Korea Has A President?

Another installment of news? Am I crazy? Well, probably, but that's beside the point. This week was completely dull and boring, but I'm going to tell you about some news anyway.


From 7/1/09:
American cartoonists aren't the only dumb ones

A cartoonist from Korea is being sued for the sum of $100,000 by Wonju city because of a cartoon where he inserted some harsh words about the President. Normally, saying mean things about the President is just fine, all he said was that President Lee should die and that he's a son of a bitch; but he did it in a cartoon that was supposed to honor Korean and Vietnam War veterans. Not cool dude. Now you will probably have to pay for your stupidity.

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Death Surrounds Us

Not much to report tonight. Sad news or happy, if you're a heartless bastard.


The King of Pop is dead. Apparently from a heart attack in his home. I don't really no anything else or care for that matter. Michael Jackson may have be a weird mofo but he was still the most popular performer for a long time.

Farrah Fawcett has also passed. Her death is not unexpected because of her much publicized battle with cancer.

Next week will have comic related news, I hope.

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Actual News From The Newsdesk!

And now we actually have some late breaking news. The last few weeks have been slow in the news front, but the last week has had everyone abuzz. The culprit? An editorial cartoonist. If racism makes you sick to your stomach, don't click on the link.


From 6/9/09:
Cartoonist Draws A Stupid Cartoon

Honestly. How can a professional be so stupid? There are only a few rules in editorial cartooning. One of them is that you can't draw Hispanics as pinatas (one that we learned a few months ago is that you can't insinuate that a monkey is African-American). Personally, I am not offended but that's only because I'm never offended. I can plainly see why others would be, and are, offended. This is a racist cartoon that likely only serves to stir up controversy for the cartoonist and the paper that printed it. I charge you with the task of not falling for it. Don't be upset, that's exactly what they want you to do. The cartoonist wants people to get angry because it will drive interest in what he's doing. The best way to ensure this stops happening is to simply ignore this cartoonist and stop giving him the attention he obviously wants.


From 6/10/09:
Pantless Duck Is Really Old

On the lighter side, Donald Duck has now passed the 75 year mark. I can feel your excitement through my monitor.

Have yourself a nice day and don't forget to stop by tomorrow for your comic review needs.

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It Looks Like We Have Some Breaking News

And now we arrive at a regularly scheduled post by me. The cartooning news has been pretty damn slow the last few weeks and this week is not exception.

From 6/1/09:
Horrible Comic Strip Still Exists

It seems that Mallard Fillmore has now been around for 15 years. If you listen closely, you can hear weeping and gnashing of teeth off in the distance.



From 6/3/09:
Oldest Teenager in History Finally Gets Lucky

Well, he's getting married anyway. That's right, Archie is going to marry Veronica. Does anyone honestly even read Archie comics anymore? I'm sure that 20 years from now the writers will make them become not-married.



That's what I got for you this week. Keep reading or else gnomes will eat your pubes. Unless you like that kind of thing, then they'll barf half-digested pubes on your face.

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The News Knows

Hey there! Yeah, you. Sorry for missing last week's newspost and Saturday. Moving will do that to a blogger. This week yields only slightly more news. Just one topic worth posting about.

From 5/24:
Spider-Man comic strip goes back the way it was

In a stunning reversal, The Amazing Spider-Man has decided that the last 5 months of story were all a dream and that Peter and MJ are still married. Shocking as the flip-flop is, the reason for doing it is even more surprising. They are claiming that the public flooded them with letters demanding that they return Spider-Man to his married life. I think they are lying and just wanted to go back for story purposes. No matter what the reason is, we can be sure that the strip will still be uninteresting and feature little to no action.


That's all this week, see you on the flip side.

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Good News is Good News

The DCR will survive! We will be adding some additional writers to our staff here over the next week or so, and xy will be taking over the head-writer position for the web site some time in the next 2-3 weeks. I just wanted to let all you devotees know that we're not going away, just evolving. I will return to a more active role with the website over the coming months as real life settles down, but until then we will have some great new talent on display and hopefully the DCR will emerge stronger and funnier than before. Oh yeah, Herb & Jamaal won worst strip of the month for April! Keep submitting your nominationseverytime you read a particularly horrible strip - we couldn't do this contest without you.

