Arnold Wagner has passed away. He’d been battling cancer for quite some time, and it had recently returned. His daughter announced the news late Friday night.

I never knew Arnold in person, but I consider myself very fortunate to have interacted with him online over the past several months.

I met him at the toontalk forums, where he came across as this wise and gentle grandfatherly figure, always willing to share advice and insight. His blog, Arnold’s Cartoonology, is a treasure of cartoon history. The formatting has gone a bit wacky in recent months, but if you can handle it, it’s definitely worth reading.

It was a treat to get to know him, even if it was only in the limited way that I did.

Thanks, Arnold.

In this week’s Caf?© San Diego at voiceofsandiego.org, guest host Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, president of Falcon Valley Group, writes about blogging and media bias.

Some points that jumped out at me:

It‚Äôs a funny thing to me. The public complains about biased reporting … and then seeks out information full of nothing BUT bias on blogs and web sites of unknown origin.

How true. But she continues:

The best citizen journalism follows the best practices of good mainstream journalism: It’s sourced, it’s factual, and there’s a byline from a real person.

It made me think about the blogs I visit on a regular basis and who is not afraid to be up front about who they are, and who hides behind a veil of anonymity. Some obviously need to protect their identity, while it seems others are just comfortable to take cheap shots from the dark.

You can check out more of Falkenthal’s guest host stint, as well as previous hosts, at Caf?© San Diego.

I have no idea where to pick up Prairie Fire, the new alternative weekly / monthly (I’m not sure) newspaper, but I’d heard word that Paul Fell had a column about editorial cartooning.

Also, after several weeks of no new content, I’d concluded that they were just not updating their website. I’ve continued to search fruitlessly to find a hard copy, so I pulled up the site today to see if there was info on where to find the paper, only to discover they have in fact updated the site and are leading with Paul Fell’s column (and cartoon).”

Entitled ‘The State of Editorial Cartooning,’ there’s little new ground covered if you’ve been following this site or any other commentary on the state of cartooning, but it’s still worth a read if you’d like a local perspective.