To say the last nine months of my life were filled with a lot of travel would be an understatement of epic proportions. Since April of 2009 I have gone on personal trips to New York, Orlando and London, England and professional trips to Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Sandusky OH and New Jersey here in the U.S. as well as to Colombia, Germany, Kuwait, Iraq and Australia abroad. Whew. After officially signing on to be a speaker at the Stanley Awards in Sydney I was thinking that I wouldn’t be taking any more major trips for a looong time.

However some things are just too good to pass up.

I was contacted several months ago by Jeannie Schulz, the widow of the great “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles Schulz, and asked if I’d participate in a cultural exchange trip with a group of cartoonists and representatives from the Charles M. Schulz Museum to Havana, Cuba. The trip would last 6 days, during which time we’d meet with a number of newspaper cartoonists, animators, fine artists, students and art teachers in Havana. The idea was to learn about cartooning, animation and art in Cuba while we shared with them what we do back in the United States. There would of course also be time to see Havana and experience some of the culture of Cuba.

How do you say “no” to THAT?? (more…)

Summer is hit and miss with frelance work for me. Sometimes I am busy and sometimes… not so much. Her’e what i have on the baord right now:

• MAD Project- Finally wrapping up a small job for MAD that got put on hold by the special “Issue 500″ spot and the Bo Confidential book. It might appear in 501 but likely it’ll be bumped to 502.
• Penthouse Illustration- a 1/2 page gag illustration.
• Graphic Novel?- I’m currently working with a well known cartoonist/writer on developing a graphic novel adaptation of a book he wrote years ago. We are doing some art for the “pitch” right now and if a publisher picks it up it’ll keep me busy for quite a while.

I just finished this workplace poster job Monday morning for The Marlin Company. It was a rare instance with them when the initial concept got changed and I had to do a fair amount of redrawing to suit the new direction.

The original image called for “a high school classroom scene. It’s the first day of school. Two students are comforting a student teacher – a husky, strapping guy – who clearly has a major fear of public speaking. On the blackboard, in very shaky lettering, he’s written, ‘Welcome! Mr. Williams. Student Teacher.’ He is facing the class, sweating, looking humorously terrorized, while two or three sympathetic-looking students gently pat him on the arm or shoulder in a show of support.”

The initial pencil rough:

Upon review the client decided that the students comforting the teacher conveyed the wrong message, which is supposed to be about supporting your coworkers when things get difficult. The students are the difficulty, not the source of support. Therefore they asked that I change the image to show more of the class, looking a little menacing but in a non-threatening way, and then have two faculty members offering the support.

The second pencil:

The only changed they asked for here was to add a sling shot to the back pocket of the foremost student.

The final art:

Click for a closer look…

Q: I’m just wondering if there are any particular syndicated strips that you are a fan of (past and present), what you think of their decline with the newspaper industry, and how you feel about the growth of web comics?

A: I was a huge fan of Bloom County back in the 80′s. That strip consistently made me laugh. I also liked Peanuts, B.C. and enjoyed many other strips as well. I also liked Calvin and Hobbes but that was popular right at the wrong time for me… it ran during my college years, my marriage, move to Atlanta and the births of three of my kids. I don’t even think we had a newspaper subscription all those years, so my C & H diet was sparse.

Today I like a lot of strips, my current favorites being Pearls Before Swine (and I’m not just saying that because I owe Pastis money) Zits, Baby Blues, Speed Bump and Lio. There are many others I enjoy but those are the first ones that come to mind. The Lovely Anna is the comic strip nut in the family. I get two papers so I can read how much the Minnesota Twins stink in two different sports sections, and she gets two sets of comics.

The best strips for me are the ones that combine great writing and great art. Cartoon strips are all about the writing… great writing and mediocre or even just passable art still equals a great strip. Bad writing and great art still make for a bad strip… great art cannot save bad writing, but great writing can survive bad art. When the two combine, like in Calvin and Hobbes and Zits, it’s magic.

Web comics…. that is a real can of worms in the cartooning world right now. The dynamic of the business of comic strips is changing as newspapers die off and the main source of mass consumption of news and entertainment gradually moves to the internet. In the newspaper/print cartoon strip business model, strips are chosen, promoted and sold to newspapers and publications by a “syndicate” like King Features or Universal Press. For the last 100 years cartoonists who “make it” have their strips chosen by third parties, i.e. comics editors, for syndication. There is a certain validation and accomplishment to that… so many people try out for strip syndication but few ever make it, and even fewer become a 500 to 1000 paper monster. Web comics cut out that independent party that decides if a comic is “good enough” to be syndicated (i.e. published). Anyone with a computer, internet connection and a web host can “publish” their comic strip on the web. Web cartoonists either don’t make any money from their work, or make money indirectly selling merchandise and printed collections to their readers. As far as I know, only Michael Jantze‘s The Norm is a subscription based web comic… and that one doesn’t really count as he was successful in syndication first before moving to the web.

There are lot’s of bitter and heated debates going on in cartooning forums about print vs. web cartooning. For the sake of simplicity, let’s call the two types “print cartoonists” and “web cartoonists”.

Many print cartoonists feel that web cartoonists aren’t legitimate professionals because they did not pay their dues by breaking in to a print medium that is notoriously difficult to get into. Some feel without an independent party (editor) to decide a strip is worthy of syndication, there is no validity to a claim of being a “professional” strip just because it’s on the internet. Some traditional cartoonists cite that no one actually pays to read these strips, but rather those few that actually make a living doing a web comic sell T-shirts and other stuff to a small (comparatively) but loyal following.