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News You Probably Don't Care About

Comic and cartoon news is still pretty damn slow right now. I have only one minor thing to report this week from The Daily Cartoonist.

From 5/6/09:
Show Gets Extended Before It Gets Shown

The Cleveland Show, a spinoff of Family Guy, has been extended to a second season. This is odd since it doesn't air its first episode until this fall. I guess Fox has a lot of faith in Seth MacFarlane's ability to get people to watch the same thing over and over.


Have a good night and better tomorrow.

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Anything In The News?

No news is good news. That's what I've heard anyway, and since there isn't really anything worth bringing to your attention, what we have is no news. Sorry to the one, possibly two, people that actually give a crap about comic strip news, but I just haven't heard anything this week.

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News is Good for You

Not much going on this week, unless you want to here about more awards that you've never heard of.



From 4/20/09:
Webcomic To Release Book

XKCD is one of the best, and best known, webcomics. It is consistently funny and smart, something few comic, web or not, can accomplish. And if you always wanted to have the comics in your hand instead of on your screen, you can. Randall Munroe will soon be publishing the first collected volume of XKCD, a release date is pending.


From 4/23/09:
Crazy Old Magazine Still Going Strong

MAD magazine has hit 500 issues after 57 years of being published. It is amazing that a magazine marketed towards those that think fart jokes will never stop being funny is still relevant in this day and age. It is a testament to how good the magazine is. Here's to another 500 issues.


Good night and remember, Dr. Pepper is the only soda with 23 intense flavors!

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News is News Except When It's Not

Hello and welcome to the Daily Comics Review news day. Today I have three stories. One could be categorized as WTF, one isn't really a news story and more of an editorial by me about legacy comics, and one is news directly relating to the DCR.

From 4/16/09:

Exciting things are happening at Meekrat Entertainment!

The Daily Comics Review is now a part of the Meekrat Entertainment Group Message Board. You can go there and talk about all the cool stuff we do or all the cool stuff Meekrat Entertainment does or you could just talk about whatever you want. There are already a few established members but we could always use some new people to freshen things up.




From 4/13/09:
Japan to export more crappy fiction

That's right, in order to fix the economy, Japan wants to export more Manga. First: I didn't know they had more to export. Seriously, have you gone to the graphic novel section at Barnes & Noble? There is way more Manga there than American graphic novels. Usually it's at least an entire shelf, front and back. Second: How is giving the world more stories about high school students possessed by demons, or high school students traveling back in time, or high school students saving the world from something really stupid, going to help the economy? Does Japan not surf the internet? There is tons of Manga for free. Most of the time it's horrible, but sometimes it's on par with printed books. I chalk this up to Japan being out of ideas.


WARNING: If you do not want to read an opinion that might differ from your own, do not read this story. You have been warned.

From 4/15/09:
Legacy comic isn't as good as it used to be

While this isn't news (it was posted by someone other than Alan Gardner, who does most of the news posts), it is an interesting point. Many legacy strips can't hold a candle to their previous incarnations. Dick Tracy is one of many, many strips that have outstayed their welcome. I have pointed out before (although I'm not sure if I have on this site) that strips need to have an end. Once the original creator is gone, there can never again be a strip like the one he created, not even if his son or daughter or whatever takes over, not even if the same characters are used, not even if the same jokes are used.

Do you know why people love Peanuts so much? It's because it ended with Charles Schulz. No one is trying to keep the legacy of Peanuts alive by doing new comics, the legacy is kept alive by not doing new comics. Having something end is always the best. Maybe everyone will wonder what would have happened if it continued, but having a definite end is always better than to continue on with something once the original spirit is gone. I doubt people would have as much respect for the original Star Trek if it had run for 15 more years. That it ended is part of the intrigue, it makes us imagine all the things left unexplored and make the memories we have of it that much better.

