from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe

class Comics(BasicNewsRecipe):
    title               = 'Comics.com'
    __author__          = 'Starson17'
    description         = 'Comics from comics.com. You should customize this recipe to fetch only the comics you are interested in'
    language            = 'en'
    use_embedded_content= False
    no_stylesheets      = True
    oldest_article      = 24
    remove_javascript   = True
    cover_url           = 'http://www.bsb.lib.tx.us/images/comics.com.gif'
    recursions          = 0
    max_articles_per_feed = 10
    num_comics_to_get = 7
    simultaneous_downloads = 1
    # delay = 3

    keep_only_tags     = [dict(name='a', attrs={'class':'STR_StripImage'}),
                          dict(name='div', attrs={'class':'STR_Date'})
                          ]

    def parse_index(self):
        feeds = []
        for title, url in [
                            ("9 Chickweed Lane", "http://comics.com/9_chickweed_lane"),
                            # "Three generations of family with strong characters and flights of fancy .  A rarity in the comics, 9 Chickweed Lane spotlights music and dance with superb artistry that complements Brooke McEldowney\u2019s strong-minded characters. A popular comic strip about three generations of family, 9 Chickweed Lane is the story of a young woman who moves away from home to perform with a prestigious metropolitan ballet company in New York City. She is followed there by her childhood friend and recent love interest.  McEldowney knows his territory. He attended New York City's Juilliard School, and later studied and performed at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria."
                            ("Agnes", "http://comics.com/agnes"),
                            # "Agnes is a young girl with an imagination just a bit too big for her head.    She lives with her grandma in a house trailer in their community called \"The People's Court.\"  The spillover is handled by her best friend, Trout, a realist who helps manage their journey up the river to adulthood ... but river journeys are slow when you're both stuck in boot-sucking mud! The river of life sometimes leaves a lot of messy puddles. It's a scramble through youth's treacherous minefield. Agnes has big dreams. Sometimes she wakes up in the middle, sometimes she sleeps right through them. Everybody has dreams, and that's why everybody can identify with her!"
                            ("Alley Oop", "http://comics.com/alley_oop"),
                            # "The adventures of an irrepressible time-traveling caveman.   Alley Oop, the classic caveman comic strip created in 1933 by V.T. Hamlin, is drawn by Jack Bender and written by Carole Bender.  The strip revolves around the irrepressible Alley Oop, who travels from prehistoric Moo all the way to the 21st century in his friend Doc Wonmug's time machine. Other favorite regulars in the strip include King Guz and Queen Umpa of Moo, Wonmug's assistants Oscar and Ava, and Alley Oop's girlfriend Ooola. "
                            ("Andy Capp", "http://comics.com/andy_capp"),
                            # "Andy Capp, the irrepressible pub dweller, has been making readers smile since 1958. Created by Reg Smythe, Andy Capp first appeared in the Daily Mirror newspapers of England in 1958 as a cartoon panel. It quickly became a favorite throughout the country, as readers everywhere could identify with the good-for-nothing Andy and his smart-mouthed wife, Flo."
                            ("Arlo & Janis", "http://comics.com/arlo&janis"),
                            # "A couple of \u201860s kids raising a teenage son in a complicated modern world.  Still romantic after all these years, Arlo and Janis are dreamers who still have to do the household chores. Jimmy Johnson's unique humor and remarkable insight have made Arlo and Janis one of America's favorite comic couples. Taking a funny, realistic look at marriage and parenthood, Johnson portrays their everyday lives as they raise their adolescent son, Gene.  As parents raising a teenager, Arlo and Janis have to face the fact that they're not the young ones anymore. A warm, offbeat family comedy with an adult perspective, Arlo & Janis has earned a loyal following of married couples, working parents and people who enjoy Johnson's dry, incisive wit. "
                            ("B.C.", "http://comics.com/bc"),
                            # "Set in prehistoric times, it features a group of cavemen and anthropomorphic animals from various geologic eras. B.C. is an American newspaper comic strip created in 1958, written and drawn by Johnny Hart until his death in 2007. Hart died on April 7, 2007 after suffering a stroke at his home in Nineveh, New York, but the strip continues. Both Hart's daughter Perri Hart and his grandson Mason Mastroianni were involved with the strip prior to his death and have taken over the drawing and writing duties, with contributions by Mick Mastroianni."
                            ("Ballard Street", "http://comics.com/ballard_street"),
                            # "Featuring Scooter, the dog who loves to take baths, but only with his scuba gear. Cartoonist Jerry Van Amerongen is at his best, creating an assortment of panels that have one thing in common: an intense level of absurdity! In May of 2006 Ballard Street was awarded the Best Newspaper Cartoon Panel Of The Year Award by the National Cartoonist Society."
                            # ("Ben", "http://comics.com/ben"),
                            # "Ben does away with the stereotypes of seniors being cranky, miserable and having limited interests and is a more realistic portrayal of older people as active, healthy and in love after all these years. BEN is a new comic strip about family life as seen through the eyes of a retired couple who have offered to babysit their first grandson since their daughter went back to work. Artist Daniel Shelton touches on everyday life and today's issues with humor and affection, bringing to life characters in which we are sure to recognize ourselves and our families.  Born in 1965 in Quebec's Eastern Townships, Daniel Shelton knew very early on that he wanted to write and draw his own daily comic strip. Creating and publishing comics throughout his teens, he was awarded two consecutive grants from the Cultural Ministry to study at the Joe Kubert school of Cartooning in New Jersey and School of Visual Arts in New York. \"Ben\" was first published six years ago and has since appeared in newspapers across North America and Asia, in English and French. Two compilation books have been published, winning Shelton an award at the Quebec International Comics Convention. Shelton lives in Hudson, Quebec, with his wife Lorina, his three sons Nicholas (9), Michael (5) and Alec (1) and their golden retriever Max."
                            # ("Betty", "http://comics.com/betty"),
                            # "A working-class hero whose spirit cannot be broken by the endless series of outrages that make up modern life.  Gary Delainey writes and Gerry Rasmussen draws, and together this cartooning duo from Alberta, Canada creates Betty, a smart, savvy comic character who is unapologetically ordinary, happy and female. Betty is true modern woman - a wife, mother and working woman. She is a confident, witty lady juggling the demands of family and career."
                            # ("Big Nate", "http://comics.com/big_nate"),
                            # "The misadventures of an energetic sixth grader who is also an aspiring cartoonist.  Aspiring cartoonist Nate Wright is 11 years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, and the all-time record holder for detentions in school history. He's a self-described genius and sixth grade Renaissance Man. Nate, who lives with his dad and older sister, enjoys pestering his family and teachers with his sarcasm.  To draw Big Nate, Lincoln Peirce relies on memories of his own childhood and the experiences he collected teaching art at a New York City high school. Peirce occasionally turns his pen over to his creation, and readers get to see life through Nate's eyes as he doodles his adventures in his notebook. Born in Iowa, Peirce grew up in New Hampshire and began creating his own comic strips in the sixth grade. He has also created animated shorts for the Cartoon Network."
                            # ("Brevity", "http://comics.com/brevity"),
                            # "It\u2019s not only the soul of wit; it's also sharply intelligent, amusingly idiosyncratic and uproariously funny. It's also not your normal comics fare. In the hands of Guy Endore-Kaiser and Rodd Perry, Brevity is sharply intelligent, amusingly idiosyncratic and often uproariously funny. The mix of Guy's sly sense of humor and Rodd's ingeniously understated art makes this feature unlike anything else in the comics today."
                            # ("Candorville", "http://comics.com/candorville"),
                            # "Brutally frank yet evenhanded, Candorville explores social issues, politics and current events. In an upbeat way. Honest. A  diverse group of friends living in the inner city, exploring issues such as bigotry, poverty, homelessness, biracialism, the culture of victimhood, youth and personal responsibility. This includes politics and current events seen through the eyes of its main characters; Lemont Brown, a young aspiring writer; Susan Garcia, a young woman working in the corporate world; and Clyde, an angry young man who makes the wrong choices in life. Darrin Bell attended the University of California Berkeley. His cartoons have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times and several other publications, as well as on MTV, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC. The cartoons come from a black\/minority perspective but comment on a wide range of issues."
                            # ("Cheap Thrills", "http://comics.com/cheap_thrills"),
                            # "Tasty recipes in comic-strip form that are easy enough for the novice cook, but delicious enough to please the more experienced chef. Cheap Thrills Cuisine offers recipes, whipped up by Chef Peppi, the alter-ego of chef Bill Lombardo and cartoonist Thach Bui. "
                            # ("Committed", "http://comics.com/committed"),
                            # "Committed is an irreverent comic panel about modern family life when both parents work. Michael Fry created Committed for the alternative weekly The Houston Press in 1991 and United Feature Syndicate began distributing it nationally in April 1994. Committed currently appears in newspapers nationwide. Committed is full of wry humor, warm heart and wild cynicism and has found its way onto that most coveted of newspaper comic strip display spots -- refrigerator doors from Maine to Malibu. Fry attended Baylor University in Waco, Tex., and holds a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Texas at Austin. He was an editorial cartoonist for the student newspapers at both universities, and his first professional cartoon was published in Playboy. He currently creates the suburban farce Over the Hedge with T Lewis for United Feature Syndicate and the monthly \"Out the Window\" cartoon for Windows Sources magazine. His published works include five cartoon anthologies, What I Want to Be When They Grow Up: The First Collection of Committed (Andrews and McMeel, 1996), Over the Hedge with T Lewis (Andrews and McMeel, 1996), When I Was Short (Avon Books, 1992), Scotty: Born to Be Mild (Fine Toon Books, 1989) and Scotty's Houston: The View From Cafe Phil (Loud Books, 1988)."
                            # ("Cow & Boy", "http://comics.com/cow&boy"),
                            # "The unlikely friendship of a boy and his cow.  This beautifully drawn, strikingly funny strip by Mark Leiknes stars Billy, a regular boy who enjoys fishing, biking and hanging out with his best friend named Cow, who just happens to have four stomachs and a set of udders. Billy's dad is a farmer who enjoys a hard day's work and wishes his only son had not befriended a cow. Billy's mom is very loving, but has no room in her house for 800-pound animals. Billy's sister, Tracy, is a teenager who gets embarrassed by her brother and his cow. Martin, Billy's nerdy friend, enjoys hanging out with Billy and Cow. "
                            # ("Daddy's Home", "http://comics.com/daddys_home"),
                            # "Peter is a stay-at-home Dad, freelance copywriter and would-be novelist -- pretty much in that order. Daddy's Home cast of characters: Peter is a stay-at-home Dad, freelance copywriter and would-be novelist -- pretty much in that order. He works hard, yet believes strongly in the power of sleeping in, and his erratic schedule never prevents him from performing his duties as a husband and father \u2026 not intentionally, anyway. Peter's wife Peggy is a smart, educated woman with a full-time job, who likes things organized a certain way. And by \u201ca certain way,\u201d she means \"her way.\" Their son Elliot is a smart kid on a crusade for knowledge. He's close to his parents, especially his Dad, and relies on both of them for answers to his boundless cache of questions. He also likes to learn things on his own, through trial and error -- a tendency his parents encourage when it's not life threatening. "
                            # ("Dog eat Doug", "http://comics.com/dog_eat_doug"),
                            # "Dog Eat Doug is inspired by a husband's life as a homeowner and father of a chocolate Labrador puppy. With the support of his wife, Tammy, and the inspiration of his dog, Sophie, Brian Anderson created Dog eat Doug."
                            # ("Drabble", "http://comics.com/drabble"),
                            # "Silly family antics and goofball humor, the Drabble family tickles readers' funny bones with outrageous antics. Kevin Fagan's lighthearted family strip chronicles the zany mishaps of his offbeat characters, especially goofball college student Norman Drabble and his donut-eating father Ralph. One of the best-loved families in the comics, the Drabble clan also includes smart younger brother Patrick, precocious little sister Penny, and June, the Drabble matriarch best known as \"Honeybunch.\"  From Norm's relentless pursuit of his dream girl to Ralph's hilarious power struggles with Oogie the cat, Drabble is always full of witty, wacky and wonderful humor. The genuine love that keeps the Drabbles from driving each other crazy makes it one of the best family comic strips around, and the loony things they do make it one of the funniest."
                            # ("F Minus", "http://comics.com/f_minus"),
                            # "Though short on life lessons, precious moments, and pearls of wisdom, this quirky comic strip is profoundly funny.   F Minus, by Tony Carrillo, is a comic strip that begs the question, \"Why are we here?\" \"What is life all about?\" and \"Can I take only one shower per week if it's seven times the normal length?\" This very funny, very quirky comic strip was chosen by more than 200,000 college students as the winner of the \"mtvU Strips\" contest. F Minus is a strip short on life lessons, precious moments, and pearls of wisdom. Instead, it tackles life's serious issues, pins them to the ground and steals their lunch money. Then it feels a little bit guilty and gives some of it back."
                            # ("Family Tree", "http://comics.com/family_tree"),
                            # "Modern family life is a bigger challenge than saving the planet.  Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson brings her unique style and famous irreverence to the comics with Family Tree, a sophisticated contemporary family comedy. Ames, Maggie, Twig and Teddy Tree are living green \u2013 but modern family life could prove to be a bigger challenge than saving the planet. Tackling everything from shopaholic teens to the real differences between girls and boys, Family Tree is a groundbreaking family comedy that draws on Wilkinson\u2019s wit (and her years of close personal experience with teenagers).  Wilkinson is one of contemporary America\u2019s few women cartoonists and she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, in 1992. Wilkinson values her intensely unremarkable family life, which is marked by her interest in growing outdoor lilies, killing indoor orchids, finding an easy way to match her husband\u2019s socks and trying to figure out why Paris Hilton is famous."
                            # ("Farcus", "http://comics.com/farcus"),
                            # "Take an ordinary work situation, add a pinch of satire, and let it stew. Farcus was launched by Universal Press Syndicate in 1991 and appeared in more than 250 newspapers worldwide before the creators decided to put the comic \"on hold\" as they pursued other creative projects. Coulthart is now co-founder of Funbag Animation Studios, which produces television programs such as Toad Patrol, The Mole Sisters, and For Better or for Worse. Waisglass is CEO of LaughingStock Licensing Inc., a strategic trademark licensing management firm of popular entertainment brands.  David Waisglass, co-creator of FARCUS, draws on a wide range of work experience to come up with comic ideas. He was a journalist, graphic artist, union organizer, filmmaker, HR manager, and management consultant -- all before the age 30. \u201cI love learning new things,\u201d says Waisglass, but agrees that it\u2019s hard to beat cartooning. Gordon Coulthart says he always knew that someday he would be a cartoonist. In addition to developing characters and entertainment properties for television, Gordon supports two children and several local pubs. \"It\u2019s been a a lot of fun,\" say the comic duo about their partnership and working relationship. \u201cThere aren\u2019t too many jobs out there were you get paid to make each other laugh.\u201d "
                            # ("Fat Cats Classics", "http://comics.com/fat_cats_classics"),
                            # "Fat Cats is about two purr-enially pretentious brothers who dominate the business world and indulge in all the finer pleasures their nine lives have to offer. In the cat-eat-dog world of the Fat Cats, running a multi-conglomerate corporation, exploiting the loyal dogs that work in their catnip factory and buying wonderfully ostentatious trinkets are all in a day's work. \"The Fat Cats are different from you and me. They have more money, true, but they're also covered with fur and have tails sticking out of their Armani suits,\" jokes Poderbarac. \"I was inspired by reading the business pages year after year and watching people like Bill Gates, and the ultimate fat cat, Donald Trump. I thought it would be fun to give characters like that feline personalities and to show how they would get along with the working class in my made-up cartoon world,\" he explains.  Charlie Podrebarac was born in Kansas City, Kansas, where he began his cartooning career drawing nuns in grade school. He studied advertising journalism at the University of Kansas so that he could pursue his dream of cartooning. After college, he began work as art director for a local magazine which published his first cartoons. Poderbarac then created a humor panel called \"Cowtown,\" for the Kansas City Star (1984 to present). In between, he's produced hundreds of greeting cards for companies including Hallmark, Current, Paramount, and Gibson Greetings. His cartoons have been published in magazines such as Business Law Today, Playboy, and Veterenary Medicine, and he produces advertising art for clients including Sprint, Book of the Month Club, Mastercard and Maggiemoo's Ice Cream. His first comic strip, \"Smart Alex,\" was syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group from 1995 to 1996. When not drawing in his knotty pine studio, Podrebarac lives the good life with his wife, Alicia, in Westwood, Kansas."
