Candidaldea, the Spanish-language version of Candorville, adds another newspaper to its growing list of clients. It will soon be seen in The Hispano Weekly, in Lubbock, Texas.

Candidaldea is produced by Darrin Bell and his fiancé, Laura Bustamante. Laura, a professional translator, is also an accomplished Spanish-language voiceover artist who’s worked in the Spanish versions of several feature films including Jurassic Park, Casper, An American Tail (where she starred as Fievel), and many others. Currently she works as a television reporter for the Latin American culture show Latin Eyes. Latin Eyes is currently appearing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno, CA, Louisville, KY and other cities, and will be seen nationwide through syndication later this year.

Creating Candidaldea isn’t as easy as it seems. Some things just don’t translate directly from English to Spanish. So when the humor isn’t universal, Laura basically rewrites the cartoon, with a different joke, and sometimes an entirely different storyline. It’s a challenge, but it’s important to do it right.

Great day for a hike at Mount Tam. I twisted my ankle playing tennis a couple weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure the best way to heal a twisted ankle is a 10 mile hike over rough terrain.

Today, I’m finishing up work on the back cover for the second Rudy Park book, Peace, Love and Lattes. This design is a lot less cluttered than the first one. I’ll post the front and back cover sometime in August, once the catalogs go out to retailers.

Last year, for the first book, The People Must Be Wired, we all thought it would be a good idea to show all seven of the main characters doing what they do best. It was the first collection, so it was necessary to introduce ALL the characters. Darlene was ignoring Randy who was hitting on her while standing next to Sadie who was giving the evil eye to Rudy who was tangled in gadget wires, one of which was being chewed on by Monkey who was standing next to Armstrong who was counting money next to Mort who was getting ready to drop some knowledge through his trusty bullhorn (whew!). Needless to say, that left me very few options for design considerations, and next to no chance I could create something that would really catch the eye on a book shelf. It turned out well, but I thought we could do better.

This year will be different. The front cover features only one main character. It’s the one main character (and the one theme) that pretty much dominated the second year of the strip.

Back to work…

I’ll be in this Sunday’s Face Time column in the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Sunday Magazine. It’s a regular Q&A column that features notable Bay Area residents. Somehow I slipped in, too.

I’ve been looking for a tux the past few weeks. Laura and I are getting married next month, and it’ll be outdoors. In Southern California. Getting heatstroke can put a damper on a wedding, so I’m looking for a good white or light gray tuxedo. I never knew how hard it would be to find one of those. If you want anything other than black, people at department stores look at you like you’re speaking a foreign language.

Yesterday we walked all over downtown SF, from Macy’s to Nieman Marcus and Saks Fifth, but nothing really grabbed our eye. Finally, we found the perfect place. And I’m keeping it all to myself.

A side note, if you’re in SF, make sure you try the Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken at the Cheesecake Factory atop Macy’s, overlooking Union Square. Trust me.

Saturday’s Candorville strip featured Lemont sitting at a bar, watching TV. A few strips use this device – it goes back at least as far as Doonesbury, and it’s also been a mainstay in such strips as Bloom County, Boondocks and Rudy Park. Some readers are annoyed by those strips, which usually feature the main character sitting in the same position for three panels. The only thing that changes is the text, and maybe the character’s facial expression.

I’m not above using the TV device, for this one reason: There’s just no getting around it. The television, for most Americans, is our constant companion. It’s more loyal than the family dog. It tells us secrets about Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson. It keeps us informed (or misinformed) 24 hours a day on CNN, Fox and MSNBC. It tells us how we’re supposed to dress, what we’re supposed to eat, and what toys to buy our kids. It comforts us with sitcom families that are funnier than ours, and with the Sopranos and the Simpsons, who are more dysfunctional than most of us will ever be. With shows like Farscape and Babylon 5, it even dreams for us.

Ignoring that relationship just isn’t an option. So I do my best to make those strips visually interesting.

•••

This Saturday’s cartoon drew some protest from only one reader. In the cartoon, the TV was tuned to Fox News, and the anchor was talking about the Abu Grhaib torture scandal, in which photos emerged showing US troops torturing Iraqi prisoners. The Fox News anchor said “A recent poll shows a whopping 20% of Americans are fed up with all the outrage over the tortured Iraqi prisoners. After all, what they went through was nothing compared to the way Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups treat their prisoners.” It goes on to say “America. Hey, at least we’re not as bad as the terrorists.”

Here’s the note:

Dear Mr. Bell,

 In general I really enjoy your ‘strip Candorville. However, I absolutely resent today’s comparsion of America with Al Qaeda. This is absolutely uncalled for and without merit or justification. As I read your bio on your website I realized, however, that you are just another victim of a UC Berkely liberal brainwashing. Perhaps you should actually compare the awful events at Agu Ghaib with what the Hussein regeme engaged in on a quotidan[sic] basis, or what Al Qaeda is trying to accomplish with chemical and biological weapons.

