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.

Greg Evans was highlighted in the North County Times as he recently judged a cartoon (and coloring) contest as well as talked about his upcoming musical “Luann – Scenes From a Teen’s Life” that will hit the stage on September 15.

Mentioned over on Tom Spurgeon’s Comicsreporter.com – Mike Luckovich will be on hand on September 25th at the Decatur Library to discuss and sign his book “Four More Wars!”.  Mike’s appearance is scheduled for 7:15 pm. See the library’s web site for more information.

In observance of the U.S. Labor Day holiday, I will not be posting news to the blog this weekend. See you all on Tuesday.

Classic Media will be releasing a four disk set of the original Dick Tracy TV series that ran between 1961 and 1964 on September 26th to celebrate Dick Tracy’s 75th anniversary. 

For the second time in a year, Scott Adams is using his blog to solicit material for a gag he’s working on. The first time was a request for a “realistic sounding sentence that Dilbert would utter that is mind-numbingly technical and still realistic.”  This round he’s asking for “the worst/funniest thing that you could be accused of doing in the office.”

Greg Evens’ Luann has a new book entitled “Luann 3: Sixteen Isn’t Pretty” that will be released this September. From the promo: Luann manages to get through each day thanks to her two best friends, Bernice and Delta. She also receives guidance and suggestions (not that she wants them) from her parents. The collection is […]

I found an article in the Free Lance-Star that talks about how topical Herblock cartoons are decades after he drew them.  The story is accompanies by several images of this cartoons – dealing with wire-tapping, the religious right, and the deficit.

Drawn! had a link a couple of days ago pointing visitors to  “Bill Watterson’s Rarest” – a site dedicated to chronicling artwork produced by Bill before and during the Calvin and Hobbes years. They also point to another site Calvin & Hobbes: Magic on Paper which is much of the same, perhaps even more detailed.  If you’re a Calvin and Hobbes fan, these are great sites to check out.

E&P has a great story on Clay Bennett’s year as president of the AAEC (whose term ends this tomorrow).  Some of the things I know he had to deal with was the number of cartoonists that lost their jobs or took buyouts: Michael Ramirez, Kevin ‘Kal’ Kallaugher, Stacy Curtis, Tim Menees, David Simpson, and Larry Wright each walked out the door of their respective newspapers – only Michael has regained a staff cartoonist position.

Tony Cochran, creator of Agnes will be the next guest cartoonist on the Washington Post’s Meet the Artist chat session.  Agnes is in a eight week tryout with the Post and that is the topic of the conversation.