LAKE GENEVA, Wis., Dec. 31, 2010 - Every Monday beginning Jan. 3, 2011, readers of three national newspaper comic strips created by Joe Martin - Mr. Boffo, Willy ‘n Ethel and Cats with Hands - will be able to view an animated version of that day's strip on their smart phones merely by holding their phones over a tag embedded into the newspaper strip.

Martin, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most prolific cartoonist, conducted a test of this innovative concept in June 2010 with his Boffo strip in a number of newspapers, including the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune. (See link below for that newspaper's article on the subject.)

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/family/97192594.html

Now, Martin is expanding this groundbreaking concept to the dozens of newspapers around the world that carry one or more of his three strips, including the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and a newspaper in Milan, Italy. Another major paper, the Orange County Register, will kick off this tag concept on Jan. 10.

"Enhancing the enjoyment of comic strip readers is the most obvious result of placing tags in my strips, but newspapers are the ones that are really going to reap the benefits of this innovative process," said Martin, a Lake Geneva resident who grew up in Chicago and who has been producing comics for 35-plus years.

"The newspapers that publish my strips will be able to add their advertisers to the tags absolutely free of charge, which is going to result in another revenue stream for them without them having to expend any funds or manpower. My goal is to familiarize newspaper readers with the tag in a fun way through the comics and promote tag use throughout the paper."

In order to see the comic animations, readers merely need to download the free Microsoft app via their mobile devices at http://gettag.mobi, then hold their phones over the tag embedded in the comic strip.

A simple cartoon example of this process can be viewed at www.mrboffo.com, right under the red "Editors" balloon.

"I want to use phones to turn newspapers into pocket televisions through the use of a simple search engine that anyone can use wherever they are," Martin said.

Newspapers interested in contacting Martin regarding this new concept or his strips may do so through his website - www.mrboffo.com.