Cartoon compatriot Rod McKie wrote a really interesting blog a few days back. I meant to comment on it immediately, but wanted to give it a little time to marinate in the crock pot of my head.
A quick peek to get you on the same page:
I don’t know about you, but I have even noticed a reduction in the number of cartoons published by some of my favoured publications. One of the high-paying publications published only 3 cartoons in a recent issue, and there is an equally small amount in this month’s issue of another, usual, gag cartoon championing publication. Adding this possible decline to the shrinking space afforded to comic strips in the home of that art, the US, and the rapid loss of Editorial cartoonists in that country, I think the demise of the 3 or 4 panel daily strip cannot be too far away, and that shortly, comic strips will follow gag cartoons into history.
And a bit more (it’s hard to give bullet points on this, you really should read the whole thing):
I look forward to the Manga revolution, and the rise of the graphic novel because having a trust-fund and being able to afford the time to write (it has always been the chosen profession of the well-to-do), or simply having been to Oxbridge or East Anglia will not enable those people to produce this new, popular, literature. This one, I’m afraid, involves a modicum of real talent. The Jaspers and Tristans cannot draw, and no amount of circle-jerk reviews by their old class-mates who have become critics will make their graphic-less attempts popular.
Vive La Revolution.
Wow, huh?
Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s always going to be a place for comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons and the like, but you can’t ignore that markets and tastes are changing radically underneath our feet, and you’d have to be a fool to ignore it.
That being said, I’m going to be happily doing my little gags for the foreseeable future as I think the web has opened thousand of thousands of mini-markets I can sell to, but I have to admit, at night before I hit the sack, sometimes I’m haunted by the graphic novel I’ve yet to address.
And it scares me.
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As the newspaper and magazine markets shrink, cartoonists will need to find a new delivery method for their content. There was a time (not so long ago) when competing newspapers used cartoon features as a means to court and keep loyal subscribers. But now that newspapers are no longer competing with each other, comics have become an afterthought. It's time to move on – to where, I don't know.
I'm hoping things are changing for the better. There is a rise in interest in printed comics in the form of graphic novels, because of the quality of those publications. After the demise of Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, the Farside and the like, there was a dearth of truly great cartoon strips, but that is changing. I'd like to think there is a wave of new, compelling cartoons and that we will see a rennaissance in the comic strip market too. But I would say that – my Arctic Circle comic strip launches in August…
Alex