Yesterday, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow revealed the dire news that his strip, This Modern World, and all other weekly cartoons were being canceled by Village Voice Media, publisher of the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, and 13 other newsweeklies.

This still leaves me with eighty-odd papers, as well as Salon and Credo, so it’s not a fatal blow. And believe me, I wasn’t so naive as to imagine I was going to get through this economic mess without taking some hits. Nonetheless it’s a serious chunk of major cities to lose in one fell swoop (don’t get me started on the joys of consolidation this morning). Anyway, if you live in one of those cities and think this is a bad decision, you might want to share those feelings with the local editor. Politely, it should go without saying. And keep in mind: it’s not just my cartoon, it’s all of them, so put in a kind word for my compatriots while you’re at it. The only thing any of us have going for us in a situation like this is reader support.

The Minnesota Independent confirmed the cuts. We’re too bummed to get dressed and run to the corner to get a copy of the Voice to see which other strips were running. Their comics page mentioned only Tomorrow and Mr. Fish, but there were others.

Today, Tomorrow has updated the situation and runs a quote from Derf who says it’s doom-time:

OK. This is it. We’ve reached the apocalyptic final struggle for the future of cartoons.

Village Voice Media is the largest group of weekly newspapers in the biz. It is suffering from the ills that have befallen the rest of the newspaper industry: dwindling revenues and withering readership. Their corporate response, which was delivered to me Monday, is to “suspend” all cartoons across the chain, said suspension to last at least through the rest of the first quarter, and quite possibly beyond. That’s right. NO more cartoons. None. This is very probably a fatal blow to me. Not only is it a significant income hit, but these are six of the largest and finest papers in the weekly industry. I’ve been in the pages of some of these publications for years. The Riverfront TImes was one of my first papers. I started run- ning there in 1991! This isn’t about me “sucking ” either. Since I won the Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2006, one of the highest honors bestowed on a cartoonist, I’ve been losing papers steadily. The reason cited is always budget cuts. Always.

Jen Sorensen was also cut from the Voice, and puts it into more economic context:

Now, cartoons are cheap content that keep a certain number of readers habitually picking up the paper week after week. Those readers might not take the time to write the editor if they disappear; they’ll just stop picking up the paper. Or they’ll write us to complain. I do understand that low ad revenue means low page counts, which means space is at a premium. (Space is a mysteriously complex issue even in “normal” times.) But it seems to me that the few crumbs — and I do mean crumbs — these papers save by axing cartoons is self-defeating. Heaven help us if the cost of cartoons makes or breaks the industry.

Emphasis mine. Derf and Tomorrow urge readers to write to their local alt. weekly editors and complain about the cartoon cuts. It would seem counterintuitive in an era when everyone just pops onto craigslist to get an apartment or a used dresser to cut original content that readers might actually, y’know, enjoy, but we’re living in an economy of nickels and dimes.

Somebody better figure out a way to make money off the Internet…pronto.

One comics genre that only old-timers talk about is “funny animals,” and it concerns the foibles and fantasies of humans beings thrown into relief by a cast of anthropomorphized creatures, often cute or endearing. Children like funny-animal comics (and cartoons — Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry), but a few of the comics greats were of this genre — Krazy Kat being the best known example — and it was very popular in the ’50s. Crumb’s Fritz the Cat was the jazzed up, “Funny animals aren’t just for kids anymore” version, and Gerber’s Howard the Duck continued that tradition.

It is also, of course, the staple of Disney and the great Carl Barks, and perhaps because of its corporate/childish origins, it hasn’t been much in fashion among US cartoonists for more than 20 years. In Northern Europe, however, where Disney comics reign supreme, you’ll still find artists working in the funny animal genre, notably the peerless Jason, but also the Swedish Martin Kellerman with Rocky, a very funny strip about the mishaps of Gen Xers/Milennials. Fantagraphics has published two ROCKY collections, but luckily you can also read it online. Rocky himself is a cartoon dog whose bad luck gets him into trouble and raging neurosis keeps him there. His friends are good-natured slackers with an equal lack of survival skills, and the universal situations, along with Kellerman’s wit — which comes across even in translation — makes for a very enjoyable reading experience.

