossed $59 million domestically ($63 worldwide).

Darrin Bell has announced on his blog that his new book,  Another Stereotype Bites the Dust: A Candorville Collection, is hot off the press and will be on store shelves shortly.  If you can’t wait for the retail store, he has a few copies that he can sell you off of his web site and they come autographed and with a sketch of one of the characters as well.  Visit his web site for details.