I can’t think of one UK cartoonist who has a set-up like Mark Anderson’s going, I know one or two who are trying but none who self-syndicate so successfully and who also manage to sell to such high-paying markets as The Harvard Business Review, Readers Digest US and Barons as regularly as Mark does, nor do any have the same amount of greetings card deals. And who, at the same time, get down into the Comics Cons and to MOCCA and the like, mini-comics and camera in hand, to sell their wares and post the photos of the events. Mark Anderson is a machine.

http://www.andertoons.com/

You are kidding about comic strips aren’t you? We don’t have Garth anymore, or even The Perishers, both of which were designed to be the British equivalent of US comic strips, Angus Og has long gone, and what we have left you can count on two hands. I have newspapers from the US here that have 40 comic strips in them everyday, and I know quite a few people who whilst they don’t make the $31 million a year that Schulz still makes, they are doing very nicely thank you. I mean, even at a mid-size paper rate of $21 a week you can get buy on 50% of the cut from 2,000 sales a day (that’s $21,000 a day). Plus, there is the small matter of that comic strip miliue helping to create individual talents like Larson and Watterson and currently Scott Adams, Darby Conley and Stephan Pastis. How does our “quant” British drawing model thrive as much as the US version exactly?

Yes, there are some cartoonists in the UK who have a foot in other genres of cartooning, but not as many as there used to be, and I think that is largely down to the fact that many of the markets that once allowed our cartoonist to try out their comic strip ideas, and full page colour cartoons, and comic pages, and serials and stories, are just no longer there. This is where, I think, the “disconnect” that John spoke of above comes in, and, personally, I believe it leads to, amongst other things, a lack of confidence in one’s own abilities.

You look around out there and tell me one UK market that can offer say, an ex-Beano cartoonist the sort of freedom he needs to keep his eye in, if the Beano are no longer hiring. Over time, he will do as I do, and that is just draw things to fit the British market. Once you get involved in that sort of work real life has a way of taking over, and bills need to be paid and pretty soon you don’t have any time to come up with the next new comic strip or the next new graphic novel – you are too busy coming up with another contemporary news-based cartoon.

This pattern of creating the work to fit the mode of production has the effect of de-skilling the cartoonist and, I think, curbing the imagination – unless you are very, very, strong and very, very determined. Couple that with an unfamiliarity with comic strips because we live in a culture where the papers to not carry 40 comic strips a day and you can see why our cartoonists find it difficult to “think” themselves into the role of syndicated comic strip artist, and then add to that the fact that we do not have anything like MOCCA, or the Joe Kubert School, or any other training ground for cartoonists and I think you can see just how important a training ground like 200AD was to an entire generation of British illustrators and writers who now ply their trade in the US – or least sell their work to US comic book publishers.

So, my plan in the next post, you’ll see it is clearly flagged above, is to attempt to point out possible markets in new media that the current and the future crop of cartoonists might be able to adapt to. A post I might add, I will not be able to write at this rate, Matt. So, in conclusion, there really would not be any point in writing one single word of that post, if I believed the people I am writing the post for were “hopeless”, now would there?

I don’t see the traditional syndicated US model of drawing business thriving any more visibly than our own quaint versions of the drawing businesses are.

There are people out in the world still trying to make a living through drawing and by being creative in the new media – and it is possible.

So, my and our major quibble with what you say is the assumption that the situation of all formerly print-employed cartoonists is hopeless (and by inference) that many of the practitioners must be too. It is not so.

Bloghorn for The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation
http://procartoonists.blogspot.com/

Over here though, I have detected that “disconect” you speak of with cartoonists simply not interested in anything outside the area of their involvement. I can’t help but feel that it is due, largely, to the demise of markets like IPC which gave cartoonists the opportunity to break out of the single-column box and to experiment with narrative and form. Thankfully, new markets, like ROK Comics are now there to fill the void, but there is a great deal of catching up to do.

