From his blog:

You’ll note that this is a significant departure from my normal work. Every Friday from now until the convention, and every day during the DNC, I’ll be doing a new feature I call “Long Time Passing.” Those of you old enough to remember the folk music craze of the sixties will get the reference. If you’re under forty, ask your parents. It’s a serialized graphic blog (it’s too short to call it a graphic novel), generally (but not entirely) a musing about the coming of the Democratic National Convention to Denver. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

H/t: Mike Rhode

Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher has added a blog to his web site that will feature his sketches, roughs and commentary for his cartoons and animation.

The Six Chix cartoonist now have a home on the web. The site offers a collection of Six Chix cartoons and blog entries by the cartoonists (Isabella Bannerman, Margaret Shulock, Rina Piccolo, Anne Gibbons, Kathryn LeMieux and Stephanie Piro).

As noted in yesterday’s News Briefs, Kieran Meehan’s A Lawyer a Doctor and a Cop is being renamed to Pros and Cons. Kieran has a new web site that features his Pros and Cons strip as well as his single panel that runs in The Evening Times.

» Diesel Sweeties creator Rich Stevens is interviewed by Newsarama about his strip and the difference between his online and syndicated work.

» Charles Brubaker has discovered YouTube video of Ford commercials designed by Dr. Seuss.

» Mark Anderson’s book “Rub My Tummy and It’s a Deal” is no available on Amazon. Go get it!

» Mark Anderson, yes the same one as mentioned above, has created a Facebook app to deliver his ‘toons through Facebook.

» Mike Rhode has a wrap up of an unique cartooning moment at the New York Times as one of their reporters covered the North Carolina presidential primary - in cartoon form.

» Bleeker creator Jonathan Mahood is featured on the Sunday Funnies podcast.

» TDC regular, InkSwig founder, Dawn Douglass has set up a new forum to discuss new and upcoming comics, or as she writes, “Wet Ink is an experiment to see if we can create a community where it’s safe to ask questions and fun to share feedback, like the old Comics Edge site that Fred Schecker created for Tribune media about a decade ago.” Go visit it at Web Ink.

For those curious to some of the changes, you may visit the beta site. If all goes as planned, I’ll be rolling out the new site on May 1st with an explanation of some of the news features.

Thanks for your patience last week as my attention to reporting was a bit spotty. Things will be getting back to normal now.

-Alan

For some months now, I’ve been trying to get venture capital in order to create and launch a cartoon website. I have ideas for it that nobody else is doing and while several people have been very interested in my business plan, it always comes down to potential investors wanting me to prove FIRST that people will pay for cartoons in a Web culture that demands that everything be free.

Most of the VCs I talk to won’t even consider a pay model. They want all the cartoons to be free, saying we can add advertising later, after traffic goes way up, as the way to monetize the site. I won’t do it this way, and here’s why:

He’ll also be live-blogging the primary results tomorrow night.

To better understand the purpose of the site, I invited him/her (most likely a him) to an interview. A phone interview was declined, but he agreed to an email interview. The following is the results of our email exchange.

Alan Gardner: What is the purpose of your site/Why did you start it up?

Bad Cartoonist: I’m really not sure. I guess I started it because I got pissed off because of all the crap I hear from other cartoonists about how our profession is dying and how someone else is to blame. There are some seriously talented cartoonists working right now. But there’s more detritus than anything else, a quick scan at caglepost.com will show you that. Someone has to say it so I guess it will be me. It’s our fault too. There, I feel better already.

I figured since we spend most of our time pointing out the hypocrisy of others it was about time someone point out our own. Kind of like ‘who watches the watchers’ isn’t it? Except without the superpowers. Or murder, or mass destruction. OK, bad analogy but the point holds true. We spend our time satirizing others so can’t we satirize ourselves?

A: Naturally, many cartoonists are going to be angry or resentful at your site or purpose. What do you say to them?

BC: I don’t know that too many will be that upset. They get worse in their inboxes everyday. If they do get upset then they might be in the wrong profession. It might be telling to see who gets upset about the things I say. You know your hitting the right spots when someone gets angry.

