I have been thinking about doing a Between Friends series loosely based on my friend, Anne for quite some time. I asked her a few years back if she would mind if I formally interviewed her with that intention. I told her I would treat her to dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant. How could she say no?

In the back of my mind, I thought I would use my character, “Kim” as the person involved in the story. She is the character who writes and I thought she could come across a woman in the park one day while she was walking her dog. She thinks the woman she meets is in some kind of distress but nothing is obvious. Over time she realizes the woman is being battered. Being a writer could open her up to doing research or something. This is just a general idea I thought I would work into a story after Anne and I sat down and really talked.

Of course, life is busy and Anne and I got together a few times but never to get down to focusing on an actual interview.

Then, a little over a month ago, I started writing a series about Maeve running into an old school mate. The school mate manoevers Maeve into meeting for lunch. One thing leads to another. Next week, in my strip, Maeve realizes the school mate is in a bad situation.

All of a sudden, I am into the battered woman story.

It sounds corny, I know, but these characters tend to write themselves. I didn’t mean to begin this story yet but it just seemed to connect and fall onto my pages. I intended to spotlight Kim but Maeve has stepped in.

The story-line runs through this Saturday, but will return in August.

Regarding Ces’ work, Dan told me in an email,

This is the first time I’ve had a guest cartoonist and I’m really excited about it. I’ve long admired Ces’s cartoons online and am excited to see what my readers think of them. He is a prolific writer of all sorts of humor – essays, stand-up comedy, cartoons, blogs – and I’m of the opinion that he’s long overdue for some of this kind of exposure.

Universal has posted samples and describes the feature in this way:

Take a duck who works as a photographer amongst human beings with crying babies, bridezilla complexes and clueless clients and we’ll show you a portrait of “W.T.Duck,” the comic strip that quickly exploded in popularity with camera aficionados and comics fans on the Web and is now in syndication.

You can see more of W.T. Duck on Aaron’s web site.

UPDATE: Aaron’s been documenting the launch of his strip with animations. Below is his video regarding the name change and announcing some of the papers that have picked him up.

Is satire’s influence on politicians and the electorate any greater or lesser than, say, when “Doonesbury” launched?

I’ve never felt any of us had significant influence. The fear of public ridicule is universal, but I see no real evidence of it moderating behavior. What is different is that satire is now a pervasive part of public life, in part because every move a politician makes can be recorded. And he need not actually do something reprehensible to be vulnerable. A lot of what late-night shows do now is not just found humor — it’s manufactured. A politician can merely scratch his nose, but if the tape is sped up and looped, it can look like he’s ripping his own face off. And any kid can knock this kind of stuff off in his bedroom and throw it up on YouTube. … Satire is no longer in the hands of responsible licensed professionals like me.

Any thoughts on this election year, from a satirist’s point of view?

It’s a beaut, because everyone’s paying attention. But remember, the worst president in U.S. history is still in the White House. For Big Satire to ignore George W. Bush during his final year in office would be foolish — and wildly ungrateful. He’s done so much for our profession, and he may yet have another war in him. We still owe him our fullest attention.

» E&P reports that a new “Luann’ comic collection is coming next month and a second Lio collection too.

» Last week I reported that Charlie Daniel is celebrating 50 years of cartooning. The Knoxville News Sentinel has another write-up on his career and impact in his community.

» Diesel Sweeties creator Rich Stevens and Meredith Gran recently spoke on the Google campus. Video is below.

» There’s a movement afoot in Binghamton NY to create 100 5 by 5 foot dinosaurs based on the Gronk character in Johnny Hart’s B.C. comic strip. The push is part of a “Ya Gotta Have Hart” campaign to create the dinosaurs and then let local artists decorate them. Proceeds from the sponsorship of the dinosaur and the later auction go to local charities.

The Washington Post Writers Group has announced that Brian Crane’s Pickles comic strip has surpassed the 500-client mark with the addition of the Shreveport Times which will begin running Pickles on Aug. 4th.

Alan English, the Executive Editor at the Times, was also pleased at the news that his is the lucky paper. “Our core audience is going to be very excited about Pickles. The readers can see us making changes, working on improving the paper every day, and we know Pickles is going to entertain them.”

Crane was also pleased, and a little surprised, by the news. “I honestly never thought Pickles would be in this many papers,” Crane said. “I try not to think about it, really, or I’m sure I would probably get stage fright. In my mind this comic strip is just something I do every day in the privacy of my home to amuse myself, and then I mysteriously get paid for it.”

Pickles’ growth has been steady for most of its 18 years, but the strip’s list has taken off recently. As some comics leave the pages and editors try others, Pickles has been a frequent winner. “One cartoonist e-mailed me with news of a recent Pickles win and called Brian’s strip the ‘Godzilla’ of the comics pages,” said Amy Lago, comics editor for The Washington Post Writers Group.

Pickles debuted in 1990. In 1995 and 2001, Pickles was nominated for best comic strip of the year by the National Cartoonists Society, winning in 2001. Crane was also nominated for the coveted Cartoonist of the Year Reuben Award in 2006.

No reason is offered for the abrupt change, but they are offering an email address for readers to sign up for updates regarding their comics and also another email address for readers to send comments regarding the change.

» Deflocked creator Jeff Coriveau is profiled in The Republican.

» PBS’ NOW program is running an election season cartoon caption contest. The winner receives a NOW DVD (about $20 worth).

» The latest Tall Tell Features podcast features editorial cartoonist Lucas Turnbloom.

» Piers Baker’s Ollie and Quentin is now on available on ROK Comics.

» Mike Luckovich’s cartoons have a new URL.