There is a British Syndicate called Knight Features, which used to supply the regional British press with strips like Hamish, I think, but if you could cut a local deal you’d probably have to compete with the syndiate’s $21 a week, which would barely cover the cost of materials. My local evening paper, the Edinburgh Evening News carries two strips, still, Garfield and Hagar, and they will happily reproduce them 5″ x 1/2″.

I gave up trying to sell a strip idea here because the market was always too difficult and even hostile. Editor’s would say things like “we haven’t had a comic strip in all our 50n years, why would we need one now?”; it was very depressing and I’m sure a lot of possible cartoonists with very good ideas, that might have become successful BD artists in France or comic strip artists in the US, discovered the same and eventaully gave up trying and went into other lines of work.

Today, in Britain, to get a new strip in a national publication you either have to be married to the Editor, have gone to art college with the Art Editor, or you have to be the latest overseas sensation so that cartoon-unfriendly papers can run a 4-page story on how brilliant you are; or you can just be Chris Ware.

I do agree with you about the Arts Councuil and I’ve written at legth about their failings, but doing something about the bodies – conveniently split to make a rounded attack harder, will take a concerted effort and most cartoonists are too lazy and too stupid to bother.

I can’t imagine why your respect for me is reduced.

Seriously though, I can number on two hands the small amount of cartoonists who care enough about the profession to even try to make a differnce. Matt Buck here is one, and he is not that “pompous” and “rude” – ish.

I’m going to try to talk briefly through your piece, but first I am going to say that I am the editor of The Bloghorn – the digital publication of the Professional Cartonists’ Organisation in the UK (and which Rod cites high up in his column.)

http://procartoonists.blogspot.com/

I should also congratulate FP on getting themselves in Rod a very skilled columnist and professional controversialist (I should know I am one myself.)

So, here goes;

Rod said;
When I blogged about the recent Cartoon Art Trust Awards ceremony (see here), I realised that what irked me, really irked me, was that the ceremony itself was a kind of metaphor for cartooning.

> Well, it doesn’t irk everybody else. The event is actually the major fundraising activity and event for the UK National Cartoon Museum which opened in 2006 and is completely dependent on its own money-raising efforts to survive.

The Museum survives through membership subscriptions and begging and cadging as indeed many professionals who make their living through drawing and story-telling have to do. The annual ‘awards do’ is one of the major benefits for supporters of the museum. Would you deny them the fun of it to them? And the ego polish to some of the winners?

On a broader point, the UK arts council doesn’t appears to recognise any form of non-fine art drawing as worthy of any financial support. Personally, I’d suggest if you want to blog about an ‘issue’ blog about that.

Viewed from the advantage this context might bring to the reader, (rather than the easy who-are-these-people-who won awards angle), it becomes clear the awards are a vital PR hook to help give interest to an evening of fundraising which allows the UK’s national museum of drawn art to continue to function.

Infact, we quoted a response to Rod’s original blog posting here – and which I was sad to see Rod didn’t link to directly. I’d encourage readers to go and try it. There is a link below.

http://tinyurl.com/6rmwss

Rod goes on to say;
In fact I only discovered the thing had taken place because a cartoonist on The Cartoonist Club of Great Britain’s open forum posted a link to Bloghorn,

> Add The Bloghorn to your RSS feed Rod :-)

Rod said;
It [the awards] also seemed blissfully unaware of the 21st Century and webcomics, independent publishing, mini-comics, and anything happening in the wider world – you know, like newspapers laying-off editorial cartoonists, going digital, dropping comic strips, and going bankrupt.

> We all know change has come late to the economic model for the print media and it would be nice to think everyone in that world was as up to speed as you on the new digital environment, but they aren’t – and denigrating people for ignorance (not stupidity), is daft and in my opinion, beneath you. More seriously, it is absolutely, not beneficial to UK drawn industry in all of its many surviving forms.

We have more in common, than not and drawn communication might get more respect, if we spent less time slagging off each other’s work and more time making great communication. Having said that, here I am being rude to you…

Yours pompously (and with marginally reduced respect)

Matt
Bloghorn for The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation
http://procartoonists.blogspot.com/