The Daily Cartoonist » Daily Cartoonist

Hosting issues; TDC affected

Alan Gardner — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:13:43 +0000

The company that I host with has notified me that they applied an update last night to the server that The Daily Cartoonist runs on. The “fix” has caused issues that has affected whether TDC loads or not.

The issue should be resolved soon, but until then, thanks for your patience.

UPDATE: The site has been up without any issues for most of the morning. Hopefully it’s up for good.

Big thanks to Aaron Taylor; blogging resumes

Alan Gardner — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:49:21 +0000

A big shout out of thanks goes to Aaron Taylor for keeping The Daily Cartoonist updated whilst I was off on vacation. Hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend. Blogging will resume later today after I unpack a few things.

Alan

Out sick. Updates to be sporadic

Alan Gardner — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:53:52 +0000

Sorry all, I’ve been under the weather this last weekend and still trying to get back up to 100%. I’ll endeavor to post more as I can. Also as a heads up, I’ll be heading out on vacation next week and filling in will be long time trusted friend and fine cartoonist Aaron Taylor.

In transit; blogging to be minimal

Alan Gardner — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:42:53 +0000

I’m traveling today to New Orleans for the NCS Reuben Award weekend and won’t be actively blogging. I will be blogging throughout the weekend. If you go to my special Reuben Award 2008 page, you can see photos, as well as get the headlines and Twitter posts related to the big event this weekend.

Weekend Schedule for Daily Cartoonist

Alan Gardner — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:39:16 +0000

Normally I don’t post news over the weekend, but I’ll be attending this year’s Annual National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Awards weekend in New Orleans. The trip will be as much work as it will be pleasure. I’ll be posting photos and reporting on the speakers, awards and whatever on-the-record news items I discover throughout the weekend. In fact if all goes well, I’ll live blog the awards ceremony so you’ll know moments after the announcement is made who won the Reuben and the division awards. I should add one disclaimer to that statement - I don’t know that there will be a WIFI connection in the room where the awards ceremony will be held. If that is the case - I’ll tweet the results via my iphone and if THAT doesn’t work (no phone signal), I’ll go old school - write down the info and post it as soon as I can.

I’ve created a special page where you can follow all the goings on: photos, blog posts and tweets. Bookmark it and visit it often!

MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond has mentioned on his blog that he’ll be posting Reuben related news throughout the weekend, and I’m sure Mike Lynch will as well. If I see any others - I’ll link to them as well.

I would like to mention a special thanks to Speed Bump creator Dave Coverly for allowing me to attend as his guest.

Welcome to the new Daily Cartoonist

Alan Gardner — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:55:18 +0000

Welcome to the blog’s new look. It has been an off and on again project for over a year with several reworks during that time. About a month ago, I settled into this design and made a concerted effort to get it out the door before I got the urge to scrap it and start anew.

What’s new?

You’ll notice the navigation along the top more clearly delineates the major topics and focus of the blog. In addition to my normal reporting on newspaper cartooning, I’ll be expanding my coverage to include magazine cartooning, animation, web comics and international cartooning stories. The decision to expand the scope hasn’t been easy. I’ve enjoyed the small community that a niche blog like this has created, but such a small niche can’t produce the necessary traffic needed to make more than tip jar money.

Which brings me to the second major change. I’ve created more dedicated real estate for advertising and sponsorships.

I’ve added a “store” where you can buy products through Amazon. Each purchase generates me a referrer’s fee.

I’ve also made it easier for you to subscribe to the RSS feed. Each section has it’s own RSS feed, so if you’re only into editorial cartooning and could care less about all the other topics, then subscribe to the editorial cartooning section and visit it independently of the rest of the site.

Another change is one that was requested from Milt Priggee. I’ve numbered the comments so that if we get more drawn out discussions that span days, it will be easier to pick up where you left it the day before.

Hope you like the new skin. I’d love to get your feedback in the comments below.

Thanks for your continued support.

UPDATE: Mike Lynch not only gave my redesign a plug on his blog, but a cartoon as well.

© Mike Lynch

Thanks Mike!

The Daily Cartoonist version 3.0 is now in beta!

Alan Gardner — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:26:35 +0000

The Daily Cartoonist will be going through some major changes over the next year and I’d like to invite you to check out the first change: a significant redesign and function of the blog. From my initial efforts in 2005, I’ve tried to maintain a professional level of reporting and I haven’t felt that the current look reflects its standing as a trusted news source.

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

Anyone else attending the Reuben Weekend?

Alan Gardner — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:50:49 +0000

I’ll be attending/covering this year’s NCS Reuben Weekend next month. From all that I hear, it’s a fun experience and I’m looking forward to it.

If anyone is attending and would like to share the cost of the hotel room, I’m looking for a room-mate. Please contact me if you’re interested.

Closed today (UPDATED)

Alan Gardner — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:26:24 +0000

I’ve been working on a major redesign of this blog for the last month with a goal to post it live before May 1. I’m very close to doing that, but it’s taking a good chunk of my time. As such, I won’t be posting any news today. Sometime over the weekend, I’ll post a link to the test site and invite you all to walk through it and send me feedback before it goes live.

I apologize for the inconvenience. Hopefully you won’t be disappointed with the changes.

UPDATE #1: So far so good. I’m going through and doing some cross-browser checking to make sure all you fine Windows IE people have a near perfect experience as us Mac users have each and ever day using our computers. :)

Be looking for the post tonight sending you to the test site. Thanks for your patience.

Alan

Patience if you’re comments aren’t coming through

Alan Gardner — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:35:08 +0000

In the last week since I upgraded my blogging software and related plugins, a few of you have emailed me saying that your comments weren’t being posted. All comments run through a filter to weed out spam and some of you have been blacklisted by Akismet (a central internet database that logs known spammers). I don’t know why you’re being flagged now, but be assured that I am looking for some kind of solution that allows me to whitelist those affected.

This blog receives hundreds of spam attempts a day, so removing the filter would degrade the comments section significantly. Until I resolve this issue, please feel free to email me if you think you’ve been caught in the filter.

Thanks for your patience.