Kasia Kowalska and Royston Robertson write:
The documentary Stripped, which covers the past, present and future of comic strips, looking at how they are affected by the digital age, has been released on iTunes. The Kickstarter-funded film certainly seems to have spoken to alll the major players.
There’s more at boingboing.net, which gives it a thumbs up. And the creators of the film discuss the survival of strips in a Q&A here.
With the First World war very much in the news, as its centenary approaches, the Daily Mirror looks at some of its satirical cartoons from the time. Meanwhile, a group of comics artists have published an anthology of stories to take on Michael Gove’s “jingoistic” view of the war.
Is laughter the best medicine? Researchers at the University of Southampton have used the work of Procartoonists.org member Fran Orford to show that cartoons can be beneficial in helping people to cope with long-term conditions.
The cartoonist and illustrator Bob Dewar has never sought the limelight, but The Scotsman says that a new exhibition of his work could change that.
Remember the animated Charley Says public-information films from the 1970s? They’re back, with comedian David Walliams doing the voiceover.
Alison Bechdel, the acclaimed creator of Fun Home and Dykes To Watch Out For, talks about creating women characters as subjects and not objects, in an interview with Sabine Brix. The above strip from 1985 spawned the Bechdel Test, which is now used by film academics to assess the roles of women in films.
Protesters in Turkey responded with cartoons when their government recently blocked access to YouTube and Twitter in the build up to the national elections on 30 March. But doubts remain over the future of the free press there, as Nicholas Clayton explains.
Two video lectures for you: the Iranian cartoonist Kianoush Ramezani on “Cartooning, the art of danger” and Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who says there is more to cartooning than meets the eye.
Finally, regular readers will know that the theme of this year’s Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival is music but can everyone name that (cartoon) tune? Try your luck and listen to the musicians at Carnegie Hall who played 43 different cartoon themes in under five minutes.