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With a diverse cast of characters and street-smart sensibility, Darrin Bell's "Candorville" candidly explores the issues of the day in an upbeat, evenhanded way. Available in both English and Spanish.

Listen to Darrin Bell's interview on the Pocho Hour of Power (Scroll down to March 16)

From the pen of cartoonist Darrin Bell comes "Candorville," a comic strip about a diverse group of friends in the inner city.

Through the eyes of its main characters--Lemont Brown, a young aspiring writer; Susan Garcia, a young woman working in the corporate world; and Clyde, an angry young man who makes the wrong choices in life--"Candorville" explores issues such as bigotry, poverty, homelessness, biracialism, the culture of victimhood, youth and personal responsibility, along with politics and current events.  But in an upbeat way.   Honest.

Often brutally frank but always evenhanded, ``Candorville'' steadily built a loyal following on the Web and in several African-American newspapers. Syndicated worldwide by The Washington Post Writers Group in 2003, "Candorville" was one of few comic strips to launch in both English and Spanish. There have been two compilation books -- Thank God for Culture Clash (2005) and Another Stereotype Bites the Dust (2006) -- both from Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Bell started free-lancing editorial cartoons while attending the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained a degree in political science. His cartoons have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times and several other publications, as well as on MTV, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC. The cartoons come from a black/minority perspective but comment on a wide range of issues. "I believe there's no issue of relevance that doesn't also affect minority communities just as it does the white community," Bell says. 

Bell was born in south-central Los Angeles in 1975. His parents, both teachers, soon moved to East Los Angeles. At a young age, he remembers going along with his mother while she attended classes at Cal State Los Angeles. Darrin would sit in a corner with some art supplies, quietly drawing. During most of his school years, a time when urban school districts were being desegregated, he was bused to schools as much as two hours away. 

"We were always minorities in every neighborhood we lived in, which I think opened my eyes a bit more to the rest of the world," he says. "I've always had friends who were different from me, so I have a lot of respect for diversity." About the time Darrin enrolled at Berkeley in 1993, he developed the concept for a strip called "Lemont Brown," which evolved into "Candorville." 

He also collaborates with Theron Heir on the comic strip "Rudy Park," syndicated by United Media. Bell and his wife Laura Bustamante live in Berkeley, Calif.