In April, The Ohio State University received a gift of $1 million from Jean Schulz, the widow of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, to support the renovation of Sullivant Hall, the future home of the new Cartoon Library and Museum.
Along with her generous gift, Mrs. Schulz issued a challenge: She will provide an additional matching gift of $2.5 million if Ohio State raises the same amount from other sources, making the total impact of her gift $6 million.
“By helping to underwrite a state-of-the-art facility for the University's renowned Cartoon Library and Museum, Jean Schulz advances the work of students, faculty, and scholars and deepens our understanding of the importance of the genre,” said Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee.
The planned renovation will provide 40,000 gross square feet of space for the new Cartoon Library and Museum that will include a spacious reading room for researchers, three museum-quality galleries, and expanded storage with state-of-the-art environmental and security controls.
When asked what inspired her to give to The Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State, Jean Schulz said, “Lucy Caswell has done a marvelous job in collecting and preserving works in the cartoon medium. I was pleased at the opportunity to help provide a fitting home for this important collection and to recognize her contribution in the field.”
Due to its outstanding reputation, growing collection and a surge of scholarly interest in comics and cartoons, the Cartoon Library and Museum — formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library — is a destination location for researchers from around the world.
With a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, Ohio State's Cartoon Library and Museum was established in 1977 in two converted classrooms in the university's Journalism Building. From this small beginning, founding curator Lucy Shelton Caswell has spent more than 30 years building the Library into the widely renowned facility it is today.
Milt Priggee has joined David Horsey on the revamped seattlepi.com web site.
In a introduction, Horsey posted: “Way back about a thousand years ago, when I got into the cartooning business, I met another young, aspiring visual commentator named Milt Priggee.
“Milt was then working for Crain's Chicago Business; I had just started at the P-I. I remember one long night that slipped into dawn at an editorial cartoonists' convention in Nashville when he and I talked and talked about our hopes and dreams for great careers.
“Milt's work life has taken a more rugged path than mine. I've been lucky enough to have a string of editors and publishers who understood their job was to defend me, not censor me. Milt, unfortunately, has had the opposite experience. Now, however, he's found a place where he can say anything he pleases.
“Priggee has joined our Seattle Views team and readers will be able to find his commentary on a regular basis right here. You can also find a lot more of his work, including animated cartoons, at his website, miltpriggee.com.
“As I shift gears to add a broader national audience in the string of Hearst newspapers stretching from Connecticut and New York to Texas and California, Milt Priggee will be taking aim at targets close to home in the Northwest. I am excited to have my friend Milt join me. And, you know what? This gives seattlepi.com two more editorial cartoonists than any other local news web site.”
Patrick O'Connor, who was laid off from the Los Angeles Daily News back in January, has picked up a bit of work with the cross town rival paper the L.A. Times, doing illustrations for their op-ed page. From his blog, he writes: I've been doing some illustrations for the Los Angeles Times! Most editors and management at the Daily News had an unhealthy dislike for their crosstown rival. I always thought it was a far superior paper and have enjoyed it for a long time. So, it feels good to see my work on the Op Ed pages. http://patrickoconnor.blogspot.com/
Steve Greenberg, taking a page from the Milt Priggee playbook, is now doing editorial cartoons for the news blog LA Observed.
“With the axing of Patrick O'Connor's position at the Daily News in January, the elimination of the L.A. Times cartooning position in 2005 and the cutting of most cartoons from the LA Weekly earlier this year, there was nobody left to do any locally-oriented editorial cartooning for the nation's second-biggest city and metro, so this created an opportunity for me to step into the void in my hometown of Los Angeles; ironically, my career began with locally-oriented cartoons for the Daily News of L.A. three decades ago.”
Brian Duffy's animated editorial cartoons began appearing on a local television newscast twice a week in May. KCCI News broadcasts his work during the 6 and 10 p.m. news show Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the cartoons posted on the KCCI website on Wednesday and Fridays.
“Duffy's creative wit and style have been sorely missed, and we are delighted to be able to bring him back and showcase his great work,” says KCCI News Director Dave Busiek.
Duffy's work had been on the front page of the Des Moines Register for 25 years until he was suddenly laid off in 2008.
In May, Keith Knight sat down with Dick Gordon for a lengthy interview on “The Story.”
“Keith caught a big break last year when he launched his first syndicated comic strip,” said Gordon. “Then the bottom fell out of the newspaper industry. Keith has lost some distribution as newspapers across the country continue to fold, but he's managed to keep his head above water.”
Listen to the entire show here: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_781_A_Hard_Time_For_The_Funnies.mp3
Tim Jackson, David G. Brown and Ron Rogers were part of a lengthy round-table discussion on the “Mr. Media Interview” show in March, after the Sean Delonas cartoon flap.
“When the New York Post recently got in hot water for an editorial cartoon by Sean Delonas that appeared to portray President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee, media pundits raced to see who could condemn it the fastest,” it said in a promo for the show. “But one perspective was missing: that of the nation's African-American editorial cartoonists. Join Mr. Media as he welcomes a number of prominent male and female cartoonists from across the country to talk about the Post cartoon, Obama and modern politics, opportunities for cartoonists of color, and more.”
Listen to
the entire session here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mrmedia/2009/03/07/African-American-Editorial-Cartoonists-Roundtable-Mr-Media-Interview.mp3
Tom Toles sat down with John Dickerson of CBS for an interview recently. Catch it in all its compressed fun at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7sYIyXvt9U
UMBC magazine, the periodical covering University of Maryland, Baltimore County put KAL on their cover recently, along with an extensive profile inside. You can read it in its entirety here: http://www.umbc.edu/magazine/winter09/feature_kal.html
—Sources: The Daily Cartoonist, E&P, The Comics Reporter, WUNC, KCCI, seattlepi.com, Daryl Cagle, The Star-Bulletin, Memphis Flyer. JP Trostle contributed.
