I’ve told this story before, but Ted Rall’s latest cartoon makes it seem more relevant than ever.A college friend was doing his psych rotation in med school about the time the Church Committee Report came out.The Report, O Best Beloved, was part of the examination of government we went through following Watergate, and revealed things […]

A Case for Pencils asks cartoonists about the tools of the tradeNick Downes is the latest to take the survey, and he discounts my earlier theory (elsewhere today) that pencils are a thing of the past:I eschew electronic means of creating work as much as possible, as I enjoy the process of drawing, inking and […]

In an effort to keep active duty frontline soldiers uninformed, the new Pentagon budget would cut all funding for the Stars and Stripes newspaper.The proposed cuts to the editorially independent news organization, which is partially funded by the Pentagon, were a product of the recent defense-wide review ordered by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, said Elaine […]

above: Régis LoiselAn exhibit of original European comic art in New York City gives Forbes a reason to look at the collectors market for original comic art.Philippe Labaune, founder of Art9, has a few ideas explaining why American collectors are getting into original comics art right now. “The American collector is moving steadily towards the […]

I rise to a point of personal privilege this morning to join Wiley Miller in celebrating his 20th anniversary with Andrews-McMeel and Non Sequitur’s 28th overall, though we don’t really celebrate anniversaries that are not at least divisible by 5 and preferably 10.Though, in fact, I’ve known Wiley long enough to remember when he switched […]

JH: You started drawing “Between Friends” when you were in your thirties, and your characters were the same age. What made you decide to let them age in real-time with you? SBL: The strip evolved as my influences changed. When I began “Between Friends,” there were no children in it, for example…The strip launched in […]

Knight’s talk was both autobiographical and a chance to comment on society through his art. Knight, who grew up in Boston, remarked that he had only one black teacher in school – and that was a substitute who, as a comic artist, at least modeled a career that appealed to Knight. It wasn’t until Knight […]

above: Gary Varvel President Trump made news last May when, in an interview with Politico, he said his new nickname for Pete Buttigieg was Alfred E. Neuman, a reference to the youthfully grinning MAD magazine mascot. Yet a month earlier, cartoonist Gary Varvel had already drawn that comparison. The right-leaning political cartoonist’s first contribution to the […]

Pia Guerra comments on the return of Hope Hicks to the White House, and I’m not sure if she’s just perceptive or if she’s heard the rumors, too, but there’s something running around that the old man is starting to slip a few cogs and they’re trying to keep him patched up.Which would not only […]

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has announced a time change for submitting entries to the Rex Babin Memorial Award for Excellence in Local Cartooning.Due to the schedule change of this year’s AAEC Convention (moving the date up to the Spring so we can team-up with the Canadians), it has been decided to move up […]

Seems Dennis is right:I love books. The problem is that my book-buying habit outpaces my ability to read them. This leads to FOMO and occasional pangs of guilt over the unread volumes spilling across my shelves. Sound familiar? But it’s possible this guilt is entirely misplaced. According to statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb, these unread volumes […]

We’ll start in the literary corner today, with a recommendation that is a bit ironic since it was inspired by a passionate screed against asking artists to work for free and involves my suggesting that you get the Kindle edition of W. Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage” which is free.However, Maugham is dead and wouldn’t […]

Excerpts from a short item on Poynter:McClatchy, the second largest chain of local newspapers in the United States, filed for bankruptcy Thursday… The company has struggled in recent years to meet pension demands, including $124 million in pension funding due in 2020… The Chapter 11 filing will let McClatchy eliminate some pension obligations. In a […]

The Berryman Award is open to U.S.-based editorial cartoonists for work that exhibits power to influence public opinion, plus good drawing and striking effect. The cartoons should represent the highest standards of journalism.Roll Call reports:CQ Roll Call cartoonist RJ Matson will receive the 2019 Berryman Award for editorial cartooning at the National Press Foundation’s annual […]

I don’t think you can call Jeremy Banx’s work “deceptively simple” because the depth in his simple work is not at all deceptive or hidden.In this case, the commentary on Trump and Barr etc is like Dali’s (Duh. Picasso. See comments) bicycle-bull sculpture in that, yes, you immediately see the simplicity but you also immediately […]