Sacramento County deputies arrested the nationally syndicated cartoonist at his south Sacramento home on Wednesday.

Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Darrin Bell was arrested Wednesday after authorities found a cache of child pornography, some of it AI-generated.

Darrin Bell, the famed comic strip creator of “Candorville” and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, is based in Sacramento.

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell was arrested on suspicion of possessing child sex abuse videos, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

Darrin Bell was the first person to be arrested under a California law which criminalizes the possession of AI-generated sex abuse material.

Nationally-recognized cartoonist Darrin Bell appeared briefly in court Friday afternoon to answer to accusations of possessing child pornography.

The sheriff's office says he is the first person to be charged in the county under an amended California law which makes child sex abuse material generated by artificial intelligence illegal.

More than 100 videos of child sex abuse material, some of which was computer generated, have been connected to Mr. Bell, 49, according to the authorities.

A prominent California-based comic strip creator, cartoonist and author has been arrested on suspicion of possession and creating child pornography.

The investigation that led to Darrin Bell's arrest started after an individual uploaded 18 files containing child sexual abuse material to an online service.