Switched has picked up on the story that the New York Times reported (and Caleb linked) a week ago: the death spiral of the print newspaper spells trouble for cartoonists.

Last month, I attended a lecture by Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism about the future of journalism. As in the linked essay, he pointed out that people are not turning away from news–that the top newspapers have more readers now than they ever did. Those readers just happen to be online.

One of the things Rosenstiel talked about was the “decoupling” of news and advertising. Why would you buy an ad to sell cars in the New York Times for a ton of money when you can advertise on a website about cars, where more of your audience will be interested in your product?

Targeted advertising is the wave of the future with ads. And news is suddenly driven by targeted searches, Google news finder, and Twitter feeds.

We’re seeing the decoupling of comic strips from news in much the same way. As the articles pointed out, comic strips are moving to the Web, to their own sites, and to different sources of funding.

Though we’d love to see a world where all artists were able to do exactly what they want for the love of it, the practical fact is that we’ve all got to eat. As the media deals with the shift to the Internet, one of the biggest questions is how to survive as an artist–or a journalist–when the Web has everyone expecting content to be free all the time.

We at Blog@ are going to bring you a bunch of stories about webcomics this month, and we hope to be able to help answer some of these questions.

As the brand New Year rolls in, it’s looking like the last vestige of the Spider-Marriage might finally be over.

While a number of fans were outraged at the events of Spider-Man: One More Day, in which Spider-Man chose to “undo” his marriage to Mary Jane Watson in a deal with the demon Mephisto, they still had a few outlets for that relationship fix.

But the last vestige of the marriage — the Spider-Man newspaper strip — may yet be seeing some major changes in 2009.

In yesterday’s Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip, the year came to a close with an ominous announcement:

Attention, Spidey Fans!

Starting tomorrow, there will be a huge change in our hero’s life!

You’ll see the same Spidey surprise that Marvel Comics has given its countless readers.

It’s something we, too, must do because — with great power comes great responsibility!

Or, just think of it as our way of wishing you — a happy New Year!

And now, in today‘s strip, Peter Parker is staying with Aunt May, with MJ nowhere to be seen. The comic ends with a teaser about Peter Parker’s new status quo, urging readers to keep watching to see what happened to our friendly neighborhood web-slinger. If speculation is correct, this could be a strange new tone for the newspaper strip, which famously coincided with the full-length comics during the initial marriage of Spider-Man and Mary Jane. However, if OMD has indeed crossed over into the daily strip, it would certainly work as a strange transition, with little build-up to what would be a radical shift in the series’ tone.

UPDATE: For those of you still wondering — it has been confirmed in today’s strip: a single, college-going Peter Parker is now the strip’s status quo.

SciFi put up an interesting interview today with Frank Miller, discussing The Spirit and Sin City 2. But here’s what stuck out for me:

“Will Eisner was my mentor, and The Spirit was so awesome a property that I at first thought I was not worthy to do it. And then I couldn’t think of anybody else who was, so I decided that I was the right man for the job.”

Now, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. Frank Miller does have a reputation for making himself — we’ll say “larger than life” — when it comes to his already considerable skills as a comic book creator. (A debate might be whether his previous works, like The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, and Sin City balance against more recent works like All-Star Batman and Robin and The Dark Knight Strikes Again.) But part of me wonders: does this sort of comment belittle Eisner? Is this Miller acting presumptuous, taking the crown of comics’ master craftsman?

I mean, it’s true that Eisner was Miller’s mentor. It was the story of Sand Saref that Miller gleefully stripped “from top to bottom” to create the character of Elektra. But what sets off my Spider-Sense is the fact that this really isn’t Will Eisner’s Spirit. In my mind, based on what I’ve seen (and what I’ve read), this feels more like Frank Miller being Frank Miller, and just using these more-or-less sainted characters to act out his stylized (and one could argue, increasingly one-note) film noir repetoire. In other words: is this Will Eisner’s The Spirit? Or Frank Miller’s?

But one could also argue: as Eisner’s protege, even despite their arguments about how comics should work, could this be a legitimate passing of the torch? Is the Spirit a character that should be redefined by a master in every generation?

I’ll be honest. I don’t know. But I’ll bet you do. Let’s discuss.

