Laugh Tracks

Allison Garwood Wants YOU to Draw Haiku Ewe!

Allison Garwood, creator of the colorful single-panel cartoon Haiku Ewe, needs your help!

Here's the scoop, from Allison herself:

HAIKU EWE'S ILLUSTRATOR FOR A WEEK CONTEST!

Have you always wondered what it would be like to illustrate a comic about a sheep who speaks in haiku? Now is your chance!!

I (Big Al, the gal) tore a ligament in my drawing hand (long story involving an angry shark and some floss) and I want YOU to illustrate a week of Haiku Ewe for me! Email a sketch of the following haiku to haikuewe@gmail.com:

Friends suggest mischief
Though farmer strictly forbids
It looks really fun

The best drawing will win its creator a week as the Haiku Ewe illustrator! I'll email the other four haikus for that week and you can get to work. Your artwork will be seen by thousands of people and it will go live the week of July 27-31, 2009.

* Deadline for entries is midnight July 3, 2009.
** Winner will be announced July 6, 2009.
*** No entries from family members of Big Al, the gal, or Haiku Ewe will be considered.
**** Please note: Rough sketches are fine, submissions don't need to be final art, but please keep the files small!

Sincerely,
Allison Garwood
a.k.a. Big Al, the gal

Well, what are you waiting for? Your Haiku Ewe contest entry isn't gonna draw itself! Get crackin'!

GoComics.com Reviewed by The Daily Cartoonist!

The new GoComics.com has been reviewed by Alan Gardner of The Daily Cartoonist, and it's safe to say he likes what he's seen:

"From where I sit, any feature launching today has about five years to battle it out for a limited newspaper slot. After that, its promise will be on the web. If I were to pick a partner with whom to launch, their digital strategy and capabilities would weigh heavily on my mind. Right now, Universal Press and Uclick has the upper hand in that department.”

Click here to read the entire post.

Mark Tatulli and Dave Coverly on Tall Tale Radio!

Mark Tatulli (Lio) and Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), winners of this year's Reuben awards for Newspaper Comic Strip and Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, respectively, were recently interviewed by Tom Racine for Tall Tale Radio. Listen here.

Reubens Winners: LIO, Dave Coverly, Michael Ramirez!

The National Cartoonists Society held their 2009 Reubens Awards weekend May 22-24, and high honors went to three cartoonists whose work you can find right here on GoComics!

• The Newspaper Comic Strip award went to Mark Tatulli's Lio, the gleefully creepy little pantomime strip that has been a fast-rising hit since its debut in 2006.

• The Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year award went to Dave Coverly, creator of the single panel hit Speed Bump.

• The Reuben award winner for Editorial Cartoons was Michael Ramirez, who was also the most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

Congrats to all of our Reuben Award winners and nominees!

Uclick Brings Free Comic Book Day to the iPhone!

For the first time ever, Uclick is celebrating Free Comic Book Day by making several of our iPhone apps free for a limited time. (Click here to read the official press release.)

What does this have to do with GoComics? A few of your favorite GoComics titles are part of the promotion!

Look for apps featuring GoComics favorites The Argyle Sweater, Basic Instructions and Pibgorn, as well as comic book apps starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters and many more. All will be available for free on the App Store starting Friday afternoon and ending Saturday night at 11:59pm PST.

 Click here or on the image below to open up the Uclick page in iTunes.

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. 

Nickelodeon Mag Comics Awards Winners: Garfield, Calvin and Bone!

The most famous feline on the comics page was the big winner in the first ever Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards. The award for Favorite Comic Strip went to Garfield, by Jim Davis, which beat out finalists Calvin and Hobbes, FoxTrot, Peanuts and Mutts.

Take heart, Calvin fans: While he missed out on the Favorite Comic Strip award, Calvin didn't go home empty-handed, winning the Best Hair in Comics award. (Not bad for a kid who's been enjoying retirement for more than a decade.)

And lastly, Jeff Smith's Bone won the award for Favorite Fantasy Graphic Novel. The entire Bone series, originally published in black and white from 1991-2004, was reprinted in color by Scholastic Books' graphic novel imprint, Graphix. The first nine issues of the color series have also been re-released in a series of comic apps produced by Uclick for iPhone and iPod touch.

Read the story from Universal Press Syndicate here.