And my response:

Dear XXXX,

Thanks for taking the time to write, and I hope I’ve cleared up the misunderstanding.

•••

Candorville, which already appears on Comics.com (which carries mainly United Media strips), has just been added to ucomics.com (which carries mainly Universal Press Syndicate strips). In related news, the Whopper has just been added to the menu at McDonald’s, and Burger King will begin selling the Big Mac.

According to Ucomics:

“Candorville centers around the interactions between Lemont Brown, an intelligent young writer, Susan Garcia, a business woman, and Clyde, an angry young man with a dysfunctional past. This is a strip that is unafraid to take on controversial issues, and has touched on everything from gay marriage to racial profiling. Creator Darrin Bell has a lot to say, and he does it through the inventive use of thought bubbles, his crisp drawings and his deep understanding about the interactions that make us human. As the series progresses, the bonds between the characters become more apparent. Readers are sure to embrace Lemont, Susan and Clyde as they begin their journey into Candorville, available on My Comics Page.”

and…

“Darrin Bell’s Candorville is an insightful look at family, community and race through the eyes of Lemont Brown, a young black writer. Bell pulls no punches and delves into even the most controversial of issues. The wit and humor of the strip will draw you in.”
•••

Candorville, which already appears on Comics.com (which carries mainly United Media strips), has just been added to ucomics.com (which carries mainly Universal Press Syndicate strips). In related news, the Whopper has just been added to the menu at McDonald’s, and Burger King will begin selling the Big Mac.

According to Ucomics:

“Candorville centers around the interactions between Lemont Brown, an intelligent young writer, Susan Garcia, a business woman, and Clyde, an angry young man with a dysfunctional past. This is a strip that is unafraid to take on controversial issues, and has touched on everything from gay marriage to racial profiling. Creator Darrin Bell has a lot to say, and he does it through the inventive use of thought bubbles, his crisp drawings and his deep understanding about the interactions that make us human. As the series progresses, the bonds between the characters become more apparent. Readers are sure to embrace Lemont, Susan and Clyde as they begin their journey into Candorville, available on My Comics Page.”

and…

“Darrin Bell’s Candorville is an insightful look at family, community and race through the eyes of Lemont Brown, a young black writer. Bell pulls no punches and delves into even the most controversial of issues. The wit and humor of the strip will draw you in.”
•••

A reader e-mailed me the URL to an article that appeared on the Chicago Tribune’s website, where a reporter named Eric Zorn accuses Candorville of ripping off an old Peanuts cartoon.

Here’s the original article:

CLOUDY

I recently took note here of this “Candorville” comic strip in the Tribune showing two of the characters lying on their backs on the top of a building:
Lemont: Susan, see that cloud? What’s it look like to you?

Susan: Sort of like President Polk in 1848. And there’s his mighty army coming down from the north to steal half of Mexico. Over there’s the INS loading a group of migrant famr workers onto a bus for deportation.

Lemont: I see a bunny.
I said I was pretty sure I’d seen “Peanuts” use almost the identical joke. Several readers sent me the following dialogue from a 1960 “Peanuts” strip that creator Charles Schulz once reportedly named as one of his most popular ever:
Lucy: If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations…what do you think you see, Linus?

Linus: Well, those clouds up there look to me like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean…that cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor…and that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen…I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side….

Lucy: Uh huh….that’s very good….what do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?

Charlie Brown: Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!
Coincidence? Homage? Rip-off?

I e-mailed “Candorville” creator Darrin Bell a week ago to ask for his explanation.

No answer yet.

The strip he mentioned was similar in structure to a recent Candorville strip, but c’mon. When you’ve got four panels to tell a story, there are only so many ways to do it. There are only so many ways to set up a gag and only so many punchlines that would be appropriate. I’ve seen Boondocks and Opus strips that are nearly identical to strips I drew years ago, but knowing the industry like I do, I realize this kind of thing is almost never a case of plagiarism. It’s coincidence. Pick any cartoon in your local paper, and someone somewhere will have seen something very similar in one of the several million cartoons drawn in the past. In this case, they had to go back to 1960.

Still, I can accept skepticism. It’s only natural. What I can’t accept is lazy reporting.

My first journalism instructor, way back in high school, told us the definition of a lazy journalist is one who writes an accusatory article, and says the object of his attack “could not be reached for comment.” Sometimes this is done by a procrastinating reporter who’s working too close to deadline, and doesn’t have time to properly track down the source. Other times, “couldn’t be reached for comment” actually means “I didn’t want to get a comment that would refute my assertions.”