There are good comic strips out there, and there are even more yet undiscovered because too many spots are filled by legacy comics that are only around because of their reputation. Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Marmaduke are all taking space that could be used for the next Calvin & Hobbes or Peanuts. If newspapers go the way of the dinosaur, as some are predicting, what will happen to the relics of comic strip history? Surely they will be remembered, but perhaps it will be with fondness and sites like the Comics Curmudgeon, the Daily Comics Review, Dean's Comic Booth, Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke, the Amazing Spider Blog, and all the others won't be around or even necessary. I just hope that creators of comics, web or otherwise, can learn from the mistakes of the past and avoid becoming like Dick Tracy or Andy Capp.

Two stories came from the Daily Cartoonist, can you guess which ones?
Sorry to get all real on you, but now you know. And, in the words of a certain 1980's cartoon, knowing is half the battle.


Have a great rest of the day.

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And Now for a Look at the Goings on of the Week

Greetings devoted readers. Welcome to the week in comic strip news. There isn't a much to report this week. I have a really late breaking story for you (so late it's already over(that's the price you pay for only doing news once a week)), a completely pointless story, and something really cool that I wish I could go to.



From 4/7/09:
Extra! Extra! Webcomic Creators to Give Talk
For all our friends in Canada, there was a gathering of the greatest minds in webcomicing in Toronto. It has passed already, but it was probably amazing for any who were able to attend.



From 4/6/09, 4/6/09, 4/6/09, 4/6/09:
Another Ass-Load of Awards
OK, seriously, what the hell is with all the awards? It seems that there are 2 or 3 new nominations and winners every week. Does any other medium have this many awards?



From 4/9/09:
Titans of Small Town Gather in Big City
Ryan North, Chris Hastings, Chris Onstad, and Emily Horne and Joey Corneau will be showing some original art, never-before-seen stuff, and some limited edition prints. Best of all is a promised real-time on-site collaborative piece from the artists. They'll even have Q&A, which is almost as awesome as T&A. If you live in the Northeast, I suggest you get to this event if you can.


That's the news of the week in cartooning. Some of it came from the Daily Cartoonist, but the majority of it came from my own hard work. Crazy as it sounds, it's true.



Good day.



I said "Good day".



Damnit, will you just leave already! There'll be more comics tomorrow, so go away until then.

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Here's Some More News for You to Consume

Looks like it's time for another addition to the ever growing library of News on the DCR. Some weeks are good, some weeks are bad, but you can always count on your friendly neighborhood xy to make fun of comic strip news. Let's see what we have this week.


From 3/31/09:
Dagwood shoppes are as bad as the character
It seems that the Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppes are having some tough times. I don't know if it's because they are a crappy company, because they sell overpriced food, or because of the current economy; what I can say for sure is that if you even know what a Dagwood Sandwich is, you are very old, or are too invested in pop culture of a different generation.


From 4/2/09:
Wild Things. Not the one with nudity
I guess they're making a movie out of Where the Wild Thing Are and this is the first trailer. My guess is that the movie is 40 minutes long and is really stupid. Also, my guess is wrong, at least about the 40 minutes part. How do you make a movie based on a short story for children? And do parents still read Where the Wild Things Are to their children? It's a pretty old book, so I would imagine that it has fallen by the wayside as an actual children's book and is adored in the memory of adults that had it read to them when they were children.


That's the news from the internet. Or more specifically, the Daily Cartoonist.


Webcomic of the Week may return this Saturday if I am able to contact the author.

UPDATE: I was able to reach the author and a review is in the works! Hooray!

Good night and don't die in your sleep, I hear that sucks.

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A Short News Break

Short and sweet. That seems to be the theme of the week at the DCR this week, and it holds true for your news update. Not much happening this week, I guess.



From 3/23/09, 3/23/09:
More awards announced
It must awards season or something for cartoonists. After last week, I was sure that there would be no more announced for awhile, but here we are and the only notable thing I can think of to talk about is awards. As before, I didn't actually look up who is nominated for what, I think you guys can handle that if you want to know. I can't imagine that anyone outside the industry cares.


So there you have it. All the news I could find in 45 seconds of looking.

Remeber, the monsters can't hurt you if you don't believe in them.