Some web cartoonists, on the other hand, accuse traditional cartoonists of clinging to a dying business model, and of not acknowledging the excellence of some web comics simply because they are not published in a newspaper. Many are unhappy because they feel that their genre of cartooning is not recognized by organizations like the National Cartoonists Society. They argue that the editors that pick the strips don’t know what’s good and what is not, citing what they consider to be terrible strips filling the comics pages, including moldy oldies that have not been funny or relevant for years. Some feel they are quite simply being snubbed and left out of the party.

I think each side has valid points and each side is also in the wrong on some points. It’s true that with no one to tell a cartoonist his or her strip is good or not, anything can get “published” and the majority of web comics out there are amateur work…. bad writing, bad art, bad execution, poor professionalism. However it’s not true that ALL web comics are like that. There are many I’ve seen that are as good as the best in the newspapers. It’s not true that syndicate editors don’t know the difference between a good and bad strip, although it might be more accurate to say they know the difference between a strip that will SELL and one that won’t. The “good and bad” of a syndicated strip is mainly in personal taste. Even a strip you might hate in the comics section is done with a level of professionalism that most web comics do not equal. A lot more goes into a strip than just a gag and some funny pictures… layout, storytelling, design, execution… these are all things that are of a professional level in syndicated strips. Syndicate editors make sure of this. Many web comics have good ideas and funny gags and even good art, but suffer from poor draftsmanship, layout, etc. Finally the idea that there are no worthwhile web comics is just plain wrong. There are some excellent ones out there, it’s just that there is no simple delivery system to find them as easy as a daily newspaper sitting on your doorstep in the morning.

My take on web comics is that while the web is definitely the future of comic strips, it’s still in its relative infancy. 95% of the web comics I’ve seen are amateur at best, and the best ones seem geared toward computer geeks and gamers, which makes sense as they are still the majority of those who spend their time on the web. I’m not their target audience, so few web comics appeal to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate and respect the good ones.

Eventually someone will figure out how to make real money with web cartoons, then you will see traditional cartoonists jump to the web and the competition will become much more fierce there. That won’t happen until the majority of consumers start getting their news and entertainment from the internet, but that day is coming one way or another. Eventually web comics will just be comics, but the delivery system will be different and the appeal of comics that make it on the web will have changed. There might be “editors” at central web portals that pick comics to run, or the marketplace may decide which ones are successful and which are not. Either way only comics with a strong mixture of commercial appeal, good content and concept and professional execution will be successful.

Thanks to Curtis Horsburgh for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

Here’s a 1/2 page spot I did for this month’s issue of Library Journal:

Click for a closer look…

The story it accompanies is about magazines that are popular with teenage kids. I likely got the job because MAD happens to be one of the magazines they list in the article. They wanted a teenage boy and girl reading these magazines. Here’s the initial pencil sketch:

The consensus was they wanted a high impact statement, having the kids reading the magazines but surrounded by high tech toys and other things kids are known for spending their free time with, which they are ignoring in favor of the magazines. They also wanted me to make the kids more “urban” (i.e. not white). The second sketch:

I was able to salvage the girl’s body but the boy I wanted looking more laid back and cool. Plus I needed the image in a more horizontal form factor. Final inks:

You can see the final color illustration at the top of the post. I dropped in approved cover images of the various magazines. Yet another piece in my “colored line” style which is art directors seem to like.

I’m still staying remarkably busy considering the dire state of the economy. Here’s what I have on the board right now:

• MAD job- This one is still in the final pencil stage, as it sadly isn’t due for 6 weeks. Other stuff keeps cropping up preventing me from finishing it.
• Stay Tooned! Cover- This for John Read‘s fantastic magazine. I will have this done today.
• Book Job- Impossible deadline on a massive project I can’t talk about yet… so what else is new? I’m afraid you can expect to see the Dreaded Deadline Demon a few times in the next several weeks.
• Comic book- This one is still vaporwork, but promising. Can’t be more specific.

In the meantime, here’s the latest Marlin Co. workplace poster I wrapped up on Monday. The job was to depict a father trying to blow up a large outdoor pool, out of breath, neighborhood kids looking on, lady running in to save the day with an old fashioned air pump:

Pencil roughs. The client wanted the lady running in to be thinner (but not
too thin), eyes open and carrying a bigger bicycle tire air pump.

Inks

Final. Click for a closer look…

Q: While in Syracuse, we listened to a pretty cool artist who complained of unfair standards in the publishing industry. She  ranted about doing something for Playboy then finding out that Proctor and Gamble discovered it and banned her from their list of preferred illustrators. Do you fear backlash after doing something for Penthouse?

A: That thought did cross my mind. I do work for some kid orientated publications and having work in an “adult” magazine might be viewed by some as unacceptable to then be allowed bylines in their publications. That’s partly why I used a pseudonym on the last job I did for them.

Ultimately I decided I am my own moral police, and nobody is going to tell me what is appropriate and what is not. I would never do artwork I considered pornographic or that I would be embarrassed or ashamed of. Playboy and Penthouse are both publications that are rich in cartooning history and contain much content that is not objectionable to the mainstream. I would accept jobs from either publication as long as the content of those jobs is not something I would object to on moral or ethical grounds.

If that costs me jobs with other clients not because what I did was objectionable but simply because my name appears in Penthouse, then I guess I live with that. My concience is clear… I do not feel I have compromised any of my principals or beliefs in what is right and proper. If others feel differently I cannot control that.

Thanks to Michael Garisek for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!