Cartoon Invoices: How To Invoice

I've gotten a couple of emails asking how to invoice, what exactly IS this invoice that thee buyer has asked me for, etc. So, let's take a chapter from the ol' MIKE LYNCH COLLEGE OF CARTOON KNOWLEDGE and talk about invoicing: how to do it, etc. Here goes. 

It's great when you get that letter, email or phone call letting you know that you sold a cartoon. A lot of the time, when I'm home with a snoozing cat next to me, drawing, I can only wonder, "Are these funny? Funny enough to SELL?!" 

A sale is vindication that you did all right. You targeted a market, came up with some appropriate, sellable, professional work. But, better yet, someone else thought what you did was funny, and they have money for you. 

And, they tell you, please send an invoice. 

 

An invoice is, as you all ready know, the bill that the accounting people need at the magazine, ad agency, Web site or wherever you sold your work. For me, it's usually a magazine or Web site. 

I put the above invoice together in Word. 

YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFO. goes at the top. I make my name big, since that's the name that goes on the check. I include my Social Security number. Early on, I had my NAME and, right under it, MY WEB SITE -- both in big letters. One time, a client mailed me a check made payable to my Web site. It took 2 phone calls and 4 weeks til I got another, correct, check. Now I just put my name up top in big letters -- and then I ask again to "make check payable to Mike Lynch" at the bottom. 

BUYER'S INFO. is all the information you have on your client. You need this. It really helps to have their phone number, email, etc. on file. If you don't know their phone number, email them and ask. Tell them YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT. For a first time client, I want all of their information. And I do ask, if given a PMB or PO or Suite number, for a real bricks-and-mortar address. 

INVOICE NUMBER & DATE You may want it for reference. Usually, when the payment arrives, the number and date will be on their check to you so you can cross reference. If you get the check and there's a problem, then having these numbers on your original invoice will enable the accounting people to figure out what happened. Recently, I sold a couple and when I got the check, it was for half the sale. I found out that it was my fault: in the Total column, I only noted one sale. A dumb mistake! 

ITEMIZED LIST OF SALES ensures that everyone understands that the sale is for a particular cartoon. I put a number on the back of all my cartoon originals, and that gets written on the invoice. It means nothing to the buyer, of course, but for me, it tells me exactly which cartoon I sold. I also write the caption or general description of the cartoon on the invoice. 

TERMS OF SALE is something that you want to consider. Mine establishes legal authorship of the work, letting the buyer know that the cartoon is mine. In other words, the person buying the cartoon does not now own the cartoon. The routine sale is for one-time use. Rarely, just every once in a while, someone will think that they now own a cartoon you made and that they can put it on t-shirts, etc. 

- The following is a revised version of a June 6, 2007 blog entry.

Mike Lynch Cartoons at CartoonCollections

You know that I have a bunch of cartoons over at Bob Mankoff's Cartoon Collections site that are available for businesses to buy for presentations, newsletters, etc. Here are a few that have sold in the past couple of months. It's always interesting to see what has made some money. You never know what someone else will find funny and appropriate. 

As a person who worked as a temp way back in the 90s, there is a them-and-us attitude for sure. Poor Thompson! I think this was one of the first 100 cartoons I drew after quitting to go cartooning full time.

 

This cartoon originally appeared in BBC Music Magazine.

Some really bad inspirational posters from a cartoon that originally appeared in Harvard Business Review:

 

This first appeared at the job hunting site The Ladders.

 

Why did his parents do this? Because they can. A mean cartoon! 

 

Another that first appeared in HBR. 

Ha ha. I just noticed the old TV on the TV stand there. This needs to be updated! Nevertheless, it was a sale. 

Hard to read due to the watermark, but the fellow on the left has his "Walk For Cancer" shirt on and the woman next to him has a "Walk Against Cancer" shirt. I liked this when I drew it and never dreamed that I could sell it. Go figure! It was even submitted to one of these "rejected cartoons" books' editor, who rejected it! Ha ha.

 

The Many Uses of Mike Lynch Cartoons

 

The saddest thing is waking up and seeing that the woodstove has gone out during the night. Above you can see how dark and cold it looks. (That's the cats' water below to the lower left. Their "hearth water," which they like a lot. They drink a bowl a day. Go figure.)

