Michael Fry and T Lewis’ movie “Over the Hedge” was up against two other new movies this week end….  The third and last place honor went to “See No Evil” which earned $4.4 million over it’s initial weekend.Over the Hedge has three more weeks to be the top animated movie in the theater until Disney/Pixar’s movie “Cars” is released on June 9.All figures are according to IMDB.

Last night I caught a prescreening of T.  Lewis and Michael Fry’s “Over the Hedge” movie.

Aaron McGruder, “Boondocks,” Darrin Bell, “Candorville,” and Keith Knight, “The K Chronicles” have been nominated for a Glyph award for Best Comic Strip by the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention.  In addition to the Best Comics Strip nod, Aaron is also up for Best Writer and his character “Huey” is up for Best Male Character.The results will be announced tonight at the annual convention that runs today and tomorrow in Philadelphia, PA.Tim Jackson, editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Defender, Madison Times will be on one of the discussion panels.

Robb Armstrong Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/19/2006 | For these comics creators, not just funny business:East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention reception dinner at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.Armstrong will be honored with an outstanding-achievement award tonight, and he will join the panel discussion on African American images in the cartoon and comic industries tomorrow.

The Washington County Public Affairs Forum is a weekly gathering meeting every Monday in Beaverton, OR to discuss politics and events in Oregon….  Visit the Washington County Public Affairs web site for time and place if you are so inclined.

According to E&P, Doonesbury.com has totaled more than 152,000 votes in a poll asking readers where “Doonesbury character” Alex should go to college….  The options are .Rensselaer, Cornell or MIT.As posted earlier here, some of the Universities in question are taking this fictional character quite seriously.

According to Universal Press, “Baldo” creators Hector Cantu and Carlos Castellanos have invited Lela Lee who does a weekly feature called “Angry Little Girls” to do three of six Baldo daily strips beginning May 22…. “Angry Little Girls” features an asian character, Kim.From the news release: During the six-day series, Baldo character Gracie Bermudez (who Cantu and Castellanos describe as a ?little sister with a cause?) and Lee?s cast of Angry Little Girls will join forces to show Baldo readers what real girls are all about.

Over on Arnold Wagner’s blog, he has an interesting clip out of a Gallup poll from 1936.

Subjects include the obligatory questions about how Mark got into cartooning; what Mark did for a living before cartooning became successful enough to support him financially; what make’s Lio different from other strips. When he decided he wanted to try his hand at a second strip, he wanted something significantly different from Heart of the City.”The thing I really wanted to do was something that is new,” he said.

As seen on E&P and Mike Lynch’s blog, veteran cartoonist Bob Laughlin passed way Sunday. His services will be held this coming Friday in Southbury, CT.

Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Matt Davies has joined the blogosphere according to Editor and Publisher…. From E&P:”My aim,” Davies wrote in his initial post, “is to pry the lid off the process and hardships that a newspaper editorial cartoonist encounters on deadline every day, and share it with whomever cares.”He added: “The best cartoonists should make it look easy.

While some Muslims do not make or show images of Mohammed because of the biblical laws against graven images, there is a long history of portraits of Muhammad in Islamic art. …… Perhaps because not talking about it gives them a convenient rationalization — religious tolerance — for not showing the offending Danish cartoons.

As posted on the AAEC web site, Tim Menees, who was let go from his 30 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette job as editorial cartoonist, was awarded first place in the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s Golden Quill Journalism awards.

The PMC is a great non-profit organization that goes into third world countries and fights overpopulation problems along with sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and the oppression of women, by educating the local populations and encouraging them to stop their risky behavior through soap operas on the local media.  PMC’s innovative approach has been very successful as the third world audiences remember and respond well to the educational dramas they hear on their local radio.The PMC also works to raise the consciousness of population relation issues in the first world, and one of their initiatives was a cartoon contest.

Chris Lamb’s book “Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons” will be released in paperback form next month according to Editor and Publisher.You can learn more about the book at Amazon.com.