CR Week In Review



The week's most important comics-related news stories, February 25 to March 3, 2006.

1. Dissident artist Naushad Waheed freed in the Maldives, as international rights organizations plead the case of Algeria's Ali Dilem.

2. Aaron McGruder announces he's taking a six-month break from Boondocks. Syndicates scramble to find potential "temporary substitute" strips for McGruder's approximately 350 clients as the rare second potential window opens in the same calendar year (following January's replacement of the Calvin and Hobbes re-run package).

3. An outfit called Speakeasy Comics closes its doors after a very brief and tumultuous existence, leaving some in doubt about the ability for undercapitalized start-ups to crash the market, and others wondering if Speakeasy will seek monies owed from creators of underperforming books.

Winner of the Week
Lewis Trondheim, whose criticism of certain mechanisms and individuals in French comics make a lot more sense (at least to me) when he explained the costs involved in terms of keeping alive the smaller comics vendor.

Losers of the Week
The editors and advertisement-buyers so quick to -- as the sportswriters say -- throw Finnish cartoonist Ville Ranta and his editor under the bus for a Muhammed-related cartoon.

Quote of the Week
"Cartoonist Ali Dilem was sentenced on 11 February 2006, to one year in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars (550 euros) for a dozen caricatures of President Bouteflika, which appeared in the daily Liberte, between October and November 2003. He is also being sued for 'defamation' in 24 press cases and has been sentenced to more than nine years in jail. He has lodged an appeal and is free provisionally. -- from the Reporters Sans Frontieres plea on behalf of Ali Dilem.

From Ville Ranta's strip
 
posted 12:38 am PST | Permalink
 

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