Saturday, December 20, 2003
This story (link via ¡Journalista!, but I guess it's temporary) gets into the dying profession that is editorial cartooning.
Not really news for me of course. In college (80-84) I was considered a pretty good editorial cartoonist. Won some national awards and got a lot of positive reinforcement. Many of my friends thought sure I'd go in this direction.
I was lucky, my college paper was a daily so I got a taste of things to come. And like many things, I studied the hell out of the subject (pity I didn't actually do that in CLASS). So by senior year, even though I enjoyed the attention I got from doing that, I was already preparing myself for life after school - to get a job at a newspaper but not as a cartoonist.
After all, that was the point of getting a journalism degree and not one in art - to have a better chance of finding work after college. And I saw back then that editorial cartooning was not going to work out, for a number of reasons:
- Fewer newspapers (this is a no brainer).
- Syndication. Yeah, it opens things up for artists who get syndicated to get paid more and get wider recognition. But it also creates a situation at the local level where it's not only easier to not deal with a local cartoonist but creates a financial disincentive. If you run a local cartoon, you don't use something from the syndicate package that you already paid for. I've heard some people compare syndication to radio. Bull. Local bands can get airtime on college stations and there's always the ability to get paid for playing live. And there's a lot more places to play and be heard than there are newspapers.
- Not drawing like Jeff MacNelly. The man had a serious impact on how people thought editorial cartoonists should draw. Cultural expectations of art, hmm, where have I heard that before...
- Politics. Pure and simple, conservative or liberal, if the guy in charge of the opinion page had to toe the company line so did you. It's rare for a cartoonist to get the freedom to create.
So, yeah, they should stop giving a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning until another outlet opens up (webcomics hint hint hint).
But I'm not disappointed or bitter - hell I don't really care. Not a lot of my friends understand that. They would if they understood just how much I enjoyed doing what I did during my sophmore year: a weekly SF adventure strip called Duffy O'Neil.
Now I'm doing Odd Jobs. And it's exactly what I want to do.
Not really news for me of course. In college (80-84) I was considered a pretty good editorial cartoonist. Won some national awards and got a lot of positive reinforcement. Many of my friends thought sure I'd go in this direction.
I was lucky, my college paper was a daily so I got a taste of things to come. And like many things, I studied the hell out of the subject (pity I didn't actually do that in CLASS). So by senior year, even though I enjoyed the attention I got from doing that, I was already preparing myself for life after school - to get a job at a newspaper but not as a cartoonist.
After all, that was the point of getting a journalism degree and not one in art - to have a better chance of finding work after college. And I saw back then that editorial cartooning was not going to work out, for a number of reasons:
- Fewer newspapers (this is a no brainer).
- Syndication. Yeah, it opens things up for artists who get syndicated to get paid more and get wider recognition. But it also creates a situation at the local level where it's not only easier to not deal with a local cartoonist but creates a financial disincentive. If you run a local cartoon, you don't use something from the syndicate package that you already paid for. I've heard some people compare syndication to radio. Bull. Local bands can get airtime on college stations and there's always the ability to get paid for playing live. And there's a lot more places to play and be heard than there are newspapers.
- Not drawing like Jeff MacNelly. The man had a serious impact on how people thought editorial cartoonists should draw. Cultural expectations of art, hmm, where have I heard that before...
- Politics. Pure and simple, conservative or liberal, if the guy in charge of the opinion page had to toe the company line so did you. It's rare for a cartoonist to get the freedom to create.
So, yeah, they should stop giving a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning until another outlet opens up (webcomics hint hint hint).
But I'm not disappointed or bitter - hell I don't really care. Not a lot of my friends understand that. They would if they understood just how much I enjoyed doing what I did during my sophmore year: a weekly SF adventure strip called Duffy O'Neil.
Now I'm doing Odd Jobs. And it's exactly what I want to do.
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