Category: Cartooning

Gag Writing – Just Say No

andertoons3 Comments

NotepadSaw this interview with gag writer Robert Rafferty and thought it was interesting.

I don’t personally use gag writers, although there are plenty of good cartoonists who do, but what struck me most in the interview was this bit of advice to folks looking to sell gags:

When it comes to gag writing, don’t do it. It is too hard to get started and the cartoonists that will usually look at gags have no sales record and you will spend a fortune on postage with no return. The cartoonists who are well established already have gag writers, so they don’t need them. I would not try to get into this business today. When I got into this it was fairly new. Unless you are very good and can come up with New Yorker-quality gags, one right after the other, you have no chance.

Thoughts?

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Cartoonists Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Knight

andertoons1 Comment

So recently Keith Knight posts this after crashing the NCS cocktail party:

Knight

Having been a member of the NCS, and having not renewed my membership, I agreed with pretty much everything Keith said.

Daryl Cagle responded and had some good, reasonable things to say.

Then the whole thing blew up at The Daily Cartoonist with the usual suspects calling each other names and blah blah blah blah blah…

*Sigh*

I was going to put a whole lengthy response together, but then decided I couldn’t put it better than Ted Rall:

I can understand why cartoonists who are pros in every respect other than earning most of their income via cartooning would feel offended at not qualifying under NCS admission rules. Professionalism is like porn–you know it when you see it. And of course many well-paid pro cartoonists do really crappy work.

On the other hand, if a group isn’t interested in having you as a member, why would you want to join?

And then on the third hand (I’m an alien), it’s easier to join an existing organization and/or ask it to modernize than to start a new one from scratch.

I’ve long wondered why NCS doesn’t seem interested in becoming more than an annual drinking society for wealthy cartoonists. But it seems to me that the loss is really theirs, not the cartoonists they’re excluding. They’re like newspapers 20 years ago. They’re going to turn around someday soon and wonder why they’re going under. And it’s going to be because they decided, over and over, to reject the future and wallow in irrelevance.

Dead on, Ted. Dead on.

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“Fillmore” Cartoonist “Lucky to Have a Day Job”

andertoons1 Comment

Mallard Fillmore’s Bruce Tinsley…

…has no illusions about where the cartooning industry is headed.

“I don’t know how many cartoonists are still going to have jobs in the next few years,” he says. “But I have a son who’s 11 and wants to be a cartoonist, and I tell him, you better learn all this computer stuff, because the online world is booming and it’s the future. I’ve talked to more bloggers in the last few months than I have in my entire life.”

OK, yes, you have to know all of the “computer stuff,” but I think more aspiring cartoonists could benefit more from a basic business education.

Know some basic accounting. Get some phone chops. Read a book or two about selling. Because the days of being able to let someone else take care of the business end of things for you are pretty much gone, and frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hat tip to the WSJ’s Speakeasy.

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Advertooning

andertoons

Sptoon

Saw this the other day via Journalista (click here to read the whole thing) and it really resonated with me.

I wouldn't say Andertoons is a webcomic per se, nor am I a traditional print/syndicated cartoonist. I am an independent cartoonist (and proud of it) and although I don't sell ads on my site or blog, I gotta say this makes sense to me.

That being said, it's not as easy as just posting some cartoons and throwing some ads up, but the stigma attached to that kind of business model by some seems unfair to me.

Anyway, Willis' cartoon made sense to me.

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