Editorial Cartoonists in Portland (with a side of Barney and Clyde)

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists 2010 annual conference is going on now in Portland. Among other events, is one at Powell’s tonight at 7:30.

Comics have a funny place in my “law” world. There are some good lawyer cartoons (and wonderful cartoonists who offer them free to libraries), but one does need a break from all those funny lawyers.

Print newspaper comics readers are as possessive and as fierce about the Funny Pages as sports fans are about the Sports Pages. (The Oregonian knows this well and some of their own staffers are as devoted as their readers are to the comics.)

And, when a favorite comic gives a shout out to a new comic, one likes to take a look. Cul de Sac creator, Richard Thompson, posted to his blog an introduction to Barney and Clyde, a new comic strip about a rich man and a homeless man. This setup could easily go very wrong, but so far the touch seems light and shows promise, without treacle or snark or wince-producing scrapes.