He is co-executive producer of the Baldo TV show, currently in development at Paloma Productions, and author of two Baldo books: The Lower You Ride, The Cooler You Are and Night of the Bilingual Telemarketers.The comic strip’s lead characters are quickly working their way onto the American pop culture stage, from car-crazy teen Baldo and college-obsessed sister Gracie to tradition-conscious Dad and lottery-playing Tia Carmen….  Baldo is Universal Press Syndicate’s fourth most-successful comic strip launch, after The Boondocks, For Better or For Worse, and Calvin and Hobbes.In addition to his work on this successful comic, Cantú is an editor at Quick, a daily news tabloid in Dallas that targets young readers.

‘Zippy’ Comics Part of Exhibit About Diners:Eight “Zippy the Pinhead” strips will be part of an exhibition called “Counter Culture: The American Diner.”The show open tomorrow and runs through Oct. 2 at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, Calif.Bill Griffith’s “Zippy” comic is distributed by King Features Syndicate.

On Scott Adam’s blog, you can read a small statement on the end of Mike Belkin’s feature, “Unfit.”  While details are limited, he did mention that United Media was going to relaunch the strip with Justin Thompson’s new artwork, but Mike decided that to discontinue the feature altogether.

Larry Wright took a buyout from the Detroit News this spring and bought a Corvette….  He takes a buyout, but will continue to do three cartoons a week for the paper, plus consult with the paper on their web site (which he managed since the 90’s) and he’s now the happy owner of a new Corvette.

It’s been a while since I last posted a story about some of the newspaper industry happenings, but I thought this story about McClatchy selling the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer to a local Philadelphia group was important for one reason: The new owners do not intend to lay off any staff at either paper.  That means editorial cartoonists Signe Wilkinson and Tony Auth’s jobs are safe.

The Chicago Tribune has a story of a “Mr. Boffo” cartoon (created by Joe Martin) that depicted White Sox slugger Paul Konerko hitting a home run…. Joe was going to use Barry Bonds in the comic, but decided against it because he wasn’t sure if Barry would be in jail.

Dave Astor of Editor and Publisher has a great write up regarding the upcoming transition in leadership at Universal Press Syndicate when Lee Salem succeeds Bob Duffy as president of the company.

Earlier this month, Dave Coverly opened up the second “Speed Bump” caption contest with a window of less than two months to receive submissions.  According to his web site, Dave has received nearly 4,000 entries!Originally the winner was to be announced on the 27th during the Reuben Awards weekend, but he has postponed the announcement until “mid-June” – presumably due to the large number of entries.

The new Garfield movie “A Tail of Two Kitties” opens up in theaters on June 16 and the first Garfield movie will be re-released on DVD as a collectors edition by Fox Home Entertainment.  The collectors version will have several special features such as: games, 10 jigsaw puzzles, 17 deleted scenes, a Garfield documentary, story board and of course the ever popular feature often called “and a whole lot more.”If that wasn’t enough, two new Garfield books will be published next month according to E&P.

Yesterday I mentioned David Horsey had taken first place for editorial cartooning in the Western Washington SPJ, but he’s not the only cartoonist to go home with an award.  Milt Priggee who draws for the Puget Sound Business Journal has also took first place in the category of “cartoons” (meaning local business editorial cartoons) and again in “illustrations.”

Ted Rall has announced on his blog that his new book “SILK ROAD TO RUIN: IS CENTRAL ASIA THE NEW MIDDLE EAST?”… A follow-up of sorts to TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, SILK ROAD TO RUIN is part travelogue, part current affairs, a comprehensive look at the “Stans” and why Central Asia will be to the 21st century what the Middle East was to the Middle East: the lynchpin and perrenial hotspot that will keep American and other Western foreign policy makers jumping.

From the press release:The lively team of characters in the comic strip include Ronaldinho?s brother Asis; sister Daisy, number one fan Diego, his mother and two lovable dogs named Champ and Fireball. Readers can follow their adventures on and off of the soccer field in this daily and Sunday comic strip.De Sousa has already taken Ronaldinho to star status in publishing, licensing, animation, television syndication and social campaigns.

Via Mike Lynch, comes word that Paul Conrad has launched a new web site….  Times during which he made President Nixon’s infamous “Enemies List.”The site promotes is a tribute to his work and features a portfolio and a sneak preview at a documentary of his career.

E&P writer, Dave Astor, has a follow up story on The Courier-Journal’s editorial cartooning position that has been vacant since Nick Anderson moved to the Houston Chronicle earlier this year.  In short, it hasn’t been filled and to quote their editor, “we still haven’t decided what to do.”Doesn’t sound like it’s going to be filled anytime soon.

If I posted a story for every headline about Dan Piraro, I’d have to rename the Daily Cartoonist to the Dan Piraro web site….  Mike Peters, the columnist for the Dallas Morning News takes a look at all things Piraro.