A Hector Cantu and Carlos Castellanos‘ Baldo cartoon is reported to may have helped a woman avoid a con-artist scam and catch the two con-artists.  In Woodland CA, a woman was walking out of Wal-Mart and was approached by a woman speaking in Spanish asking for help to find an address and explaining that she had been in an accident and needed to sell some diamonds. A second woman approached the two acting like she had overheard the conversation to ask questions.  The intended victim remembered news about this type of scam from a newspaper article or the Baldo cartoon and left the scene and reported it to authorities.

Back in 1994, Gary Larson produced an animated TV feature called Tales from the Far Side. A copy of the feature has been posted to Google Video where you can view it for free (or at least until they take it down).

Jean Schulz can’t be happy with this.

The Harvard Crimson’s editorial cartoonist, Kathleen Breeden’s editorial cartoons are coming under scrutiny for possible plagiarism.  An unnamed individual informed the the newspaper Saturday and pointed out the similarities of her work with those on Cagle.com.  In question are four cartoons published on September 22nd and October. 11, 18 and 25th.

Mark Anderson points us to an article over in the Chicago Tribune about a Bill Mauldin exhibit that opened up on Friday at the Jean Albano Gallery.  There are some interesting historical tidbits about Bill that I didn’t know, such as:

It’s been a while since I’ve reported on any newspaper industry trends. This article out of the Clickz Network reports that newspapers in September attracted more than 58 million unique readers according to a  Nielsen/NetRatings report.  That is the highest number for newspapers ever.  The increase is attributed to an increase number of video and podcasts produced by newspapers.

He’s tried Botox injections that helped relieve the spasms and allowed some of his normal speech, but that solution was affecting his professional speaking, so he discontinued the Not giving up, he’s tried hard to find patterns in contexts of when he could speak clearly and when he could not….  But for some reason the context is just different enough from normal speech that my brain handled it fine.Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.Jack jumped over the candlestick.I repeated it dozens of times, partly because I could.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful around in Gardner home and when I get squeezed for time, I can’t highlight every story that lands in my inbox.  As an attempt to catch some of those things that would normally fall through the cracks, I’m starting a new feature called the Remaindered Links.

The Lake Oswego Review – the paper that Steve Moore worked for fresh out of college – has caught up with the In the Bleacher’s cartoonist to talk about his sports panel, the movie Open Season that he wrote and those first years working for the Review as their sports editor and editorial cartoonist.  If you’re a fan of Steve’s this is a good read.

I’ve mentioned the traveling Dr. Seuss exhibit before and now the exhibit has landed in Naperville (IL). The exhibit features his original and replicated artwork from his early days as an editorial cartoonist in the 1920s. The exhibit runs through November 13. Exhibit opens Saturday with a ribbon cutting. See the Naperville Sun for more details on times and locations.

Miami Herald Pulitzer Prize editorial cartoonist Jim Morin has a new exhibit called The Incomparable Jim Morin which features his paintings. The exhibit opens this Sunday with an opening reception and then runs through December 3rd at the Alper Jewish Community Center. 

When contacted by the Boston Globe about her cameo in Stan Lee’s comic she’s reported to have responded: Lopez said she wouldn’t be caught dead being a reporter, even in a comic strip….  Why don’t you live your own?”If you read the segment, the character Maria Lopez doesn’t even look at all like the TV judge.

The South East Chapter of the National Cartooning Society will be converging on Gainsville (GA) on November 4th for their annual convention (tentative schedule posted on their web site). A selection of artwork by SECNCS members is now on exhibit at Gainsville State College through November 8th.

Jules Feiffer has been honored by the School of Visual Arts on Tuesday of this week.  The school held a reception and dinner in his honor to kick off a new exhibit called The Masters Series: Jules Feiffer.  The exhibit contains works of art that span his 50 year career of cartoons, illustrations and water colors.

In an effort to create buzz around the coming release of the first Girls & Sports book (Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs: The Girls & Sports Dating and Relationship Playbook), Andrew Feinstein and Justin Borus have created the first Girls & Sports short animation and have posted it on YouTube.