Andertoons Professional Cartooning Workshop – Chicago

IMPORTANT DATE/LOCATION CHANGE BELOW!!!

I’m pleased to announce the very first Andertoons Professional Cartooning Workshop!

It’s a full weekend of in-depth cartooning with me. We’ll cover everything from writing great gags to the nuts and bolts of selling cartoons.

You’ll leave educated, energized and inspired to achieve your personal and professional cartooning goals.

NEW DATES AND LOCATION!!

It’s going to be held May 2-3, 2020 at the Homewood Inn & Suites in Schaumburg, IL.

It’s now being held May 16-17, 2020 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Schaumburg, IL.

Class will be from 9:00 AM – Noon and 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM both days.

There are only a few spots left, so make sure to grab your spot before they’re gone! (Sign up below.)

Attendees will receive:

  • Individualized attention and advice
  • Workshop packet
  • Your work featured on the Andertoons blog, Instagram & Twitter
  • The COMPLETE CALVIN AND HOBBES! (Thank you to the good folks at Andrews McMeel Universal!!)
  • Assorted Andertoons books

What will be covered:

Introductions

Mark will discuss his career path, writing and art influences, share some cartoons, and establish goals for the workshop. Attendees will get to know each other.

Writing

  • Research, free association, topic choices
  • Editing for clarity, brevity, and impact
  • Pitfalls to avoid
  • Group writing exercises
  • Individual critique, advice & encouragement

Art

  • Layout and composition
  • Finding and improving your style
  • Tools and techniques for efficiency
  • Pitfalls to avoid
  • Group art exercises
  • Individual critique, advice & encouragement

Business

  • Building a website that works
  • Search engine optimization
  • Marketing yourself on and offline
  • Running a small business
  • Why you need to fail

Group Show

Share your workshop cartoons with the class

Q & A

Ask me anything

What Does It Cost?

The cost is $500 per person. A $100 deposit will hold your spot. The balance will be due April 3, 2020.

Rooms are available beginning at $89 + tax per night. Lunches and dinners are on your own. (There are a ton of great places to eat nearby.)

If for some reason you’re unable to attend, I’m happy to refund your money if a replacement for your spot can be found.

About Your Instructor

Mark Anderson has been an independent professional cartoonist for 20 years. His website, Andertoons.com, is widely recognized as an industry leader.

Mark’s cartoons have been published in:

  • Reader’s Digest
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Forbes
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Saturday Evening Post
  • Barron’s
  • Woman’s World
  • and many more…

His corporate clients include:

  • GE
  • GM
  • NASA
  • Intel
  • Microsoft
  • Pinterest
  • Walgreens
  • National Geographic
  • Scholastic
  • and many more…

Mark has been a featured speaker at the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards, the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, two Success in Comics seminars and Toonfest. He teaches cartooning classes at schools and libraries nationwide and has self-published 7 books. Mark has written for the International Journal of Cartoon Art, had a gallery show at the Prairie Center for the Arts and has a cartoon in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

Sign Up Now!

This is the real deal. Be prepared to stretch creatively and go deep into the business of cartooning.

Again, space is limited to only 10 cartoonists, AND WE’RE ALMOST FULL, so don’t miss out on this unique opportunity!

Click below to pay the $100 deposit and grab your spot. The balance will be invoiced on April 3, 2020.

What Makes Andertoons Different

Let’s say you want to buy some chocolate.

You could buy a cheap brand name chocolate bar at a corporate grocery chain or big box store and it would be OK. Not great, but totally fine.

Or, you could go to that little local chocolate shop in town. The person behind the counter made a fresh batch this morning and always says hello. They have that kind of fudge you just can’t get anywhere else, and you feel really good supporting a small business you like.

That neighborhood shop feel is what I’ve strived for at Andertoons.com. So as we launch a new website, I thought I’d take a moment to talk about what I think makes Andertoons different and maybe a little special.

Sensible Pricing

Big box cartoon sites like to make sure they don’t leave any money on the table. And that’s fine, but it also makes things complicated.

One site has six basic prices, but if you count all the additional options and permutations, there are more than 26 different prices. To illustrate, there are two different prices for “indefinite private non-commercial use with family, friends and colleagues” depending on whether or not you also want electronic rights. Also, for newspapers distributed solely in India, they “can offer a further 30% off list price for any category N1/N2 license.”

Sheesh!

I have basically two prices. $20 per month ($200 per year), or $75 per month ($750 per year) and you can download whatever you like with no complicated contract. Cancel whenever. Easy peasy.

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before

Let’s say it’s Monday and you’re at the office. Someone tells you a joke and it’s really pretty funny. Then on Wednesday someone else tells you the same joke. And on Friday you hear it again. You continue to laugh politely, but it doesn’t really have the same effect.

With big box cartoon sites, you’re using cartoons that, while good, have been printed and reprinted and re-reprinted over and over for years in books, magazines, marketing, calendars, etc…

Andertoons cartoons are less widely published, and that’s very much to your advantage. A cartoon your audience hasn’t seen before makes a much bigger impact.

It’s Just Me

Big box cartoon sites have lots of people working for them: web developers, e-commerce consultants, marketers, salespeople, administrators, lawyers, and, oh yeah, cartoonists. Need something? That’s Tom’s job. Oh, actually, I think that’s Judy’s department. And we should check with Jerry. We’ll get back to you.

With Andertoons, it’s just me. (OK, I also have my assistant, and I have a guy who does my taxes.) Problem with your order? I’ll help. Website gone kabonk? I’m on it. Something special you need? I’m your guy.

