A Darrin Bell Update
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KCRA in Sacramento (a Hearst/NBC station) reported today that Darrin Bell appeared in court briefly to get the court to appoint him an attorney and that his next court date is scheduled for January 23, 2025.
“The matter contains more than 600 images that violate Penal Code 311.11(a) and the matter contains 10 or more images involving a prepubescent minor or a minor who has not attained 12 years of age,” the felony complaint reads.
Bell did not enter a plea on Friday. The judge approved revisiting his bail at a future hearing.
A few minutes and it was done. No change in status. Bail remains at $1,000,000.00.
Otherwise…
The Washington Post reported on the story yesterday and made sure to note that Darrin Bell’s political cartoons and his Candorville comic strip are distributed by King Features Syndicate (KFS):
“Candorville,” which appears on The Post’s website and in its daily and Sunday editions and is syndicated by King Features…
This was probably the result of several right wing print and online news sources taking a certain amount of joy in wrongly claiming Candorville was a Washington Post Writers Group (WPWG) feature. Candorville switched from WPWG to KFS over two years ago. Bell’s political cartoons had made the switch in 2018.
That same Washington Post article noted that they have dropped Candorville from their print comics:
[Candorville] has been suspended from the comics lineup for the time being. The strip will appear in the Jan. 19 Sunday comics section because of production deadlines.
As Michael Rhode at Comics DC tells us Candorville has been replaced by Six Chix.
Candorville has also been deleted from the WaPo’s comics website.
On the other side of the nation friend of The Daily Cartoonist Jim Ellwanger has informed us The Los Angeles Times has also dropped Candorville, though without the courtesy of a notice as the WaPo did.
The L. A. Times replaced Candorville with a Non Sequitur comic from exactly a year ago (third from top left column) while still running today’s current Non Sequitur (left column bottom). We expect this was an on-the-spur substitution and another non-Non Sequitur (and non-Candorville) strip will soon find itself in that spot.
No word on The Philadelphia Inquirer’s intention – another big paper that carries Candorville.
Nick Anderson, Counterpoint Executive Director, has informed The Daily Cartoonist readers of their actions – Darrin Bell was contributing political cartoons to Counterpoint’s newsletter:
We are dumbfounded by the news that Counterpoint newsletter contributor Darrin Bell has been arrested on charges of uploading AI-generated child sex abuse material. While we are aware that the American system of justice presumes innocence until proven guilty, we feel it necessary to suspend Mr. Bell from future contributions to Counterpoint until more is known about the charges.
Counterpoint Licensing and Syndication also distributes the Rudy Park comic strip by Darrin Bell. As Mr. Bell is no longer producing new Rudy Park comics, the feature now consists of rerun strips. Counterpoint Media intends to consult with client publications to discuss the future of this daily feature.
As mentioned above Darrin Bell’s distributor is King Features who has issued no statement despite inquiries from many news sources, including The Daily Cartoonist. But Candorville remains listed on their Comics Kingdom site and continues to be spotlighted on the Comics Kingdom political cartoons page.
The Daily Cartoonist has also reached out to Bell’s publisher MacMillan with no better results.
Editorial cartoonists Ted Rall and Scott Stantis spent the entire half hour of today’s DMZ America Podcast discussing the arrest, debating downloading vs uploading, pros and cons of porn, the impact of this news on cartooning, and more.
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