We should note that Onstad’s ACHEWOOD is another strip in the funny animal tradition, and perhaps the most progressive example of the genre.

Craig Yoe has launched a website devoted to the great George Herriman, creator of Krazy Kat.

Today is the “launch” of GeorgeHerriman.com! Garge (as his fellow cartoonist TAD used to “call” him) is my favorite cartoonist! Putting together this “tribute” is a dream come true. What you “see” on the site is just the beginning. There will be “lots more” rare art and “ephemera”, much of it never before seen, as we move ahead. I want this to be very interactive, so “please” let us know of cool stuff from “your” collection or things you’ve spotted, your ideas for the “site” (and products, too) and any thoughts you might have. BTW speaking of “product” please order your Krazy Kat goodies through GeorgeHerriman.com (we even have some “exclusives”). It will “help” in a small way to defray the expenses of doing this and enable us to “do” more. And tell your friends, “blog” readers and the “world” about this Kat konclave!

Angry Colombian coffee growers have agreed not to sue Mike Peters over a Mother Goose & Grimm strip which they found offensive, after he apologized. Peters has even been invited to visit Colombia’s coffee region and see for himself how the coffee is grown. We expect both sides just sat down and discussed their differences over a nice hot cup of tea.

You just do not mess with Juan Valdez. Cartoonist Mike Peters has learned that the hard way. The January 2nd edition of the comic strip Mother Goose & Grimm by Peters has greatly upset Colombian coffee growers by referring to Valdez, the fictional mascot for the organization, in conjunction with rumored Columbian crime lords. The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation plans to sue Peters for “damage and harm, detriment to intellectual property and defamation” to the tune of $20 million. Peters, for his part, professes to love Colombian coffee, and meant no harm.

“I had no more thought to insult Colombia and Juan Valdez than I did Pringles, Betty Crocker, Col. Sanders, Dr. Pepper and Bartles & Jaymes,” he said in a statement. “The cartoon is meant to be read along with the rest of the week as a series of which the theme is based on the fact that the inventor of the Pringles can had his ashes buried in one.

“I thought this was a humorous subject and all of my Mother Goose & Grimm cartoons are meant to make people laugh. I truly intended no insult.”

The comics-loving New York Times ran a couple of comic-themed pieces over the holiday. Leslie Berlin sums up the changes brewing in the comic strip world as Internet syndication takes over from newspaper syndication, in a judiciously wide-ranging piece, which unlike some NYT pieces on webcomics, has much accurate information.

In many ways, Stephan Pastis is living his dream. In 2002, after years of frustration, he quit his job as a lawyer to pursue cartooning. Today his daily strip, “Pearls Before Swine,” appears in more than 500 newspapers. He says he answers his fan mail “in groups of 100.”
Nevertheless, he can’t help worrying.

“Newspapers are declining,” he says. “For a syndicated cartoonist, that’s like finally making it to the major leagues and being told the stadiums are all closing, so there’s no place to play.”

In addition, George Gene Gustines profiles Trevor von Eeden’s biography of boxer Jack Johnson, published by ComicMix:

The comic, which is being serialized in weekly installments at www.comicmix.com, is written and illustrated by Trevor Von Eeden, and is unflinching in its depiction of racism in America, the brutality of the boxing ring and the tragedies and triumphs of Johnson’s life, including his sexual conquests. New chapters are scheduled to be posted every Wednesday.

While it’s nice to see such a flattering look at a comic by a true original, like von Eeden, the piece glosses over the fact that the artist and the publisher would seem to have had some difficulties, which seems like a bit of an omission.

Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik send out a heartfelt plea!

Perhaps you can help us!

Paul Karasik & I are currently expanding our 1988 essay HOW TO READ NANCY into a book-length treatment. Our essay originally appeared in Brian Walker’s THE BEST OF ERNIE BUSHMILLER’S NANCY and is currently being used in comics lit curriculums all over the country.

As you may (or may not) recall one particular NANCY strip (enclosed) is deconstructed in great detail. We are trying to determine exactly when this strip was originally printed.

