Laugh Tracks

GoComics at San Diego Comic-Con 2011!

Next week, San Diego will be taken over by America's biggest comic fans. So dust off your Spock ears, put the finishing touches on your Iron Man costume and get down to the GoComics Booth (#1500) at San Diego Comic-Con.  Not only will you have a chance to actually get into your favorite comics (hmm...what could THAT mean?) you'll also have a chance to get autographs from some of your favorite cartoonists! The full schedule is below. See you there! 

And if you can't make the show, don't worry. We will post exclusive interviews and clips from the show floor all week long on our Twitter account. Start following us today! #GoComics

 

Thursday (7/21)   10:30 AM Patrick McDonnell (Mutts)

 

Friday (7/22)       11 AM Greg Evans (Luann)

                           12:30 Hector Cantu (Baldo) 

                            2 PM Lucas Turnbloom (Imagine This) 

                            3:30 PM Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man)

                            5 PM  Glenn and Gary McCoy (The Flying McCoys)

 

Saturday (7/23)   10 AM: Brooke McEldowney (9 Chickweed Lane, Pibgorn)

                           11:30 AM: Keith Knight (K Chronicles, thInk)  

                            1 PM Lalo Alcaraz (La Cucaracha)

                            3 PM Mark Tatulli (Lio, Heart of the City) 

 

Sunday (7/24)     1 PM Brooke McEldowney (9 Chickweed Lane, Pibgorn)

                           3 PM Mark Tatulli (Lio, Heart of the City)

 

GoComics and Comics.com to Combine Forces

The biggest thing to happen to comics since Silly Putty is coming on June 1.  The two largest comic strip, editorial cartoon and comic panel sites are merging forces to create one massive comic destination under the url GoComics.com.  This means you can get your daily comic fix and interact with fellow comic fans on one site. No more bouncing between two websites, receiving multiple emails and not remembering which site has Marmaduke.  On June 1, it's all here! 

So, what do you need to do before June 1?  Nothing.  On that glorious morning you will wake up to find that Comics.com has redirected to GoComics and you now have access to more than 300 comics and editorial cartoons.  Your daily comic email will come from GoComics, so make sure that you have added comics@mycomicspage.com to your safe sender list.  Comics.com accounts will automatically be migrated to GoComics, you will just need to reset your password.  If you have an account at both sites and use the same email, those accounts will be merged to create one comic page and daily email filled with all of the comics you follow. 

Comics.com members will also receive two free months of our Pro Membership.  That means no advertising interruptions, one daily email with all of the comics you follow and unlimited site access. 

On June 1, the world's best comics are under one roof: GoComics.com!

Red and Rover NASA Commemorative Poster Giveaway

After 30 years and more than 130 missions, NASA's space shuttle fleet will be retired this year.  As part of the anniversary celebration, Brian Basset, creator of Red and Rover, was chosen to commemorate the program with a 30th Anniversary poster.

 

GoComics is joining the celebration by giving away ten of these beautiful commemorative posters, autographed by Brian Basset.  To enter for your chance to win, simply send an email to redandrover@amuniversal.com and tell us how NASA, the shuttle program, and/or Red and Rover have affected your life. The winning entries will be chosen on Sunday, May 15th, and announced later that week.

 

Good luck!

 

Did You Know: In 2004, Basset became the only cartoonist to have his space-themed comic strips displayed at NASA's headquarters in Washington. On July 26, 2005, Basset's original drawing commemorating NASA's return to flight after the Columbia accident launched aboard shuttle Discovery on the STS-114 mission.

If you're anywhere near Austin, Texas, you should check this out...

"Always Hitting a Nerve: Editorial Cartoons by Ben Sargent," a retrospective exhibit of Pulitzer Prize-winner Ben Sargent's 35-year career in editorial cartooning, opens today at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in Austin, Texas.

 

The exhibit will be open to the public through August 31 at the Briscoe Center’s Research and Collections Division, located in Sid Richardson Hall, Unit 2.

 

Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. For more information on hours and location, call (512) 495-4518.

 

Read the full press release here.

Cul de Sac, Red & Rover and Flying McCoys nominated for NCS Reuben Awards!

The National Cartoonists Society has announced their division award nominees, and some of GoComics' very own are on the list!

 

Cul de Sac, by Cartoonist of the Year nominee Richard Thompson, is nominated in the Best Newspaper Comic Strip category (an award for which it was also nominated in 2008 and 2009), along with Brian Bassett's endearing, boy-and-his-dog buddy strip, Red and Rover.

 

The Flying McCoys, by perennial Reuben Award winners Glen and Gary McCoy, is nominated in the Best Newspaper Panel Cartoons category. Nominated in the same category is Pop Culture Shock Therapy by Doug Bratton, whose book, The Deranged Stalker's Journal of Pop Culture Shock Therapy is published by the fine folks upstairs at Andrews McMeel Publishing.

 

You can see the full list of division awards and contenders here!

 

Congratulations and best of luck to all the nominees!

NEWSFLASH: Richard Thompson is awesome. NCS agrees, nominates him for Reuben Award

The National Cartoonists Society has announced the nominees for the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year. For the second year in a row, Richard Thompson, creator of Cul de Sac and Richard's Poor Almanac, is one of the nominees.

Probably for work like this:

Thompson's fellow esteemed nominees are Pearls Before Swine creator and video star Stephan Pastis and animator, author, illustrator and director Glen Keane.

Congrats to Richard, Stephan and Glen!

What happened to the Pibgorn comments sections?

Fans who visited the Pibgorn pages on GoComics this morning were greeted with an unpleasant surprise: the complete absence of comments sections. We've received a significant number of inquiries about this situation, so clearly an explanation is in order.

 

Without a doubt, Pibgorn is a comic strip that generates a lot of conversation. But given Pibgorn’s particular subject matter, and the themes depicted in many of Brooke’s breathtaking sketches and finished pieces, the nature of the conversation and atmosphere on the Pibgorn pages has often taken a turn for the...well, let’s lightly refer to it as ‘unrestrained.’

 

While we love a good conversation, the thing we cherish the most about GoComics is the openness of the community. Ours is a site where a vast group of individuals from all backgrounds and generations gathers daily to enjoy comics. As a place where the conversation often tipped in a direction we'd characterize as ‘mature’ in nature, the Pibgorn comments sections have long presented a prickly issue. The atmosphere was at odds with both Brooke's intentions in creating and displaying his art, and with our goals for the GoComics community. It was a problem with no easy solution.

 

After months of experimenting with various approaches, GoComics and Brooke McEldowney have determined together that the time has come to try a new direction with the Pibgorn pages. We’ve decided that the best possible solution is to continue to display the Pibgorn comic and sketches only and remove the Pibgorn comments sections altogether.

 

We apologize for this abrupt change and we thank you for understanding. We hope that Pibgorn fans will continue to enjoy Brooke’s work and the other great talents on display here at Gocomics.com, and that you will continue to take part in the GoComics community.

Garry Trudeau on The Colbert Report tonight!

Together AGAIN! (Take that, Shena!)

 

The American satire dial will be turned up to '11' tonight when Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau joins Comedy Central's bombastically 'right-wing' pundit Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report. Our bet is the two will discuss, among many timely and fascinating things, GBT's new book, 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cartoonists in Afghanistan

Michael Cavna of The Washington Post has posted this story about a group of cartoonists who travelled to Afghanistan as part of a USO tour earlier this month. The group included Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich, Jeff Keane (Family Circus), Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues) and Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine).