Imprisoned Cartoonist Grateful for International Courage Award

From Iran Human Rights Organisation.

Jailed artist Atena Farghadani has expressed gratitude upon hearing she was awarded the 2015 Courage in Cartooning Award by the Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), her father said after visiting her at Evin Prison on August 16, 2015.

The winners of the 42th Piracicaba International Salon of Humor

From Mundiario.

Banksy's "Dismaland Bemusement Park"

From Fany Blog.

Banksy, the elusive British artist has once again surprised everyone. After days of speculation about what was taking place in an area of ​​over one hectare on the beach in Weston-super-Mare, we have finally discovered the 'secret'.

'Dismaland', a place dedicated to installations where Disney's world is turned upside down opened on August 22. Amongst the 58 contemporary artists who participated in the project, we can find Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer and Jimmy Cauty.

Cincy Comicon poster pays homage to old comic book ads

From Boing Boing.

Cartoonist Tony Moore (co-creator of The Walking Dead comic book series) designed this very fun poster for the Cincy Comicon (September 12-13), which pays homages to the old comic book ads for novelties and practical jokes. He did such a good job that I asked him to write a bit about it.

"The State" Hires Back Robert Ariail

From The Daily Cartoonist.

The State (Columbia, SC) has rehired full-time its long-time editorial cartoonist Robert Ariail. Robert resigned from the paper in 2009 when his position was cut to part-time. He had been at the paper since 1984. 

The paper made the announcement in July as part of “an ongoing initiative to strengthen print and digital coverage.”

With his staff position restored, Robert is back to drawing 5-6 cartoons a week. Half of which will be of national/international in topic, the other half will be local to South Carolina.

The fall of the Fantastic Four

Jaime J. Weinman in Maclean's.

Can the Fantastic Four ever be popular again? Even the studio that’s making their $122-million movie doesn’t act as if it thinks so. The publicity for the reboot of the Marvel superhero team, their first film since 2007, has been half-hearted. “They don’t know how to market it,” says Sarah Marrs, who writes about film for Lainey Gossip. “Every trailer has emphasized a different angle. They’ve changed the key art a couple of times, and it’s like maybe they don’t know what they have.”  Scott Mendelson of Forbes noted that the first trailer “promised sci-fi horror,” while the second trailer made it look like “a generic, dark and gritty remake.” 

"Bloom County" is back after 25 years

Jaime J. Weinman in Maclean's.

The biggest news in cartooning this month is something that hasn’t been big news for a long time: a daily comic strip. When Berkeley Breathed, creator of the satirical strip Bloom County, announced that he would revive the strip on his Facebook page, it got coverage in outlets like the Washington Post and NPR that wouldn’t normally cover your local newspaper comics page. 

Why @HarpersGotaGo GotaGo

From Graeme MacKay's website.

From Montréal Simon

It’s election time in Canada and with it comes a golden period of time when satirists are busy skewering the very folks begging for our votes. Social media websites and apps has enabled anyone with a political sense the ability to satirize and join a realm once dominated mostly by newspaper columnists and editorial cartoonists.

One doesn’t have to search far on the world wide web to find altered zinger photos of well known celebrities or politicians meant to mock them. Some are hilarious, some not so much. In almost every case these funnies often have no source and there is never any credit given to the author or photographer whose work was used in the humor.

The Ted Rall Controversy

AAEC Calls for Independent Investigation of LAPD's Rall Tape

From the AAEC website.

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists board calls for an independent investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department’s tape of former AAEC president and member Ted Rall's jaywalking stop in 2001. An impartial review of the tape of this incident is badly needed in this case. 

Determining the truth in this matter is important to Mr. Rall's personal and professional reputation, and to the rights of journalists to freely express themselves. Furthermore, the Los Angeles Times should have demanded a higher standard of proof in this matter, and it is clear that Mr. Rall is owed a full and complete analysis of the 14 year old tape used to make a judgment about his actions. 

Should an independent investigation determine that Mr. Rall’s version of the events is accurate, we call upon the Los Angeles Times to publicly apologize, and make restitution. If it is also determined that the Los Angeles Police Department or a member of the police union manipulated the tape, as Mr. Rall alleges, they also owe Mr. Rall an apology and restitution.

Index on Censorship: "Charlie Hebdo: The Global View"

From Smashwords.

When the Charlie Hebdo killings happened in Paris in early 2015, attention swivelled to the way that terror and accusation are being used to try and stifle debate. But these are discussions that are not only being held in France, so I asked writers around the world to write short essays exploring the ways that journalists and artists have been threatened over the years, for exploring themes that others would rather they had not tackled.

Silver Snail To Close In Ottawa

From Bleeding Cool.

Forty year old Canadian comic store The Silver Snail, is to close its Ottawa branch . As famous as comic books come, it is legendary for the comics it sells, the clientele it attracts and the celebrities who turn up to browse of the finest comic stores in existence.And it is closing.

Reprints on the iPolitics website (28)

Two of my recent cartoons are featured on the iPolitics website.

Le Droit, Saturday August 1, 2015

Steve Brodner to live-blog GOP debate

From Brodner' Bicycle.

This Thursday at 9pm EST I’ll be live-blogging at TheNation.com during the GOP Debate from Cleveland. All is in readiness, but now I understand that the candidates will only have 60 seconds at a time. What will I do? Trump only knows. Hope you can tune in.

"Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The National Lampoon Story" trailer

However you know the name National Lampoon – the magazine, films, the comedians associated with them – there’s a long and storied history to the comedic institution. And a new documentary is hoping to celebrate that history later this year.

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The National Lampoon Story takes a look back at the humor magazine’s beginnings, with input from writers and readers about its influence on the comedy and pop-culture landscapes. Douglas Tirola’s documentary promises never-before-seen interview footage, clippings from the magazine, and more to offer a look at the magazine’s rise and fall and the legacy it’s left.

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead is set for release in theaters and VOD on Sept. 25.

LA Times fires Ted Rall on questions of integrity; Rall stands by story

From The Daily Cartoonist.

The LA Times has run a notice to readers that they will not run any more work by editorial cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall after the LA Police Department releases an audio recording rebutting claims of an interaction between Ted and a police officer over a jay walking ticket in which Ted claims he was handcuffed and thrown against the wall.