by BK Munn
It’s so hot, I think I’ll bust out a C-List.
Item: When it gets hot like this, as it is over many parts of Southern Canada, please remember the top 4 Dangerous Enemies of your most valuable possessions.
Item: Today is Hal (Prince Valiant) Foster’s birthday. There is a public event at his birthplace in Halifax.
Item: Comics blogger Dalton Sharp has the low-down on what is purported to be James Simpkins’ last interview. Simpkins (1910-2004) created Jasper the Bear, the iconic Canadian comics character which ran as a panel for decades in Macleans and later as a newspaper strip. Lots of photos and select examples of the panel at the link.
Item: The National Post book blog reminds us of cartoonist Gary Clement’s summer book club in comics form, including reviews of Persepolis, Heinlein, and Mordecai Richler.
Item: Cartoonist Len Norris (1913-1997) is featured in a war art exhibit at the Comox, B.C art gallery.
Item: The Toronto Star profiles a couple of graphic novels with “Canuck links”.
Item: In international news, Cathy Guisewite has announced that her comic strip “Cathy” will end in September after 34 years. What can we say about the once “cutting edge” Cathy? Like many of its comics-page peers, it is a time-capsule of the attitudes and mores of the era it was created.  In something like 1400 papers, the departure of the gormless, much-hated strip (let’s face it, Guisewite is no Roz Chast) will leave a giant hole in the newspaper page that may be filled with either nothing (newspapers are dying) or a vaguely woman-centric feature/something with a strong female lead or point-of-view (the traditional industry approach to replace like with like, for the demographic’s sake), according to pundits. Among the frontrunners to replace Cathy? Canada’s (and New York’s) own Rina Piccolo, whose ”Tina’s Groove” has Cathy beat all to hell in the art department.