                            # ("Ferd'nand", "http://comics.com/ferdnand"),
                            # "Ferd'nand is the classic \"silent\" comic strip, starring a wide-eyed cherubic mime, his wife, son and dog. Every day is a new adventure for the title character as he confronts life and fate with wonderful expressiveness. From circus performer to bank cashier to orchestra conductor, Ferd'nand has spent almost six decades as the pantomiming protagonist of middle class life.  A timeless classic, Ferd'nand is one of the 10 longest-running comic strips still being drawn. Originally created in 1937 by Danish film animator Henning Dahl Mikkelsen for Presse-Illustrations-Bureau (PIB) in Copenhagen, the strip gained wide popularity in Europe, so PIB brought it to America, where United Feature Syndicate began distributing it in 1947. Mikkelsen moved to California and continued to draw the strip until his death in 1982. Today, Ferd'nand continues to be drawn in \"Mik's\" style by Henrik Rehr. Rehr was born and raised in Denmark and came to the United States in 1992. "
                            # ("Flight Deck", "http://comics.com/flight_deck"),
                            # "The day-to-day provides fodder for this off-beat but true-to-life cartoon. Peter Waldner began drawing cartoons as soon as he was old enough to be trusted with a pencil. He moved on to Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y., where he focused on studio art and film making. Waldner earned his B.A. from Elmira in 1977, and went on to postgraduate studies at the Parsons School of Design and Southampton College in New York.  In 1980, Waldner settled on Shelter Island, N.Y. In 1993, he became the editorial cartoonist for the Shelter Island Reporter, followed by the East Hampton Independent and the Southampton Independent. Waldner's cartoons have won awards from the New York Press Association, including the first-place prize in the Editorial Cartoon Division. When he is not painting or drawing, Waldner spends his time taking care of his teenage son and daughter."
                            # ("Flo & Friends", "http://comics.com/flo&friends"),
                            # "Flo & Friends centers on Flo, a senior citizen whose life does not conform to the stereotypes about the elderly.  Flo & Friends is a syndicated daily comic strip drawn by Jenny Campbell and distributed by Creators Syndicate. The comic was originally created by John Gibel in 2002. Jenny Campbell graduated from Arizona State University in 1979 with a BA in journalism, she became a sixth-generation journalist. In 1985, while working at The Orange County Register as a general assignment entertainment writer, Jenny kept doodling and ended up drawing a weekly cartoon in the Friday entertainment supplement. The cartooning bug had bitten her. Today, Jenny runs a thriving cartooning business in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, with 12 children's books to her credit and a list of clients including the textbook arms of most major publishers and Highlights for Children magazine."
                            # ("Fort Knox", "http://comics.com/fort_knox"),
                            # "The tale of a military family's adventures and escapades, from a military brat's point of view. Fort Knox chronicles the life of a military family: Dad, Major Joe Knox; Mom, Jane Knox; and their two boys, Donald and Wesley. The family has picked up and moved \u2014 again \u2014 thousands of miles from family and friends to take up residence at Joe's new assignment at Fort Lincoln. Donald and Wesley have moved before, but that doesn't make it any easier on them. They must face down new bullies, master a new school system and new teachers, and navigate a new community. Added to these pressures is the distance the move puts between them and their beloved grandmother, who's a known troublemaker if not a known felon (yet). On top of all that, there's the strain that military life puts on their parents' otherwise happy marriage.  Cartoonist Paul Jon is the son of an Army colonel whose tours of duty included Fort Leavenworth, Fort Jackson and Fort Knox, and who, every morning, liked to say to his fellow soldiers, \"It's a great day to be in the Army.\" Paul Jon understands his dad's attitude, and feels that being a military brat \"made me understand the sacrifices that military families make for our country, and also made me a better person for having to deal with new people all the time.\"  "
                            # ("Frank & Ernest", "http://comics.com/frank&ernest"),
                            # "Playful punsters with a \"frank and earnest\" attitude. For more than three decades, Frank & Ernest has continued its tradition of innovative humor that has delighted millions of readers daily. Frank & Ernest stars Frank and Ernest, playful punsters with the ability to appear as any person, place or thing in any time period. The constant element is the pair's \"frank and earnest\" iconoclastic attitude. Frank & Ernest is read by more than 25 million people every day, making it one of today's most popular comics. Creator Bob Thaves was a master of the twisted phrase and skewed outlook.  A true innovator, Thaves' Frank & Ernest was the first comic panel presented in a strip format. It was the first to vary the roles of its characters and the first to use block lettering. It was also the first to use comic book-style digital coloring for the Sunday pages. Frank & Ernest was one of the first comic strips to have its own Web site, www.frankandernest.com, which has included several components including the first 3-D interactive comics based on a comic strip. Thaves, who held both bachelors and masters degrees in psychology from the University of Minnesota, began cartooning as a kid and never stopped. He created Frank & Ernest while working as a consultant in industrial psychology in California. Bob Thaves died in August, 2006 and Frank and Ernest continues to be produced by Bob's son, Tom Thaves, who had collaborated with his father on the comic strip since 1997."
                            # ("Frazz", "http://comics.com/frazz"),
                            # "Frazz by Jef Mallett follows the adventures of an unexpected role model: an elementary-school janitor who's also a Renaissance man. While he's sweeping the hall, he's whistling Beethoven. Or Lyle Lovett. He paints the woodwork in the classrooms; he paints a Da Vinci on the cafeteria wall. He's a trusted authority figure who is every kid's buddy. He took the janitor's job while he was a struggling songwriter, and when he finally sold a hit song, he decided to stay on at school.  Often praised for its intelligent wit, gentle spirit and effortless diversity, Frazz won a 2003 Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council for excellence in communicating values and ethics. "
                            # ("Free Range", "http://comics.com/free_range"),
                            # "Free Range is an is an offbeat look at the world over the ages.  Bill was a winner of a cartoon contest in the Saturday Evening Post and for a couple of years was named Best Editorial Cartoonist for weeklies in the state of Kansas by the Kansas Press Association. For 20 years Bill has written humor cards for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, winning several citations for best-selling cards in his category. He has also done the weekly editorial cartoon for the Kansas City Business Journal from 1987 to 2007, which have appeared in Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year by Pelican Publishing for each of the past 11 years. His work is also included in the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University. Luckily for Bill, his wife has steadfastly supported his cartooning dreams of glory 100 percent while raising three children. "
                            # ("Geech Classics", "http://comics.com/geech_classics"),
                            # "Jerry Bittle's comic strip illustrates the small town existence in which everybody knows everyone else...and everyone else's business.  Jerry Bittle created a peephole into small town life with his eccentrically populated strip, Geech. Where else can you find a no-account mechanic, a sarcastic barber, a cynical bartender, a foul-mouthed diner waitress and a wanna-be country music star? Bittle was raised in Wichita, Kansas. He lived with his wife and three daughters in Dallas, Texas until his death in 2003. Bittle used to say of his fans, \"I get a lot of mail from different parts of the country telling me, 'I grew up in that town, and I know those people. And all this time I thought I was the one who grew up in that town and knew those people.\" Bittle also created Shirley & Son, a warm and funny look at family life after divorce, for United Feature Syndicate. "
                            # ("Get Fuzzy", "http://comics.com/get_fuzzy"),
                            # "A bitingly hilarious slice of life with a volatile cat, a gentle dog and the unwitting human they live with.  Housecats are known to be aloof, but \"cat-titude\" reaches new heights in Get Fuzzy, the bitingly hilarious comic strip from cartoonist Darby Conley. Get Fuzzy is a wry portrait of single life, with pets.  At the center of this warm and fuzzy romp is Rob Wilco, a single, mild-mannered ad executive and guardian of anthropomorphic scamps Bucky and Satchel. Bucky is a temperamental cat who clearly wears the pants in this eccentric household. Satchel is a gentle pooch who tries to remain neutral, but frequently ends up on the receiving end of Bucky's mischief.  Together, this unlikely trio endures all the trials and tribulations of a typical family... more or less."
                            # ("Girls & Sports", "http://comics.com/girls&sports"),
                            # "The intricacies of dating, relationships and sports. Justin Borus, Denver-born co-creator and co-writer of Girls & Sports, graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. Justin currently lives in Denver and will continue to spend his time investigating the intricacies of dating, relationships and sports until these great cosmic mysteries are solved. Andy Feinstein, artist, co-creator and co-writer of Girls & Sports, was also raised in Denver. He graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, where he was the editorial cartoonist and a sportswriter for The Emory Wheel while drawing and writing Girls & Sports with Justin.  Andrew spends his time lining up a date for Friday night, watching lots of sporting events and tirelessly practicing his jump shot, which, like his dating skills, still needs much improvement. In their 20-plus combined years of being on the prowl for the perfect girlfriend, they have approached countless girls, been rejected more times than they can remember, gone on tons of dates, been involved in several serious relationships, and yes, have lived to tell the stories."
                            # ("Graffiti", "http://comics.com/graffiti"),
                            # "Gene Mora creates Graffiti, a witty play on words with a clever, often ironic message. His love of typography and hand lettering started when he was a high school student at the School of Art and Design. He established himself as a graphic designer, working as an Art Director for several advertising agencies including BBDO and Franklin Spier. A freelance assignment with McNaught, a small, independent syndicate, introduced Mora to the world of syndication.  He left his job as Art Director to establish his own service as a graphic designer working for syndication, advertising agencies and various design studios in Manhattan. Mora's proximity to syndicated features while working as an art director led to his own interest in creating a feature. He wrote \"Alexander Gate,\" a continuity strip illustrated by Frank Bolle; \"Dear Debbie,\" a lovelorn column; and, ultimately, Graffiti. The chance to use his design and lettering skills along with the opportunity to write seemed a perfect fit, and he has been producing the feature since 1969."
                            # ("Grand Avenue", "http://comics.com/grand_avenue"),
                            # "A real, modern grandma who takes care of two cute but pretty rambunctious kids. Grand Avenue, the daily and Sunday comic strip by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen and 2009 Pulitzer finalist Mike Thompson, follows the antics of an energetic pair of fraternal twins being raised by their grandmother. The strip stars Kate Macfarlane, an avid sports fan who powerwalks to stay in shape.  Not your typical cookie-baking granny, Grandma Kate has her hands full with this terrific twosome, who are best buddies even though their personalities clash. Gabby is an ambitious, newspaper-reading little girl who plans to become a billionaire before she's 30. Her brother Michael is a more sensitive soul who prefers riding his skateboard or performing scenes from Shakespeare to just about anything else."
                            # ("Heathcliff", "http://comics.com/heathcliff"),
                            # "Heathcliff, a street-smart and mischievous cat with many adventures."
                            # ("Herb and Jamaal", "http://comics.com/herb_and_jamaal"),
                            # "A tribute to lasting friendships and a reflection on a life well lived. Born in Southern California in 1954, Stephen Bentley grew up in the South Central area of Los Angeles. He attended Pasadena City College and, later, Rio Hondo College, majoring in Art, English and Fire Sciences. Once in the business as a professional artist, Stephen worked for various advertising agencies, whose client list included the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wham-O Toys, the Playboy Channel and Universal Studios. After attending a high-school reunion and re-establishing an old friendship in 1998, Stephen was inspired to create the comic strip Herb and Jamaal. Today, Stephen is a single father who lives in Northern California with his teenage daughter, Natalie."
                            # ("Herman", "http://comics.com/herman"),
                            # "One of the most innovative comics of all time, Herman is the groundbreaking offbeat humor panel created by Jim Unger. In 1992, after 20 years of cartooning and with more than 6,000 original comics to his credit, Unger had finally decided to retire and enjoy life in the Bahamas. But not for long: in 1997, due to popular demand, United Feature Syndicate brought back classic Herman comics with 10 years of Unger's best work.  Although Unger has no plans to return to full-time cartooning, he has carefully 'updated' and revised his comic collection, and hopes to sprinkle in a few new comics from time to time. So grab onto your funny bone and get re-acquainted with Herman, one of the most hilarious comic strips ever to be syndicated in newspapers."
                            # ("Home and Away", "http://comics.com/home_and_away"),
                            # "Sam and Sandy juggle careers and child care. Love, respect and got-your-back support are the trinity of their relationship. It's school-picture day and Karen has nothing clean to wear. Timmy can't find his cleats and soccer practice is in 10 minutes. Sam is working from home but his conference call is running an hour late, and Sandy is away on business.  In Home and Away by Steve Sicula, Sam and Sandy Szwyk are typical parents juggling careers and child care. They find it hard enough to make sure their kids, Karen and Timmy, are where they need to be, when they need to be there (not to mention appropriately dressed).  Factor in their business schedules and you've got barely managed chaos. That's why love, respect and a got-your-back support system are the trinity behind Sam and Sandy's relationship. It's what they depend upon -- at home and away."
                            # ("It's All About You", "http://comics.com/its_all_about_you"),
                            # "It's really all about me.  But to the extent that you can relate to it, It's All About You, too. \u201cThe strip\u2019s title is sort of a joke in itself,\u201d says cartoonist Tony Murphy.  \u201cIt\u2019s really all about me.  But to the extent that you can relate to it, it\u2019s all about you, too.\u201d  Murphy\u2019s persona in the strip is a caffeine-craving neurotic named Michael who\u2019s in a long-term, pre-marriage relationship with his well-balanced, herbal-tea-drinking girlfriend, Gina. Michael epitomizes today\u2019s push-me-pull-you mentality in which we\u2019re obsessed with how we appear to the rest of the world, yet desperate to win acceptance strictly by being ourselves. Michael and Gina frequent a local caf\u00e9 where the barista, Chris, is the coffee-counter therapist for all his self-involved customers.  Chris pretends to listen to patrons like Gina\u2019s friend Maggie, who is addicted to self-help books, and Maggie\u2019s father, Alex, who rationalizes away his failure to follow a diet or go to the gym. Michael\u2019s software-company cubicle-mate, Albert, also patronizes the caf\u00e9, when he's not being Michael\u2019s sounding board for his relationship with Gina or his laundry list of hang-ups."
