Dave Astor's New Book: COMIC (AND COLUMN) CONFESSIONAL

If you work in the world of syndicated cartooning or publishing, you know the name Dave Astor.

COMIC (AND COLUMN) CONFESSIONAL (with the subtitle Finding Myself While Covering Syndicates, Celebrities and a Changing Media World) is Dave's book about his 25 years of reporting on syndication for Editor & Publisher Magazine. So, there are lots of stories about cartoonists from those years -- and Dave intertwines his own personal story here too. One that I did not know. There's more about that at the bottom of the entry, in the photo of the back cover.

Here are a few photos from the book:

Garry Trudeau and wife Jane Pauley, 1990.

Milton Caniff and Charles Schulz, 1987.

Here's Dave:

The part-humorous Comic (and Column) Confessional -- which has endorsements from Gary Larson ("The Far Side"), Lynn Johnston ("For Better or For Worse"), Mort Walker ("Beetle Bailey"), and others on its back cover -- includes anecdotes about cartoonists, material about changes in the syndication and media worlds, personal stuff, and much more. 

Interested readers of a possible mention you do could order a signed copy of the book directly from me (by emailing me at dastor@earthlink.net) or order via Amazon.

The just-posted listing has several temporary errors, including the wrong publication year (it's 2012 not 2008) and the wrong publisher (Xenos not Lulu; the book is not self-published). But the book can still be ordered via Amazon despite the errors.

Since leaving E&P, I've worked as a Huffington Post blogger; my pieces about books (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor) have drawn more than 2,000 "fans" and many hundreds of comments since 2011. I also write an award-winning weekly humor column for The Montclair (N.J.) Times and serve on the board of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

I hope you will consider buying this terrific book.

Jack Davis' Unsold Newspaper Strip

The Magic Whistle shows us some of Jack Davis' rejected newspaper strips. After doing the rounds with the syndicates, the civil war-oriented daily was slipped into a November 1963 issue of SICK Magazine.

Allan Holtz Stripper's Guide: "Obscurities of the Day: Comics of DBR Media"

Allan Holtz who runs the Stripper's Guide blog (a heartfelt lovesong in prose to comic strips) reports on DBR Media, announcing that he is going to "knock off a whole syndicate company in one post today!"

"DBR Media was formed in 2000 by a group of folks who had previously been at the helm of the King Features Weekly Service.

"... Weekly syndicates typically offer a complete package of features, and as far as I know DBR supplied not only comics, but all the rest of the typical goodies -- puzzles and columns to suit a wide range of tastes. As best I can tell, when they started their package included a group of five comics. I say as far as I can tell because I did not find a paper that ran the syndicate's offerings until much later. Which is a bit of a story in itself..."

It was run by Diane Eckert, Brad Elson and Richard Wilson -- whose first names formed the company's initials.

DBR continued to do business through March 2008, when it closed up shop, stating there was no money to pay its contributors.

Allan has a description of all of the comics that were offered by DBR, with samples for most. These include:

• George by Mark Szorady
• Stormfield by Wes Alexander
• The Dinosaur Circus by Elena Steier
• Hamster Alley by Polly Keener
• The Leftersons by Collin T. Hayes
• Jet News by Bill Murray
• The Golden Years by Bill Murray
• Night Lights and Pillow Fights / Your Angels Speak by Guy and Brad Gilchrist
• Marvin the Calf by Ralph Hagen

Gates Features House Ad

Above house ad for Gates Features from Cartoonists and Gag Writers' Pro Magazine Apr/May 1962.

Just wanted to follow up on last month's Art Gates blog entry and show the above ad that I came across. As you can see, Art Gates, along with veteran talented cartoonist Gill Fox, started the syndicate in the early 1960s with a stable of their own family-friendly features; the usual lot of housebound housewives, contrary children and befuddled suburban men. I had heard of Gates Features, but had no idea of the cartoon features that they were promoting until I saw this. Oh heck, Gates and Fox WERE Gates Features!

Related: John K. on the very, very versatile Gill Fox.

Mainstream Publishers + Webcomics = Oil + Water?

Joey Manley, in the Talking About Comics blog, writes about Web cartoonists and what happens when they get involved with big syndicates or sign publishing deals for print versions of their Webcomics.

This is old news, but here is, for instance, Rich Stevens, whose Webcomic Diesel Sweeties was a United Media launch, and why he decided, after a couple of years, to end his relationship with the syndicate (full interview here):

"'I did my taxes. I realized that I made less money than the last year that I wasn’t syndicated. It’s a hard business and it takes years and years to build up a client list and get paid. I just kinda thought to myself that I spent years and years learning how to make money off the Internet. Why should I continue to injure myself, when I could just do what I’m good at?'"

