The Chicago Sun-Times announced changes to its leadership and reorganizing of its newsroom recently. This quote caught my eye:“We are no longer a newspaper company,” Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC Editor-in-chief Jim Kirk said in a memo to staff. “We are a technology company that happens to publish a newspaper. We deliver content. And we will […]
On Sunday, the Team Cul de Sac auction opened allowing the public to bid on original cartoon art donated by some of the biggest (and smallest) names in comics. Currently the big item – a Bill Watterson oil painting of Cul de Sac character Petey Otterloop is going for less than $3,000. Other notable pieces […]
Jim Unger, creator of Herman has passed away yesterday at age 75 at his home in British Columbia. His strip Herman ran from 1974 through 1992 and served as an inspiration to Gary Larson’s The Far Side. He was twice the recipient of the National Cartoonists Society’s Best Syndicated Panel. Dave Coverly, who has been […]
Neil Gaiman, author of short stories, comic books, graphic novels, and movies (with a long list of awards to go with those genres), was the commencement speaker at the University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA).In my book, this speech ranks up there with Steve Jobs’ now famous 2005 Stanford University speech. Worth the 20 minutes […]
After this weekend in Vegas I can now say that I have met the great Jack Davis (and have a signed sketch!). He has an incredible story and career. A foundation has been set up to “facilitate the study and appreciation of Jack Davis’s contribution to 20th-century art through development of databases, archives, education and […]
Get ready Pennsylvania, next year’s National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards will be held in Pittsburgh. The official dates will be May 24-26 and be held at the Omni William Penn Hotel. So far the only thing planned this far in advance that I’m aware of is from The Toonseum which says they will be featuring […]
At last the auction of all the generously donated art to The Team Cul de Sac book is now available for everyone to bid on. The book is a work of art by itself – if you’ve ordered a copy, you won’t be disappointed. If you haven’t, head over and do so. There are A […]
Last night the National Cartoonists Society gathered in Las Vegas for their annual Reuben Award banquet. The top honor for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year went to MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond. Tom started his career doing caricatures and freelance work for magazines, publishers and advertisers. As a caricaturist, he has been honored by the […]
Note: I live tweeted this session so in essence, by tweets are my notes.We’re starting up the panels and speakers for the day. First up: Stan Goldberg. Stan is also being inducted into NCS hall of fame tonight. Stan’s giving us a review of his early work in illustration/advertising and art school pieces. Started working […]
Note: If you’re coming from Twitter and have been following my tweets all afternoon, much of this will be the same, but I did expand on some.Showing a photo of him at age 3 or 4 with a Dick Tracy comic book. In 1969 he became an assistant to tumbleweeds creator Tom Ryan. Tom was […]
Bruce Handy talks to New Yorker comic editor Bob Mankoff for Vanity Fair about the ever numerous desert-island cartoons that have been generated over the decades:As the magazine’s cartoon editor, do you feel you have to set a higher bar for desert-island cartoons? Oh yeah, there’s always a sliding scale. Desert-island cartoons are like lightbulb […]
Michael Jantze is a professor at Savanna College of Art and Design, creator of The Norm, and founder of Jantze Studios where they create animated shorts. He talked about the history of cartooning (business/client/distribution) and how that is changing and why. Dave Kellett creator of Sheldon, and Drive talked about the webcomic model and John […]
Mark Simon is a cartoonist, producer, director, writer, lecturer and he talked about how to get free advertising through publicity. It was a HUGE amount of information in a little over an hour’s time. He outlined 16 ways to get increase your visibility. I’ll outline them here.1. Pitch a story, not a product to the […]
]Andrews McMeel Publishig, the parent company of Universal Uclick, will launch a new line of comic graphic novels aimed at middle school grades late this summer . The paperback series will include titles from several comics strips such as: Lincoln Peirce’s comic Big Nate, Bill Amend’s FoxTrot and Mark Tatulli’s Lio. The first one (Big […]
I’m in Las Vegas attending this year’s National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award Weekend. Festivities kick off today and run through Sunday with the big awards dinner on Saturday night. For up-to-the second play by play of the awards dinner and winners – follow me on Twitter (@dailycartoonist). I intend to post photos and session notes […]