A: Why the anonymity?

BC: I wish I had a really good answer for this but, I don’t. It all boils down to the fact that there are things I want to say that piss people off and I would rather be able to say them without people knowing who I am. Political cartoonists are generally a kind lot - except for Paul Conrad, he’s a bona fide prick - and many of them are my friends. I’d like it to stay that way- except for the Conrad thing. We’ve all been waiting years for him to keel over.

Also, my shrink told me it would be cathartic.

A: Other than cathartic value, what impact do you hope or think your site will have OR maybe stated - because you’ve chosen to be anonymous, how much clout do you think you can actually wield for change? Why should anyone pay attention to you?

BC. I really haven’t given it that much thought. I don’t have enough of an ego to think that I will actually make any changes - heaven knows that insipd thought died years ago when I brought my first cartoon to my first editor. If I do anything it might be pointing out the things that no one else has had the guts to say yet. And do it with some real vitriol.

A: What do you think would happen to you if you were ever outed as the bad cartoonist?

BC: Let’s hope we never find out.

A. What is your interest in editorial cartooning?

BC: Waining. Day after day, my interest dies a little more.

A: Are you a published cartoonist?

BC: Does the Penny Saver count?

Short answer: Yes. You might have heard of me. I have won national awards. But that doesn’t mean much anymore. Journalism is in such a sorry state we’re giving ourselves awards every chance we get. Cindy Procious won a few for being married to Clay Bennett. I hear if you go to dinner with Steve Sack then you are automatically made a finalist for the Pulitzer. Matt Davies won a Pulitzer because the judges thought that he invented scribbling. Last years winners had praise heaped upon them because they used something called the internets.

A: Why not provide a site for outstanding examples of great cartooning?

BC: That’s a good question. The heart of the matter also lies in editorial cartooning. Why don’t we draw cartoons that make people feel good or are uplifting and kind? Because nobody would care. We laugh at cartoons when they have a fierce way of saying sometihng — whether or not we agree with it. The worst cartoons in the world are the ones that try to be funny for the sake of it. Give an me opinion or give me death. Besides, I’m not what you would call a touchy-feely kind of guy.

A: So you view your site as satire? - like the Comics Curmudgeon of editorial cartooning?

BC: I didn’t really set out to accomplish anything specific. I’m sure it will have it’s fair share of satire but, because of who I am and what I do, my opinion is going to be splashed all over the place.

A: What is your measuring stick for excellent cartooning?

BC: I think a cartoon has to do one of two things: make me laugh or make me think. If there is something in the way the cartoonist has done their work that gets in the way then it fails. If I don’t recognise a caricature,, it’s too cluttered, if the joke falls flat or it’s just so cliche’ that I don’t want to honor it with even the smallest of chuckles then, in my opinion, it’s a failure. Style is less important unless, of course, it gets in the way.

A: Who do you think should be the finalist for the Pulitzer this year?

BC: I love what Steve Sack has been doing. Sherrfius has done some nice things with his style and has a simple approach that works most of the time. I even like some of what Paul Combs has come up with. Clay Bennett is, as always, in a class by himself. Unfortunately, no one on God’s brown earth can get into the heads of those wacky judges who seem to come out of left field every year. A few days after we are done pouting about how it should have been us, we usually nod our heads in collective agreement.

» A couple of readers have sent me the link to the Garfield Minus Garfield blog which takes a Garfield comic, removes Garfield (and any associated dialog). The results are often a bit silly and some I dare say funny. It would be interesting to see how other strips would fair after such treatment.

» I mentioned earlier that the Dick Tracy Museum was closing down. The Chicago Tribune has more details regarding its demise.

» And lastly, there is an interesting story regarding a Norwegian museum director who claims to have found three cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler. The cartoons were found hidden in a painting believed to be painted by Hitler. The three cartoons were drawings of Disney’s Snow White film and of Pinocchio
. For those following my Twitter feed, my first reaction to the news was: “Among his crimes, we can now add plagiarist.”