But Wait, There’s More!

While Andertoons sells cartoons online, we also do a lot more.

Need a custom cartoon made just for you? I’ve created hundreds of custom cartoons for clients large and small. I’ve got tons of examples if you’re interested.

I also teach cartooning to kids. In fact, last year I taught almost 100 cartoon classes at schools and libraries! Dinosaurs, robots, and superheroes! Oh my! Check it out!

Plus there’s a free daily cartoon, our cartoon blog, and Andertoons on Instagram.

So as we launch a new Andertoons.com, thanks so much for your support! And I hope you’ll agree that Andertoons is different and special.

It certainly is to me.

All About the New Andertoons.com

Welcome to the new Andertoons.com!

It’s been more than ten years since we made such a substantive change to the website, and we’re very excited to tell you all about it!

Fixes

The web has changed a lot in the past decade, and while the last iteration of Andertoons was robust, it was starting to show its age. Passwords would stop working, RSS feeds would glitch, and just recently every cartoon went AWOL for a few hours. Well, I’m happy to report that those problems are a thing of the past.

We’ve built the new Andertoons on the world’s best e-commerce platform. We’ve also partnered with industry leading designers and developers including specialists in subscription and search. We’ve even gone though the entire cartoon database line by line and cleaned up all those little quirks and errors that had creeped in.

Long story short, it’s working great! And when technology moves forward, we’re positioned to move with it.

Subscriptions

Since we introduced Cartoon Subscriptions back in 2012, we’ve signed up over 1000 individuals, schools, government agencies, and businesses large and small all over the world. Our subscribers have downloaded more than 75,000 cartoons, and subscriptions make up almost 95% of our e-commerce.

And it’s no wonder – Cartoon Subscriptions are simply the best product and greatest value we have. Why pay $20 for a single cartoon when you could pay the same $20 for a subscription and enjoy an entire cartoon buffet? In fact, single cartoon customers usually buy additional cartoons within one day of their original purchase.

The numbers don’t lie, and our customers have clearly indicated this is their preferred way to do business, so we’ve phased out individual cartoon purchases. If you’ve purchased that way in the past, we urge you to try a subscription. We know you’ll love it! (Did I mention you can cancel any time?)

Mobile Friendly

The old Andertoons was actually launched before the original iPhone, so it was never designed to be used on a smartphone.

The new website, however, was built from the ground up to be responsive and display beautifully on desktops, smartphones, tablets, and just about anything else!

Finally you can peruse the latest cartoons while waiting for the barista to call your name!

Larger Clearer Images

While we were fixing everything else, we also took the time to refresh and clean up the thousands of cartoons in our inventory. They’re bigger, clearer, and easier to read. The cartoons are the real stars of the show here, and we’re happy to present them at their best.

Downloads

In the past we offered cartoons at just two sizes – small (480×360 pixels at 72 DPI) and large (1500 pixels wide at 300 DPI). But, again, the internet has changed drastically since Andertoons launched (we actually predate Facebook by 3 years!). So a change was overdue.

During the redesign we spent a lot of time looking at all the most popular email marketing services, social media, and publishing trends, and we compiled five JPEG sizes and ratios to better serve our customers needs. And they’re all at print-ready 300 DPI. They are:

  • Small (480 x 360) – Great for blogs and Twitter
  • Wide 1 (1200 x 900) – Big enough for MailChimp but not too big
  • Wide 2 (1200 x 628) – Perfect for Facebook News Feed
  • Square (1200 x 1200) – Ready for Instagram
  • Print (2250 wide) – Gorgeous on the printed page

Even better, you don’t have to worry about which size you need. Every time you download you’ll receive a ZIP file with all five sizes!

No matter what your usage is, your Andertoons cartoons are always the right size.

But Wait, There’s More!

In addition to all of the above, additional improvements include:

The Best Part

So after more than two years of planning, sourcing, designing, coding, testing, and sparing no expense, how will all this affect your pricing? That’s the best news of all; the price you pay isn’t changing one bit.

Nada. Zip. Zilch.

We have the best and most loyal customers out there, and we built the new Andertoons for you. Have a look around and enjoy! We know you’re going to love it!

The History of Andertoons.com

When I was just starting out as a cartoonist almost 20 years ago, I was photocopying my cartoons at Kinkos, stuffing them in envelopes with a SASE, keeping track of my submissions in a spiral notebook, and watching the mailbox like a hawk.

A few years later I thought there might be an opportunity to sell my cartoons on the relatively new World Wide Web and I built the first Andertoons.com. It was a game changer.

Instead of sending out stacks of mail, people found and emailed me. Instead of weekly photocopying, I scanned in my cartoons one time. And instead of invoicing and waiting for checks, revenue went into my bank account everyday automatically. It didn’t take long to see that this was the way to do business.

Over the years Andertoons.com has changed and evolved in ways large and small, so with launching the new site, I thought I’d share some of the old Andertoons. Enjoy!

2001 – I built this myself using a WYSIWYG service.

2002 – Some WYSIWYG refinements.

2003 – I hired my first designer/developer.

2004 – I began working with a developer I’d continue with for almost 14 years. And the Andertoons font debuts.

2005 – Minor changes including a blog widget.

2007 – The last time I did the design myself. I should have stopped earlier.

2009 – A more modern Andertoons with a new logo.

2012 – Larger, cleaner, and a little more white space.

2015 – Larger and simpler still.

Well, that’s all of the old Andertoons.coms. Wanna see the new one?