Monica Gallagher, writer/artist behind Gods and Undergrads and many other self-published comics, has a webcomic strip that I’m loving.

Bonnie N. Collide is a roller derby girl, and the strip is based on her day-to-day life. And so, enjoy.

Lynn Johnston ended the original run of For Better Or For Worse with a Sunday strip detailing how the Pattersons’ lives went after the strip’s conclusion, but have you ever wondered what would happen in more of your favorite comic strips if their creators decided to show readers what futures the fates have in store for the characters once their strips end? Let’s take a look at some ideas for how some of America’s most popular comic strips should end:

Garfield: After coming home late one night after a date with his girlfriend Liz, Jon Arbuckle is shocked to find his loyal cat Garfield slumped face down in a plate of lasagna, dead of an apparent heart attack. Ironically, it is a Monday.

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For 40 years, Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury has been at the forefront of political and social commentary, often to much praise and controversy (Trudeau won a Pulitzer Prize for the strip in 1975, but has pissed off a lot of people over the years,  including the Roman Catholic Church). In 2004, Trudeau began a groundbreaking storyline that saw longtime character B.D., an Army lieutenant stationed in Iraq, personally face the  tragic consequences of war. That storyline is collected in 2005′s The Long Road Home.

The Long Road Home begins in Fallujah, shortly after B.D.’s Humvee is hit by a RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). B.D. survives, thanks to the quick actions of his unit and their field doctors, but not without losing most of his left leg. From there, the book tracks B.D.’s recovery, from Landstuhl in Germany for surgery; to Walter Reed and Fisher House in Maryland for therapy; and finally, seven months later, to his home in Walden. Throughout the book, Trudeau tells B.D.’s story with warmth, grace, and humor, and gives readers insights into the experiences of a soldier’s life as he comes to terms with a horrific, all too common injury, and tries to rebuild his life in the wake of profound changes.

The foreword to The Long Road Home was written by Senator John McCain, who, in 1995, denounced Trudeau on the floor of the Senate after Trudeau published a strip criticizing Senator Bob Dole for leveraging his war record in his failed presidential campaign against President Clinton. Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit Fisher House, a non-profit organization that provides housing for the families of injured soldiers receiving treatment at military and VA medical facilities.

– Tom Spurgeon interviews James Kochalka.

– The Chicago Tribune talks to the guy who models as Superman for Alex Ross.

– S. Clay Wilson is now out of the ICU.

– Tintin made Herge “sick” according to recently discovered letters.

– I enjoyed this LA Times piece on the legal battles surrounding the Watchmen film.

– Buy a copy of Stan’s Soapbox and get it signed by John Romita Sr.

– If you can read Polish, here’s an interview with Milo Manara where he talks about his X-Men project he’s working on with Chris Claremont.

– Finally, here’s Watchmen, the Condensed Version.

There appears to be some sort of competition between Warner Bros. and Lionsgate to see which studio can churn out the most posters for one movie. Warner Bros. is winning with Watchmen, but it’s not for lack of trying on Lionsgate’s part.

Anyway, Cinematical has the roughly 173rd, and supposedly final, poster for Frank Miller’s adaptation of The Spirit. The movie opens on Dec. 25.

– Alison Bechdel and Harvey Pekar, together at last.

– Steve Duin has some good news about underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, who has been in ICU for the past several days.

– Ada Price talks to Dave Gibbons about his new book, Watching the Watchmen.

– Looks like it’s official: Naruto Nation 2009 is totally a go.

– Sam Thielman looks at the significance of Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing in light of the new super-fancy collection coming out soon.

– Over at Stars and Stripes, Gary Trudeau answers some of his critics.

– Van Jensen talks to Mike Allred about the revamped Red Rocket collection.

– Here’s my idea of a fun time: Dan Nadel, Gary Panter and CF sitting around, talking about art and comics.

– Did you know About Comics is 10 years old this year? I didn’t. Chris Murphy has a recollection.

– Sandy Bilus is giving away a copy of Alan’s War over at his blog.

– Oscar Pedro Musibay looks at the Comics Galaxy event that was held at last weekend’s Miami Book Fair.