It’s a rare thing indeed when you can’t even contact the person’s spokesman – which in this case would be my syndicate, the Washington Post Writers Group. The Tribune has the Writers Group telephone number, I’m sure, and logically, they would have been able to put Zorn in contact with the subject of his piece. A reporter working at one of the world’s finest newspapers, you would think, would exhaust every weapon in his investigatory arsenal – even including the drastic measure of picking up a telephone – to get a quote from the subject of their article.

Zorn, however, ends his supposition by saying “I e-mailed ‘Candorville’ creator Darrin Bell a week ago to ask for his explanation.

No answer yet.”

I never received any such e-mail from Mr. Zorn. Zorn could have called the Post Writers Group if he had really wanted to contact me. But that would mean he’d have to think of a different snarky ending for his article.

My high school journalism teacher would not be amused.

••••••••

A Zorn reader responded (see below) that I was inflating the issue by implying it appeared in the print edition instead of where it did appear – in Zorn’s Tribune-hosted blog. I was incorrect in saying it ran in the paper. I assumed that, since Zorn is a Tribune reporter, it ran in the paper. But I don’t see the significance of that observation. Was it meant to imply that something appearing on a newspaper’s website doesn’t need to be accurate or fair?

The kind of laziness evident in the Zorn article doesn’t quite fall to the same level of a Jayson Blair, but it’s somewhere in the same neighborhood.

••••••••

A reader e-mailed me the URL to an article that appeared on the Chicago Tribune’s website, where a reporter named Eric Zorn accuses Candorville of ripping off an old Peanuts cartoon.

Here’s the original article:

CLOUDY

I recently took note here of this “Candorville” comic strip in the Tribune showing two of the characters lying on their backs on the top of a building:
Lemont: Susan, see that cloud? What’s it look like to you?

Susan: Sort of like President Polk in 1848. And there’s his mighty army coming down from the north to steal half of Mexico. Over there’s the INS loading a group of migrant famr workers onto a bus for deportation.

Lemont: I see a bunny.
I said I was pretty sure I’d seen “Peanuts” use almost the identical joke. Several readers sent me the following dialogue from a 1960 “Peanuts” strip that creator Charles Schulz once reportedly named as one of his most popular ever:
Lucy: If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations…what do you think you see, Linus?

Linus: Well, those clouds up there look to me like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean…that cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor…and that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen…I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side….

Lucy: Uh huh….that’s very good….what do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?

Charlie Brown: Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!
Coincidence? Homage? Rip-off?

I e-mailed “Candorville” creator Darrin Bell a week ago to ask for his explanation.

No answer yet.

The strip he mentioned was similar in structure to a recent Candorville strip, but c’mon. When you’ve got four panels to tell a story, there are only so many ways to do it. There are only so many ways to set up a gag and only so many punchlines that would be appropriate. I’ve seen Boondocks and Opus strips that are nearly identical to strips I drew years ago, but knowing the industry like I do, I realize this kind of thing is almost never a case of plagiarism. It’s coincidence. Pick any cartoon in your local paper, and someone somewhere will have seen something very similar in one of the several million cartoons drawn in the past. In this case, they had to go back to 1960.

Still, I can accept skepticism. It’s only natural. What I can’t accept is lazy reporting.

My first journalism instructor, way back in high school, told us the definition of a lazy journalist is one who writes an accusatory article, and says the object of his attack “could not be reached for comment.” Sometimes this is done by a procrastinating reporter who’s working too close to deadline, and doesn’t have time to properly track down the source. Other times, “couldn’t be reached for comment” actually means “I didn’t want to get a comment that would refute my assertions.”

It’s a rare thing indeed when you can’t even contact the person’s spokesman – which in this case would be my syndicate, the Washington Post Writers Group. The Tribune has the Writers Group telephone number, I’m sure, and logically, they would have been able to put Zorn in contact with the subject of his piece. A reporter working at one of the world’s finest newspapers, you would think, would exhaust every weapon in his investigatory arsenal – even including the drastic measure of picking up a telephone – to get a quote from the subject of their article.

Zorn, however, ends his supposition by saying “I e-mailed ‘Candorville’ creator Darrin Bell a week ago to ask for his explanation.

No answer yet.”

I never received any such e-mail from Mr. Zorn. Zorn could have called the Post Writers Group if he had really wanted to contact me. But that would mean he’d have to think of a different snarky ending for his article.

My high school journalism teacher would not be amused.

••••••••

A Zorn reader responded (see below) that I was inflating the issue by implying it appeared in the print edition instead of where it did appear – in Zorn’s Tribune-hosted blog. I was incorrect in saying it ran in the paper. I assumed that, since Zorn is a Tribune reporter, it ran in the paper. But I don’t see the significance of that observation. Was it meant to imply that something appearing on a newspaper’s website doesn’t need to be accurate or fair?

The kind of laziness evident in the Zorn article doesn’t quite fall to the same level of a Jayson Blair, but it’s somewhere in the same neighborhood.

••••••••