                            # ("Jane's World", "http://comics.com/janes_world"),
                            # "A strip for all those gals out there who are just trying to figure life out.  If you're a female cartoon character, you are expected to make jokes about dating, raising children, dieting and anything else that relates to poor body image. But what if you are a female cartoon character who feels that life is too short for caloric concerns? What if you are a cartoon character who chases vampires, needs sensitivity training, requires career counseling and basically needs to get a life? Well, then you'd be Jane. Welcome to Jane's World. Where female cartoon characters are free to be goofy, flat-chested and self-absorbed. Paige Braddock graduated with a degree in Fine Art from the University of Tennessee. Paige worked as an illustrator for several newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune and The Atlanta Constitution before accepting a position as Creative Director at Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. In this position, Paige works with Schulz family members to oversee the art direction and editorial control for all Peanuts licensed product worldwide.  In 2002 Paige launched her own publishing company, Girl Twirl Comics, so that she could finally make her comic feature, Jane's World, available to comic shops and bookstores. Jane's World started as an online feature in the late 1990s but was soon picked up for online distribution by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. Currently, daily installments of Jane's World appear on their Comics.com website. In 2006 Jane's World received an Eisner Award nomination for best humor book."
                            # ("Jump Start", "http://comics.com/jump_start"),
                            # "A tender, funny view of middle-class family life.  One of a handful of syndicated African-American cartoonists, Robb Armstrong brings a unique perspective to his strip with art and storylines that are upbeat, fun and undeniably realistic. Jump Start offers an authentic, positive representation of middle-class African Americans. Joe and Marcy Cobb are a young African-American couple trying to balance their careers - he's a police officer, she's a nurse - with a loving marriage and warm family life shared with their young daughter, Sunny, and toddler son, Jojo.  Many readers see themselves reflected in Jump Start. \"I'm thrilled that people say that,\" says Armstrong. \"I'm drawing about my life; about a black couple because I'm black. Joe and Marcy and the characters I've developed are deep and based on real life.\" A popular motivational speaker who addresses groups at schools, churches, libraries and other venues throughout the U.S., Armstrong inspires young people with the story of his own success. "
                            # ("Kit 'N' Carlyle", "http://comics.com/kit_n_carlyle"),
                            # "A single woman and her mischievous kitten. Kit is a single working woman, Carlyle is her spunky, mischievous kitten and their lives together provide the humor for the daily panel Kit 'N' Carlyle, created by Larry Wright, editorial cartoonist for The Detroit News. Adorable kitten Carlyle shreds the furniture, gets into mischief with Kit's niece Carly and glares at Kit's boyfriends. Few of her dates survive under such intense scrutiny, and those who do endure home-cooked meals so awful, even Carlyle turns up his nose at them. "
                            # ("Li'l Abner Classics", "http://comics.com/lil_abner_classics"),
                            # "The iconic clan of hillbillies from the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. The star Li'l Abner is hardly \"little,\" Abner is 6-foot-3 in his stocking feet , and perpetually 19 years-old; a naive, simple-minded and sweet-natured hillbilly boy. He lives in a ramshackle log cabin with his pint-sized parents. Abner inherited his strength from his irascible Mammy, and his brains from his less-than-brainy Pappy. In Capp's satirical and often complex plots, Abner was a country bumpkin Candide - a paragon of innocence in a sardonically dark and cynical world.   Written and drawn by Al Capp (1909 - 1979), the strip ran from 1934 through 1977.   Please note due to recent updates to Comics.com, Lil' Abner Classics will now run with the current date displayed. The Li'l Abner Classic strips displayed here are from the archives and were originally published between 1934-1955.  "
                            # ("Liberty Meadows", "http://comics.com/liberty_meadows"),
                            # "Liberty Meadows relates the comedic activities of the staff and denizens of the titular animal sanctuary\/rehabilitation clinic. In 1978 Frank Cho came to United States to see what all the fuss was about. 1990-1993 attended Prince George's Community College. Drew editorial cartoons and comic strips for the bi-weekly student newspaper, The Owl. Won College Media Advisers' Best Stand-Alone Cartoon of 1992. After constant pressure from parents and relatives to go into the medical field, entered University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Nursing. Drew the daily comic strip \"Univerity2\" for three semesters for the University of Maryland student newspaper, The Diamondback. Strip developed a cult-like status with student body and faculty. Won the Best College Cartoonist of 1994 award from the Scripps Howard Foundation out of 157 college cartoonists in the nation, as well as the coveted Charles Schulz Plaque for Excellence in Cartooning.  Graduated from nursing school with a bachelor of science degree, but only after being thoroughly cured from any and all desires to go into the nursing profession. Discovered by Creators Syndicate. Self-published the book \"University2 \u2013 The Angry Years!\", debuted the comic strip \"Liberty Meadows\" in newspapers across the country."
                            # ("Little Dog Lost", "http://comics.com/little_dog_lost"),
                            # "Like any good adventure story, Little Dog Lost by Steve Boreman is a metaphor for broader concepts and bigger concerns. A lost little dog\u2019s picture hangs on a telephone pole, a note begging for his return, reward offered, no questions asked.  But the picture was taken some time ago, the poster now faded and curled from sun and rain.  The Little Dog is a long way from the home he longs for.  But truth be told, for Little Dog, the adventure of the open road is addictive \u2013 fraught with exploits both humorous and heroic, filled with characters both good and bad (but always interesting), and imbued with life lessons.   Like any good adventure story, Little Dog Lost by Steve Boreman is a metaphor for broader concepts and bigger concerns.  It contains parables and morality plays, palatably packaged in humorous comic strip form. Jeff Smith, creator of Bone, says, \"Little Dog Lost is full of sharp, witty animals, all trying to do their best to survive in the wild...even if they have to eat one another to do it. Steve Boreman's funny and thoughtful comic strip is one of the best to come along in years!\""
                            # ("Lola", "http://comics.com/lola"),
                            # "A tell-it-like-it-is grandma who lives life out loud, Lola, is an independent woman in her late 70s, widowed and living with her son and his family. Her unique view of life is matched only by her fierce independence, wicked sense of humor and blunt, but often heart-warming honesty. Available daily and Sunday, Lola is the creation of Todd Clark. Everyone's grandma may not be as witty as Lola, a sharpshooter who's busy living life to the fullest and making sure everyone else does too.  Todd Clark has been drawing for as long as he can remember, possibly a result of always carrying a copy of MAD Magazine with him as a child. Since he began cartooning full-time in 1990, Clark has contributed to a wide range of comic strips, including \"Sherman's Lagoon,\" \"Mother Goose and Grimm,\" \"Frank and Ernest\" and \"New Breed.\" His cartoons have been published in a variety of magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Snow Country and Diversion."
                            # ("Luann", "http://comics.com/luann"),
                            # "Readers of all ages love Luann, the exciting comic strip by Greg Evans that brings to life the daily drama of being a young woman. Evans' strong characters, compelling story lines and genuine humor captivate millions of readers every day. Since it began in 1985, Luann has earned a loyal following. Teens everywhere relate to Evans' insightful humor and true-to-life characters.  In all story lines, Evans holds Luann up as a fine example of the positive power cartoons can have. \"I've always felt that adolescence is a very funny time -- except when you're in it,\" says Evans. \"My aim is to touch readers' hearts as well as their funny bones.\" A proven favorite, Luann consistently ranks among the top five comic strips in reader surveys.  Evans is also applauded for touching on the real issues that teens face -- from puberty and unrequited love to peer pressure, drugs and alcohol. Evans won the National Cartoonists Society's 2003 Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year, on his sixth nomination. Get hooked on the life of this sixteen year-old girl. "
                            # ("Marmaduke", "http://comics.com/marmaduke"),
                            # "Marmaduke is America's most lovable, big, huggable Great Dane. Created by Brad Anderson, the classic comic canine has delighted newspaper readers since 1954. Marmaduke lives with the Winslow family, who, try as they might, just can't seem to get him to obey. Despite his antics, the playful pooch is top dog in the neighborhood and on the comics page, where he has endeared himself to readers in more than 20 countries.  The daily panel also strikes a chord with pet owners, many of whom write to Anderson to comment on Marmaduke as if he were a real dog. Winner of the National Cartoonists Society's 1976 Reuben Award for Best Comic Panel, Anderson has also created more than two dozen Marmaduke books, which have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. "
                            # ("Meg! Classics", "http://comics.com/meg_classics"),
                            # "Meg! is a charming chronicle of a lovable little girl, and her friends and family. Meg lives for the thrill of competing on the soccer field, fights to understand her boy-crazy best friend, and never misses a chance to annoy her little brother. She loves soccer and skateboarding, enjoys art (she named her puppy Van Gogh), and expects to win the World Cup MVP and be elected President in the same year.  Greg Curfman was born in Newport News, Virginia and some of his earliest memories are of lying on his parents' living room floor reading the Sunday comics while waiting to leave for church. He always wanted to be a cartoonist and he spent much of his early years -- and his free time during his freshman year at college -- in the library, reading through old collections and histories of comics.  He earned his B.S. in Marketing from Christopher Newport University and his M.S. in applied science (computers) from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He married his best friend Diane (who was also the daughter of his dentist), and got a great job writing software for IBM. Curfman tried to satisfy his yearning for cartooning fame by doing the family Christmas cards and occasional pieces of comic art for friends and colleagues. But after a while it wasn't enough. He found he now had something that he didn't have before -- life experience. Wild, crazy life experience of raising three kids and expecting a fourth. The kind of experience that can't be made up; the kind that HAS to be lived. Now he had something to write about."
                            # ("Minimum Security", "http://comics.com/minimum_security"),
                            # "A furious one-eyed bunny and his unusual friends star in America\u2019s cutest pre-post-Apocalypse comic strip. In \"Minimum Security,\" a furious one-eyed bunny and his unusual friends confront the big issues -- saving the world, avoiding foreclosure, online dating -- with everything from willful denial to high-powered explosives. The title comes from a prisoner who, after being released into general society, noted, \"I'm still not free; I'm just in minimum security.\" Stephanie McMillan was born in 1965 in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and decided at age ten to be a cartoonist. She earned a BFA in animation from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has been drawing comics since 1992, and Minimum Security since 1999.  Her award-winning cartoons have appeared in dozens of publications, books and comics exhibitions worldwide.  Her cartoon collection, \"Attitude Presents Minimum Security,\" edited by Ted Rall, was published by NBM in 2005. Her graphic novel, \"As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial,\" co-created with writer Derrick Jensen, was published in 2007 by Seven Stories Press."
                            # ("Moderately Confused", "http://comics.com/moderately_confused"),
                            # "Laugh at the absurdities we accept as \"reality\"  when award-winning editorial cartoonist Jeff Stahler creates Moderately Confused, a whimsical slice-of-life comic. Editorial cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch, Stahler also draws political cartoons that are distributed worldwide by Newspaper Enterprise Association.  \"Moderately Confused is an extension of my daily thinking routine,\" says Stahler. \"I'm used to observing the front pages of the news and commenting with a cartoon. But every day, the rest of the paper tracks the culture, and all of those stories are rich for commentary, too. This panel gives me an outlet for observing those back pages of the paper that I enjoy reading as well.\" Stahler's cartoons appear every week in USA Today and are frequently reprinted in major magazines and newspapers, including Newsweek and The New York Times."
                            # ("Momma", "http://comics.com/momma"),
                            # "Follow the stories of Momma, everyone\u2019s mother. Mell Lazarus is an award-winning cartoonist and a leader in his profession, having created the strips MOMMA and MISS PEACH and served as president of the National Cartoonists Society from 1989 to 1993. MOMMA was created in 1970 and distributed by Publishers-Hall Syndicate, now known as North America Syndicate.  MOMMA, which currently appears in more than 400 newspapers worldwide, is based partly on Mell\u2019s mother, Frances. Lazarus points out that MOMMA reflects everyone\u2019s mother. A native of Brooklyn, Lazarus has lived in Los Angeles since the 1970s. He has three daughters."
                            # ("Monty", "http://comics.com/monty"),
                            # "This award-winning, quirky comic strip created by Jim Meddick spoofs suburbia, trashes tacky TV shows and offers absurdist commentary on everything from hosing down spider monkeys to the latest conspiracy theory. Monty's skewed sensibilities have earned the strip a fanatical following on the Web and on newspaper comics pages on six continents, making this daily and Sunday comic strip a cult favorite among comics readers worldwide. Monty won the 2008 National Cartoonists Society\u2019s Award for Best Newspaper Strip. Formerly titled \"Robotman,\" Monty lampoons a wide range of topics. Explains Meddick, \"I've tried to create the comic strip equivalent of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus.' The name 'Monty' is a nod to the influence that show had on my humor. In my cartoon, just about anything can happen - this way, the ideas and characters always stay fresh.\" Monty Montahue is often at the center of this hilariously funny comic strip's outrageous story lines. A brainy, bumbling bachelor who's unlucky in work and in love, Monty shares his home with Fleshy, a hairless cat, and Mr. Pi, a super-logical extraterrestrial. The wacky cast of characters is rounded out by Moondog, Monty's beer-guzzling buddy; Loco Ohno, Monty's crazy ex-girlfriend; and Pilsner the parrot."
                            # ("Motley Classics", "http://comics.com/motley_classics"),
                            # "Motley is a smart, independent cat, who is a  \"connoisseur of fine milk\" and pretty much does whatever he wants - including everything from ignoring his owners to running for the occasional political office. Larry Wright has been a cartoonist since the age of 10, drawing comic books for his friends in Detroit, then creating cartoons for his Allen Park, Mich., school newspaper. After graduating from high school, Wright expanded his cartooning skills in the Army. He studied Chinese, was sent to Okinawa as an interpreter and began drawing a strip called \"Uncle Milton\" for the Okinawa Morning Star. When Wright was discharged, he remained in Okinawa to become night editor of the Star.  In 1965 he took a job at the copy desk of The Detroit Free Press, and 11 years later became a daily cartoonist at The Detroit News. He created his first syndicated comic, \"Wright Angles,\" for United Feature Syndicate in 1977. Although the strip is no longer syndicated, the popularity of one of the characters, a cat, provided the inspiration for Kit 'N' Carlyle. In 1987, Wright was named associate editor of the editorial page-graphics at The Detroit News and is currently Assistant Graphics Editor. He was elected president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) in September, 1994 and will serve as President of the organization in 1996.  He lives in Allen Park, Mich. with his wife Naoko. They have a son, a daughter and one grandchild. "
                            # ("Nancy", "http://comics.com/nancy"),
                            # "One of the best-loved comic characters of all time, famous for gentle humor and childlike innocence.  Created by Ernie Bushmiller in the 1930s, since 1995, the strip has been drawn and written in Bushmiller's classic style by Guy and Brad Gilchrist, the award-winning cartooning team behind \"The Muppets Comic Strip.\" Nancy is famed for its gentle humor and surrealistic sight gags. Nancy's childlike innocence never wavers, no matter what is happening in the world around her.  She remains a devoted friend to her pal Sluggo, and can be, depending on the situation, a conceited prima donna or a fun-loving, cute and cheeky little girl. Nancy first made her appearance in the comics in the early 1930s, as a character in \"Fritzi Ritz.\" The little girl with the big red bow became so popular that in 1938, the strip was renamed \"Nancy.\" Nancy has entertained hundreds of millions of comics fans worldwide for decades. Nancy and Sluggo even appeared on a U.S. postage stamp in 1995. "
                            # ("Natural Selection", "http://comics.com/natural_selection"),
                            # "Natural Selection a single-panel, surreal, intelligent, gag cartoon that had the look and feel of an editorial cartoon. Russ Wallace was born into a family of lobstermen in a small Iowa fishing village. Russ was never satisfied with the fishing life. Instead, his idols were the great MAD Magazine artists Mort Drucker and Jack Davis, as well as a host of editorial cartoonists. He painstakingly studied their work while trying to develop a style of his own. Wallace studied at Marshall University and the University of Virginia, eventually emerging with a medical degree.  He practiced neurosurgery until he came to his senses and realized that medicine would always involve getting up really early and having to talk to people. With this epiphany he proceeded to illustrate a book written by his father, who then encouraged him to try his hand at editorial cartooning. He became the editorial cartoonist for the Charleston Gazette and was the runner-up to the prestigious Scripps-Howard National Press Award in his first year of cartooning.  From this Natural Selection was born. Russ Wallace resides in the Southeast. He has been joined for the last 15 years by a female human who \"appears to be in charge.\" Later, two smaller humans and a dog showed up. They frequently ask to be driven places and eat a lot."
