The majority of income for most successful syndicated comic strips comes directly from newspaper revenue. If anyone thinks that newspaper readers don’t list comics as a primary reason for buying a paper, (as your wife Anna does), ask a newspaper publisher or editor. Or, try being a Features editor at a paper that drops one of those strips. They are usually inundated with hundreds of angry emails and phone calls.

Your numbers are about right regarding income levels from varying numbers of subscribing newspapers, (400, 1000, etc.) Of course that depends greatly upon how many major daily papers you have vs. smaller papers. One large paper can pay you several thousands of dollars a year, while a small paper will pay you less than a hundred…one can do the math with a large number of either type.

The only thing I’d add to this whole “can o’ worms” is that most print cartoonists have a web presence now, and certainly see the wisdom of increasing it as time goes on. It’s just that most of them still derive enough income from newspapers to make it more than worth it to continue floating a fishing line in that particular lake. It is still stocked with over 1,000 hungry fish, despite the fact that the population is decreasing. (Sorry about the metaphor…the worms got me going.)

Ultimately, the income from syndicated comics comes from advertising and book, t-shirt and coffee-mug sales, just as with webcomics, it’s just hidden from the cartoonist because the syndicate does all that.

I do not believe that is correct. Newspapers pay the syndicate a fee to run each cartoon. The fee is based on circulation. The artist gets paid a percentage of the fees paid by the newspapers, usually 50%. A strip running in about 400 newspapers earns the artist well over six figures just for the strip running in the paper. Major strips run in well over 1,000 papers, and the revenues for these newspapers is what drives syndicate profits. Books are a decent revenue earner but merchandise sales are only substantial for the big strips like Peanuts. The other angle is rights to TV and film adaptations, and possibly for advertising.

Ultimately, the income from syndicated comics comes from advertising and book, t-shirt and coffe-mug sales, just as with webcomics, it’s just hidden from the cartoonist because the syndicate does all that. Most print cartoons are basically given away free with the newspaper – how many people do you know who buy a newspaper primarily for the comics?

So cut out the syndicate middleman, and you end up giving the content away from free, and making your money from advertising and selling stuff yourself. The more you do yourself, the bigger percentage of the money you get to keep, and the fewer sales you need to make to get by.

I think what a lot of the print cartoonists don’t seem to see is that the syndicate model is going to *die*, and there will simply not be a plug-in replacement that does exactly what a syndicate does. And it’s entirely possible that *nothing* will replace it – each individual is going to have to do the things that the syndicate does for them now.

I am beginning to think that there is room for someone who will do all the business, web and sales stuff for a cartoonist who simply wants to draw and get paid. Something like what Robert Khoo does for Penny Arcade.

I can’t even color in a basic B/W theme park caricature in photo shop because understanding the technological terminology,layers? computer color values,opacities,etc. is frustrating and takes hours til I just turn off the computer .
Brutal.
I admire guys like Tom and Joe Bluhm who create digitally like its second nature to them.

My point is for older artists like me-its harder to embrace the web comic age after for years doing it old school.
Todays generation learns how to draw digitally before it even draws with pencil and paper.