I didn't have much newspaper laying around to help get a new fire started, but I did have a big pile of drawings from last week's how to cartoon class. 

So ... I found out that cartoons can serve many uses! And in a pinch, they can keep you warm. After all, it's an ephemeral art, isn't it?

Video: Lalo Alcaraz: Cartoonist with a Border Background

Known for "Daniel De Portado," "La Cucaracha" and his political cartoons, Lalo Alcaraz's biting commentary on the politics of today has grown more bold — and popular — than ever. He has published best-selling books, been a Pulitzer-prize finalist, a cultural consultant for the Oscar-winning Day of the Dead-themed animated hit Pixar movie “COCO.” But his subject is still the same because anti-immigrant politics have only grown louder since 1994 in the United States. 

 

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Certified Vintage Gag Cartoons 1945 - 1964

It's Monday and so let's start the week with some vintage gag cartoon laffs courtesy of the XXXL cartoon clip pile from Dick Buchanan's collection at his Greenwich Village headquarters. Here's Dick with a selection and, before you get reading, a warning! Thanks and take it away, Dick:


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CERTIFIED VINTAGE CARTOONS
1945—1964


WARNING. These cartoons have been Certified Vintage Gag Cartoons because they have passed their “best used by” date. Immediate consumption is recommended but not required. Take care when examining contents as deteriorating fragments of humor remain. So far, these are not proven harmful when consumed visually. In fact, they may be amusing. Take a Look . . .



1. HENRY SYVERSON. The Saturday Evening Post October 15, 1960.

2. GARDNER REA. Collier’s July 27, 1946.

 

3. GEORGE BOOTH. Collier’s October 30, 1953.

 

4. HANK KETCHAM. Collier’s September 14, 1946.

 

5. CHON DAY. Collier’s July 11, 1953.

 

6. JOHN MILLIGAN. Collier’s October 5, 1946.

 

7. TOM HENDERSON. American Legion Magazine January, 1964.

 

8. KENNETH MAHOOD. Punch August 11, 1958.

 

9. JACK TIPPIT. 1000 Jokes Magazine June – August, 1960.

 

10. GUSTAV LUNDBERG. Liberty Magazine July 21, 1945.

 

11. ROBERT KRAUS. Liberty Magazine August 18, 1945.

 

12. JANE SPEAR KING. Collier’s August 8, 1953.

 

13. GEORGE WOLFE. This Week Magazine August 21, 1949.

 

14. JERRY MARCUS. American Legion Magazine February, 1962.

 

15. TON SMITS. Colliers July 4, 1953. 

 

 

Mike Lynch Teaches Cartooning

 

I knew this was going to be a tough week, what with teaching my History of Comics class and two History of Political Cartoons classes at the New Hampshire Institute of Art at New England College, I was also doing a series of "how to draw cartoons" classes for a local middle school the same week. Oh, and one of the college classes had its midterm this week too. Very busy!

So it was great to get a lot of comments and thank yous from the middle school students that their teacher forwarded to me yesterday. (That's his comment on the upper right.) These were all put together on some Google Drive app that makes them look like candy colored post-its. 

I'm so glad that this resonated with the kids. All of my teaching is now done via Zoom, so it's very hard to read the room and get a sense about how things are going. Well, these pages certainly told me that it was time well spent showing the kids how to draw hands, expressions, word balloons, and so on. Wow!

Now, I better grade those midterms.

Trots and Bonnie by Shary Flenniken

We all need something to look forward to. Some great comics, Trots and Bonnie by Shary Flenniken, will be reprinted in April 2021 and her cartoons are worth a look. This is the first time this long-running National Lampoon cartoon (1972-1990) has been collected and published. Here's some background.

Shary Flenniken was one of the first women in underground comics. By the early 1970s, she was a contributor to the National Lampoon magazine. She created her comic, Trots and Bonnie, with an innocent look that belied the adult subject matter. Her naive and sweet style, she says, let her talk about extreme subjects. Here's a clip of her from the 1988 documentary Comic Book Confidential (1988):

 

Here are some samples of the strip, which, stylistically echoes early cartoonists like H.T. Webster and Clare Briggs.  But ... not the writing! Some very edgy and impactful writing here.

Related:

The Comics Journal interviews Shary Flenniken: part one and part two.