Baldo creator’s Carlos Castellanos and Hector Cantu inserted one of their loyal readers into their September 5th strip – part of a fund-raiser for the Rubén Salazar Scholarship Fund.  Barbara Fajardo has been immortalized in black and white after her two daughters won a silent auction during the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ convention last June. One of the daughters supplied Carlos with a photo of Barbara which was used to create her likeness.

Yesterday’s Prickly City by Scott Stantis paid a special tribute to Bob Thaves and his feature Frank & Ernest.  Scott assisted Bob on his feature King Baloo years ago.  Back in August, Darrin Bell paid a tribute to Bob in his Candorville as well.  Bob passed away in early August at the age of 81.  His son Tom will continue on with the feature.

Richard Thompson will be featured on the Washington Post’s live chat discussions today at noon (EST).  Richard does a local comic called Cul de Sac for the Post each Sunday and also Richard’s Poor Almanac which appears in the Post on Saturdays.

Sandra Bell-Lundy, creator of Between Friends will be the judge in the fifth annual CanWrite! story contest. The contest is sponsored by the Canadian Authors Association which is open to all U.S. and Canadian residents who can produce an unpublished, fictional short story under 1,500 words.

Via Comics Curmudgeon and E&P is news that Mary Worth is worthy of YouTube. Again. The latest Mary Worth story line has Mary being stalked by the freaky Captain Kangaroo looking Aldo. The story line inspired a Benny Hill type 22 second video that was posted on YouTube.

According to E&P, a new book from University of Chicago Press entitled Revel with a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America will be available on September 15.  This book looks at political humorists of the 50’s and 60’s and includes Jules Feiffer and Walt Kelly.

Kevin Frank was recently spotlighted in the New York Times and it has raised his feature’s profile (but perhaps not the number of papers subscribing). This site has a story on the outcome of that exposure. â??Itâ??s a big deal to be published in that newspaper,â? he said. â??Iâ??m still shocked. And, itâ??s increased the […]

Leigh Rubin gets a lengthy write-up over at the San Luis Obispo Tribune where he opines about the charmed life of cartooning, Trudeau and Guisewite sabbaticals being ‘because they can afford to’ and other Rubes tidbits and inner-workings.

E&P has reported that Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau will speak as part of the UCLA Live series on October 25th.

From E&P comes news that Jerry Robinson will be the keynote speaker this Saturday at the Harvey Awards.  Jerry is a past president of the NCS, founder of the Cartoonists & Writers Syndicate, as well as a former comic book artist who created Joker and named Robin in the Batman series.

Wiley Miller has a new book coming out this November entitled, Extraordinary Adventures Of Ordinary Basil.

The Evansville Courier Press has a very informative article about Tom Batiuk, his Funky Winkerbean comic, and why he’s brought cancer back into the life of the Lisa character (which was initially diagnosed with breast cancer back in 1999).  In short, since that first episode, Tom was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago.

There were several shake-ups on the comics page in newspapers across the country over the weekend. I’ve compiled the list of which features are out, in, and under evaluation.

The Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace exhibit is now featured in Shreveport LA. 

The Napa Valley Register has a really interesting write-up on Stephan Pastis and his journey to becoming a successful cartoonist. The story also delves into Stephan’s work process, his plundering of other comic characters and his run in with Charles Schulz.