Bill Griffith and Ernie Bushmiller, Rick Stromoski, Barbara Brandon-Croft, King Features Syndicate, Pogo
It’s been a long time coming but we’ll soon have it in our hands.
ICv2 reminds of an upcoming Bill Griffith book:
Bill Griffith, creator of the long-running Zippy comic strip, takes a fellow cartoonist and the history of comic strips themselves as his subject in Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy, to be published by Abrams in August 2023. Nancy began running in 1933, and by the time Bushmiller died, in 1982, it was carried by almost 900 newspapers…
Everyone comes to Rick’s presentations.
Sippican Week was at the Rick Stromoski show and tell.
Cartoonist and author Rick Stromoski enjoys giving presentations to older audiences — that way he can get away with more risque jokes.
According to Stromoski, the first check he received for a comic came from Hustler Magazine.
“It wasn’t a dirty cartoon,” said Stromoski, describing a single-panel comic about a newscaster with a booger on his shirt. “The check stub said ‘booger’ on it, which was perfect, I [didn’t] cash it, it was only $7.50.”
His most recent syndicated comic strip “Soup to Nutz,” ran for 18 years in newspapers across the county.
Stromoski’s newest entry in the “Schnozzer & Tatertoes” series is “Take a Hike”
The Detroit Free Press has bragging rights.
The Free Press talks to Barbara Brandon-Croft, whose career the paper kick-started.
In 1989, Barbara Brandon-Croft quit her job as a fashion reporter to pursue being a full-time cartoonist after the Detroit Free Press was the first to run her comic strip “Where I’m Coming From.” Two years later, the New York native became the first nationally syndicated Black woman cartoonist.
For the first time, at 30, Brandon-Croft began working as a cartoonist, discussing relationships, sexism and racism from the point of view of nine Black women: Cheryl, Nicole, Jackie, Lydia, Judy, Alisha, Lekesia, Monica and Sonya.
Brandon-Croft will be at Source Booksellers in Detroit on April 27 … Further details can be found here.
A signed edition of “Where I’m Coming From” can be purchased here.
A thirst for cinema comic strip sequels.
Movie Web has some King Features Syndicate comics they would like to see return to film.
King Features Syndicate has to be the most prominent comic publisher worldwide, with a presence in almost every newspaper on the planet and a rich history of producing some of the most beloved comic strips and characters of all time … Despite their popularity and cultural significance, many of these characters have not received the big-screen treatment they deserve. With the recent success of comic book adaptations such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe, there has never been a better time to bring these classic characters to life in new and exciting ways.
Their #1 pick would be a screen debut not a sequel.
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad is the only notable property on our list never to receive any adaptation by Hollywood.
A Song Not for Now.
Patch highlights Frank Farrell and Ben Masterton’s Songs of the Pogo podcast.
A Ridgewood resident is producing a podcast recreating the “hysterical and imaginative” world of a well-known cartoonist, and featuring actors and singers from across the U.S.
Frank Farrell is the host of “Songs of the Pogo”, a podcast based on Walt Kelly’s 1956 book of the same name, and he tells the stories that preface each of the 30 songs in the book, mixing in Kelly’s personal memoirs and interviews.
The eight-episode podcast series … is available for listening via most providers.
That’s excellent news about Bill Griffith’s book (though I perhaps wish he might have chosen a different title). It’s been a long time coming, I was worried I had missed it.