                            # ("Nest Heads", "http://comics.com/nest_heads"),
                            # "With an extended family that spans nearly a century Allen is able to draw on a rich source of family humor for Nestheads. With four brothers and sisters in various stages of coping with their own empty nest, and an extended family that spans nearly a century - from 93-year-old father L.C. to infant grandniece Katie - Allen is able to draw on a rich source of family humor without having to actually put it through college.  Allen, raised in Colonial Williamsburg and currently living in the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Virginia, has decided that the best part of history is that it makes him feel young in comparison. He is aided in this pursuit by caring for his elderly cat, Caprice, and seeing his brothers and sisters at every opportunity. "
                            # ("Off The Mark", "http://comics.com/off_the_mark"),
                            # "A world of scheming pets, evil computers and talking plants that puts an ironic, absurd or just plain silly spin on the ordinary occurrences of everyday life. Mark Parisi's comic panel Off the Mark hits a bull's eye with slightly skewed humor and a twisted look at the little things we take for granted. It is a world of scheming pets, evil computers and talking plants that puts an ironic, absurd or just plain silly spin on the ordinary occurrences of everyday life. Described by one newspaper editor as \"sweet-natured and devilish at the same time,\" off the mark receives fan mail from readers of all ages. It has twice been nominated for \"Best Newspaper Comic Panel\" by the National Cartoonists Society."
                            # ("On a Claire Day", "http://comics.com/on_a_claire_day"),
                            # "An \"adult\" life where you're supposed to know the answers, but you discover, almost daily, that you don't know as much as you thought you did.  Carla Ventresca and Henry Beckett started On A Claire Day when they felt there weren't any comic strips addressing the life they and so many of their friends seemed to be living: an \"adult\" life where you're supposed to know the answers, but you discover, almost daily, that you don't know as much as you thought you did. Where, in fact, you discover that your parents and schools taught you very little of what you need to know to make it in the real world. Carla Ventresca is a graduate of Syracuse University where she majored in Communications. She later moved to Boston and started a greeting card line. It grew big enough to capture the attention of Recycled Paper Greetings, the nation's third largest publisher. Carla is now one of their top artists, selling millions of cards each year, She currently lives in Nashville, Tenn., where she co-creates \"On A Claire Day\" with her husband and best friend, Henry Beckett.   Henry Beckett managed to sneak in the back door to Harvard University. He attended UCLA Law School, where he thought law was cool but lawyers weren't. He went and got an MBA, so he could manage all the money he didn't have. Now, he co-creates \"On A Claire Day\" and composes and produces music for lots of clients, including Miramax, Vivendi Universal and Nike."
                            # ("One Big Happy Classics", "http://comics.com/one_big_happy_classics"),
                            # "The daily adventures of six-year-old Ruthie, along with her family, friends and neighbors. The strip also features her eight-year-old brother Joe, their parents Frank and Ellen, and their grandparents Nick and Rose, who live next door. The strip's title is a takeoff on the phrase, \"One big happy family.\" It debuted on September 11, 1988. The strip takes place in or around Baltimore, Md., where the creator grew up.   Joe describes his family as being \"half Italian and half Texan.\" The Italian half comes from Nick, Rose, and Frank. Their family name is Lombard, a slightly Americanized version of the Italian family name Lombardo. Myrna and Ellen supply the Texan side. All the family members are colorful characters with strong opinions on everything. The same can be said for their neighbors."
                            # ("Over the Hedge", "http://comics.com/over_the_hedge"),
                            # "A freshly skewed look at suburban living from the perspective of the animals that lived there first.  Created by Michael Fry and T Lewis, Over the Hedge takes a freshly skewed look at suburban living from the perspective of the animals that lived there first. The strip stars RJ, a mischievous raccoon, and Verne, his sensitive best-buddy turtle. Together they fight to save their wooded wonderland from the evils of encroaching suburbia but end up becoming distracted by wide-screen TVs, discarded fast food containers and the fun of wreaking havoc on the local homeowners' association.  Over the Hedge has delighted comics readers since 1995 with furry antics of all kinds. Over the Hedge hit the silver screen in May 2006, and was a major hit with audiences around the globe. The DreamWorks computer-animated feature film raked in $335 million at the box office worldwide, and DVD sales continue to mount. The first-rate voice cast includes Bruce Willis as RJ and Garry Shandling as Verne. Wanda Sykes, Avril Lavigne, Steve Carell, Eugene Levy and William Shatner also lend their distinctive pipes to the popular woodland creatures."
                            # ("PC and Pixel", "http://comics.com/pc_and_pixel"),
                            # "PC O'Data achieved middle age only to be \"downsized\" out of his job and his marriage. Like so many cast out by today's economy, he becomes a free-lance consultant with an office at home. He is available for hire by any PR firm, because advertising is what he used to do, but will accept almost any kind of work to make ends meet. PC is wired, but with technology always changing, is never quite as comfortable surfing the Net as his cat Pixel. An addicted Netsurfer who is never without her laptop. Pixel has a secret friend Digit, a mouse who hangs around PC's apartment and likes to dispense advice over the Internet."
                            # ("Peanuts", "http://comics.com/peanuts"),
                            # "PEANUTS is the most beloved comic strip in history. What began in the funny pages in 1950 has developed into an enduring classic. Whether you\u2019re a fussbudget like Lucy, philosopher like Linus, Flying Ace like Snoopy, or a lovable loser like Charlie Brown, there is something to touch your heart or make you laugh in PEANUTS. "
                            # ("Pearls Before Swine", "http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine"),
                            # "At its heart, Pearls Before Swine is the comic strip tale of two friends: a megalomaniacal Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn't know any better.  These two take center stage in Pearls Before Swine, a quirky strip by litigator Stephan Pastis.  Together, this pair offers caustic commentary on humanity's quest for the unattainable.  Launched in 2002, the strip has twice won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben division award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip \u2013 in 2004 and in 2007.  Available on United Media's comics.com Web site since 2000, Pearls Before Swine has a growing list of fans, including Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams who says Pearls is \"one of the few comics that make me laugh out loud.\" Pastis never had any formal training, but he did draw cartoons for each of his school newspapers as he grew up. He holds a degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley.  Although he always wanted to be a cartoonist, Pastis realized that the odds of syndication were slim, so he went to UCLA Law School and became an attorney instead. While at UCLA, he drew a popular strip called \"Rosen.\" It was while was hopelessly bored in a class on the European Economic Community that Pastis first drew \"Rat,\" a character that would reappear in every comic strip he created thereafter - including Pearls Before Swine."
                            # ("Pickles", "http://comics.com/pickles"),
                            # "Married for 50 years, Earl and Opal appreciate know-me-better-than-I-know-myself honesty and good-natured ribbing.  Pickles is a laugh-out-loud comic strip gem, showing the funny side of family and friendships. Earl and Opal share their golden years with their 30-something daughter Sylvia, her husband, Dan and their beloved grandson Nelson. Whether observing the differences between genders and generations or taking a wry but sympathetic look at life in the twilight years, Crane\u2019s good-natured wit and dry humor are sure to please readers of all ages. Pickles has topped comics polls across the nation again and again, and it appears in 500 newspapers around the world. Crane was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He graduated with a degree in art from Brigham Young University in 1973. Soon after Pickles\u2019 debut in 1990, Crane \u201cretired\u201d as an art director for an advertising agency in Reno, Nevada, to devote his full attention to his comic strip. Although he often used cartoon figures in ads he designed, Pickles is his first syndicated comic strip."
                            # ("Prickly City", "http://comics.com/prickly_city"),
                            # "Carmen and Winslow are friends to the end, although they disagree on just about everything.  The unlikely friendship between a coyote pup and a young girl takes center stage in Prickly City. This topical comic strip centers around Carmen, a feisty libertarian-conservative, and Winslow, an impulsive coyote with political aspirations. Winslow can be patronizing and condescending, and his liberal responses produce much of the strip\u2019s humor. Carmen is continuously frustrated by Winslow\u2019s assumption that she should be a liberal feminist. Through it all, though, Carmen and Winslow are friends. Prickly City is created by Scott Stantis, the editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. "
                            # ("Raising Duncan Classics", "http://comics.com/raising_duncan_classics"),
                            # "Raising Duncan by Chris Browne celebrates the furry, four-legged creatures that are the center of many families' lives. Raising Duncan appears in 50 newspapers worldwide, including the Denver Rocky Mountain News, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit Free Press and Minneapolis Star and Tribune. It is also available on the Web at www.comics.com. Raising Duncan follows the antics of Big Daddy Kelly, an easily distracted romance novelist suffering from writer's block. His wife, Adelle, is an organized mystery writer who shares his antique writing desk and his unabashed love for Duncan, a little black Scotty dog who is the heart of their household. A wide-eyed innocent who marvels at the world and asks endless questions, Duncan is loved by everyone - even the cat.  Chris Browne, an accomplished comic artist who grew up in Wilton, Connecticut. His father was cartoonist Dik Browne, creator of Hagar the Horrible. As a teenager, Browne assisted his father on his comic strips and continued to work with him until he passed away in 1989. During this time Browne also drew cartoons for the National Lampoon, where editor Sean Kelly dubbed him the magazine's \"Token Good Taste Cartoonist.\" He went on to sell cartoons to Esquire, Heavy Metal, Playboy and The New Yorker. Raising Duncan is inspired by Browne's love for his wife, Carroll, and for their 11 year-old Scottish Terrier, MacDuff. \"There has been a trend in the comics lately towards cynicism,\" says Browne. \"Raising Duncan runs like the wind in the other direction. It's all about love, family, understanding and acceptance - the warm places we find for each other in a cold world.\" Like the characters he has created, Browne lives and works in Sarasota, Florida. When not working on Raising Duncan or waiting for his muse to inspire, Browne can be found prowling local bookstores, quaffing cappuccinos and walking the dog."
                            # ("Reality Check", "http://comics.com/reality_check"),
                            # "A wacky vision of the world that exposes the hidden hilarity in ordinary circumstances.  Cartoonist Dave Whamond offers an offbeat view of the world in Reality Check, his daily and Sunday comic panel that exposes the hidden hilarity in everyday situations. A thoroughly wacky look at life, Whamond explains, \"I just frame some of the silliness of everyday life in the comic and invite people to take a double-take -- to look at life from another angle.  Reality Check is more a state of mind than anything else. The characters could be people you know -- maybe even a bit of yourself -- but the names have been changed to protect the innocent.\" Whamond was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in the small northern Canadian town of Whitecourt where, he says, \"there was nothing to do but draw cartoons.\" He discovered doodling at an early age, practiced through many math classes and attended the Alberta College of Art, where he studied visual communications and discovered his true passion -- cartooning and illustration.  Whamond freelanced at The Calgary Herald as an editorial cartoonist, sharing duties with the paper's staff cartoonist and publishing three cartoons a week while still in college. He honed his skills at the Herald for five years before devoting himself full-time to freelance illustration for magazines. Whamond's illustrations have been published in Sports Illustrated, National Geographic World, Financial Times, Owl Magazine, Psychology Today and T.V. Times, among others. He also illustrates a monthly feature for Sesame Street magazine."
                            # ("Red & Rover", "http://comics.com/red&rover"),
                            # "Step into a time when your best friend has four legs and drools, loyalty is unquestioned and friendship is forever.  Red and Rover, A 10-year-old with dreams of going into space one day. Red loves baseball and model rocketry, but most of all his dog, Rover, whom he considers his best friend, confidant, and guardian angel. Rover, a mutt with mostly Lab in him. Rover is cool, calm and collected--unless a squirrel is within earshot--and unfalteringly loyal to Red, who not only found him a home, but found his tickle spot. Brian Basset was born in Norwalk, Conn., in 1957 but grew up in the Washington, D.C., suburb of McLean, Va. In 1975, Brian enrolled at Ohio State University where he lampooned state and student politics as a political cartoonist for the school paper, The Lantern. Three years later Brian landed a six-month \"tryout\" as editorial cartoonist for The Seattle Times. This \"tryout\" lasted 16 years. In 1994, he began to devote himself full-time to his comic strip, \u201cAdam\u201d (now called \u201cAdam@Home\u201d) which he had developed a decade earlier with Universal Press Syndicate. A big believer in space exploration, Basset was honored in 2004 with a one-man show of his Red and Rover space-themed strips at NASA's Washington, DC headquarters. He is the first and only comic strip cartoonist so recognized. On July 26, 2005, an original drawing by Basset commemorating America's return to flight lifted off launch pad 39B along with the crew of the space shuttle Discovery for a near flawless 13-day mission. Brian Basset is married and the father of two boys."
                            # ("Rip Haywire", "http://comics.com/rip_haywire"),
                            # "The Adventure Comic Strip is Back -- With a Twist -- in \u201cRip Haywire\u201d. Rip Haywire is a soldier of fortune, a contemporary adventure hero in the classic mold: a brave, square-jawed man of honor who lives for danger. He\u2019s also a bit of a lug. Accompanied on random adventures by his cowardly dog TNT and his venomous ex-girlfriend Cobra, Rip tracks down lost treasure, takes down madmen and takes on any job that promises heart-pounding action, peril and intrigue! And, of course, cash.  For Rip Haywire and his pals, every adventure can turn into a surf-and-turf platter of nonstop trouble -- or it can just deal with the everyday hazards of a life lived to the max. Rip Haywire is an action-packed, silly send-up of the adventure comic strip that takes readers on a roller-coaster ride across the globe and shows how even studly mercenaries get yelled at by their mothers. "
                            # ("Ripley's Believe It or Not!", "http://comics.com/ripleys_believe_it_or_not"),
                            # "Fascinating illustrated facts from around the world.  Ripley's Believe it or Not!, one of the longest-running comic panels in history, continues to fascinate comics readers with unbelievable facts from around the world. Currently illustrated by John Graziano, these fascinating panels are read every day in nearly 40 countries. The panel gives readers a view of the unusual that earned originator Robert Ripley his fame.  Ripley's has developed a worldwide following since Robert Ripley's first Believe it or Not! cartoon appeared in The New York Globe in 1918. Over the next decade, the panel established a tradition of bringing phenomenal events to local newspapers. Ripley traveled all over the world to find the strange tidbits for his Believe It or Not! books and comic strip. He continued to do the strip until he died in 1949. The panel was later drawn by Walter Frem, and then by Don Wimmer. Current illustrator Graziano has been working as an artist and illustrator since 1983, when he received a certificate in illustration from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. He has designed trading card sets and a portrait series based on the 1960s cult TV show \"Dark Shadows.\" Graziano has also created comic strips for Scream Queens magazine, designed t-shirts graphics and created storyboards and concept drawings for Hollywood films."
