Cartoonist Day – Press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cartoonists Day, Free Comic Book Day Share Same Date: May 5, 2007
Lovers of comic books, comic strips and all forms of cartooning will have two reasons to celebrate these art forms this year when Free Comic Book Day and Cartoonists Day fall on the same date: Saturday, May 5, 2007!
Fun-loving people everywhere are also urged to enjoy CARTOONISTS DAY and CARTOON APPRECIATION WEEK May 3-9. May 5 has been designated as CARTOONISTS DAY because the first comic strip, “The Yellow Kid,” appeared in the newspaper on May 5, 1895.
CARTOON APPRECIATION WEEK offers a chance to recognize the positive influence and laughs this art form has provided for so many years in films, books, newspapers, magazines, comic books, and commercial art.
Cartoonists, schools, and libraries are encouraged to offer cartoon exhibits and classes and to promote books on cartooning at this time.
“It’s exciting, and appropriate, that CARTOONISTS DAY and FREE COMIC BOOK DAY share the same date this year,” says Elissa Lynch, spokesperson for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. “For more than a century, comic strips have entertained and informed millions of readers, as comic books do now. In fact, several comic book publishers have started releasing collections of classic comic strips to introduce them to a new generation of readers. We look forward to celebrating that shared lineage – one of the richest in all of popular culture – on May 5.”
First conducted in 2002, Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book specialty retailers across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who visits their stores. Since its inception, Free Comic Book Day has distributed millions of free comics in thousands of participating comic shops to both current and new comic readers, who in turn discover the wide range of stories and characters found in comic books.
For more information about CARTOONISTS DAY and CARTOON APPRECIATION WEEK, contact Ken Alvine at kenalvine@qwest.net.
For more information about FREE COMIC BOOK DAY – including a listing of the many free titles to be distributed on May 5 – visit the event’s official website at http://www.freecomicbookday.com. To find a comic book specialty shop near you, use the Comic Book Locator Service on the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY website, or visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com.