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Now It's Time for Some News

Welcome to another update on the world of comic strips. Not much exciting this week, but you can see for yourself:

From 3/12/09:
Comic Strip Writer Invents Word
Stephan Pastis invented a word, un-died, and it has been added the the Urban Dictionary. I'm not really sure that the Urban Dictionary is really the authority on what is and ain't a word, but it would be cool to invent a word that is recognized by somebody as being real.

From 3/16/09, 3/16/09, and 3/16/09:
Many Awards Given
Apparently the 16th of March was award day for the world of cartoonists. Three separate organizations announced award winners. I don't actually know who won or what was won because I can't think of a reason why someone that isn't a cartoonist would care.

From 3/17/09:
Newspaper Decides to Print on the Web Instead of Paper
As anyone that lives in the Pacific Northwest already knows, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has ceased printing, at least on paper. In a move to save money, the oldest paper in Washington state has moved entirely online. No one knows how the last ditch gamble will work, but it apparently has been described as "a Huffington Post of mainstream media". I thought that newspapers hated bloggers, I guess prejudices get thrown out the window when your bankrupt.

From 3/19/09:
Rock Star Wants You to Save His Favorite Comic Strips
Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam(how did you not know that?), wants people to start bugging the alternative newspapers that dropped some alternative comics recently. Because everyone knows that Eddie Vedder was the editor of a newspaper before becoming a rock star and knows the secret of printing more content for less money. Something that he has been very selfish in keeping to himself.

As usual, the stories appear via the Daily Cartoonist.

Remember, this is done just for you, not all the other assholes on the internet.

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And Now We Go To The News Desk for This Important News...

That's right, important news. So important that you'll forget what you were doing and run home to your loved ones, assuming that you have any.

Ok, so it's not that important, but at least one of the stories should leave you feeling cold and disturbed.



From 3/9/09:
Marmaduke: The Movie
Be afraid, be very afraid. Fox, that luminary of movie studios, is making a feature-film based on Marmaduke. That's right, an entire movie about Marmaduke. While it hasn't been decided if the movie will be animated, live-action, or a mixture, one thing is certain: this will be the worst movie made in the last 15 years. I say 15 because I have little knowledge of terrible movies going any farther back.


From 3/6/09:
Holy Ass-Crackers!
Joe Mathlete, of Marmaduke Explained fame, is back! That's right, since last Friday Joe has been explaining Marmaduke for the first time in over 6 months. Some of you may know that I have my own Marmaduke Explained, well ol' Joe even contacted me about it. He was very gracious in accepting that I have stolen his idea and has stated that he will continue to explain Marmaduke for the foreseeable future. I'm so excited that I just can't hide it!

That's the news for this week. Please don't be depressed about the Marmaduke movie. I'm sure that someone will stop it from ever seeing release. Won't they?


Hold me. Please, just hold me.

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The Weekly Edition of Your Weekly News

Good morning or afternoon or evening or night, whenever you're reading this. There was some good stuff this week, plus I go on too long about one of the stories. Can you guess which one it is?

From 3/2/09:
Lio, Cul de Sac, Argyle Sweater Animation

I know Bryce will like this one, Lio and Argyle Sweater have been animated and posted on YouTube. Cul de Sac has been animated but was removed from YouTube because of distribution rights. It sounds like it might be interesting, too bad Bryce's favorite is wrapped in red tape. One day soon Bryce, one day soon.

From 3/2/09:
More fallout from the monkey cartoon
Apparently the AAEC(Association of American Editorial Cartoonists) doesn't want the NAACP(National Association for the Advancment of Colored People) to be so pissed off at the New York Post(the paper that ran the offensive cartoon). I'm not sure how they're going to convince the NAACP to not be angry, but I guess they have to try.

From 3/3/09:
Newspapers are good!
Alan Gardner(owner of the Daily Cartoonist, an online news source)wants you to subscribe to your local newspaper. I'll let you read his take on it, but I agree with him. So I command you to call your local paper and subscribe now! Do it now! Now I say!

From 3/5/09:
20 Best Webcomics in the opinion of one site
Mashable has made of list of the 20 best webcomics. I disagree with several of their choices and don't read several others. But the main problem I have with the list is the omission of two great comics and the inclusion of something that isn't even a comic.