                            # ("Rose Is Rose", "http://comics.com/rose_is_rose"),
                            # "In a melting pot of fantasy and reality, Rose is Rose presents the extraordinary nature of everyday life as seen through the eyes of the Gumbo family. Rose is Rose and creator Pat Brady have received many accolades, including the highest honor in the industry -- the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year (2004). Brady has also received the prestigious Wilbur Award from the Religious Public Relations Council. The strip stars child-at-heart Rose and her ASD (Attentiveness Surplus Disorder) husband Jimbo.  Their gentle son Pasquale is watched over by his Guardian Angel who morphs from tiny cherub into gargantuan protector. Family kitten Peekaboo boasts that her humans are the cutest in town. Readers relish the romance in Rose and Jimbo's marriage, yet cheer the emergence of Rose's rebel alter ego, the fearless, wild and ready-to-roll Vicki the Biker. "
                            # ("Rubes", "http://comics.com/rubes"),
                            # "Rubes, a single panel cartoon inspired by a collection of greeting cards. Maybe you could call Leigh Rubin a sit-down comedian. But whatever you call him, he\u2019s just gratified to have the opportunity to make other people laugh. With his cartoon panel, Rubes, in hundreds of newspapers across the country and gracing millions of greeting cards, mugs and T-shirts, Rubin has plenty of opportunities. In addition to drawing Rubes, Leigh also enjoys a busy  schedule giving thought provoking and entertaining cartooning workshops and presentations for schools as well as professional organizations all around the country. Leigh is married and has three sons."
                            # ("Rudy Park", "http://comics.com/rudy_park"),
                            # "Rudy Park is the story of a modern family connected not by blood, but by something much more powerful: caffeine. These friends, misfits and latte addicts - like many Americans in search of connection - find their sense of community at a cafe. A smart, contemporary satire Rudy Park is drawn by Darrin Bell and written by Theron Heir.   At the center of the strip is Rudy Park, a 20-something cafe manager and archetypal Generation X-er. Among the regulars at Rudy's workplace, the House of Java, is his arch-nemesis, Sadie Cohen, an octogenarian with an attitude. Other central characters include Rudy's boss, Armstrong Maynard, a cheap capitalist; Rudy's Uncle Mort, a raving liberal lunatic; Randy \"The Rock\" Taylor, a former football star; and Darlene Desai, a workaholic and Rudy's unrequited love. The House of Java is a both hangout for the strip's characters and a forum for contemporary issues. The strip is peppered with cameo appearances by a variety of newsmakers, from politicians to pop stars. Theron Heir is the pen name for Matt Richtel, a journalist who writes for The New York Times."
                            # ("Scary Gary", "http://comics.com/scary_gary"),
                            # "After 700 years of relentless vampirism, Gary's ready to retire his fangs, gather up his henchman and retire to a sleepy suburban neighborhood. A laid-back prince of darkness, Gary has always felt he's a suburbanite trapped in a vampire's body. So after 700 years of relentless vampirism, he retires his fangs, gathers up his henchman and retires to a sleepy suburban neighborhood.  Swapping blood for deck, Gary wants nothing more than to quietly blend into the suburban landscape. Not an easy task when your nefarious and defiant henchman is terrorizing the neighbors. "
                            # ("Shirley and Son Classics", "http://comics.com/shirley_and_son_classics"),
                            # "Shirley and Son, a loving blend of reality and humor reflecting the lives many people are living today. Shirley and Son stars an eight-year-old boy, Louis, whose parents are divorced but are both very involved in raising their son. Like many children of divorced parents, Louis wishes that Shirley and Roger would get back together but they are doing the best they can to get on with their lives.  As Bittle explained the strip, \"Shirley and Roger are nice people and things just didn't work out for them in their personal lives. We've all had relationships that didn't work out and we pick up the pieces and get on with it. I think a lot of people will relate to the love in this comic strip. Even when things don't go the way we planned, we still go on.\" Bittle grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He lived with his wife and three daughters in Dallas, Texas, until his death in 2003. Bittle also created the comic strip Geech, a humorous look at life in a small town, also distributed by United Feature Syndicate. Both Geech and Shirley and Son display the cartoonist's unique ability to combine humor with keen, realistic and insightful observations about everyday life."
                            # ("Soup To Nutz", "http://comics.com/soup_to_nutz"),
                            # "Sibling rivalry reigns in this funny family farce.  The Nutz family is definitely not the Cleavers, the Waltons or the Bradys. But you'll undoubtedly recognize them anyway. Most likely, they're a lot like the family you grew up in... where the battle for the last chicken leg is comparable to the Battle of Bull Run, sibling rivalry is putting it mildly, and family values usually refers to a coupon book. Soup to Nutz by Rick Stromoski stars hard-working Roy Nutz, his loving wife Pat, and their battling brood - sons Roy-boy and Andrew, daughter Babs and rambunctious dog Rosco.  Stromoski is the seventh in a family of 12 children. Growing up in such a large family has given him an especially developed sense of humor that he has expressed through drawing from the moment he could pick up a pencil. A self-taught cartoonist and humorous illustrator, his work has appeared in national magazines, children's and humor books, newspapers, licensed products, national advertising and network television. Stromoski's greeting cards have become best-sellers for several major companies. "
                            # ("Speed Bump", "http://comics.com/speed_bump"),
                            # "If life were a movie, these would be the outtakes. Speed Bump appear in over 200 newspapers internationally. In May 2000, the first \"Speed Bump\" book was published, Speed Bump: A Collection of Cartoon Skidmarks (Andrews McMeel). More recent books include Speed Bump: Cartoons for Idea People (2004, ECW Press), which was named Humor Book of the Year by Foreword Magazine, and Just One %$#@ Speed Bump After Another\u2026 (2005, ECW Press). In addition, American Greetings has carried a best-selling line of \"Speed Bump\" calendars and greeting cards, which won a \"Retail Excellence\" award in 2000. Coverly grew up in Plainwell, Michigan, and began taking cartooning seriously in 1986 as an undergraduate student at Eastern Michigan University. He continued his cartooning in graduate school at Indiana University, where his panel won numerous national awards; he was graduated from IU with a master's in creative writing in 1992. In 1994, Creators Syndicate picked up his untitled cartoon panel, helped choose the name \"Speed Bump,\" and a year later, it was running in nearly 100 papers. In 1995 and in 2003, \"Speed Bump\" was given the Best in Newspaper Panels award by the National Cartoonists Society, an honor for which it was also nominated again in 1997, 2001, and 2002. In 1998, the same organization gave him another award for Best Greeting Cards, which were nominated again in 1999. In both 2004 and 2005, Coverly was nominated by the NCS for the prestigious Reuben Award, given to the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year."
                            # ("Spot The Frog", "http://comics.com/spot_the_frog"),
                            # "The sweetly funny, beautifully drawn world of a lovable little frog and the two-legged mammals who fascinate him. In Spot the Frog, readers learn what Spot already knows: that life is a glass that's always half full. And, if you're a small green frog, that's just the right size for a dip. Spot is an exuberant frog who sometimes doesn't see things for what they really are. For him, a sink full of dirty dishes is a pond to splash in, and a lamp is something to bask under. Karl, Spot's human friend, is a laid-back guy. He goes with the flow, even when the flow is a frog at the door with a suitcase. He looks out for Spot in a grandfatherly way. He's thoughtful and accepting - you'd have to be to welcome a frog into your home. \"Many of today's comic strips feature edgy characters,\" says Heath. \"Spot the Frog is gentler, more whimsical, with a sense of the fantastic. It's about innocence and wisdom and the complete appreciation of what you have. I want readers to learn about Spot, just as Karl does. Every year should bring something new. And every week should bring something unexpected.\" Mark Heath was born 1960 in New Hampshire. Heath attended the University of New Hampshire for a few semesters, long enough to know that high school would be the peak of his academic career. He wanted to be a writer, not a teacher, so he quit school and worked for the next eight years at an assortment of jobs, writing stories at night and every weekend. He sold his first cartoon in the early 1980s to Wildbird Magazine. He sold his second cartoon several years later to Writer's Digest. Since then, his pace has improved. Heath is a freelance cartoonist and an occasional writer of science fiction. His work has appeared in publications including Reader's Digest, First For Women, Women's World, Pirate Writings, Strange Horizons, American Scientist, Asimov's and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has designed animated greeting cards for Amazon.com and print cards for Marcel Schurman Fine Arts, Recycled Paper Greetings and Renaissance Greetings. He is the author of Drawing Cartoons (North Light Books, 1998). One of his favorite hobbies is playing the trumpet. Heath currently lives in Rhode Island.h"
                            # ("State of the Union", "http://comics.com/state_of_the_union"),
                            # "Through political cartooning, Moore perfected the combination of political satire, caricatures and humor that are on display in State of the Union. For Carl Moore, a self-described \"fallen liberal,\" his journey to becoming a cartoonist has taken a few strange turns. The cartoonist was once a radical socialist majoring in English literature at the University of California at Berkeley in the early '60s. After watching some fellow socialists throw bricks at police during a 1968 demonstration, however, Moore began to rethink his political leanings. Once he received his degree from design school in 1989, Moore became a freelance editorial cartoonist, publishing his work in newspapers such as the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the San Diego Union-Tribune. He also began drawing cartoons that appeared regularly in the National Review. "
                            # ("Strange Brew", "http://comics.com/strange_brew"),
                            # "With the creation of \"Strange Brew,\" Deering now has an outlet for his creative sense of humor and quirky view of life. \"Being an editorial cartoonist today, you have to be tuned-in to pop culture as well as politics -- but there are some limits to what you can do,\" Deering says \"In Strange Brew, everything's fair game. I get to cut loose and draw anything.\" As an editorial cartoonist, Deering has received numerous honors. Winner of the National Press Foundation's 1997 Berryman Award, Deering also gained top honors in the 1994 national John Fischetti Cartoon Competition and was the seven-time winner of the Arkansas Press Association's Best Editorial Cartoonist award. Born in Little Rock in 1956, Deering has been drawing since his childhood fascination with science fiction and dinosaurs -- subjects he made into comic books. After studying art with Truman Alston, Deering focused on commercial and fine at the University of Arkansas. At the Democrat-Gazette, Deering advanced from layout artist to editorial cartoonist in 1981-82. His promotion to chief editorial cartoonist in 1988 made his cartoons the state's best-known. "
                            # ("Tarzan Classics", "http://comics.com/tarzan_classics"),
                            # "The famous jungle man and legendary hero created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan is one of the most widely known characters in modern fiction, having appeared in books, in movies and on television. A legendary hero, Tarzan enjoys the distinction of starring in the first adventure comic strip, the first continuity strip and the first strip to appeal to generation after generation for more than seven decades. Disney's full-length animated Tarzan feature was released with great success in 1999, marking the 48th film adaptation of the loincloth legend. Tarzan is popular in more than 50 countries around the world.  Tarzan originated in Burroughs' 1912 short story \"Tarzan of the Apes.\" Several books followed, and in 1929, the Lord of the Jungle made his first appearance in a daily comic strip. In 1930, United Feature Syndicate took over the syndication of Tarzan, launching the first Sunday comic in 1931. UFS continues to syndicate classic Tarzan daily and Sunday strips. TARZAN TM owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and Used by Permission.           Copyright (c) Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.. All Rights Reserved."
                            # ("That's Life", "http://comics.com/thats_life"),
                            # "This quick-witted, wry and intelligent comic about modern society is appreciated by all of us who must live life on its own terms. \"Life happens,\" explains The Washington Post Writers Group. \"Thankfully, when it does, there's always another way of looking at things."
                            # ("The Barn", "http://comics.com/the_barn"),
                            # "Where sarcastic cows evade maniacal butchers, cute sheep befriend cranky goats and veterinarians try to control the chaos. This adorable comic strip follows the lives of barnyard animals Stan the bull, Rory the sheep, Jim the pig and more as they evade the butcher\u2019s knife and the chef's menu with the help of their veterinarian friends Brenda and Harold. Will Stan ever win the heart of the newly-arrived cow, Juanita? Can Doug the goat accept the friendly advances of sweet sheep, Rory? Or will Chef Rene triumph and expand his menu to include the cuddly denizens of The Barn? "
                            # ("The Born Loser", "http://comics.com/the_born_loser"),
                            # "Lovable loser Brutus Thornapple can't get a break, on the job, at home, or anywhere.  Chip Sansom began preparing to become The Born Loser at the age of 14 when his father, the late Art Sansom, first created The Born Loser comic strip. That was 1965. After years of observing and assisting his father, Chip is now in the role he was destined for - cartoonist for The Born Loser.  A classic comic strip, it is a favorite with readers in all demographic groups, consistently finishing at the top of comic surveys. The Born Loser began as a strip with no central characters that revolved around the loser theme. Gradually, it developed into the comic we see today, starring lovable loser Brutus Thornapple, his wife Gladys, mother-in-law Ramona Gargle, boss Rancid Veeblefester, dim-witted son Wilberforce and the mischievous neighbor Hurricane Hattie O'Hara.  "
                            # ("The Buckets", "http://comics.com/the_buckets"),
                            # "A frenetically funny snapshot of modern family life: the worries, the mayhem and the often-overlooked rewards. The Buckets is written and illustrated by Greg Cravens and offers a realistic snapshot of modern family life: the worries, the mayhem and the often-overlooked rewards. Examining everyday chaos with a healthy sense of humor, it strikes a chord with parents who juggle the many demands and the mild insanity of raising a family today.  Cravens graduated from the University of Memphis in 1987. He met original Buckets creator Scott Stantis while still in college and later called him up with questions about becoming a cartoonist. When, years and years later, Stantis decided to concentrate on writing The Buckets, Cravens was quick to point out that he could mimic Stantis' art style. They began collaborating in 2001, and Cravens took over the strip completely in 2006. In addition to The Buckets, Cravens draws editorial illustrations for various papers, advertising cartoons for a broad range of corporate clients and children's activity books for restaurants, hospitals and businesses. "
                            # ("The Dinette Set", "http://comics.com/the_dinette_set"),
                            # "A lively hustle and bustle of people who truly enjoy every moment of belonging to the masses. Mass consumerism is exciting and colorful!"
