William Boyd Watterson II is a retired American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes at the end of 1995, with a short statement to newspaper editors and his readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium. Watterson is known for his negative views on comic syndication and licensing, his efforts to expand and elevate the newspaper comic as an art form, and his move back into private life after he stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The suburban Midwestern United States setting of Ohio was part of the inspiration for Calvin and Hobbes.
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops. They enjoyed each other's company and decided to meet on a regular basis.
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author, director, and screenwriter, known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.
William Aloysius "Bil" Keane was an American cartoonist most notable for his work on the newspaper comic The Family Circus. It began in 1960 and continues in syndication, drawn by his son Jeff Keane.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, originally Take Barney Google, F'rinstance, is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Billy DeBeck. Since its debut on June 17, 1919, the strip has gained a large international readership, appearing in 900 newspapers in 21 countries. The initial appeal of the strip led to its adaptation to film, animation, popular song, and television. It added several terms and phrases to the English language and inspired the 1923 hit tune "Barney Google " with lyrics by Billy Rose, as well as the 1923 record "Come On, Spark Plug!"
Jeffrey Kenneth "Jeff" MacNelly was an American editorial cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip Shoe. After Shoe had been established in papers, MacNelly created the single-panel strip Pluggers. The Wall Street Journal wrote: "MacNelly's superb draftsmanship as well as his heightened sense of the ridiculous is in the vanguard of a new generation of American cartoonists."
The comic strip switcheroo was a massive practical joke in which several comic strip writers and artists (cartoonists), without the foreknowledge of their editors, traded strips for a day on April Fools' Day 1997. The Switcheroo was masterminded by comic strip creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott, creators of the Baby Blues daily newspaper comic strip.
Tank McNamara is a daily syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Hinds. The strip debuted on August 5, 1974, with Jeff Millar as writer and Hinds as illustrator. Hinds took over writing after the death of Millar in late November 2012 due to bile duct cancer.
Arnold Roth is an American cartoonist and illustrator for advertisements, album covers, books, magazines, and newspapers. Novelist John Updike wrote, "All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so."
Drew Litton is an American cartoonist and one of the last sports cartoonists left in the United States. He is nationally syndicated sports cartoonist though Andrews. Best known for his 25+ years as the creator of the popular Rocky Mountain News, "Win, Lose & Drew" sports cartoon, he currently draws for KUSA 9News, ColoradoSun.com, Andrews McMeel syndicate, Colorado Rockies magazine and the Broncos for Kids magazine. His work has been featured on ESPN.com, Chicago Tribune, WGN and Sports Illustrated. Nobody covers the wild world of sports better than Drew. He currently resides in the Denver area with a wonderful woman named Diane and their three dogs, Finnegan, Dexter and Tucker. He publishes a commemorative calendar yearly to help to subsidize the dogs annual supply of biscuits and stuffed toys.
William Pierce Hoest was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the gag panel series, The Lockhorns, distributed by King Features Syndicate to 500 newspapers in 23 countries, and Laugh Parade for Parade. He also created other syndicated strips and panels for King Features.
John Joseph Gallagher (1926–2005) was an American cartoonist and illustrator. He contributed to most major magazines in the 1950s and 1960s, signing his work “Gallagher.” He won the National Cartoonist Society Gag Cartoon Award in 1957 and 1971.
Sports Illustrated Kids is a monthly spin-off of the weekly American sports magazine Sports Illustrated. SI Kids was launched in January 1989 and includes sports coverage with less vocabulary and more emphasis on humor. The magazine's secondary purpose is to market sports to children.
Gary Varvel is a conservative editorial cartoonist. Varvel was the editorial cartoonist for Indianapolis Star from 1994 to 2019. He was the chief artist for The Indianapolis News for 16 years. His works are syndicated with Creators Syndicate.
Cartoonists Remember 9/11 is a series of comic strips run on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. It included cartoonists from King Features Syndicate, Creators Syndicate, Tribune Media Services, Universal Press Syndicate, and Washington Post Writers Group.
Jeffery Lynn Millar was an American comic strip writer and film critic best known for creating the Tank McNamara comic strip with illustrator Bill Hinds.
Comix Fair was a comic convention that was held annually between 1983 and 1996 in Houston, Texas. It was produced by the Houston-based company Utopia Entertainment.
