As a kid, Darrin Bell devoured newspaper comic strips. So it was disappointing whenever editors refused years later to add his comic strip, "Candorville," to their funny pages as soon as they saw that his lead characters were minorities. The editors would say they already carried a so-called Black strip. It is difficult for cartoonists like Bell to understand why editors would automatically assume a comic strip with minorities could not gain a mainstream following. Recently, he and Cory Thomas, creator of the "Watch Your Head" strip that is also syndicated by Washington Post Writers Group (WPWG), organized a satirical protest. On February 10, the artists' strips featured minority characters rebuking White characters who complained that newspapers shake up their funny pages too much. Bell said their goal was to actually coax editors into changing their comics lineups more often. The protest was timed near the birthday of pioneering Black cartoonist Ollie Harrington, who died in 1995.