                            # ("The Grizzwells", "http://comics.com/the_grizzwells"),
                            # "This family of grizzlies is the comic strip with bite. Created by Bill Schorr, The Grizzwells features a four-bear family of grizzlies. Schorr's quick wit, penchant for puns and razor-sharp observations make for a roller-coaster ride of laughs. For a family strip with bite, you can't do better than The Grizzwells.  Edgy, bright and quick, Schorr's writing is refreshing. The loose pen strokes of his illustrations are of the caliber that was once considered standard fare on the comics page. Schorr admits The Grizzwells is loosely based on his own family life - with a twist. For example, like many husbands and wives, Gunther and Flora argue about taking out the garbage. But Flora also complains about her husband eating the garbage! "
                            # ("The Humble Stumble", "http://comics.com/the_humble_stumble"),
                            # "Therapy for the sometimes overwhelming challenges of being both mom and dad. The Humble Stumble was born in late 2000 when Roy Schneider suddenly found himself in the unfamiliar and scary position of being fully responsible for the upbringing of his then-9-year-old daughter. Schneider originally created the comic as therapy, as the sometimes overwhelming new challenges of being both Mom and Dad often left Roy with no choice but to laugh at himself while attempting unfamiliar domestic tasks (for example, \"stumbling\" back and forth through the grocery store for an hour and a half to find six items).  Roy Schneider has been a professional cartoonist since 1992. His work has been published in magazines, greeting cards, card games and other media, but his goal from the start has been to have a syndicated daily comic strip; probably the result of learning to read from stacks of Peanuts and Dennis the Menace paperbacks as a very young child. In addition to Charles Schulz and Hank Ketcham, his earliest influences include MAD magazine's Sergio Aragones and Don Martin, classic animation from Warner Brothers and MGM (director Tex Avery, in particular), later studying the work of such underground artists as Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, and becoming an avid Monty Python fan. He was eventually lured back to the newspaper comics pages when Bill Watterson's \"Calvin and Hobbes\" caught his attention quite profoundly in the late 1980s. In addition to cartooning, Roy is a professional musician and enjoys music festivals, camping, cooking, travel and getting horrendously dirty and sweaty out in the yard. He lives in Florida with his sweetheart and their two children."
                            # ("The Knight Life", "http://comics.com/the_knight_life"),
                            # "A deft blend of goofy humor and political insight that puts the \u201cfunny\u201d back into the funny pages with uniquely dynamic style.  The Knight Life is a hilariously twisted view of life through the eyes and pen of its creator, community-oriented urban hipster and award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight. The Knight Life deftly blends political insight and neurotic humor in a uniquely fluid and dynamic style, offering a comic strip that\u2019s fresh, sharp, topical and funny.  Designed for daily newspapers, The Knight Life follows Knight\u2019s long-running, 2007 Harvey Award-winning weekly comic strip \"The K Chronicles,\" which appears on salon.com. An unabashedly provocative political and social satire, The Knight Life tackles contemporary issues like consumer culture, bacon, the media, race, family and everything else, gently mocking the minutiae of daily life with self-deprecating humor, honesty and goofiness\u2014a combination that\u2019s perfect for the comics. And The Knight Life\u2019s energetic style reminds readers that comics can look funny as well as read funny. The result is accessible yet edgy, compassionate and political\u2014and never preachy.  Knight won the 2006 and 2007 Glyph Awards, in addition to the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Comic Strip (for \u201cThe K Chronicles\u201d). He creates \u201c(Th)ink,\u201d a weekly comic panel, and is a frequent contributor to Mad Magazine and ESPN The Magazine. He also raps in the \u201csemi-conscious\u201d hip-hop group, the Marginal Prophets. "
                            # ("The Meaning of Lila", "http://comics.com/the_meaning_of_lila"),
                            # "The strip centers around Lila, her cubicle partner and close friend Boyd, and their friend and co-worker Drew. Lila works as a customer service representative, answering telephones for MetroMart, a fictional large retail store in Cleveland, Ohio. She dislikes her job, but seems too afraid or unmotivated to change the status quo.  She is in her mid to late 20s and her main objectives in life are finding the right man and the right pair of shoes. Lila is very attractive, but seems to lack confidence in herself. Lila is also shallow, materialistic, and self-centered. She doesn't read books or newspapers, but loves to read celebrity gossip and fashion magazines. Lila runs her own shoe blog on the Internet, where she writes about and gives advice about women's shoes. Despite her shortcomings, she is still a nice and friendly person. She has a cat named Frankie."
                            # ("The Other Coast", "http://comics.com/the_other_coast"),
                            # "This strip blends environmental, political, and animal rights issues with comedy. Born in 1957, in Dunedin, New Zealand, Adrian Raeside got his start in cartooning by drawing on washroom walls as a kid. Editorial cartoonist for the Victoria Times Colonist for over 27 years, Raeside\u2019s editorial cartoons appear in over 250 newspapers and magazines worldwide, from the Los Angeles Times to Newsweek Japan. Raeside founded and operated an animation company in 1988, to animate editorial cartoons for the CBC Journal. Over the next four years he created, directed and produced dozens of animated shows for CBS, Turner Broadcasting and Children\u2019s Television Workshop, including adapting two Jim Henson Muppet characters for animation. Raeside left the production business in 1992, but is still actively involved in the creative side, having since written over 60 scripts for various animated TV shows.  The Other Coast strip was picked up by Creators Syndicate in 2001 and now appears in over 200 newspapers worldwide. The second Other Coast collection, This Is Your First Rock Garden, Isn't It? was published in 2005. "
                            # ("The Sunshine Club", "http://comics.com/the_sunshine_club"),
                            # "The Sunshine Club explores the universal human experience of growing up and growing older. With wit and insight, it goes beyond the cliches of cranky retirees and inattentive children to celebrate candidly the human side of change.  There's no other way to say it. Aging is a fact of life. It starts at birth and never stops. It's as much a part of our world as eating and sleeping. It's inevitable, if not always welcome. Since we can't control it, the best course of treatment is to laugh about it. That's why there's The Sunshine Club - Life in Generation Rx, a daily and Sunday comic strip by Howie Schneider. The characters are easily recognizable. They are married, single, widowed, flirtatious, romantic, sentimental, philosophical, lonely, gregarious and nostalgic. Our imperfections were never so funny as they are in The Sunshine Club. Howie Schneider (1930-2007). He was the creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip \"Eek and Meek,\" which appeared for 35 years in more than 400 newspapers through Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schneider later created The Sunshine Club in 2003 and continued until his death. He was also a magazine cartoonist whose work was published in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, Redbook, McCall's and many other publications. He was editorial cartoonist for the Provincetown (MA) Banner, an award-winning weekly newspaper, and he twice won the award for Best Editorial Cartoon from the New England Press Association.  Schneider co-authored and illustrated Amos: The Story of an Old Dog and His Couch, The Amazing Amos, Amos Ahoy! and Amos Camps Out (Little, Brown). He was illustrator of Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnold the Cat (Little, Brown); and author and illustrator of Uncle Lester's Hat, No Dogs Allowed (Putnam) and Chewy Louie (Rising Moon), now in its seventh printing. His cartoon books include Howie Schneider Unshucked (On Cape Publications), The World is No Place for Children, The Deceivers (Doubleday), and Mom's the Word (World). There are also three Eek and Meek collections (Pocket Books). In addition to his cartooning, painting and publishing work, Schneider was an accomplished sculptor who worked in bronze, terra cotta and plaster and created likenesses of New Yorker cartoonist Mischa Richter, U.S. Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz, and many others. Schneider served 20 years on the board of the Newspaper Features Council and eight years on the board of the National Cartoonists Society. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 77."
                            # ("Unstrange Phenomena", "http://comics.com/unstrange_phenomena"),
                            # "Welcome to the land of UNSTRANGE PHENOMENA, where the weird and the cantaloupe play. Mr. Allison has spent a lifetime rummaging abandoned warehouses, searching for answers to questions that the human race has asked since the beginning of time. This feature, Unstrange Phenomena, will explain the mysteries of the universe and reveal the unsuppressed knowledge of the ages. Be prepared for strange facts that defy natural laws and refute our accepted notions about blah, blah, blah and everything else. Watch for the grand opening of the Unstrange Phenomena Museum, to be located in the brown mobile home across the road from the county jail in Tinfoil, Texas."
                            # ("Watch Your Head", "http://comics.com/watch_your_head"),
                            # "\u201cWatch Your Head\u201d chronicles the lives of six students attending Oliver Otis University. The strip is told largely through the eyes of Cory, a freshman who\u2019s academically brilliant and socially awkward, especially with girls. His first friend at Otis U. is Omar, a recluse who some suspect is tied umbilically to his computer. Quincy, Omar\u2019s friend (and therefore Cory\u2019s friend by default), seems primarily to be studying women and fun and rarely has a serious moment. Kevin is a foreigner times two\u2014one of the few whites on the predominantly black campus, and Canadian to boot. Robin is the object of Cory\u2019s crush, the woman who leaves him befuddled and tongue-tied. And Jason is Cory\u2019s roommate and polar opposite. Cory Thomas spent his formative years in San Fernando, Trinidad. As a child, his interest in comic books soon developed into an interest in art and cartooning. In 1998, Thomas accepted a full academic scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., to study mechanical engineering. He graduated magna cum laude in 2002 and then returned to Howard in 2003 to acquire his masters degree. That year he also became a fulltime illustrator at the Hilltop, Howard University's newspaper, where he presented the earliest versions of \"Watch Your Head.\" Today, Thomas creates his strip from his home just outside Washington."
                            # ("Wizard of Id", "http://comics.com/wizard_of_id"),
                            # "The riotous reign of Id's merciless miniature monarch seems secure -- and millions of loyal subjects around the world wouldn't have it any other way. The Wizard of Id has been enchanting audiences since 1964, but the real wizards behind this comic classic were artist Brant Parker and writer Johnny Hart. The pair began paving the path to the Kingdom of Id in 1950, when Parker, a staff artist for the Binghamton Press in upstate New York, was asked to judge a high school art contest. Among the entrants was teenager Johnny Hart, whose work so impressed Parker that he arranged a meeting. Parker and Hart discovered a mutual interest in cartooning, hired an agent and began submitting work to such magazines as the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and Good Housekeeping. By the end of the decade, Parker was working as an art director at IBM and Hart had created the comic strip B.C., a prehistoric parody of modern man's foibles.  In 1964, Hart brought that comic concept even further up to date -- from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, to be exact -- added a castle of characters and took the premise of The Wizard of Id to Parker. More than a quarter of a century later, Brant Parker passed the torch to his son, Jeff, in 1997.  The kingdom they conjured up thrives as well. The Wizard of Id is syndicated to more than 1,000 newspapers worldwide, has generated more than a score of trade paperbacks and consistently earns top rankings in readership polls. The strip has also earned numerous awards, including Best Humor Strip Awards from the National Cartoonist Society. Parker and Hart each were awarded the NCS's Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year: Hart in 1971 and Parker in 1984."
                            # ("Working Daze", "http://comics.com/working_daze"),
                            # "Working Daze is a slightly skewed look at life in a modern, high-tech office.  The comic centers around the staff of MacroMicroWare, a computer company that makes a bunch of products, though nobody is really certain what their main market focus is. Still, the CEO is mega-rich, so the staff assumes that somebody somewhere must be doing something right.  John Zakour is a humor\/sci-fi writer and graduate student in Human Behavior. In the past, he has done such diverse things as write zillions (well, thousands) of gags for syndicated cartoonists and comedians, ride ambulances as an Emergency Medical Technician, work as a Web guru for a major university (which helped lead to creating Working Daze), write greeting cards, and assistant-teach Judo. His humorous sci-fi book, The Plutonium Blonde, is published by Daw books and is available at fine bookstores all over the country (and now in Russia also).  Scott Roberts has worked with John on many projects over the years, starting with the Rugrats comic strip. Scott is the creator of the long-running Patty Cake comic, and a longtime free-lancer for Nickelodeon Magazine and DC Cartoon Network comics. He currently colors and letters Prince Valiant. His work can be viewed at http:\/\/webcomicsnation.com\/scottartist\/. "
                            # ("Working It Out", "http://comics.com/working_it_out"),
                            # "This comic strip centers around a character named \"Mr Jamison\" \u2013 a bushy-moustached, pencil-nosed low-level manager who seems to take delight in the suffering and mistreatment of his subordinates.  Born in 1968, in South Florida, Charlos Gary always dreamed of becoming a cartoonist. One of seven children raised by his parents in an inner-city section of Orlando, he knew at an early age that his artistic ability could become a way out of poverty. However, it wasn't until two years later at the University of Toledo's paper, The Collegian, that he committed himself to becoming a serious cartoonist. After graduation in 1995, his first professional political cartoon appeared in the (Elmira, N.Y.) Star-Gazette, where he got started as a graphic artist.  In 1997, Gary moved to Chicago, where he split his time between drawing cartoons and creating graphics for the (Arlington Heights, Ill.) Daily Herald. His work there earned him several awards and honors, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1999.  Later that year, Gary began working for the Chicago Tribune as a graphic artist. His cartooning talent didn't go unnoticed in the newsroom, and within two years, he created a single-panel strip called Working It Out, which ran weekly in the Tribune's business section. Gary currently lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., with his wife, Agustina."
                            # ("Zack Hill", "http://comics.com/zack_hill"),
                            # "Ten-year-old Zack now lives with his widowed mother, who runs a boarding house full of oddballs.  A hyperactive kid with an overactive imagination, Zack sometimes causes her to pull her hair out as she tries to make ends meet. The comic appears in over 20 major newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Seattle Times, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Buffalo News. Zack Hill is currently being developed into an animated TV show by TV writer Will Schifrin (Fraser) and producer Prudence Fenton (Pee Wee's Funhouse). Zack Hill is also being adapted into a musical by Werner Trieschmann and Tom Tierny (Eleanor). Zack Hill can be seen every day on seattletimes.com or Comics.com. John Deering's family encouraged his early displays of artistic talent, and he decided to pursue a career in art. He studied painting with portrait artist Truman Alston and majored in Fine Art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  In 1981, John landed a job at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, where his cartooning ability developed in the paper's editorial art department. He was promoted to chief editorial cartoonist in 1988. Numerous regional and national awards soon followed, as John won the John Fischetti Cartooning Award from Columbia College, Chicago, in 1993 and the Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation in 1997.  John's editorial cartoons and a comic panel, Strange Brew, are also distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate. John lives in Little Rock with his wife, Kathy, and their sons, Will and Matthew, who provide real-life inspiration for Zack Hill. John's experience as a comic strip writer began years ago when he wrote for Archie Comics Inc. John worked with famed Archie artist Dan DeCarlo, creator of Josie and the Pussycats, writing the Archie comic strip, which ran in over 250 newspapers around the world. He wrote and directed the award-winning independent feature film Best Man in Grass Creek. The film was presented in over 10 film festivals, such as the Montreal Film Festival. It won three awards, including the Bronze Award at the Flagstaff Film Festival, and Best Comedy at the Santa Clarita Film Festival in Los Angeles. Before making his first feature film, John was the VP of Development for Morgan Freeman's production company, Revelations Entertainment in Santa Monica, Calif. He also assisted talent manager Beverlee Dean, who has represented such talent as Reese Witherspoon, Kevin Sorbo and Jim Caviezel."
                            # ("(Th)ink", "http://comics.com/think"),
                            # "Tackling the political and social issues impacting communities of color."
                            # ("Adam Zyglis", "http://comics.com/adam_zyglis"),
                            # "Known for his excellent caricatures, as well as independent and incisive imagery. "
                            # ("Andy Singer", "http://comics.com/andy_singer"),
                            # "Andy Singer's cartoons are based on his own experiences and what he sees in the world around him. He loves comedy and humor, but is also interested in politics, philosophy, religion, art and history, which is reflected in his cartoons."
