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Darrin Bell Released From Jail; Charges Added

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A Sacramento judge released Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Darrin Bell from custody Thursday ahead of a Feb. 4 court date as prosecutors added more child porn allegations to his case. The 49-year-old Bell faces a number of conditions of his release — and yet more charges filed in an amended complaint by Sacramento County prosecutors who now allege the acclaimed cartoonist collected thousands of explicit images of children.

Darrell Smith for The Sacramento Bee is reporting on Darrin Bell’s court hearing today and noted additional charges and conditional release. Bell was taken into custody on January 15, 2025.

MSN also carries the article with no paywall:

Prosecutors presented three new allegations at the Thursday bail hearing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shauna Franklin — two of unlawfully possessing child sexual content on June 17-18, 2024; and a third similar possession charge, on Jan. 15, the day of Bell’s arrest by Sacramento County sheriff’s investigators. They also argued for a search of all of Bell’s electronic devices and to bar Bell, a father of four children, from any contact with minors.

Michelle Carlson, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, alleged thousands of images including those of infants and toddlers were stored on Bell’s computers; as well as other images believed created via artificial intelligence.

KCRA-TV Sacramento is reporting Darrin Bell pleaded Not Guilty and was free on a no-bail, monitored release.

The nationally recognized cartoonist Darrin Bell pleaded not guilty to child pornography possession charges Thursday and was granted pre-trial release, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

An amended criminal complaint shows he now faces two criminal counts, up from one.

On Thursday, Bell was granted pre-trial release with GPS monitoring and other conditions, according to the DA’s office. Jail records showed he had not yet been released, as of 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Adding to the TDC Darrin Bell Update.

In other news the Comics Kingdom Candorville site has not uploaded any DAILY strips beyond January 25 (above), which MAY be the last Candorville daily strip. They also have the January 26, 2025 Sunday page up, but that MAY continue for a couple more weeks as Sundays are created earlier than daily strips. Bell’s political cartoon page at Comics Kingdom hasn’t been updated since January 10, 2025.

Our Los Angeles correspondent, Jim Ellwanger, tells us that The Los Angeles Times has signed up Curtis, also a King Features Syndicate comic strip, to replace Candorville on their comics page.

Jonathan Lemon informs us, in the comments below, that The San Francisco Chronicle (a Hearst paper) has replaced Candorville with the King Features Syndicate (a Hearst company) strip Dumplings.

Brian Fies, see comments, tells us The Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat has also picked Curtis as a replacement.

Sean Kleefeld, again in the comments, reports Patreon has deleted Darrin Bell’s page/account there.

January 30 update: The Bay Area News Group (San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times – formerly Oakland Tribune, and the Marin Independent Journal) dropped Candorville when the news broke and replaced it with Curtis. Now they are offering readers a choice of Curtis, Daddy Daze, Insanity Streak, or Macanudo to fill the space (all King Features strips).

feature photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee

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Comments 22

  1. FYI San Francisco Chronicle has replaced Candorville with “Dumplings” by Victor Van Acker.

    1. “Dumplings” is a pretty good strip.

  2. Potentially also worth noting, it appears that Patreon has removed Bell’s account entirely. Any links to his main Patreon page or any specific posts just result in a “this page has been removed” message.
    https://www.patreon.com/darrinbell

  3. This is just so tragic…on so many levels.

  4. Cpulf Candorville be the first newspaper comic strip to end in 2025?

    1. I meant COULD Candorville be the first newspaper comic strip to end in 2025?

  5. The Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat also replaced “Candorville” with “Curtis.”

    Although it is infinitely insignificant compared to this real-life tragedy*, I know Darrin had a multi-decade story arc plotted for “Candorville” and, just as a comics fan, am sorry we’ll never know what it was.

    Darrin’s attorney has surely advised him to keep his mouth shut but I’d still like to hear something from him, although innocent explanations seem unlikely. All my thoughts are with his wife and kids, who had no choice. Darrin must have understood the risk but I assume his family had no inkling.

    *Again, using “tragedy” in its original dramatic sense of a downfall brought about by a hero’s own faults.

