News briefs for October 23, 2009

Animation

» Hector Cortez, over on TheAnimationBlog.com, is reporting that MGM Home Entertainment’s “Spaceballs: The Totally Warped Animated Adventures!” will be out on DVD this December 29.

Comic Strips

» Matt Price, features editor of The Oklahoman, interviews Jill Schulz about upcoming events commemorating Peanuts’ 60th anniversary.

» Paul Jon, who launched his Fort Knox comic on October 5 has reached over 1,000 members on his Facebook page. He tells me a good portion of the Facebook friends are military or members of military families. He also started a Twitter page with tweets from the Knox clan’s meglomaniac son.

» Pearls Before Swine and Prickly City replace Cathy and Andy Capp in The Union (Grass Valley, CA)

» From time to time I get sales briefs from United Media. They report the following comics were picked up recently: F Minus Sundays will begin in the Winnipeg Free Press on 11/1; Family Tree Sundays are now running in the Boston Globe; Pearls Before Swine began in the Southbridge (MA) News on 10/14; Pearls and Fuzzy Sundays begin in the Newport News (VA) Daily Press on 11/8; Prickly City and Pearls dailies begin in the Anchorage Daily News on 11/30; Pearls Sundays coming to this paper on 12/27; and Pearls dailies began this week (10/18) in the Marysville (CA) Appeal Democrat. Big winner: Pearls Before Swine.

Graphic Novels

» Christians are having mixed reactions to R. Crumb’s illustrated “The Book of Genesis.”

» Celebuzz.com reports that Michael Jackson had penned a graphic novel entitled “Fated” (drawn by Gotham Chopra, son of Deepak Chopra). The novel will be published by Random House in June 2010. “The story revolves around a Jacko-ish singer, Gabriel Star, who becomes isolated by his fame and attempts to commit suicide,” according to the celebrity blog.

» The Guardian has a nice report on the graphic novel “The Honduran Coup, A Graphic History” by Dan Archer and Nikil Saval. The novel “frames the overthrow of the president, Manuel Zelaya, in relation to a century of US skullduggery in central America.”

Magazine Artists

» Tom Richmond has more photos of his trip to the Middle East.

Museums

» The Charles M. Schulz Museum has several high profile visiting cartoonist in the next couple of months including: Greg Evans (Luann), Stephan Pastis, (Pearls Before Swine), Alexis E. Fajardo, (Kid Beowulf), Steve Benson (The Arizona Republic), Pete Docter (director of Up and Monsters, Inc.) will join Patrick McDonnell (Mutts), and Joe Wos.