Web site, with safeguards in place to restrict participation to the paper's circulation area and prevent repeat voting. But comic samples won't be on the site -- meaning non-subscribers might buy the paper to vote. Lloyd expects a rise in single-copy sales that day; the paper's usual Sunday circulation is 192,343, according to the latest FAS-FAX figures. Lloyd -- who couldn't say how much the survey effort would cost -- said the Press is promoting the poll with in-paper ads, rack cards, and radio spots. People can vote until Dec. 20. It's not definite when the results will be announced, and when the Press will make comics changes based on the poll. Lloyd emphasized that the survey results will impact these changes, but not solely determine them. Whatever the poll says, the paper still wants to retain a mix of comics that appeal to adults and children, women and men, various ethnicities, and so on. How did the Press choose the 40 not-subscribed-to comics in the poll? Lloyd said the paper was interested in certain comics, and syndicates suggested others. The Press will have new presses and a redesign in 2004. Lloyd said that if the poll elicits a lot of votes, that may help the paper decide to increase its number of daily comics pages from one to two. "My feeling," said Lloyd, "is that the response will be huge. Comics are an area people really revere in the newspaper." ***

MacNelly Room at Trib Tower

It's Scheduled to Open Next Month A permanent exhibit of about 50 pieces of Jeff MacNelly's work will open Jan. 13 in a 24th-floor room at the Tribune Tower in Chicago, according to Susie MacNelly, his widow. It will include editorial cartoons MacNelly drew for the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Media Services, "Shoe" strips he created for TMS, and other art. John Twohey, a TMS vice president, said the exhibit was the brainchild of Susie MacNelly (current co-creator of "Shoe") and retiring Tribune Co. chairman John Madigan. "It's a reflection of the esteem in which Jeff was held here," Twohey told E&P Online. MacNelly, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, died in 2000 at age 52. ***

Five Decades for Cartoon Canine

'Marmaduke' Book Marks Comic's Birthday A canine comic's half-century anniversary is being marked with the publication of Top Dog: Marmaduke at 50 by Ballantine Books. Brad Anderson's Great Dane first appeared in newspapers in 1954, and now has 660-plus clients via United Feature Syndicate. The hardcover collection includes a foreward by "Garfield" creator Jim Davis of Universal Press Syndicate. ***

Ombuds on 'Opus' and More

Comics a Big Early-December Topic "Opus" and other comics were discussed in several ombud columns posted Dec. 1 on For instance, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee Ombudsman Tony Marcano reported that reader reaction to "Opus" -- the new Sunday-only, half-page, Washington Post Writers Group strip by "Bloom County" creator Berkeley Breathed -- ranged from appreciative to "cold as a penguin's tush." The first two "Opus" strips (Nov. 23 and Nov. 30) received a lot praise for their art but few kudos for writing and humor. Marcano wrote that readers should "cut the reincarnated penguin some slack. He's only two weeks old." The Bee dropped "Pardon My Planet" to make room for "Opus." Marcano quoted Pam Dinsmore, the paper's assistant managing editor for features, as saying: "We believed that Berkeley Breathed had something exciting ... to offer our readers. ... I suppose we could have added 'Opus' without dropping 'Pardon My Planet,' but that would have made some strips too small and unreadable." That's a problem in a number of papers that added "Opus" and kept all or most of their other Sunday comics without increasing pages. One Bee reader suggested that "Peanuts" reruns be dropped, and Marcano agreed. "No child should grow up without that round-headed kid and his worldly pooch," he wrote, "but most of Charles Schulz's work can be found in books." Marcano also mentioned the Bee's new four-page pullout, "Comics for Kids," that's inside the paper's eight-page Sunday comics section. He again quoted Dinsmore: "We chose to add a section specifically designed for children because not all the comics we run are appropriate for young people. ... I also believed that it would be good for children to have a section of the newspaper that relates to them." At The Oregonian of Portland, Public Editor Michael Arrieta-Walden wrote that the paper received a lot of reader response -- some pro, some con -- when it substituted "Opus" for "Cathy" and "Hi and Lois." Meanwhile, The Boston Globe Ombudswoman Christine Chinlund reported that the paper made room for "Opus" on the front page of its Sunday comics section by bumping "Doonesbury" to the third page. There was some irony to that decision because Breathed admitted, in a National Cartoonists Society speech this May, to using subconsciously-remembered ideas from "Doonesbury" in some of his early "Bloom County" strips. ***

Kup's Assistant Writing Column

Stella Foster's Feature Appears in Sun-Times By Mark Fitzgerald After serving for decades as the assistant and then co-writer with Irv Kupcinet of "Kup's Column," Stella Foster began her own feature in the Chicago Sun-Times Dec. 2. In the first "Stella's Column," Foster said she would write in the spirit of Kup, whose column ran for 60 years until his death Nov. 10 at age 91. "Kup may physically be gone, but spiritually he lives in my heart and in the heart of the city, for he was 'Mr. Chicago,'" Foster wrote in her first column. Foster, an African American, said her column will be "multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and, most importantly, a column you can enjoy over a cup of coffee in the morning or while relaxing in your easy chair after a hard day at the office." Her first column was a mix of new and old bold-faced celebrities: Singers Beyonce Knowles and Jay Z followed by retired Illinois Gov. James Thompson, an item from the Chicago Jewish Historical Society, and a comment on Michael Jackson ("a pitiful, pitiful sight to behold"). In another long Kup tradition, she gave a shout-out to her boss, noting in one item that new Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank would be speaking Dec. 3 at the City Club of Chicago. In its first outing, Foster's column, which will run Tuesdays and Thursdays, managed to do something Kup could not for the past 15 years -- get moved farther up front in the newspaper. While "Kup's Column" faced the business section -- the last stop in the tabloid before obituaries and classified ads -- "Stella's Column" Dec. 2 ran opposite the Commentary page. Mark Fitzgerald is editor at large for E&P. ***

Et cetera ...

Award-winning Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons is being syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association starting Dec. 15. He comments on politics and national issues from a liberal perspective. The former Newsweek general editor and Texas Monthly associate editor has also freelanced hundreds of magazine articles and written several books -- including, with Joe Conason, The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services (KRT) this January is launching "What's Next," a weekly package aimed at readers 18 to 34. Content includes tips for entertaining on a budget, offbeat shorts on topics such as Internet manners and a new librarian action figure, video game news and reviews, information on extreme sports, the "TV Gal" news-and-gossip feature, a trivia quiz, and a roundup of "the best of the supermarket tabloids." Tribune Media Services will syndicate the "Kids and Money" column by Steve Rosen of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star. The feature has been with KRT for more than three years. Reclusive "Calvin and Hobbes" creator and Ohio resident Bill Watterson was the subject of a lengthy article recently posted on Clevescene.com. Among the things James Renner wrote about: Watterson is rumored to destroy his oil-on-canvas landscapes after he finishes painting them, many Chevrolet drivers are using an unauthorized decal showing Calvin urinating on a Ford logo (something especially infuriating for a cartoonist who was against merchandising "Calvin and Hobbes"), and Watterson's early struggles to get syndicated. Renner concluded with a description of seeing someone who might have been Watterson in an Ohio bookstore. The cartoonist was appearing in more than 2,400 newspapers via Universal Press Syndicate when he ended his 10-year-old comic in 1995.