    1. Yeah, the stories (surely) terminating is a loss. I don’t think there’s any recurring characters whose stories I’m not invested in and that’s an _amazing_ record to have.

      Just now realized there must have been, prepared or in preparation, a last-ride-on-the-subway sequence for Jimmy Carter set up that’ll probably never go published.

  6. I hope these allegations turn out to be false!

    The word “wise” has been used to describe previous actions of KFS.

    I’m compelled to ask – is it “wise” to maintain a relationship with someone facing such allegations?

    1. What one does in the open and what one stands accused of without a conviction are two very different things.

      What KFS does will no doubt whatever it thinks will best protect its brand.

    1. The not guilty plea says a lot to me. Reasonable doubt comes from a credible assertion that the files did not arrive on his assets by his agency.

  8. Again, it is not your employer’s business if you are accused of a crime that did not allegedly occur on the job. That goes double in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.

    I had a business relationship of someone accused of horrific crimes. Rather than fire him, I thought to myself, “I don’t know what happened so I’ll shut up.”

    Turned out, he was falsely accused. The false accuser was ultimately convicted.

    None of us know what happened with Darrin. His papers and syndicate should not fire him before they know–which won’t happen before a jury verdict.

    1. King Features is staying silent and riding out the storm. The Sacramento Bee reported “the seizure of Bell’s electronics.” Without which, even out of custody, Bell will not be able to create and submit work to the syndicate. When KFS runs out of material I would guess the contract ends. Then it will be matter of whether to keep Bell’s copyrighted comics on the site or not.

      1. They’ll stay silent. IF Bell is found not guilty, I would assume they’ll quietly resume his strip.

        They certainly want a public face that is above reproach.
        Certainly, what people do in their private lives is just that – private.
        I could see, however, that if you’re a publicly traded company, you’d like to avoid being seen as a party to employees that attend “defund the police” rallies and so forth.

      2. Pen and paper and an iPhone is all that is needed to produce a strip – or for best quality, plenty of scanners can scan to a flash drive, so Darrin can still produce a daily strip without a computer though admittedly not as convenient and more time consuming…

    2. Again, the presumption of innocent until proven guilty only applies to the courts and a jury. It’s just the opposite in the court of public opinion. If Darrin is acquitted (which I really hope for), what will stick are the accusations, not the acquittal of those charges. Many lives have been ruined because of an accusation, even when the accusation was proved false. I remember a case in San Jose many years ago when a couple of high school girls got angry with a teacher, so they accused him of molesting them. He was immediately fired, and even when the girls admitted later on that they made the whole thing up, saying he was completely innocent, he was never able to get a teaching job again. So the knee-jerk reactions to these charges against Darrin is what will stick. Everyone remembers the blaring headline on the front page, but never see correction printed in a small box at the bottom of page 3 later on.

      1. Yeah, it’s highly unlikely that KFS will take him back. I wonder who owns Candorville, Bell or KFS?

      2. Tony Rose – if a strip is flat out owned by a syndicate (Flash Gordon), they’ll find an artist to draw the strip for an agreed amount (no longer a guaranteed 50-50 split). The artist is just a “hired gum” – no ownership, just take a direct deposit, pay your own taxes – thanks!
        If you’ve created a strip they’re interested in (Candorville) , they’ll offer to distribute it to papers for (used to be) a 50-50 split and they (syndicate) gets part ownership!

        I imagine KFS will quietly drop the strip. I have no idea what it’ll mean as far as ownership (Will Darrin be a B le to take the strip somewhere else).

      3. Darrin owns the copyright to Candorville. This is now standard in syndication.

  9. Right or wrong, Candorville is dead. I for one, will miss it.

  10. I’ve seen not one shred of evidence that the images were present or as described or by his agency.

    His not guilty plea suggests otherwise. And I’m sure he was offered a plea deal, so it adds something that he didn’t take that.

    Obviously prosecutors think they have a case, but they haven’t shown anything, just made assertions. Maybe the case isn’t strong.

    For me, the last subway ride for his grandfather is a staggering work of humanity. I hope he is innocent and able to clear his name.

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