Our source was the 1961 NANCY Pocket Book which obliterated the original publication date & © info on these strips. From studying a fair amount of period syndicate proofsheets it seems most likely that this strip appeared sometime between 1958-1960 as many of the other strips reproduced in this book did.

Unfortunately many of the likely sources (UFS, Walker, Kitchen, Ohio State) do not have complete runs of the strip for this period and neither do we.

We are circulating this request among NANCY lovers and comic strip collectors confidant that someone has the info we seek.

Additionally we are hopeful that someone has high quality reproduction material for this strip (either a proof or the original) and would be willing to contribute a high rez scan.

Even if you don’t have any of this (but perhaps can point us in the direction of someone who did) your name would surely be enshrined in the golden role of the Secret Bushmiller Society for all eternity!

Write to Mark if you can help.

(Aside: We definitely need more NANCY! It took us a good FIVE MINUTES to find a suitable image to accompany this entry.)

Andrew Lorenzi remixes JD Salinger and DC Comics. Incredible.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey.

Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts comic strip characters will be seen taking on the White House puppy hunt all next week, according to a press release. It’s an unusually topical subject for the wonderfully whimsical strip, but McDonnell is a longtime animal welfare advocate, winning three Genesis Awards from The Humane Society of the United States. Twice a year during the past decade, he has created a special Mutts “Shelter Series” storyline lauding the efforts of the animal shelter staff and volunteers.

You can read Mutts online here, here, or even here, as part of King Features’s recent “Comics Kingdom” program.

Technorati Tags: Cute little animals

How about a little Hal Foster Tarzan to brighten up your day?

Via Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

Hearst-owned King Features has just announced Comics Kingdom, which is, as far as we can tell, a new attempt at a game-changing platform for syndication in the digital era. The vehicle? The comics. According to E&P, the new service has signed up three papers, which will essentially add all 60 King Features comic strips — including ZITS, MUTTS and HAGAR THE HORRIBLE, among many others like BIZARRO, above — to be embedded in the newspaper’s site, with both sharing in ad revenues. The system includes many interactive features, allowing users to customize the strips they see, and to share their favorites with other readers. King says the test papers have seen higher readership. Tom has some typically run-on thoughts but they seem to be generally positive:

It’s just that my gut and my head together find encouragement in a strategy that works with newspapers and their sites and directly addresses the issue of ad revenue for such sites. In the end it just seems to me that with people winnowing down their basic on-line destinations that there’s a greater likelihood of comics finding a place with something that ties into people going to their local or most vital newspapers as opposed to those same folks all of the sudden catching Drabble fever just because more of it is out there now.

However, Paid Content points out that although comics consistently test as one of the most popular, most-read features of the newspaper, they are not considered valuable as real estate — a problem that spills over to many online comics-related sites.

According to research (PDF) from the Newspaper Association of America released earlier this year, 57 percent of adults read comic pages in print. But as Outsell’s Ken Doctor told me, comics pages for the print section do not directly generate revenue. The idea of trying to produce ad dollars online from comics is an intriguing one, but he has some doubts. ”The question is how valuable that audience becomes. Does it just add to remnant inventory, which newspaper sites have plenty—25 percent+ of their inventory in many cases—of? If so, that doesn’t do much, given that remnant is fetching a quarter, a half dollar or a bit more.” Aside from the portal, Doctor said he regards United Features’ Dilbert animated strip, available as an iPhone app, as a clear example of how comic strips themselves will produce their own revenue. “Recalling that people like just a few comics, delivering those few smartly, embracing the possibilities of the medium, I think has the greatest potential for revenue,” Doctor said.

“Strips themselves will produce their own revenue.” Hm, radical notion.

As the tri-pronged high-pressure system — shrinking newspapers, declining online ad sales, and more and more free content created by people for free — drifts over the Media Ocean, this kind of attempt at adapting the old approach to newspaper publishing to the new one bears much watching.

