Little Orphan Annie comic strip coming to an end
Little Orphan Annie, who survived the Great Depression in the influential comic strip by Harold Gray, won’t make it through the Great Recession. According to the Associated Press, the strip, now carried by fewer than 20 papers, will come to an end this summer.
The comic strip was once carried in hundreds of newspapers and inspired a popular radio show. The Broadway musical based on the comic strip opened in 1977, and inspired the 1982 movie starring Aileen Quinn.
While June 13 marks the final newspaper comic-strip appearance of Little Orphan Annie, Tribune Media Services says it is considering other plans for the character.
- Matt Price
Click past the cut for the full AP story.
Post Office to honor Bill Mauldin
The Oklahoman‘s David Zizzo recapped the career of World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin, who will be honored on a U.S. postage stamp in March, in this NewsOK article.
“Bill Mauldin’s cartoons during the war were a major source of morale enhancement,” Mike Gonzales told Zizzo. Gonzales, As curator of the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City, sent photos to the Postal Service, one of which was used to create the stamp.
Gonzales recounted the popularity of Mauldin among the troops.
“Everybody knew that nobody touched the Bill Mauldin cartoon until everybody had a chance to read it,” Gonzales said. “There were some guys who didn’t read anything in the paper except the cartoon.
“‘Willie and Joe’ were of tremendous significance to soldiers over there.”
Check out the entire article at NewsOK.
- Matt Price
Oklahoma kids in finals of Peanuts Photo Contest
Even without Kristin Chenoweth, it looks like Oklahomans could put on a pretty good remake of “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
Three Oklahomans are among the finalists in the Peanuts Photo Contest, which seeks look-alikes for the Peanuts comic strip characters in honor of the strip’s 60th anniversary.
Haley Bussell
“Peanuts” was created by Charles Schulz and is among the most successful comic strips of all time. The characters, including Charlie Brown and Snoopy, are known around the world.
At www.peanutsphotocontest.com, Oklahoman Haley Bussell, 8, of Broken Arrow is a finalist in the “Peppermint Patty” category.
“I just immediately thought of Haley, because she looks like Peppermint Patty!” said her mom, Kelley Bussell. “I just got a picture of her and sent it in!”
A finalist as Peppermint Patty’s pal, Marcie, is Moore resident Lindsay Riggs, 9.
Lindsay Riggs
“When I saw the picture of Marcie … I said, oh my gosh, Lindsay does look like her!” said her mom, Jamie Riggs.
And rounding out the state finalists is Wyatt Tilley of Ponca City, competing to be the look-alike of good ol’ Charlie Brown. Wyatt is six months old.
“His dad started calling him Charlie when he was born. He says he looks like a Charlie Brown,” said Wyatt’s mom, Denise Tilley. “Had we seen him before naming him, he would be named Charlie. So now his nickname is Charlie.”
Fans can vote online at www.peanutsphotocontest. com until Dec. 4. The grand prize is an all-expense-paid trip for four to Cedar Fair amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, home of Planet Snoopy.
Wyatt Tilley
The contest, which benefits Boys & Girls Clubs of America (www.bgca.org), attracted entrants from all over the country, with California and New York submitting the most potential look-a-likes. Oklahoma’s three finalists tied with New York and California for the state the most-represented in the finals. Illinois followed with two, and 18 other states and the District of Columbia had one. Charlie Brown received the most entries as a look-alike, followed by Linus, Snoopy and Sally.
Celebrity judges Jill Schulz (daughter of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz), country music performers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, “Supernanny” Jo Frost, “America’s Next Top Model” judge and fashion photographer Nigel Barker, and KTLA news anchor Victoria Recano selected the 30 finalists.
by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Contest to reward Peanuts look-alikes
Kristin Chenoweth, left, was chosen as a celebrity look-alike for Sally Brown, right.
Is your child a ringer for Linus, with or without security blanket? If your son or daughter has the look of a “Peanuts” comic strip character, you can submit photos at www.peanutsphotocontest.com.
Entries can be submitted through Nov. 3, and the grand prize is an all-expense-paid trip for four to Cedar Fair amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, home of Planet Snoopy.
Jill Schulz, daughter of “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz, will join judge Jo Frost (“Supernanny”) and two Oklahomans — Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood — in selecting finalists. The public vote begins Nov. 11.
