Industry news for the professional cartoonist
New Kid by Jerry Craft, Maus by Art Spiegelman, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, Anne Frank’s Diary (Graphic Adaptation) adapted by Ari Folman and David Polonsky, and, of course, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe are among the most challenged or banned comic books since the…
I won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights journalism award for cartooning last May… The check for winning arrived a couple of weeks ago and last night, or sometime during the day (I’m not sure when), the trophy arrived. A couple days ago Clay Jones received his RFK Award trophy. © Kevin Fagan Kevin…
Cartoons Have been Grooming Kids for Decades The last 12 months has witnessed a bit of a frenzy surrounding kids’ entertainment, from bisexual Superman to the first gay dads in Sesame Street to a brief kiss from a lesbian couple in Pixar’s new animated feature Lightyear. In response, reactionaries are rehashing moral panics from previous…
JD Crowe of the Alabama Media Group took First Place in the 2022 Editorial Cartooning category of The Green Eyeshade Awards handed out by the Southern Chapter of the SPJ. The award is based on: Outstanding visual commentary on news or issues. Judging emphasis will be on originality and effectiveness of message….
On Friday July 22 the Association of Alternative Newsmedia announced the 2022 AAN awards at a reception held at the Medill School of Journalism in downtown Chicago. Held every year since 1996, the AAN Awards recognize the best in alternative journalism and graphic design and are a unique chance for members of the alternative newsmedia …
There have been a few eulogies to some recent deaths. I was 16 or 17 when I first met Jim Ivey. My family went on annual vacations to Florida, from New Jersey; and my father always indulged my interest in comics by reserving our last couple of days to visit cartoonists, of whom there were…
Jen Sorensen explains the interplay of polarization and bothsidesism. We used to joke about the mainstream media’s obsession with presenting both sides, saying that if someone said Hitler was a bad person, reporters would be ordered to find someone who would say he was good. It seemed like clever hyperbole at the time, but now…
Vancouver’s Slap Happy Cartoons has announced a partnership with Andrews McMeel Entertainment, a division of global media company Andrews McMeel Universal, to develop the popular newspaper, web and book-based property Heart of the City. Slap Happy Cartoons and Andrews McMeel Entertainment believe the strip has strong potential in other formats. The target audience…
Announcing the 2022 Davenport International Cartoon Contest! A festival that honors a famous Political Cartoonist seems almost naked without some kind of competition focused on that endeavor. To that end, the International Cartoon Contest has returned! Also, since we have not changed either our entry fees or our prizes in over 30 years, we have…
Author/attorney, former journalist/publisher Dennis Shere: When the Pulitzer Prize committee announced the 2022 winners in early May, one category was missing: There no longer is a prize for editorial cartooning. The entries will now be considered alongside “illustrated reporting and commentary.” As a former editor for the Journal Herald in Dayton, Ohio, with ties to…
Wallace the Brave (AMS) takes a sweet but kind of downer look at Father’s Day. Their wistful pessimism is not, however, to be confused with Prickly City (AMS), which takes the occasion to be genuinely unpleasant and divisive. Spud and Amelia don’t hate their fathers. They miss them in their own quite different ways:…
We always hear that there are a little over 25 editorial cartoonists on staff at print newspapers in the United States. Or a bit under 50, or around two score and two, or about three dozen, or … But never a list of those dwindling souls. Eric Devericks moved on. So here is a list…
Beware of Toddler by George Gant will make its Comics Kingdom debut on Father’s Day June 19, 2022, joining a growing list of webcomics on the site that includes Funny Online Animals, Gearhead Gertie, Rae the Doe, #Sales, Kevin and Kell, Safe Havens, and Todd the Dinosaur. The announcement was made as part of an…
If you haven’t read my Daily Cartoonist partner DD Degg’s report on Gannett’s killing of editorial pages, you really must. It represents a significant blow to editorial cartooning as well as to newspapers in general. I’m opening with this 2009 Pearls Before Swine (AMS) because it sums up the actual challenge, and, if it’s oversimplifying…
Let’s start by remembering tomorrow’s holiday, and, as often as I disagree with Dana Summers (Tribune), he nailed this one. I hate the sentimental dreck of little kids saluting tombstones, but there’s also no need for squawking that Memorial Day is for remembering the dead, not having barbecues. Summers hits a sweet middle ground by…