On February 10th, 10 black cartoonists are banding together to protest the way their comic strips are looked at by newspapers. Most papers have one or two spots for black comic strips and think of them as interchangeable. Cory Thomas of "Watch Your Head" (above) and Darrin Bell of "Candorville" organized the protest.

For the action, the cartoonists will all do a version of one of Thomas' comics. The theme and writing in each strip will be similar, though "we're all plugging in our own characters," said Bell. The idea is to satirically protest the erroneous notion of many editors and readers that comics by African-American creators are interchangeable.

What might the action accomplish? "I hope editors will start allowing minority cartoonists to compete for all their comics slots, not just one or two slots," replied Bell, whose 2003-launched "Candorville" strip runs in 60 to 65 papers.

Even though I barely pick up a hard copy of a newspaper these days, and, when I do, I'm not gunning for the comics section, I feel the black comics' pain. Equal rights for cartoonists! [E&P]