Dinosaur Comics and Overcompensating are not featured. WTF? Dino Comics is perhaps the greatest comic of all time. Ryan North keeps it fresh everyday without changing the art. How many comics do you know of that can do that? And they included Homestar Runner in the list. Homestar Runner is not a comic, it is a flash animation. No one would ever classify it as a comic. Not anyone with a brain anyway.

Well, that concludes another weekly update of the state of cartoons and comics. Did you figure out which story I talked too much about? Take a guess by leaving a comment.

Good night and have a horrible tomorrow.

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We Go Live to the Scene for this Breaking News

Another Thursday is here and I get to shoot some news your way. I almost called off doing anything today because where I live is getting shit on. With snow. Lots of snow. Anyway, here you go.


From 2/23/09:
Another Garfield Comic
Garfield has spawned a single panel spin-off. It shouldn't be much of a strech for Jim Davis since he hardly ever uses more than one panel anyway.


From 2/23/09:
Another controversy about cartoons
Some guy sold his cartoon to the NY Times and they edited it. I can't say I blame them for editing it, what with all the commotion over the monkey from last week. Also, this cartoon has Hugo Chavez of Venazuela giving the finger and you don't usually see that gesture in the paper.


From 2/26/09:
The Phantom in all his glory
Hermes press is going to publish several volumes collecting the complete Phantom series. The Sunday edition gets it's own volume because of the continuity differences. It's nice to see that the roots of comic strips aren't forgetten yet. Phantom has been printed since 1936. The crazy thing is that it doesn't totally suck like Alley Oop or the other "legacy" strips.

That's all for this week. As always The Daily Cartoonist finds all this stuff for me to bring to you.

Good night and remember to eat your Wheaties.

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It's Time for Our Newsbreak, so I'm going for some coffee. Tom?

Thursday again already? Wow, that was fast. I almost forgot about my obligation today, but have remembered just in time. Good thing too since there is some interesting stories this week.

From 2/18/09:
A possibly racist cartoon
Some guy named Sean Delonas made a cartoon about a monkey getting shot and the stimulus bill. It seems some people think that he was being more than cute by having two white police officers shoot a monkey. They say that it portrays the President as being the same as a monkey or some such nonsense. I don't know and I don't care, it's just a cartoon, why is it inspiring such charges? I thought we were in Post-racial America, what happened to that idea?


From 2/19/09:
Planet Karen is on FIRE
Apparently there is a popular webcomic called Planet Karen. Well, it's creator's house just burned down, killing an upstairs neighbor. That sucks for her and I hope she is back on her feet soon. If you want to donate for her recovery there are links on the Daily Cartoonist page.

As always the Daily Cartoonist does all the hard work for me.

That's all this week, join us next week when there will be some more interesting news. I hope.

Good night and try not to wake up on fire.

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It Seems We're Having Some Technical Difficulties

Well, it appears to be Thursday again. Do you know what that means?



It means nothing this week, unfortunately. I could find no interesting news to post about this week. Sorry to any fans that were anxious to hear about the news. I'll give you the link to Daily Cartoonist and you can look around there youself.

The Daily Cartoonist.

Well, good night and don't be too sad about no news. After all, no news is good news. Well, sometimes it is.

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It's Time Once Again for Your Local News

Hello there, welcome to Newsday. Unfortunately there isn't really any news of worth this week. I guess we've been spoiled over the last month of reporting by good and semi-interesting stories. I've been surprised by the quantity and quality of news the cartooning world has put out since I've been paying attention. Hopefully next week will bring better results.

From 2/2/09:
The Daily Cartoonist is Adding Interactivity
Now you can register for an account at The Daily Cartoonist and writer your own blogs and articles of interest. Previously only Alan Gardner had been posting what he thought was interesting, but he was time constricted. Now he has opened the site to make it more inclusive to alternative forms of cartooning(magazine cartoons, animation, webcomics) and to get the readers more involved.

Well, I guess that sounds interesting. I don't have time to go sleuthing for news about cartoons, but if you do then I say "go for it".

I sure hope this will get you through to next week, I know it will get me through.

Good day.





I said "Good day!!"

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