Q&A with Jill Schulz about Peanuts 60th anniversary and more
Jill Schulz
Jill Schulz, daughter of Charles Schulz, talked to The Oklahoman about the Peanuts comic strip and the plans for the 60th anniversary.
Matt Price: What do you think accounts for the enduring popularity of the Charlie Brown characters?
Jill Schulz: My Dad was a great observer of people throughout his entire life and I know he had great empathy for children and how cruel they can be to each other on the playgrounds and neighborhoods. I know my Dad had a great understanding and very clear memories of what it is like learning to fit in and negotiate social interaction even as a child, which is something we all go through whether we were a very shy child or the leader of the group. In the comic strip we are always seeing the challenges between the characters, their personalities ,and situations which are so familiar to us all, it gives us a chance to relate and say “oh, yeah, my sister is crabby” or “yes, I feel alone at lunch time,” … and of course who doesn’t experience the Little Red Haired girl or some other kind of rejection in their lifetime. These are issues that have been and will always be there for everyone ,which I believe is why Peanuts has become such a timeless strip for all of our generations.
High Moon takes Harvey Award
Congratulations to former Oklahoma resident David Gallaher, whose “High Moon” was named Best Online Comics Work at this weekend’s Harvey Awards in Baltimore.
Check out the comic for yourself at http://www.zudacomics.com/high_moon or in the recent print collection.
The Beat has the full list of winners.
- Matt Price
Related posts:
Oklahoma among inspirations for High Moon series.
State native Larry Latham moves from cartoons to Web comic Lovecraft is Missing
A page from "Lovecraft is Missing."
If you watched cartoons in the 1980s, odds are you were exposed to the work of Tulsa’s Larry Latham. The 1975 University of Oklahoma graduate is an Emmy nominee, working on shows including “DuckTales,” “Smurfs,” “TaleSpin” and “Super Friends.”
Larry Latham
“I worked on a wide diversity of stuff,” Latham said. “When I started at Hanna Barbera, the first show I worked on was the Godzilla Power Hour, with Doug Wildey, one of the greats of comic books, and Dave Stevens of ‘The Rocketeer.’”
Now returned to Oklahoma from Los Angeles, Latham creates the Web comic “Lovecraft is Missing.”
Latham says he’s always been a fan of author H.P. Lovecraft, and was even part of the group helped raise money to provide a grave marker for the author. He’s turning that love into a mystery comic that takes the premise: What if Lovecraft’s stories were real?
New “Lovecraft is Missing” pages go up every Friday at lovecraftismissing.com.
While Lovecraft’s Chthulu tales are horror classics, Lovecraft has a science fictional basis, Latham said.
“One of his key precepts is that this stuff isn’t supernatural, it’s alien,” Latham said. “It’s so advanced it appears to be magic.”
Latham first developed “Lovecraft is Missing” as a CD-ROM game back in 1994. But after the crash of the CD-ROM market, the concept went back on the shelf. It was under development as an animated series in the late 1990s by Film Roman, but after some creative differences, the rights reverted back to Latham.
After first pitching the project as a graphic novel, Latham in 2008 began working to bring his story to the Internet as a Web comic. Eric Lee, co-creator of the web comic Boodachitaville, helped Latham learn some of the tricks of the Web comic trade.
Latham’s comic fandom goes way back, as he was a founding member of the Oklahoma Alliance of Fans, a pioneering comic fan club that began in the late 1960s.
“We moved a lot when I was a kid. About every 18 months, my dad just had to move. And yet we stayed within Oklahoma City, Tulsa, once we moved down to a little town called Wewoka,” Latham said. “But pretty much every year I was going to a new school. And I got real comfortable, made good friends, but I didn’t keep friends because we didn’t stay around. And comic books were, they were my friends. I read a lot, I loved reading, and wanted to be a comic book artist.”
And now, Latham has achieved that childhood dream.
From Tuesday’s The Oklahoman
By Matthew Price
Oklahoma among inspirations for High Moon series
Former Oklahoma resident David Gallaher and collaborator Steve Ellis won the online Zuda Comics competition in 2007. Now, his winning submission comes to print this October. “High Moon” is the horror-Western hybrid that was recently nominated for two Harvey Awards.
