What ho, weekenders! And happy Canadian Thanksgiving to our hockeyless neighbors to the north!

Stephen Bissette’s Center For Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT has teamed up with the esteemed site Slate (via The Slate Book Review”) to launch the annual Cartoonist Studio Prize, with some real money attached for the winners. This looks like a heckuva good thing and thanks to all involved for putting it together.

Over the years, some of my favorite comics have disappeared from the newspaper as creators retired for various reasons. One of my favorites these days is Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis. Here’s Michael Cavna’s interview with him.

Paul O’Connor takes on a multi-part storyline from Marvel’s 1970s classic, Master of Kung-Fu at Longbox Graveyard.

In preparation for his new book, 1986: The Year That Changed Comics, comics historian Peter Sanderson posts his chapter looking at Jack Kirby’s Hunger Dogs. “By the mid-1980s, however, the comics industry and its audience had changed considerably. Kirby’s Fourth World saga was now widely regarded not as a failure but as a classic.”

Cartoon Brew reports that Genndy Tartakovsky’s (Hotel Transylvania; Samurai Jack) next project will be an animated feature rebooting of Popeye.

Grantland has a very nice look at the complicated legacy of Stan Lee.

You know what I like? The idea that no one in Star Wars can actually read or write, except maybe Greedo  and he shot first.

Michael Sporn writes about egos among creative people, including Chuck Jones, John Hubley, Bill Tytla, and a bunch of others in the animation industry.

Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool reports on artist Ryan Kelly and why it’s important for freelancers in any field to have access to affordable and worthwhile health care.

The lack-of-continuity of classic Star Trek is an annoyance to sf writer Jay Lake.

I’ve seen this guy’s cartoons on greeting cards and lots of other places and he always makes me laugh. Now, Tube Mag has a profile of cartoonist Eric Decetis.

And finally, Dark Horse editor Scott Allie interviews writer Christopher Golden at Dread Central. Any interview that references Kolchak: The Night Stalker is worth reading: “There's a Kolchak episode called “Horror in the Heights,” which was written by Hammer Films stalwart Jimmy Sangster, that I found really frightening as a kid.”

That's all the internets have this week! Use 'em responsibly.

[Artwork: Pearls Before Swine]