                            # ("Bill Day", "http://comics.com/bill_day"),
                            # "Powerful images on sensitive issues."
                            # ("Bill Schorr", "http://comics.com/bill_schorr"),
                            # "Strong commentary with pointed humor, winner of the National Cartoonists Society\u2019s Editorial Cartoon Award. Also Bill Schorr pens the Grizzwells seen here on Comics.com. "
                            # ("Bob Englehart", "http://comics.com/bob_englehart"),
                            # "Englehart studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago before joining the staff of Chicago Today as cartoonist.  He now works full-time as editorial cartoonist for The Hartford Courant. "
                            # ("Brian Fairrington", "http://comics.com/brian_fairrington"),
                            # "Brian is one of the most accomplished young cartoonists in the country. Brian was the recipient of the Locher Award, the Charles M. Schulz Award, and several Society of Professional Journalists awards and Gold Circle Awards. "
                            # ("Bruce Beattie", "http://comics.com/bruce_beattie"),
                            # "Bruce Beattie has been creating captivating and controversial editorial cartoons since 1986.  He is also creator of a comic strip, and his work has been featured in several museum exhibits, including the State of Florida's Museum of History. Beattie graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Oriental studies and attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He began his career at The Honolulu Advertiser and then moved on to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, where he has been editorial cartoonist since 1981. His awards include the Florida Society of Professional Journalists' Sunshine State Award for Excellence in Editorial Cartoons and the Florida Press Club's Award for Excellence in Journalism. "
                            # ("Cam Cardow", "http://comics.com/cam_cardow"),
                            # "Cam's editorial cartoons take aim at many of the issues in the news today: Meech Lake, the GST, developments in Europe, steroids, the revolution in China, Canada's love affair with the NHL, and much more.  Cam's deft pen skillfully skewers politicians and eloquently illustrates the world's current events. Cam is the pen name of Cameron Cardow, the editorial cartoonist at the Regina Leader Post. Cam recently won the Canadian National Newspaper Award for Cartooning, and his inimitable style will be familiar to anyone who reads a newspaper - his cartoons have appeared in almost all of the major daily papers in Canada."
                            # ("Chip Bok", "http://comics.com/chip_bok"),
                            # "Chip Bok began his career as the editorial cartoonist at the Clearwater Sun in 1980. In 1983, he joined Knight-Ridder\u2019s early online venture, Viewtron. He also illustrated Dave Barry\u2019s column and drew a weekly cartoon for the Miami Herald\u2019s late great Sunday magazine, Tropic. He became editorial cartoonist for the original John S. Knight paper, the Akron Beacon Journal, in 1987. From his drawing board at the Akron Beacon Journal, Chip Bok has won two National Cartoonists Society awards for Best Editorial Cartoonist (1995, 1999). He was a Pulitzer finalist in 1997. Other awards include the Fischetti Award (1988), National Press Foundation Berryman award (1993), H.L. Mencken Award (1993), and four Ohio A.P. Awards (1992, 1996, 1999, 2000). Bok\u2019s cartoons appear in Time, Newsweek, Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and many other newspapers, magazines and websites through Creators Syndicate. He is the author of two books: Bok! The 9\/11 Crisis in Political Cartoons (University of Akron Press, 2002) and A Recent History of the United States in Political Cartoons: A Look Bok! (University of Akron Press, 2005). Bok is a graduate of the University of Dayton and currently lives in Akron with his wife Deb and two of their four children."
                            # ("Chris Britt", "http://comics.com/chris_britt"),
                            # "Chris Britt's political cartoons are sometimes controversial, often outrageous and always thought-provoking.  His take-no-prisoners style has been entertaining readers since 1991. A self-described liberal, Britt nevertheless delights in skewering deserving politicians of every persuasion. His numerous awards include first place for editorial cartooning from the Washington Press Association in 1995, the National Press Foundation's Berryman Award as editorial cartoonist of the year in 1994, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2009. "
                            # ("Chuck Asay", "http://comics.com/chuck_asay"),
                            # "Chuck sifts the events of the day through his biblical worldview and tries to persuade readers to see things his way. That rights are given by a higher authority than the governments of men, that mankind is not the ultimate arbiter of truth and that our Constitutional Republic is worth protecting.  Chuck believes ideas, not politicians rule the world.  He tries to protect ideas which he thinks are good and attacks ideas he thinks bring harm.   Asay has experienced life as a teacher, a grandpa and bomb-thrower of ideas. His home base is in Colorado Springs with the Gazette newspaper."
                            # ("Clay Bennett", "http://comics.com/clay_bennett"),
                            # "Clay Bennett visually distills complex issues down to their very essence. When Clay Bennett left The Christian Science Monitor in 2008 to join the Chattanooga Times Free Press, his editorial cartoons became available for syndication. Washington Post Writers Group Editorial Director Alan Shearer immediately signed Bennett, despite industry forces that are depleting the ranks of cartoonists and reducing the space for their work. \"I've heard people in our business say editorial cartooning is in decline as newspapers slash and burn, and they are right to a degree,\" Shearer said. \"But creatively, cartooning is as strong as ever, and Clay is one of the brightest lights. His work will be a strong presence in the marketplace.\" Bennett has been the editorial cartoonist for The Christian Science Monitor since 1998 and, while there, he was a Pulitzer finalist for an unprecedented five consecutive years, winning it in 2002. He has also earned just about every other editorial cartoon award there is, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition, the Overseas Press Club's Thomas Nast Award, the National Headliner Award, the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award, the National Journalism Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation, and the National Cartoonists Society Division Award for Best Editorial Cartoons. Bennett was also named Editorial Cartoonist of the Year by Editor & Publisher magazine in 2001. Bennett was the editorial cartoonist at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times from 1981 until he was fired in 1994, whereupon he spent more than three years in \"professional oblivion\" before being hired by The Monitor. \"The Christian Science Monitor saved my career,\" said Bennett. \"The editors there showed faith in me when few in this business seemed willing to.\" Before working in St. Petersburg, Bennett was a staff artist at both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Fayetteville (NC) Times. He is married to portrait artist, illustrator and cartoonist Cindy Procious, and they have three children, Matt, Ben and Sarah."
                            # ("Daryl Cagle", "http://comics.com/daryl_cagle"),
                            # "Daryl Cagle has been one of America\u2019s most prolific cartoonists.  Raised in California, Daryl went to college at UC Santa Barbara and then moved to New York City, where he worked for 10 years with Jim Henson\u2019s Muppets, illustrating scores of books, magazines, calendars, and all manner of products. In 2001, Daryl started a new syndicate, Cagle Cartoons, Inc. (www.caglecartoons.com), which distributes the cartoons of 50 editorial cartoonists and columnists to more than 800 newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Daryl is a past president of the National Cartoonists Society and current president of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Daryl is a popular and entertaining public speaker.  "
                            # ("David Fitzsimmons", "http://comics.com/david_fitzsimmons"),
                            # "David Fitzsimmons is a new editorial cartoons on comics.com.  He is also a staff writer and editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star. "
                            # ("Drew Litton", "http://comics.com/drew_litton"),
                            # "Drew Litton is an artist who is probably best known for his sports cartoons. He received the National Cartoonist Society Sports Cartoon Award for 1993. "
                            # ("Ed Stein", "http://comics.com/ed_stein"),
                            # "Winner of the Fischetti Award in 2006 and the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, 1999, Ed Stein has been the editorial cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News since 1978. "
                            # ("Eric Allie", "http://comics.com/eric_allie"),
                            # "Eric Allie is an editorial cartoonist with the Pioneer Press and CNS News. "
                            # ("Gary Markstein", "http://comics.com/gary_markstein"),
                            # "Gary Markstein makes a living by skewering pompous public figures and politicians of every political stripe.  Gary Markstein cut his cartooning teeth while doodling in the margins of his grade-school homework and went on to earn a degree in fine arts from Arizona State University. Now he makes a living by skewering pompous public figures and politicians of every political stripe. Markstein, is an artist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and was previously the cartoonist for the Tribune Newspapers in Arizona. His many awards for cartoons and illustrations include the Milwaukee Press Club Award, Cox Newspapers' Best Editorial Cartoonist award, a second-place National Headliner Award, a third-place Berryman award from the National Press Foundation (both in 1997) and the 1997 John Fischetti Editorial Cartoonist Competition for 1997. He won the Global Media Award for Excellence in Population Reporting two years in a row (2001, 2002). "
                            # ("Gary McCoy", "http://comics.com/gary_mccoy"),
                            # "Gary McCoy is known for his editorial cartoons, humor and inane ramblings. He is a 2 time nominee for  Best  Magazine Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. He resides in Belleville, IL. "
                            # ("Gary Varvel", "http://comics.com/gary_varvel"),
                            # "Varvel is a well established book illustrator as well as editorial cartoonist for the The Indianapolis Star. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1957, Varvel was drawn to cartoons as a child when he saw a copy of MAD magazine. In 1974, he met Jerry Barnett, the editorial cartoonist for The Indianapolis News who mentored and encouraged him to pursue a career in cartooning. In 1975, Varvel studied visual communication at John Herron School of Art at Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). In college he drew cartoons for the Sagamore, the college newspaper. Varvel was hired as an newsroom artist for The Indianapolis News when Jerry Barnett recommended him for the position. He spent the next 16 years working as the chief artist managing a 3-person art department. During that time, Varvel applied to many newspapers around the country for an editorial cartooning position. But in 1994, pulitzer prize winning cartoonist Charles Werner retired from The Indianapolis Star and Varvel's dream came true when he landed the position. In 2005, Varvel placed second in the national Best of Gannett contest for Editorial Cartooning. In the past 12 years, Varvel has won the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists' Award for Best Editorial Cartoon ten times. He is also an eight-time winner of the first place award for Best Editorial Cartoonist in the Hoosier State Press Association Contest since 1995. Varvel's work is nationally syndicated through Creators Syndicate. His cartoons have appeared on CNN, FOX News and in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Washington Times, National Review, World magazine and Sports Illustrated. Varvel lives in Brownsburg with his wife of 26 years, Carol. They have three children: Ashley-23, Brett-21 and Drew-16."
                            # ("Henry Payne", "http://comics.com/henry_payne"),
                            # "Henry Payne reports regularly on economic, consumer and environmental issues. He is the editorial cartoonist for The Detroit News.  He also writes and draws a column, Payne & Ink, which appears on the paper's Monday Op-Ed page. His weekly CAR-toon - a humorous look at America's car-crazy culture - runs Tuesdays on The News' web site, detnews.com.  He has been a runner-up for both the Pulitzer and Mencken awards. Payne is an active race car driver, tennis and squash player, and lives with wife, Talbot, and two children in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan."
                            # ("JD Crowe", "http://comics.com/jd_crowe"),
                            # "Crowe generously spreads his tough love to international and national issues based on the news of the day. J.D. Crowe is the staff cartoonist for the Mobile Register (Mobile, Alabama.) He aggressively works local and state issues (Lord knows there's lots of work to be done in Lower Alabama,) feeling it his duty to weed out numskull politicians on the homefront before they can grow in the national spotlight. J.D. lives near the gulf coast in Fairhope, Alabama, with his family."
                            # ("Jeff Parker", "http://comics.com/jeff_parker"),
                            # "An award winning cartoonist, Parker hits home with a powerful satirical twist on today's issues. Growing up with rockets on Florida's space coast, Jeff Parker first began drawing editorial cartoons for Florida Environments news magazine in 1989 followed by Orlando Business Journal in 1990 before joining his hometown newspaper, Florida Today, in 1992.  In 2005, Jeff was honored with the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Division Award for Editorial Cartooning after three prior nominations.  Jeff works from his home studio. His wife, Pat, considers him her only child. "
                            # ("Jeff Stahler", "http://comics.com/jeff_stahler"),
                            # "Jab, poke, stick, skewer, prod, lampoon... this is the unique language of political cartoonist Jeff Stahler. Stahler was a finalist for the National Cartoonists Society's 1999 Reuben division award for Best Editorial Cartoons and has won numerous national and local awards, including first place in the 1990 John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition. He lives in Cincinnati with his  family and is the Editorial cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch. Stahler also creates the whimsical slice-of-life daily comic panel \"Moderately Confused\" seen here on Comics.com."
                            # ("Jerry Holbert", "http://comics.com/jerry_holbert"),
                            # "Holbert's strips are an even-handed lampooning of everyday life. Jerry Holbert is on staff at the Boston Herald where he is an editorial cartoonist. He was named the best editorial cartoonist of the year by the National Cartoonists Society in 2001. "
                            # ("John Cole", "http://comics.com/john_cole"),
                            # "John Cole's interest in cartooning took root while drawing for his junior high newspaper. He went on to claim honorable mention (1994) and first place (2004) in the John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition, as well as the undying animosity of Durham's politically correct readership.  In 1985, John worked at the  Durham Morning Herald (later The Herald-Sun) in Durham, North Carolina. Exploiting the town's robust political mix, he eventually convinced his superiors to name him the paper's full time editorial cartoonist.  Cole joined the editorial department of The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in April, 2005.  He lives in Pennsylvania with his family. "
                            # ("John Darkow", "http://comics.com/john_darkow"),
                            # "John Darkow is a contributing editorial cartoonist for the Humor Times as well as editoiral cartoonist for  the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri"
                            # ("John Sherffius", "http://comics.com/john_sherffius"),
                            # "John Sherffius has been capturing the issues of the day in pen and ink since his college years at the University of California, Los Angeles. Sherffius has been honored in recent years with national cartooning awards from the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, the National Press Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Scripps Howard Foundation. He is the 2008 winner of the Herblock Award. His home paper is the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo."
                            # ("Larry Wright", "http://comics.com/larry_wright"),
                            # "Larry began drawing political cartoons in 1960 for the Okinawa Morning Star, a civilian-owned English language daily, while serving with the Army on Okinawa. He left Okinawa in 1965 and returned to his hometown of Detroit for a job on the news desk of the Detroit Free Press. Here he began drawing a daily political cartoon on the Free Press Feature Page and in 1976 The Detroit News offered me a position as a full-time cartoonist.  He later took the job of Associate Creative Director of detnews.com, the Detroit News website that went online in July 1995.  He lives in Michigan with his family. You can also see his strip Kit N' Carlyle here at comics.com."
                            # ("Lisa Benson", "http://comics.com/lisa_benson"),
                            # "Politically conservative, artistically brilliant cartoons that speak to mainstream America.     Lisa Benson is a rare talent who can illustrate a major news story in a single drawing and convey her ideas to readers in very few words,\u201d said Alan Shearer, Writers Group editorial director. \u201cConservative describes her politically. Brilliant describes her artistically. A combination of artistic talent, moral indignation and strong point of view mesh somehow to produce some of the finest work I have ever seen from a local cartoonist. Looking at her portfolio, I was blown away.\u201d      Benson came to editorial cartooning a little later than most, in the midst of raising her four children. In the early 1990s, Benson\u2019s husband\u2019s business was going through an industry wide recession, so she began looking at employment options to supplement the family income. In 1990, she started drawing cartoons for a local monthly publication, \u201cThe Senior Advocate,\u201d and doing paste-up and cutting rubylith for the color separations. Benson soon decided to give editorial cartooning a try. \u201cI was so confident the Daily Press needed my services back in 1992 that I stuffed ONE sample cartoon in an envelope and mailed it to the opinion page editor. I must have included my phone number, because Steve Williams called me in for a meeting and hired me to do two cartoons each week.\u201d Benson stopped editorial cartooning from 2002 to 2004, a period she calls \u201cnursing home hell.\u201d  Despite the personal pressures, Benson earned first-place honors from the California Newspaper Publishers Association (under 75,000 circulation) in 2000 and second place in 2004. In 2005, she took both second and third place from the Society of Professional Journalists\u2019 Inland Southern California Chapter. A native Californian, Benson lives in Apple Valley with her husband, Gregory, a building designer. They have four children, ages 18 to 26."