“High Moon” takes Western tropes and mixes them with supernatural and science fictional elements, said Gallaher, the writer of the series.
“The original story was going to be a retelling and re-imagining of the American Civil War with vampires and werewolves,” Gallaher said. “As I started to dig deeper and deeper into the research, ‘High Moon’ sort of grew from there – with elements of ‘Gunsmoke,’ Jim Bowie, Tom Waits, and Celtic mythology thrown in for good measure.”
The story begins with Matthew MacGregor investigating unusual happenings the Old West town of Blest, Texas. But the detective MacGregor has his own lycanthropic secret to keep.
“The theme of ‘an unchanging man in a changing time’ sort of stuck with me, and the story came out of that,” Gallaher said. “With few exceptions, I hate Westerns … and with this project I was able to write a Western that I enjoyed creating and enjoyed reading.”
“High Moon” is rich in Oklahoma connections, particularly in the comic’s second “season.” Seasons 1-3 will be collected in the print edition. The second season deals with a series of murders in Ragged Rock, OK.
“I spent my quite some time living in Norman, Oklahoma,” Gallaher said. “I was in this wicked class called ‘Monsters, Aliens, and Cyborgs’ that totally stuck with me. I was also enrolled in a Cherokee language course that really made an impression on me.”
These Oklahoma experiences became part of the genesis of High Moon’s second stanza.
“When it came to developing the second season, I wanted to do something that felt authentic to me,” Gallaher said. “The first thing that came to mind were my experiences in Oklahoma. I thought about the geography, the Arbuckle Mountain Range, all-black towns – like Langston – and everything developed from there.”
Creating for the Web first offers many advantages, Gallaher said.
“From a creative standpoint, it’s pretty similar. We have to keep the story fun, fast, engaging, and compelling,” Gallaher said. “But, in terms of distribution, the web offers an incredible place to bring your ideas to market, without the financial burden and liability that comes with print.”
- By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Ridiculously good week for comics
If you can’t find a comic book this week, you’re not trying hard enough.
It’s simply a great week to buy comics. Let’s look at some of the highlights.
Like classic comic strips? New collections of “Little Orphan Annie” and “Dick Tracy” hit stores today.
Like well-written, literary comics? There’s a new “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” by Alan Moore.
Best value of the week? The first issue of “The Unwritten” by Mike Carey and Peter Gross. It’s just $1 for 48 pages! This was probably my favorite Vertigo first issue since “Y: The Last Man” #1. If you like intelligent comics, there’s no reason you shouldn’t at least try it out for $1. Like I said after reading a preview copy at the ComicsPRO meeting in Memphis: “The Unwritten” looks to be a must for Harry Potter fans over the age of 17.
In the mood for a big superhero crossover? “Fusion” features the Avengers, the Thunderbolts, Cyberforce and Hunter/Killer.
Want a mystery? Mark Waid’s new “Unknown” is said to be in the vein of his award-winning mystery series “Ruse.”
How about a thriller? The third “un” title of the week is Mark Sable’s “Unthinkable” about a writer tasked to come up with doomsday scenarios for the government — that later end up coming true.
Want a collection of one of the most brilliant comics of the modern era? Fantagraphics has released a collection of Gilbert Hernandez’s “Luba.”
Want an action-packed superhero adventure? Check out “Superman: New Krypton” (partially written by OU graduate Sterling Gates)!
Want a jumping-on point for a popular Marvel hero? Marvel’s provided just that in “Wolverine” #73. (Just don’t ask about #72. It’s complicated. It’ll be here eventually.)
Want to read one of the most ridiculous crossovers in human history? Check out the omnibus to “Secret Wars II.”
Looking for a new comic written by Ivan Brandon, writer of the buzz book “Viking”? His “Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape” hits this week.
How about a nostalgic trip to the 1980s? Archie is reprinting its first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” issues.
Seriously. Go to your comic-book store this week. It’s a great week for comics.
– Matt Price
Dwight Howard Dunk Contest meeting
Garbage Time All-Stars has a humorous take on a meeting in which Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic try to work out this year’s attempt for the Slam Dunk Contest. This follows up on Howard’s winning “Superman” dunk from last year. This comic strip will work best for you if you get both comics-related and NBA-related jokes. (I thought it was pretty hilarious.)
– Matt Price
