Laugh Tracks

Animated Pooch Café!

Check out these animated Pooch Café strips, posted on YouTube by RingTales.com. (Via Alan Gardner of the Daily Cartoonist.)

RingTales has also posted a series of Cul de Sac animations:

So what does everyone think about animated comic strips?

Steve Breen wins the Pulitzer Prize! (Again!)

Congratulations to GoComics editorial cartoonist Steve Breen, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize! Breen, who is the staff editorial cartoonist at the San Diego Union-Tribune, was cited for "his agile use of a classic style to produce wide ranging cartoons that engage readers with power, clarity and humor." This is Breen's second Pulitzer - he won for the first time in 1998.

Click here to read a collection of Breen's best of 2008.

'New' Comic: Little Otto!

GoComics regulars know Scott Nickel as the mad genius behind the kooky, spooky, daily comic gem EEK! Scott has also been sole creator or co-creator on several other comic features over the years, all while maintaining his day job at Paws, Inc. and creating cartoons for Mad Magazine, greeting cards, and more on the side. He's a busy guy.

Not too long ago, Scott found time to create another fun little strip, called Little Otto:

"So I did this daily comic strip for a California newspaper a few years back, and I have about 15 months' worth of material...I looked at it again recently and I really quite liked it, even though it comes from a completely different place than EEK!...I decided to see if Uclick was interested and they were, so it's running 3 days a week on GoComics."

Fans of Nickel's work already know he's a very versatile cartoonist, having produced top-notch work in a wealth of different styles for all sorts of media. Little Otto is another great example of Nickel's exceptional talent.

A whole lotta Tweetin' goin' on

If you're addicted to Twitter - and it seems everyone is these days - here are a few GoComics-related Twitters to follow:

• GoComics (twitter.com/gocomics) - Site updates, news and information

• Roland Hedley of Doonesbury (twitter.com/Roland_Hedley) - Random tweets from the FOX News Senior Correspondent 

• Calvin and Hobbes (twitter.com/calvinandhobbes) - Daily teasers with links to the strip

• Garfield (twitter.com/Garfield_Cat) - Occassional thoughts from the famous fat cat

• Candorville (twitter.com/candorville) - Updates and info from creator Darrin Bell

• Pibgorn (twitter.com/pibgorn) - Daily teasers with links to the strip

• Legend of Bill (twitter.com/LegendofBill) - Updates and info from creator Dave Reddick

You should also check out Alan Gardner's Daily Cartoonist Twitter for news from the cartooning industry. 

Behind the scenes of a Pibgorn strip

For those who might wonder why we have a dedicated page just for Pibgorn Sketches, today's Pibgorn strip and sketch provide a perfect example. Though the sketch and finished art are usually very similar, today's installments reveal that creator Brooke McEldowney began with a very different composition than that of the finished product. The dialogue is unchanged, but McEldowney's sketch shows the action from a bird's-eye view, while the finished strip depicts the same events from a more traditional perspective. It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the artistic choices a cartoonist makes during the creation of a comic strip.