The Daily World, (Grays Harbor and northern Pacific counties) has picked up Get Fuzzy starting today, The first eight people to e-mail the publisher will receive a free copy of a “Get Fuzzy” anthology. 

Stephan Pastis’s Pearls Before Swine will be coming out in a comic collection book called “Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My!” this September.  According to E&P, the book will contain a collection of unedited and unpublished strips.

The Deseret News in Salt Lake City will debut a new Sunday comic called Heaven’s Love Thrift Shop by Kevin Frank.  Heaven’s Love is a Sunday only feature about a thrift shop owned by a church. The focus of the feature according to Kevin is, “to remind people there is a God, and God loves them, and then make them chuckle. But you can be sure I will avoid any heavy-handed ‘preachiness.”

Fans of Jules Fieffer will want to read this article from the Vineyard Gazette.  The article covers much of Jule’s many accomplishments and that he retreats to Martha’s Vineyard to do writing, while New York City is where he does artwork.  He is currently working on another children’s book, which would be his 10th.

John Rose writes in to announce that a collection of his editorial cartoons has been published by Parkway Publishers and is entitled, This Is Where I Draw the Line! John is the editorial cartoonist for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, VA and also draws Barney Google and  Snuffy Smith.

From Editorialcartoonists.com comes news that Stephan Templeton has won first place in editorial cartooning in  the 2006 Excellence in Journalism Award from the Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists.  Templeton draws for the Intelligencer.

Additionally, SW Parra has taken first place in editorial cartooning from the 2005 Better Newspapers Contents by the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

With the success of the complete Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, etc. IDW publishing will release a complete Dick Tracy collection in October.

According to the Reuter’s story the DVD will include a hybernated feature that can be activated after November 28 (presumably to coincide with peak Christmas buying season), a four minute mini-movie with all the original voice talent. The mini-movie is a parody of reality tv called “Hammy’s Boomerang Adventure.”The DVD also includes “Behind the Hedge,” a look at the real-life animals that inspired the film’s critters; filmmaker commentaries; a mock “infomercial” spoofing the career opportunities of pest control; a “making-of” documentary; cast interviews; and a virtual drawing lesson by a DreamWorks animator on how to sketch Hammy.Over the Hedge took in $151.7 million domestically.

The topic for this In Focus article has been rolling around in my mind for a few months now. Since October, when I started this blog, I�ve read several reports (usually around end of financial quarters) that bemoan the dropping circulations and overall readership of the newspaper. How was this trend affecting the big six syndicates who sell editorial cartoons and comic strips?� Because their business is so closely dependent on the health of the newspaper industry � what were syndicates doing to grow their business in this climate and ultimately, how would these trends affect the current or future syndicated cartoonist?

Darrin Bell took a jab at Republican Senator Jim Bunning through is Candorville strip earlier this month in response to Bunning’s complaints that the New York Times had committed treason by publishing a story about anti-terrorism programs used to track international money.

From the For Better or For Worse blog comes news of a new 16 month family planner to help organize the sometimes hectic family schedules. 

King Features has announced that Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott’s Zits has crossed another client list milestone with over 1,500 subscribers worldwide.  Zits was launched in 1997 and within it’s first four years had already surpassed 500 clients, according to Jay Kennedy, Editor in Chief of King Features.

According to the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, 75% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24 who said they read the a newspaper when they were younger (13-to-17) now read their local paper at least once a week.Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they read the local Sunday paper in the past four weeks and 66% said they read it last Sunday.MORI Research conducted the study on behalf of the NAA Foundation….  The study also noted that roughly 800 papers carry some sort of syndicated youth content for all ages.The study shows that when teens pick up the paper they are more attracted to stories written by their peers (but not by much).

Back in the mid-90’s I was watching a video that Tribune Media Services distributed to newspapers to promote Jeff MacNelly. Half way through I noticed Jeff was using some kind of pen that made thin and narrow strokes like it was a brush – but it definitely was a pen.  I did slow-mo several times trying to figure out what he was using. I finally emailed Chris Cassatt who was Jeff’s assistant at the time and asked him what he was using. He wrote back telling me it was a brush pen that could only be purchased from an art store in Canada and also gave me contact information on how to order one – which I immediately did.  Since then, that brush pen (I still use the original) has been irreplaceable. I love the freedom of being able to work away from my desk and not have to carry around an ink bottle and cup of water to clean the brush.

According to his blog, Scott Adams is getting married today.