This summer is an exhibit called “Drawing Fire” at the The First Division Museum at Cantigny (Wheaton, IL) featuring the work of Bill Mauldin. The exhibit tells the GI story using Mauldin’s cartoons and the some of the museum’s extensive but rarely seen World War II collection. The visitor will see more than forty of […]

New book edited by Gary Groth called “Naked Cartoonists” will be released in October. My initial reaction was “really? people want to see cartoonists naked?” After perusing a few pages through Amazon’s preview feature, my reaction was, “what a fun project. Well done.”Cartoons (at least the ones in the preview) are safe. Lots of butt […]

Mark Anderson on the life of a freelance cartoonistAndertoons cartoonist Mark Anderson offers a peek at the challenging life of making it as a freelance cartoonist. The life of a freelance cartoonist is never boring. Fun, frightening, exhilarating, frustrating, goofy, overwhelming, and surprising, sure, but never boring. For me the key has been balancing catering […]

July 16 was declared Brad Anderson Day in Brocton, NY. Brad Anderson is the creator of Marmaduke which launched in 1954. He grew up in Brocton and the town commemorated his work and achievements on July 16. A statue of Brad and Marmaduke have been commissioned and will be placed on town hall next summer.Buffalo […]

News from Tom Spurgeon Prominent Association of American Editorial Cartoonists member Matt Bors wrote last night to say that Syrian cartoonist and gallery owner Ali Ferzat will be appearing at that group’s convention in September and delivering their keynote address. That’s big news. All the more reason why this year’s convention is a must-attend.

Tom Tomorrow probes the lack of substance behind Paul Ryan’s declared passion for Ayn Rand. Ryan has said that “Atlas Shrugged” is required reading for his staff, and he has given people copies of the book as Christmas presents, an improbable choice of ways to celebrate the Lord’s birth that readily plays into the “say […]

This one got past me. If you’re in the greater Wisconsin area, please carve out some time to visit the second year Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. It’s a great line-up. Festival runs Thursday, September 27th through Saturday, September 29th.Here’s the preliminary schedule:Thursday 9/278:00 am Interview with Greg Berg of WGTD for the Morning Show. All […]

Stacy Curtis took over inking Richard Thompson?s Cul de Sac in March, so he had a first hand look at what went into Richard?s process for creating the strip and the factors in Richard?s decision to retire the strip.Regarding his short-run experience as the Cul de Sac inker, Stacy writes:: As you may know, earlier […]

I reported back in January that former Editor & Publisher senior editor and syndication industry reporter Dave Astor was working on a humorous tell all of his 25 years reporting on the industry with many anecdotes about the columnists and cartoonist he covered. The book Comic (and Column) Confessional was picked up by Xenos Press, […]

I don’t always agree with Ted Rall, who can be awfully heartless in his ideological purity. This time, however, he’s commenting on someone whose ideology is twice as heartless and it sure works for me.There is something deeply and offensively cynical in the “We won’t touch the benefits you’ve been promised” approach. On the surface, it […]

Jim Morin apparently didn’t get the memo about it being “Biden Gaffe Week,” went all rogue and did a cartoon about something else. Boy, is he gonna be in trouble!Meanwhile, however, this business of Romney refusing to release his tax returns is becoming a fascination, and not the kind a well-run campaign should welcome. Certainly […]

Richard Thompson has announced that, due to the increasing impact of Parkinson’s and the need to address it without the additional pressures of deadlines, he is retiring “Cul de Sac.”I’m going to miss the strip, but I applaud the choice because I’m sure it’s in his best interests as well as that of his wife […]

Clay Jones, who has been the staff cartoonist for the The Free Lance-Star, has been laid off. His last day with the paper is today.In a blog post to his readers he writes: What’s next for me? I don’t know. I do know my career as a staff cartoonist, something I spent seven years fighting […]

Richard Thompson, the creator of Cul de Sac, has decided to retire the strip next month. In a letter to newspapers, Universal Uclick’s Lee Salem writes: On September 9, 2007, the remarkable talent of Richard Thompson hit the newspaper pages in the comic strip Cul de Sac. The buzz began even before the strip debuted; […]

OUR BLOG ENTRY WILL BEGIN AFTER THIS BRIEF WORD: Last month, Mitt Romney appeared before the NAACP Convention and made some remarks about health care that, perhaps predictably, drew some verbal disagreement from the audience. It was widely reported that he had been booed, but a listen to the video showed only that people disagreed, […]