Tag: Cartoon Art Museum

Quick Hits | Diamond bankruptcy: Publishers to recover consigned comics after settlement

Plus: News on Dan Boultwood, the 2026 Small Press Expo, San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum, a Marvel Compact Comics line and more.

Legal | After months of stalemate, resolution came this week in the case of Diamond’s trustee Morgan W. Fisher and a group of publishers concerning consigned goods being held by Diamond and Sparkle Pop. The settlement will allow BOOM!, Dynamite, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly and other publishers to recover their inventory from the Sparkle Pop-controlled warehouse, in exchange for waiving roughly $600,000 in claims. It also resolves a side dispute over money Sparkle Pop collected from unauthorized inventory sales during the fight.

The legal battle followed in the wake of Universal Distribution and Ad Populum’s purchase of several Diamond assets, including the comics distribution business, after Diamond declared bankruptcy. Graphic Policy has more.

Creators | Comic creator Dan Boultwood, who worked on Chu, It Came!, Baker Street Irregulars and more, was sentenced this week in London after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child. Boultwood was sentenced to to three years’ imprisonment, which will be suspended for two years, as well as to rehabilitation activity, community service and sex-offender notification requirements in the United Kingdom. The offenses occurred in 2010 when Boultwood was 29 and the victim was 15; the case reached court after the victim reported it to police in 2023 and Boultwood was arrested in 2025.

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Quick Hits | ‘Dilbert’ fallout

Also: news on Dina Norlund, Cartoonist Cooperative, the Minicomic Awards and more.

With the comic strip Dilbert being dropped by both newspapers and its distributor after its creator’s racist remarks on YouTube, many newspapers have a gap to fill on their comics page. The Washington Post will fill their Dilbert-sized hole with Heart of the City by Steenz, and Women Write About Comics caught up with the cartoonist at the Emerald City Comic Con to talk about the change.

“I think it’s a big deal because of two reasons,” Steenz told WWAC. “Reason number one is that I’m Black, and he hates Black people. [laughs] No, but it’s a nice way to just stick it to him, you know? But it’s also a big deal because we still rarely see a new influx of creators and syndicated comic strips, and I would like to see more of that. Obviously, legacy comics are there for a reason. Everyone’s going to want to keep reading Zits, everyone’s going to keep reading, you know, Jump Start, because those creators are still around and they want to keep making those comics. But I also want to see some new things. You should be able to get a newspaper and find someone new and not just have the old standards.”

In related news, the Associated Press spoke with several cartoonists about Scott Adams and his remarks, including Candorville creator Darin Bell, who is running a response to Adams in his comic strip this week.

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2020 Prism Award winners announced

The awards recognize, promote and celebrate diversity and excellence in the field of queer comics.

The winners of the fourth annual Prism Awards were announced over the weekend as part of the virtual Queer Comics Expo hosted by the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. The awards ceremony and other content from the expo can be found on the CAM’s YouTube channel.

The awards are presented to comic works by queer authors and stories that promote the growing body of diverse, powerful, innovative, positive or challenging representations of LGBTQAI+ characters in fiction or nonfiction comics. The goal is to recognize, promote and celebrate diversity and excellence in the field of queer comics. Finalists and recipients were voted on by diverse panels of comics professionals, educators, librarians, journalists and writers, which can be found here.

Congratulations to all the winners, who are in bold below:

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Fund Me Friday: ‘Box City Wallops,’ a new Van Lente + Dunlavey joint, and more

Check out projects by Jim Lawson, the Cartoon Art Museum, Jakob Free and Alchemichael, and more.

As crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their projects direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Etsy and of course their own websites. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place.

Here’s a look at a few recent projects that fall into those buckets that caught my eye. Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.

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Comics Lowdown: ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ creator arrested on child porn charges

Plus: The Cartoon Art Museum gets a new home, the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the largest X-Men collection, and much more!

The manga world was rocked on Tuesday when Rurouni Kenshin creator Nobuhiro Watsuki was charged with possession of child pornography. Police didn’t target the 47-year-old manga-ka; they were investigating someone else when he turned up as a possible purchaser of child porn, and indeed he has been charged with possessions of “numerous” DVDs containing footage of nude girls in their early teens. In a deposition, Watsuki, stated that he “liked girls in late elementary school to around the second year of middle school.”

The penalty for possession of child pornography in Japan is up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 1 million yen, if convicted, but for Watsuki the consequences are already grave: His publisher, Shueisha, said it is taking the news very seriously and it has suspended his current series, Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc, which he is co-creating with his wife, Kaoru Kurosaki; it has not decided yet what to do about the volumes that are already in print. Rurouni Kenshin started in 1994 and has over 60 million volumes in print; Viz has the U.S. license and has been re-releasing the original series in omnibus format, and is publishing the Hokkaido Arc simultaneously with the Japanese release.

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Cartoon Art Museum presents Jeff Smith with the Sparky Award

The award celebrates ‘the significant contributions of cartoon artists who embody the talent, innovation and humanity of Charles M. Schulz.’

Last Saturday Bone creator Jeff Smith became the latest recipient of the Sparky Award during a visit to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Library

Named in honor of Peanuts creator Charles “Sparky” Schulz, the Sparky Award is presented on behalf of the Cartoon Art Museum and the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Library. The award celebrates the significant contributions of cartoon artists who embody the talent, innovation and humanity of Charles M. Schulz.

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