Morning Quickies: What We're Reading Now...

Greetings, Cartoon Nation...

With so much good cartoon news in the air, it seems the ideas are just as fertile as the tequila-doused college kids come Spring Break week. To help wend your way through the crush, here's Comic Riffs's helpful tips of what we're reading now...

THE TOP-FIVE THINGS WE'RE READING NOW...

1. From Homer Simpson to Huckleberry Hound, the folks at Gunaxin offer their take on who in cartoons would make the best father figure. Of their nominees, Papa Smurf would seem to be head-and-blue-shoulders above the rest -- especially Jon Arbuckle.

2. King Features's ever-growing Comics Kingdom announces a new "ZITS" motion comic, which are 30-second partial animations.

">

3. The Daily Cartoonist's Alan Gardner is hosting an engaging comments thread about what the best graphic novel of all time is that's NOT based on a superhero. "Maus" and "Scott Pilgrim" were leading the vote. Many good picks -- particularly glad to see "Girl Genius," "Exit Wounds" and "Zot" cited. Mighty surprised, though, not to see a single vote for "Persepolis." (And how "Wonder Woman" got a vote...well, someone wasn't reading the ballot right.)

4. Comics Reporter reviews Jeffrey Brown's "Funny Mishapen Body," which we're reading right now.

5. And lastly, hearty congratulations to our colleague Gene Weingarten for the Post Writers Group syndication of his new strip co-created with his son, "Barney and Clyde." We look forward to seeing the sales kit.