News Articles

The Times Online (Uk) takes a look at the Garfield empire that is estimated at $750 Million to $1 Billion last year.

Newslink Indiana interviews Jim Davis. They’ve also posted a video portion of the interviews. Here are the 6 clips.

• question 1: how did garfield get started?
• question 2: what does garfield’s 30th birthday mean to you?
• question 3: could you describe your creative process?
• question 4: is garfield’s personality based on cats or humans?
• question 5: why did you make garfield like lasagna?
• question 6: what is odie’s purpose in the comics?

Fandom

Several tribute sites have popped up over the years. Some have received praise and press coverage of late. Some are older and more obscure.

YouTube

Searching on the keyword “Garfield” on YouTube returns 9,620 results. Way to many to post here. If you didn’t like the tribute video above, feel free to visit YouTube and find your own.

» Several cartoonist were featured in industry podcasts. Dog Eat Doug creator Brian Anderson was on Sequential Artists’ Podcast; David Reddick was featured on Comics Coast to Coast to talk about Legend of Bill; and Lucas Turnbloom was on gigcast to talk about his webcomic Imagine This.

» John Kovaleski will be at the MoCCA show (table A38) premiering the first Jack N. Box comic and a Bo Nanas pantomime mini-comic, among other things. Stop by for a free Bo Nanas.

» Kieran Meehan’s A Lawyer a Doctor and a Cop name change is effective July 7.

» Tom Richmond has written a tribute or memorial to MAD Magazine creator William M. Gaines.

I had actually sold the cartoon 10 days before but, for some reason, the editor held it. I was going out to lunch with my college newspaper editorial page editor, Steve Townsend. There were newspaper racks outside the restaurant and it just so happened that the News-Pilot afternoon edition was out. I put in my 15 cents, pulled out the paper, flipped to the editorial page fully expecting to be disappointed again and there it was. My cartoon. I had arrived. Staring back at me from the page was something I had drawn. Created on my own and would soon be cashing the check for $10 the editor promised on publication. From that moment to today, it is the only thing I have ever wanted to do for a living.

You have to understand, for those of us of a certain age, walking into a newspaper office for the first time is one of those experiences that burns itself into your soul. The News-Pilot building was old. Real old. And the newsroom had been there for decades. When you walked in you were smacked in the face by the bang-bang-bang of electric typewriters on deadline. A cloud of pipe, cigar and cigarette smoke hung over the reporters. The din punctured with the shout of “COPY!” The grizzled old chain-smoking editor with his tie untied and a bottle in his desk put out his hand for a firm handshake. (OK, the editor, James A. Groth, was only in his 30’s, which seemed downright ancient to a 19-year-old aspiring cartoonist. The cigarette and the bottle are the god’s honest truth). I can still smell that place today. Newsprint, ink, tobacco, cheap cologne and cheaper booze commingled to make, what was to me, the sweetest smell in the world. To say I was in love would be understating it. It was my destiny.

Read the rest. It’s entertaining and I would suspect a somewhat familiar experience to many.

Kirk Walter’s comic Maumee Dearest has turned 20. The weekly local political comic strip runs in the Toledo Blade (OH). Kirk explains how the feature came to be:

It’s hard to believe that Maumee Dearest is now 20 years old. My editor at the time was Bernard Judy and I walked into his office and asked him if he’d be interested in running a comic strip on local politics. I showed him a sample of the strip and the next thing I knew it was on the op-ed page for the next day. I am often asked why I called the strip Maumee Dearest when most of the action takes place in Toledo. That’s when I explain that the strip is named after the Maumee River and not Maumee, Ohio.

You can download a one-page PDF file with samples of the strip over the course of the last 20 years. One thing that surprises me when I look at Kirk’s strip over the last 20 years is how consistent he was in drawing style. Most cartoons evolve slowly over time, but Kirk’s day one strip looks much like today’s.

» Non Sequitur creator Wiley Miller was featured on Maine news network about his passion for cartooning and living in Maine.

» Patrick McDonnell, creator of Mutts, was interviewed by the Winston-Salem Journal about his crusade for animals both in and with his strip.

» Rod McKie wrote a very interesting essay on cartooning and The Long Tail. If you’re not familiar with the Long Tail, I suggest you read the original article outlining this new paradigm of digital content value and profits.

» Paul Gilligan’s Pooch Cafe is celebrating five years of syndication through Universal Press Syndicate. His feature originally launched with Copleys, but made the move to Universal when Copley got out of the comic syndication market.

» New Zealand cartoonist Mike Moreu who works for the Nelson Mail, is profiled about his work and impact in New Zealand.

» Found: A cool blog with early character designs from animated studios like Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney. I enjoyed seeing how the fluid and scribbly sketches were fleshed out, morphed and made into the well known characters that we see on the big screen.

From Universal Press we learn that despite having retired the daily version at the end of 2006, the classic version still runs in about 50 papers internationally and the Sunday-only strips appear in more than 700 newspapers (print and online).

Congratulations Bill on the milestone!

Last January I told you Frank Cho would be releasing a 10-year anniversary collection of his Liberty Meadows strip. Wednesday “Liberty Meadows 10th Anniversary Edition” will hit book shelves. It’s 176 pages and contains all the strips from the first nine collections plus a special introduction by Erik Larsen and never-before-seen college strips than started it all and bonus sketch gallery.

It can be purchased through Amazon.com (click on the book cover above, or through any of the Liberty Meadow book titles below).

» Gary Varvel, editorial cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star, will be the keynote speaker for a fundraiser campaign for a variety of organizations in Shelbyville, Ind. The annual event raises money for the Shelby County Cancer Association, Shelby Community Health Clinic, Head Start, Meals on Wheels, and various other programs and organizations.

» Mark Tatulli was the featured guest on the Washington Post’s Meet the Comics Page last Friday. They’ve posted the transcripts.

» Garfield is celebrating his 30th anniversary this June. Part of the goings-on include an animated TV show that is in the works that will debut in France. Two other DVD collections are also set to be released: A Cat and His Nerd is a collection from the Garfield and Friends TV show and Garfield at (Burp) 30 is another collection of the best Garfield shows. Also expect a 30 anniversary collection to be released in October.

Lio, and Heart of the City creator Mark Tatulli will be the Washington Posts’s featured guest during their live chat Friday February 29 at 1 p.m. EST.

Tundra creator Chad Carpenter was interviewed about his success in taking his self-syndicated feature to a world-wide exposure.

Signe Wilkinson joins Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly and seven others in an exhibit of cartoons entitled “Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love” featured at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. Exhibit consists of 50 original cartoons and runs through June 8.

Johnny Hart’s feature B.C. turned 50 years old this week on Monday.

Lucy Caswell has written a book about Ohio editorial cartoonist Billy Ireland.

Fans of Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows will be excited to know that a hardcover 10 year anniversary collection of the strip will be released on February 27th.

See how it all began from the very beginning in this all-new hardcover collection of the first issues of Frank Cho’s fan-favorite humor series! Collects Liberty Meadows #1-9.

Right now, Amazon is selling the book for 34% off plus an extra 5% if you pre-order it. As always, they have a guarantee that if you pre-order and they drop the price, you’ll get the lowest price and still get the 5% off.