A comic strip by African-American cartoonist Keith Knight that used the N-word has caused an apology at Montclair State University. The episode of Knight’s syndicated weekly comic, The K Chronicles, adapted a real-life incident that used the racial epithet in relation to Barack Obama. The appearance of the strip in the school paper upset readers.

Angry students have complained to the university’s dean of students, other campus officials and the editors since the strip ran Thursday in The Montclarion, which has a circulation of about 4,000.

“My heart just dropped when I read it,” said Tamar VanDerVeer, 21, a senior who serves as secretary of the Organization of Students for African Unity, a campus group. “I’m trying to find something positive in the situation, but being a senior at Montclair State, a very diverse school, the ignorance is really uncalled for. They really hurt us.”

Knight issued a statement about the incident at his blog, which reads in part:

Is it offensive? Yes. Is it sad? Sure. But that’s the reality of the United States and this very unique election.

We have the first African-American candidate for president who could actually win. And folks of all colors are coming face-to-face with bias and race issues they didn’t know about, have ignored or pretended didn’t exist. Neighbors, co-workers, and family members are learning a little more about the society we live in.

The comic is pointing out one aspect of it. Straight-up racists are prepared to pull the lever for a black man. While some folks out there, who never thought they were prejudiced, aren’t going to vote for him because of his skin color.

Should we ignore stuff like this? I don’t think so.

Should it be in a comic strip. Yes!!

Nevertheless, Bobby Melok, the editor of the paper, issued an apology, explaining that since the strip came through a cartoon syndicate, it hadn’t been checked for content.

“Many of you have voiced your displeasure with this cartoon, as is your right,” Melok wrote. “It is never The Montclarion’s intention to offend its readership, and we sincerely apologize to all who were upset with this comic.”

Read the strip for yourself in the first link.

Via PR, we learn that the 1958 TV series based on Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon comic strip about pilots and adventure is coming out on DVD:

After 50 years in the hangar, the entire series (34 episodes) of the classic 1958 Air Force-centric television series Steve Canyon has been meticulously restored and is being released on DVD in its entirety for the very first time.
Based on the iconic newspaper comic strip of the same name, which ended a 41-year syndicated run in 1988 with the passing of its legendary creator, Milton Caniff, the acclaimed television series – the most expensive and realistic show of its era – has been revived and updated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its debut.
The series is being released in three volumes titled The Complete Steve Canyon on TV, with the first volume hitting the streets Nov. 18.

Volume 1, which retails at $24.95, features the first 12 episodes of the series, in their correct running order, plus a few specially-selected extras.

Volume 2, containing the next 12 episodes, is scheduled to be released 60-90 days later. Volume 3 will follow 60-90 days after that, and will feature the final 10 episodes of the series, the uncut pilot show, and a variety of special extras. These include documentaries of the star Dean Fredericks and the history of the show. As an added bonus, Volume 3 will also include a full-color, custom collectors slipcase designed to hold all three volumes.

DVDs can be ordered at http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com, and may soon be available through certain selected retail outlets.

Are Scandinavian comics the next big thing? We’re not sure if a big thing is even possible anymore, but they are one of the freshest, funniest new waves of comics out there, and the scene is definitely producing some amazing young artists who will make a mark in the future. However, the cartoonists that are already here are pretty good, too. You know we worship at the alter of laconic Norwegian adventure poet Jason, but we also laugh at the zen antics of the Dongery crew (also from Norway), who always make a strong showing at SPX. Plus, Top Shelf has just released FROM THE SHADOW OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, the first ever English anthology of Swedish comics.

Then there’s Martin Kellerman’s ROCKY, one of the most popular comic strips in Sweden, but don’t take that as damning with faint praise…it’s a lovingly savage look at slacker life that translates very well, using an anthropomorphic cast of characters. Fantagraphics released a volume of ROCKY reprints back in 2005, and a new one is on its way. To pave the way, Fantagraphics is running Rocky online DAILY.. You must sign up for the FBI site, but it’s FREE and it is WORTH IT! Skoal! Now no signup is needed! Just go and enjoy.

