Candorville Nominated for the Glyph Award

This is turning out to be a great year for Candorville. It's one of the only strips adding papers right now (both the English and Spanish versions), the book sold out its first printing in record time (well, a record for me, anyway), and now Candorville has been nominated for the first annual Glyph Award, which is quite an honor. From the press release:

EAST COAST BLACK AGE OF COMICS CONVENTION PRESENTS THE INAUGURAL GLYPH AWARDS HONORING THE BEST IN BLACK COMICS AND BLACK CREATORS

Since 2002, the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) has been an annual gathering for black creators and fans from all walks of life to meet and learn from each other. This year, ECBACC reaches further out into the comics industry at large in presenting the first Glyph Awards, for outstanding achievement in black comics. The awards ceremony will take place May 19, 2006, at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, with the convention to be held the following day, May 20, 2006, at Temple University’s Ritter Hall.

The Glyph Awards recognizes the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, we hope to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the field.

I so wanted to steal this...

Times like this, the little kid in me who dreamed of being a cartoonist still thinks it's all a dream...


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"HACKABLE DIEBOLD MACHINES COVERTLY RE-CERTIFIED IN CALIFORNIA BY SOS!"

The Brad Blog reports that California's new Republican-appointed Secretary of State has reversed the previous SoS's decision to decertify Diebold's electronic vote-stealing machines. And like any criminal, he did it when nobody was looking -- late Friday right before a 3-day holiday weekend.

Coincidentally, this appointed Secretary of State is up for election this November, along with Schwarzenneger and CA's entire Congressional delegation.

Looks like California may be painted red this November...

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Office of Faith-Manipulating Initiatives

Candorville's Reverend Wilfred was a staunch Democrat (or so it seemed) until he was offered half a million dollars by the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. Afterward, Reverend Wilfred began to seem as if he were channeling Scott McClellan (or, more to the point, channeling Reverend Herbert Lusk) every Sunday.

One of the regulars at rec.arts.comics.strips (R.A.C.S.) is a bit uncomfortable with last Sunday's sermon given by Candorville's "Reverend Wilfred" character. The following is a brief part of the exchange, including my response (which, if read in context, isn't as flippant as it seems here):

R.A.C.S. REGULAR:
When Jesus observed that it was easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for the rich to reach heaven, He didn't conclude with "therefor seek ye Ceasar that the rich may be taxed into poverty and made worthy in the eyes of God."

And when the risen Christ told His disciples to feed and tend his sheep, He did not also instruct them to "seek ye Ceasar so that My sheep will be fed and properly tended."

DARRIN:
Good point. But neither did Jesus say "seek ye faith-based-initiative money from Caesar."

Read the whole spirited discussion at R.A.C.S.

After Reverend Wilfred's first appearance, an evangelical group or two mounted a short-lived effort to have Candorville removed from a couple of its largest papers. But just as with charges of libel or slander, Truth is a defense against organized boycotts.

Be sure to read this week's strips, in which the good Reverend finally gets his check from the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives (or does he?).

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Google's Memory Hole

(I wonder if posts like this will get this blog shut down, since it runs on Google's Blogger service? Anyway...)

Here's an example of what Google's doing in China. Remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre of '89? This is what Americans see when we search for images of "Tiananmen." ...Compare that to what the Chinese see.

It would be more socially responsible to provide China no service at all than a censored service. In an information vacuum, at least people know the truth is being hidden. With censorship, it's easier to fool the people into believing they know all there is to know.

No American company - especially one that considers itself progressive - should be providing this kind of Orwellian service for a repressive government unless they want us all to wonder whether Winston Smith has a cubicle in their offices.

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WonderCon Appearance This Saturday

Just got the Wondercon schedule from the National Cartoonists Society. Wondercon is this weekend at Moscone Center West in the heart of downtown San Francisco. I'll be at the NCS booth signing Candorville & Rudy Park books from 10-11am this Saturday, if anyone wants to stop by for a visit. I don't bite (hard). I don't have a huge stockpile of books to sell (I only have about 25 Candorville books and ten of each Rudy Park book left). So, first come, first served...

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"Sedition?" Are they serious?

How's that old poem go again?

"First they came for the Department of Veterans Affairs nurses, and I did not speak out because I wasn't a Department of Veterans Affairs nurse..."

I thought investigating Americans for sedition merely for speaking out against government policies went out of style along with powdered wigs and muskets (except for when it came back for an embarassingly bad encore in 1918). I guess everything old really is new again. Jesus, what the hell is going on in this country?

From the Associated Press:

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico wants the government to apologize to a nurse for seizing her computer and investigating her for "sedition" after she criticized the Bush administration.

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Berg, a clinical nurse specialist, wrote a letter in September to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper criticizing how the administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. She urged people to "act forcefully" to remove an administration she said played games of "vicious deceit."

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Even if Berg had used an office computer, neither that nor her criticism approached "unlawful insurrection," said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU.

"Is the government so jealous of its power, so fearful of dissent, that it needs to threaten people who openly oppose its policies with charges of sedition?" he said.

Even the government should be able to understand the substantive difference between the word "forcefully" and the word "forcibly."