– Frank Santoro considers the new Popeye collection.

Stripper’s Guide’s Allan Holtz provided a bunch of the strips for NBM’s new Happy Hooligan collection. He had a lot of leftover material, however, which he’s been posting to his blog over the past few days.

– So Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki’s Skim was named as a finalist for the Governor-General’s Award for children’s literature up in Canada, except that Tamaki’s name was left off of the official list of nominees, because technically, she’s the artist and not the “writer.” Letters of protest were written, but apparently to no avail. Tom has reactions from those involved, including Jillian Tamaki.

– Spurgeon also has an interesting interview with Slow Wave cartoonist Jesse Reklaw. I never knew, for instance, that Reklaw left Yale to pursue a career in comics.

– Some people were worried that Tribune Media might be ending the Dick Tracy comic strip. But it turns out those fears may have been premature.

– Aaron Albert talks the Hellboy talk to Mike Mignola for About.com.

– Hey, Kramer’s Ergot 7 is going on tour!

– Another day, another editorial cartoonist gets laid off.

– Finally, Vice magazine talks to Lynda Barry.

With slightly more than a month until the release of The Spirit, Lionsgate has released one final trailer for Frank Miller’s adaptation of the Will Eisner comic.

The Spirit opens on Christmas.

Gene Yang gets the choice seat in the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s Funny Pages section with his new serialized story about sibling rivalry.

Man, no one did rique humor better than Arno. He made the smuttiest joke look classy.

– Harry N. Abrams plans to publish Barry Deutsch’s acclaimed Webcomic Hereville in book form. Brigid Alverson has details.

– Steve Duin provides an update on S. Clay Wilson’s health. Short answer: “His condition has not improved significantly.”

– “There’s an exotica Americans find in my stories that’s lost on Israeli readers:” Nisha Gopalan interviews Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan about her new book Jamilti.

– Colleen Doran is looking for a few good cartoonists to help her review data for the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.

– Kai-Ming Cha has a great interview with editor Sean Michael Wilson about Top Shelf’s upcoming AX anthology. “We’re selecting it from the 10 year archive so we’re talking about some 20,000 pages. That’s a lot of stuff to choose from.”

– Peter Sanderson celebrates the 20th anniversary of Sandman with a look back.

– Sanderson also looks at the new Vertigo Encyclopedia.

– The Daily Cartoonist reports that editorial cartoonists Steve Greenberg and Lee Judge are being laid off from their respective newspapers.

– Things to do: David B and Igort will be at the Beguiling in Toronto this Saturday.

– Other things to do: Kim Deitch will be doing a Q&A event with Bill Kartalopoulos at MoCCA tomorrow night. From the pr: “In a unique and wide-ranging conversation, the two will discuss Deitch’s work and
career to date.  Deitch will preview images from his current works in progress and field questions from the audience.”

– Joe Sacco offers an insightful review of Guy Delisle’s Burma Chronicles.

… flying into the middle of what looks like could be a really fun Peanuts game:

According to Joystiq, the game doesn’t have a publisher yet, and it won’t be done until 2010. Rats.

Josh Brolin still isn’t sure about Jonah Hex

There was at least some truth to the rumor-mill report last month about Josh Brolin playing Jonah Hex in the upcoming Mark Neveldine-Brian Taylor adaptation.

Brolin, star of W. and No Country for Old Men, is mulling over the part but he hasn’t — in the words of the original story — “locked down the deal.” IESB says nothing has been signed, and Collider reports Brolin may end up working on a Tony Scott movie.

The Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics Western anti-hero was announced in July 2007. In March, producer Andrew Lazar said he wants to film Jonah Hex in New Orleans, for a potential 2010 release.

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Lionsgate has released 20 new images from Frank Miller’s adaptation of The Spirit, which opens on Dec. 25.

You can see all of them at MovieWeb.

I haven’t picked up a copy of it yet, but the collection of Tall Tales, a collection of a comic strips Mad magazine artist Al Jaffee did in the late 1950s-early 60s strikes me as one of the more intriguing collections of this year. Ger Apeldoorn must agree, as he’s posted a number of Jaffee’s color Sunday strips up on his blog.

From ASIFA. Because you can never have too much Fosdick.