Fritz The Cat meets Jane Austen!?! This mostly autobiographical daily strip details the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his layabout pals and neurotic girlfriends. Basically, it’s the pottymouthed animal-headed Seinfeld-esque comic strip we’ve all come to love. A smash hit in its native Sweden, presented in English for the first time. Join us Monday through Friday for a new daily strip, with a rolling archive of a week’s worth of strips. (If you’re eagle-eyed you might notice the occasional gap in the numerical sequence; a few of the original strips have Swedish cultural references that don’t translate for non-Swedes, so we’ve omitted them.)

Bonus: Our own interview with Kellerman from 2005.

Did this happen to anyone else? We had three different people we know send us a link to yesterday’s CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson.

Also, you should get the first CUL DE SAC collection. As Tom would likely tell you, it’s one of the best newspaper strips around these days.

posted by Mark Coale

After a flurry of rumors that he was ending his OPUS comic strip, cartoonist Berkeley Breathed has confirmed it is ending on November 2.

WPWG Editorial Director/General Manager Alan Shearer praised Breathed, saying the cartoonist “pushed all sorts of topical and stylistic envelopes” and “influenced a generation of new cartoonists.” Lago said Breathed is ending his comic with a contest asking readers to guess Opus the penguin’s fate. Currently, the character is in prison courtesy of U.S. authorities. The actual solution will be available only on the Internet, not in newspapers, according to WPWG.

The Internet thing is a nice twist.

Steve Bunche got a bunch of old comics collections from a neighbor and found some gems, including several Pogo books and a copy of BACKSTAGE FROM THE STRIPS. Unbelievably, the above strip is from 1970. Bunche explains.

But the main reason why I’m happy to have received BACKSTAGE AT THE STRIPS is that it contains a strip I never forgot since I first saw it in there three decades ago, namely the following unbelievable DENNIS THE MENACE daily from 1970, and not 1917.

Yes, this actually ran nationwide in 1970, which beggars the question of just how out of touch creator Hank Ketcham was. Were the 1960’s something that didn’t happen for him? Whatever the case, the Cleveland Press printed this apology the day after the strip ran, printing it in place of what would have been that day’s DENNIS THE MENACE installment:

Yesterday’s DENNIS THE MENACE cartoon offended a number of Press readers. The Press apologizes for the affront caused by the cartoonist. It assures subscribers that such a thing will not happen again.

What truly amazes me about it is that I don’t think Ketcham actually meant any harm and just didn’t know any better. DENNIS THE MENACE always kind of existed in a 1950’s-style, suburbia-that-never-was OZZIE AND HARRIET universe of bland (though very well drawn) blandness that was informed by generations of outdated humor, and the depiction of the kid as a Sambo stereotype was just a part of the once-accepted visual language. Too bad Ketcham apparently hadn’t payed attention to social advances and depictions of us “race” types since the mid-1940’s.

Rob Tornoe on what happens when an editorial cartoon is based on an erroneous story.

Everyone else has been linking to the 1907 comic strip Madge the Magician’s Daughter by W.O. Wilson — why shouldn’t The Beat?
While enjoying this newspaper strip’s whimsy and imagination, it also gets us pondering. What would W.O. Wilson be doing today? The market for lavishly drawn comic strips has dried up; ditto illustration. Perhaps he would do children’s books. As wild and fun as the strip is, the art is kind of weird and wonky…nowhere near the virtuoso skill of a Feininger or O’Neill. If we plopped Wilson down in today’s comics market, he’d probably be doing weird-ass indie comics for AdHouse or Top Shelf or PictureBox, and he’d be considered an “indie” artist. Whatever that means.

Ballantine is going to collect those bleak, nihilistic “Garfield Minus Garfield” strips by Dan Walsh. PR below:

The full-color book format will give readers the experience of having both the original and doctored Garfield strips together on the same page for comparison. Dublin, Ireland-based Garfield Minus Garfield creator Dan Walsh will provide the foreword to the book.

Garfield creator Jim Davis was intrigued by—and pleased with—the concept. “I think it’s an inspired thing to do,” Davis said. “I want to thank Dan for enabling me to see another side of Garfield. Some of the strips he chose were slappers: ‘Oh, I could have left that out.’ It would have been funnier.”

