OC Weekly Brings Back 'Red Meat' Comic; Derf Goes Hollywood; Matt Groening talks to Pasadena Weekly about the end of Life in Hell; and Jen Sorensen tells the Austin Chronicle, "You need to be a certain kind of masochist to be a political cartoonist."
With its March 11 issue, Washington City Paper debuts a comics page, once again making funnies a significant part of the paper’s editorial mix.
Tom Tomorrow broke the news yesterday on his blog that the ailing economy is forcing Village Voice Media to suspend publication of syndicated cartoons "at least through the rest of the first quarter, and quite possibly beyond." City Pages editor Kevin Hoffman tells the Minnesota Independent he expects some reader backlash, but says the suspension is part of an effort to "trim where we can while inflicting the least damage -- realizing that we're already cutting bone." MORE: Syndicated cartoonists Jen Sorensen and Derf weigh in.
Derf, whose comic "The City" has appeared in various alt-weeklies since 1990, has just released his latest book, Punk Rock & Trailer Parks. The graphic novel "takes place in recession-ravaged Akron, Ohio, in 1980, at the peak of the Rubber City's unlikely and lively punk rock scene." It's Derf's longest book yet, and his first work of fiction (check out a preview here). In an interview with Comicon.com's The Pulse, Derf says for his next project he is re-working his first book, My Friend Dahmer, the true story of his teenage friendship with the future serial killer, as a "full-blown graphic novel."