                            # ("Marshall Ramsey", "http://comics.com/marshall_ramsey"),
                            # "Cartooning whiz kid Marshall Ramsey has been creating cartoons with a fresh, 'Generation X' point of view since 1994.  Cartooning whiz kid Marshall Ramsey began drawing when his mother, an art teacher, gave him a pencil and a piece of paper to keep him quiet in church. Those early doodlings eventually evolved into the slightly warped but right on target cartoons that Ramsey has been creating since 1994.  Full of biting wit, his cartoons provide a fresh, 'Generation X' point of view. Born in New Jersey, he grew up in Atlanta and earned a marketing degree at the University of Tennessee, where he was a cartoonist at the school newspaper. His honors include being named winner of the 1993 John Locher Memorial Award. Ramsey began his professional career by filling in for the editorial cartoonist at the Knoxville Journal. He moved on to positions as creative director at the Conroe (Texas) Courier and at Copley News Service before becoming the editorial cartoonist at the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger. He was a Pulitzer finalist in 2002."
                            # ("Matt Bors", "http://comics.com/matt_bors"),
                            # "Matt Bors relentlessly follows the latest absurdities in American politics and culture. His illustration work can be found in dozens of magazines and newspapers across the country and has been featured on the covers of numerous newsweeklies, including the NY Press, Miami New TImes, Boston Phoenix, and OC Weekly. Matt  graduated from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2003 and currently resides in Portland, OR."
                            # ("Michael Ramirez", "http://comics.com/michael_ramirez"),
                            # "Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez combines an encyclopedic knowledge of the news with a captivating drawing style. In addition to the 1994 and 2008 Pulitzer Prizes, Ramirez was the 2008 winner of the prestigious Fischetti Award. He is a three-time Sigma Delta Chi, Society of Professional Journalism Award winner, a Lincoln Fellow and a recipient of the UCI Medal. He is a senior editor and the editorial cartoonist for Investor's Business Daily. He is formerly the editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, The Memphis Commercial Appeal and a contributing cartoonist for USA Today."
                            # ("Mike Keefe", "http://comics.com/mike_keefe"),
                            # "Keefe's cartoons are often considered intense and irreverent. He is winner of several top awards including The Fischetti editorial cartoon competition (1991, 2001,2007), the National Headliners Club (1986), and the Society of Professional Journalists (1986).    Keefe, is a former US Marine, college math teacher, and for a short time, (before Frank Shorter's heat), the state masters record holder in the indoor mile.  He plays guitar and harp for the rock and blues band, Falling Rock.  Keefe has tow grown children and lives with his wife in downtown Denver. He has no known allergies"
                            # ("Mike Luckovich", "http://comics.com/mike_luckovich"),
                            # " 2006 winner of the Reuben, the National Cartoonists Society's top award for cartoonist of the year. After freelancing and selling life insurance to make ends meet following his graduation from the University of Washington in 1982, Luckovich landed his first cartooning job at the Greenville News in South Carolina. After nine months at the News, Luckovich was hired by The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where he stayed for four years before moving on to Atlanta.    Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Constitution received two amazing honors in 2006, winning both a Pulitzer Prize and the Reuben award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. This was the second Pulitzer for Luckovich; his first was awarded in 1995. He had previously received the Reuben award for Editorial Cartooning in 2001, but this was his first time to be named the overall outstanding cartoonist by a group of his peers. Impressive as these achievements are, they are only the latest in a long line of awards for Luckovich. He was a runner-up for the Pulitzer in 1987 before garnering the 1995 win.  In 1989, he won the Overseas Press Club's award for the \"Best Cartoons on Foreign Affairs for 1989,\" and in 1991, he was awarded the National Headliners award for editorial cartoonists. In 1994, a Luckovich cartoon was selected by voters in a Newsweek magazine poll as one of the four best editorial cartoons of the year.   Luckovich's cartoons, syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate, appear in more than 350 daily publications, including The Washington Post, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Denver Post, Newsday, New York Post, The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, The Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Nashville Tennessean and the Houston Chronicle, and are reprinted regularly in Time, Newsweek and the New York Times."
                            # ("MIke Thompson", "http://comics.com/mike_thompson"),
                            # "Mike Thompson's award-winning cartoons have appeared in publications including Time, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Mike Thompson is the editorial cartoonist for the Detroit Free Press. His work has won numerous honors, including The 2002 Overseas Press Club Award for cartooning, the national 2000 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award, the 2000 National Press Foundation Award, the H.L. Mencken award and the national Women in Communications Clarion Award. Thompson, who also draws for USA Today on a rotating basis, has had his work reprinted in such publications as Time, Newsweek, Forbes, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, his cartoons have been featured on CNN, C-SPAN, the NBC \"Today\" show and the Fox News Network. Thompson began his career as contributing cartoonist for The Milwaukee Journal and later worked as staff cartoonist for the St. Louis Sun and the Copley Illinois newspapers before joining the Free Press in November 1998. "
                            # ("Monte Wolverton", "http://comics.com/monte_wolverton"),
                            # "Unique mix of perspectives"
                            # ("Mr. Fish", "http://comics.com/mr_fish"),
                            # "Side effects may include swelling"
                            # ("Nate Beeler", "http://comics.com/nate_beeler"),
                            # "Middle America meets the Beltway."
                            # ("Nick Anderson", "http://comics.com/nick_anderson"),
                            # "Cartoons with an independent streak and a sophisticated use of color. Pulitzer winner.      Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle is an avowed independent who covers politics and contemporary cultural issues in a way that connects with readers. His loose, idiosyncratic style carries with it an unconventional message that has broad appeal. \"I approach my work with a healthy skepticism for the ideological extremists littering our political landscape,\" explains Anderson.    Anderson grew up in Toledo, Ohio, in a family that encouraged independent thinking in politics. Anderson majored in political science at Ohio State University and was editorial cartoonist for the school's newspaper, The Lantern. In 1989, he won the Charles M. Schulz Award for best college cartoonist. He interned one summer at The Louisville Courier-Journal, which immediately recognized his talent. After his graduation from OSU, the newspaper created a position for him as an associate editorial cartoonist and illustrator. Anderson was promoted to chief editorial cartoonist in 1995 and was syndicated by the Writers Group a year later. After 15 years with the Courier-Journal, in 2006 Anderson accepted a position at the Houston Chronicle. In 2005, Anderson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. In addition to the Pulitzer, Anderson earned the Sigma Delta Chi award in 2000, the 1999 Fischetti Award, and first-place honors for editorial cartooning in the Best of Gannett Awards in 1996, 1997 and 1999. Anderson's cartoons have been published in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and other papers. He lives in Houston with his wife, Cecilia Baylon, and his sons, Colton and Travis, whose names Anderson hides in each of his cartoons."
                            # ("Pat Bagley", "http://comics.com/pat_bagley"),
                            # "Unfair and Totally Unbalanced."
                            # ("Paul Szep", "http://comics.com/paul_szep"),
                            # "Editorial cartoons from a two time Pulitzer Prize winner as well as a Harvard fellow. Paul Szep was born in the darkest Canada, which accounts for the way he talks, eh?  He was a hockey player and worked in the steel mills, which accounts for the way he thinks.  He is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Ontario. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, a Headliner Award, the International Thomas Nast Award, three honorary doctorates, and was inducted into Hamilton's Hall of Fame in 2003.  He was a fellow at Harvard. Paul has two great children, Amy and Jason, and is a single-digit golfer, which only means he plays way too much golf and draws far too few cartoons."
                            # ("RJ Matson", "http://comics.com/rj_matson"),
                            # "Power cartoons from NYC and Capitol Hill"
                            # ("Rob Rogers", "http://comics.com/rob_rogers"),
                            # "Humorous slant on current events"
                            # ("Robert Ariail", "http://comics.com/robert_ariail"),
                            # "Clever and unpredictable"
                            # ("Scott Stantis", "http://comics.com/scott_stantis"),
                            # "Scott Stantis regularly skewers the prominent political figures of the day from his home paper, the Chicago Tribune.  After graduating from high school in Madison, Wis., Stantis and his family returned to Southern California, and Scott enrolled at Los Angeles Community College and California State University, Long Beach. Shortly after being kicked out of the latter, he landed the job of editorial cartoonist for the Orange County Register. Thus began his career in earnest. Next he was hired by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. Additional editorial cartoon jobs followed, first at The Arizona Republic and now at the Chicago Tribune. He lives in Hoover, Ala., with a mortgage, car payments, his wife Janien (since 1981) and two sons. He also has a box turtle and a dog named Dogzilla. When Scott isn't creating editorial cartoons, he works on a comic strip, 'The Buckets,' and other animation projects. He also writes screenplays, reads, collects political memorabilia, plays with his kids, walks the dog and ignores his yard."
                            # ("Signe Wilkinson", "http://comics.com/signe_wilkinson"),
                            # "Left-leaning bite that makes readers think -- as soon as they stop laughing. After acquiring a BA in English from a western university of middling academic reputation, Wilkinson was unprepared for real work ... so she became a reporter, stringing for the West Chester (PA) Daily Local News. She also worked for the Quakers, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and with a housing project in Cyprus, a job that ended with a bang when a coup d'etat was followed by a military invasion from Turkey. Back in the newsroom, Wilkinson began drawing the people she was supposed to be reporting on. She realized cartooning combined her interests in art and politics without taxing her interest in spelling. After a year of remedial art school, including a stint at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she began freelancing at several Philadelphia and New York publications, finally landing a full-time job at the San Jose Mercury News in 1982. After 3 1\/2 years on a steep learning curve, Wilkinson repaid her long-suffering Mercury News editor by taking a job at the Philadelphia Daily News. In addition to her five cartoons a week for the Daily News, Wilkinson has drawn mulch-based cartoons for Organic Gardening magazine, mortarboard-based cartoons for the Institute for Research on Higher Education and water-based cartoons for the University Barge Club newsletter. \"How to Grow the $735 Tomato\" is the title of her 1999 gardening calendar. Her awards include the 1992 Pulitzer Prize, the 1991 Berryman Award and 1997 Overseas Press Club Award. Her most cherished honor was being named \"the Pennsylvania state vegetable substitute\" by the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1989.bb"
                            # ("Steve Benson", "http://comics.com/steve_benson"),
                            # "From behind his drawing board at The Arizona Republic, editorial \u201charpoonist\u201d Steve Benson regularly lobs his ink-bottle grenades, drawing beads on rascals in high places, as well as drawing fire. Indeed, Steve\u2019s work proves the observation of his editor, \u201cA picture is worth a thousand phone calls.\u201d Responding to a cartoon drawn at his expense, Arizona\u2019s late Sen. Barry Goldwater penned the cartoonist the following note: \u201cThere are -- and have been -- good Bensons. You ain\u2019t.\u201d In 1993, Steve won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Prior to winning that award, he held the distinction of being the contest\u2019s most nominated loser.  His cartoons have also earned him a National Headliner Award, an Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence, a Rocky Mountain Emmy, a place in Who\u2019s Who in the West, and several Best of the West and Arizona Press Club Awards. He was a 2002 recipient of the American Civil Liberties Union \u201cPractitioner of the First Amendment Award,\u201d given to him for having \u201ctaken on John Ashcroft, Jerry Falwell, President Bush and anyone else who has sought to denigrate or to deprive us of liberties we are guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.\u201d Steve\u2019s work has been a regular cause of morning upset and\/or delight around the country\u2019s breakfast tables for 20 years. His cartoons are nationally distributed by Creators Syndicate. They have also appeared in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as on CNN, MSNBC, ABC\u2019s Nightline, CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes and PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Report -- not to mention in millions of readers\u2019 wastebaskets. Steve is past-president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He is a native of Sacramento, Calif., an Eagle Scout and a 1979 alumnus of Brigham Young University, where he graduated magna cum loudest. Steve is the author of five books of his editorial cartoons. Married to Mary Ann Christensen of Preston, Idaho, since 1977, Steve and his wife reside in Gilbert, Ariz. They have four children, all grown and all living under assumed names."
                            # ("Steve Breen", "http://comics.com/steve_breen"),
                            # "Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Breen is fast developing a reputation for provocative political cartoons.  A Southern California native, Breen spent much of his childhood at home reading Mad magazine while his friends were off at the beach. Although he earned a degree in political science and a U. S. history teaching credential, Breen was hooked on cartooning as a career after one of his cartoons was published in Newsweek when he was only 19 years old. He is the winner of the 2007 Berryman Award presented by the National Press Foundation, and the 1998 and 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.  "
                            # ("Steve Kelley", "http://comics.com/steve_kelley"),
                            # "An honors graduate from Dartmouth College, Kelley spent two decades as a political cartoonist for The San Diego Union-Tribune. In 2002, he moved to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. His work has won dozens of awards, including six first-place finishes from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. In 2001, he won first-place awards from the CNPA, the Los Angeles Press Club and the Best of the West competition. That same year, he also won the National Headliner Award.  The Virginia native is a popular speaker and humorist. A veteran of seven appearances on The Tonight Show, Kelley gives much of his time and talent to charity. Funny Money, which he co-created, has provided funding for the San Diego Child Abuse Prevention Foundation for seven consecutive years. In 2001, he started 1,000 Laughs for 1,000 Smiles to raise money to fund reconstructive surgery for children in Mexico. Kelley is the father of a young son, Hayden, about whom he brags without regard to the listener's interest."
                            # ("Steve Sack", "http://comics.com/steve_sack"),
                            # "Steve Sack has been the editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune since 1981. A native of the Twin Cities, Steve was born in St. Paul, Minn. in 1953. His newspaper career began while attending the University of Minnesota, where he illustrated features and drew editorial cartoons for the school paper, The Minnesota Daily. Two years later, he was hired as staff cartoonist for the Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal-Gazette. After three years, Steve returned to Minnesota to join the Star Tribune. He has won assorted Minnesota cartooning awards and has received national recognition of his work, winning the Press Club's National Headliner Award, the Sigma Delta Chi cartooning award and the Scripps Howard Foundation's editorial cartooning contest. In 2004, he was a named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. With partner Craig Macintosh, he also produces the children's Sunday comics feature \"Doodles,\" and in his free time, he enjoys oil painting. Steve lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Beth"
                            ]:
            articles = self.make_links(url)
            if articles:
                feeds.append((title, articles))
        return feeds

    def make_links(self, url):
        soup = self.index_to_soup(url)
        # print 'soup: ', soup
        title = ''
        current_articles = []
        pages = range(1, self.num_comics_to_get+1)
        for page in pages:
            page_url = url + '/?Page=' + str(page)
            soup = self.index_to_soup(page_url)
            if soup:
                strip_tag = soup.find('a', attrs={'class': 'STR_StripImage'})
                if strip_tag:
                  print 'strip_tag: ', strip_tag
                  title = strip_tag['title']
                  print 'title: ', title
            current_articles.append({'title': title, 'url': page_url, 'description':'', 'date':''})
        return current_articles

    extra_css = '''
                    h1{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight:bold;font-size:large;}
                    h2{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight:normal;font-size:small;}
                    p{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;}
                    body{font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;}
		'''