Garfield Minus Garfield site creator Dan Walsh says, “When I looked at Jon and laughed at his crazy antics I thought ‘He’s just like me.’ As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one saw myself in him: millions of visitors from all over the world visit Garfield Minus Garfield and tell me they think the same thing. Now, thanks to the awesome generosity and humor of Jim Davis, Garfield Minus Garfield is going to become a book and I’m absolutely honored to be part of it.”

Ballantine has already made a mint printing Garfield — 33 Garfield books have made the New York Times bestseller list. Will the strip minus the porky pussy fare as well?

Rutu Modan’s new strip at The New York Times has begun. It’s called “The Murder of the Terminal Patient.” The paper also presents a slideshow of Moden’s previous work.

In a story that proves that owning your good ideas gives the biggest payout, R Stevens has announced he’s ending print syndication of DIESEL SWEETIES:

As of mid-August, DS is ending its run in newspapers and going back to being web-only! Why? Because I’m an optimist, I opted out.

At Fleen he tells Gary Tyrell
more of the reasons behind his decision:

Fleen: What was the prime factor in deciding to quit?

Stevens: Not to sound like a jerk, but time and money. I was (currently still am) spending 12+ hours a day 5.5 days a week keeping my business afloat and doing 12 comics a week. My website and merch were a little over 90% of my gross income last year. When the workload starting making me sicker and fatter, it was pretty much a no-brainer which job had to go.

(And before there is any argument from the Peanuts-worshipping gallery, this was my experience. It is not true for all newspaper strips or print cartoonists, but I lived it and have the debt and carpal tunnel to prove it.)

Later in the interview, Stevens seems to say it wasn’t a question of not liking United Media, but just the hidebound nature of the print business these days

It’s natural in these things for us geeks to spring on the “Evil Syndicate“, but I don’t blame ‘em for anything. They can’t force editors to dump 80-year-old comics and they can’t legally kill all the rabid Snuffy Smith fans who would set the world ablaze if he ever left print.

I’m not saying they aren’t working on ways to kill these people, but I don’t think radioactive nanodagger ink is ready for prime time yet.

So there you have it. Game, set and match. WEB up. PRINT down. Creator ownership, UP. Selling it all, DOWN.

If one of you Beat readers can make me a little red arrow thingie, we’ll make this official.

As usual when we’re too busy to post, we’ll just try to distract you with pretty pictures. Courtesy of ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive — gaze upon the newspaper comic strip sections of yore and weep, weep, weep.

§ ICv2 reports the thrilling news that Fantagraphics will begin reprints of Prince Valiant and Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy, two more incredible comic strips that deserve to be seen once again.

Prince Valiant will be presented in an oversized color hardcover format, with two years per book, beginning in 2009. This presentation will be of higher quality than the 50 trade paperbacks Fantagraphics published, which collected all of the strips with art or story by creator Hal Foster. At two years per book, it will take 16-17 volumes just to reprint the full page strips with Foster art.
Fantagraphics will also begin releasing its collections of Wash Tubbs and its successor strip Captain Easy in 2009. Sundays will be printed in color; dailies in black and white. Although the two strips ran an incredible 64 years, from 1924 to 1988, creator Roy Crane’s work ran only until 1943.

§ CBR follows up the Comic Book Resources > Andy Schmidt to IDW story from yesterday and reveals taht he’ll mostly be working on the newly acquired GI Joe license.

Thelma Keane, wife of cartoonist Bil and inspiration for the mom in FAMILY CIRCUS has died at age 82 of Alzheimer’s disease.

“She was the inspiration for all of my success,” Bil Keane, 85, told The Associated Press from his home in Paradise Valley on Sunday. “When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, `Aren’t you the Mommy in “Family Circus?” ‘ and she would admit it.”

Bil and Thelma “Thel” Keane met during World War II in the war bond office in Brisbane, Australia. She was a native Australian working as an accounting secretary, and Bil worked next to her as a promotional artist for the U.S. Army.

Thelma was mother o six children, including Jeff, who helps his father on the current strip, and animator Glen.