The front cover of 'Newshounds II - Book One: MegaNewsWest', as taken from this strip.

Two furry webcomics have recently published new "Dead tree" compilations of their strips.

Thomas K. Dye has published the first book of strips from Newshounds II entitled "MegaNewsWest" and contains strips dating since when the original series ended with the staff of KPET News having moved to a now larger news company. The book is published by Lulu and costs £10.64, or you can download the book for £5.70.

The other book is the second part of Bill Holbrook's Kevin & Kell treasury, featuring several of his older strips. Following on from his first part of the treasury, "Historic Kevin and Kell", the new book, "The Great Bird Conspiracy" includes strips from previous editions as well as containing a series of never-before-seen extras. Amongst the extras include a teleplay for a proposed 1997 Kevin & Kell television show. The book is published by Moonbase Press and is available from The Bill Holbrook Store at a price of $24.95 (about £16.50).

Holbrook is also preparing to publish his 14th annual collection of strips for July, entitled "Rules of Engagement".

The Dewclaw family from Kevin and Kell, drawn by Bill Holbrook

Long-running furry webcomic Kevin and Kell has survived a cull of comic strips from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A few days ago, the newspaper decided to get rid of 11 of its 36 comic strips. An online poll was held to decide which of the comics should stay and which should go. In the end, Kevin and Kell received by the far the most votes and stays.

On the Kevin and Kell homepage, creator Bill Holbrook said: "Words cannot express my gratitude for your votes in the paper’s poll. The strip has always relied on its readers to continue, never more so than in this case. This victory is entirely your own."

Holbrook added: "In the end this was an example of the power of the online world’s ability for people to come together and create a community. Again, I thank each and every one of you out there."

From Treesong: "The premier Usenet comics awards are the Squiddies. Furry comics fans, give furdom a little added recognition by voting in them. The current ballot has been posted to the main rec.arts.comics.* newsgroups, as has the third and final 'pseudo-nominees' ballot (showing everything and everyone that anyone's voted for so far)."

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune discusses online comic strips (yes, we're a bit slow on the uptake; the article ran Feb. 22). Among those mentioned are Kevin and Kell and Newshounds.