Strawberry Comics creator Gina Biggs on why she left Dark Horse to return to self-publishing:

"'This means they [her RED STRING series] will only be available through the website and at conventions, but it also means that I will see more of the profit from these books which could be very beneficial to someone striving to make a living through art and webcomics'"

Joey has a lot of interesting points, and, yeah, we all really don't know. But, in America, we are all entitled to our uninformed opinion.

Any time you (an independent cartoonist) get involved with a third party -- a syndicate, a publishing house -- that third party wants in on a piece of the action. Sure, this big company may have a crack publicity crew, sales staff, etc., but the deal is they want THEIR hand in YOUR pocket, in addition (let me pile on another metaphor) to being in the driver's seat. Your work will be referred to as "product." It's part of "their stable." It can be an upsetting experience.

It can be the road to great recognition and reward as well.

Marcus Hamiliton: Cartooning Perseverence

Above: "Marcus Hamilton would tell you not much about him has changed since his youth growing up in Lexington [NC], long before a certain lovable menace entered his life." Photo by Heather J. Smith.

"Cartoonist shares message of perseverance with hometown" is the headline for an October 20th newspaper story about Marcus Hamilton written by The Dispatch reporter Heather J. Smith.

Over 20 years ago, he had to close his illustration studio.

"Slowly, requests for his work thinned, and he closed the studio he built behind his house and took a regular job at the encouragement of his wife. At 50 years old, Hamilton worked a minimum-wage job at Wal-Mart, discouraged in his love of art and God.

“'I was looking for somewhere to place the blame, and I blamed God,' Hamilton said. 'I said ‘Lord, I’ve trusted you with my life, and look where it got me.’'

"But several things happened that year that changed his life. He welcomed his first grandchild and suffered a major heart attack, but the biggest change happened by not even looking for it.

"While flipping through channels on the television, he paused long enough to watch an interview with Hank Ketcham, creator and illustrator of Dennis since 1951. He was asked what he wanted to do with the rest of his life after 40 years of drawing the comic.

"'I will never forget his answer. He said he could love to be able to paint and travel, but he always had that daily deadline,' Hamilton said. 'He said, ‘I would love to find someone to draw Dennis so I could retire.'"

More here.

Marcus, who is a gentleman and one of the nicest fellows you'd meet, credits perseverance and trust in God as the keys to success.


Above: Marcus Hamilton's bio from the National Cartoonists Society Web site.

Another tip o' the hat to Journalista!

Famous Artists & Writers: 1949

Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents a 1943 promotional item from King Features titled Famous Artists & Writers: here is part one and part two.

Big hat tip to Journalista!

Syndicated Cartoonists as Illustrators

Please go and read The Bu$ine$$ of Illu$tration: Feature Syndicates from the always great Today's Inspiration blog by Leif Peng.

When Noel Sickles gave up his strip, Scorchy Smith, it was because of a combination of "restlessness, deadlines, boredom and money," according to biographer Bruce Canwell. In an online excerpt of an interview from The Comics Journal #242, Sickles himself mentions that his salary at the beginning of his three-year stint on the strip was $47.50 per week. In spite of his managing to negotiate it to a respectable $125 a week, Sickles quit the strip in 1936 to pursue a career in magazine illustration.

Related: an excerpt from SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES from Today's Inspiration.

Norm Feuti's Comic Strip Submission

The great thing about the Web are people like Norm Feuti. He's showing us his entire new comic strip submission titled GILL. He's already mailed to all of the syndicates. Two of them have passed on it, including King Features which syndicates his current strip RETAIL, and he's still waiting to hear from the others.

Take a look and you can see a solidly formatted submission. Thanks, Norm, for sharing this and letting people in on your process.

H/t to Comics Reporter.

Goodbye SPOT THE FROG

SPOT THE FROG, a daily newspaper comic strip by Mark Heath, is no more. I was sad to hear this when I knew it was coming. I had heard about it. I first read that the strip was over in my cartoonist pal Mark Anderson's blog.

The strip, only four and a half years old, was an all-ages friendly, gag-a-day comic that was slyly crafted.

I say it was sly because Mark made it look easy. Look at Spot! With those big, expressive eyes, and dinky little frog body. Look at the colors on the Sunday cartoons or on the two covers of the SPOT collections, published by Andrews McMeel. Just wonderful to look at. And it was silly and inviting.

The loss diminishes the comics page. A strip like SPOT is a tentpole feature, that appeals to young readers and helps develop the habit of going to the funnies every day.

It was Mark's decision to stop. I don't know the reasons, and I don't want to extrapolate why. But I do want to ask here: why do so many strips go away after a couple of years? Why are these individual voices stilled? Some of them, like DIESEL SWEETIES, are gone because the creator has decided that the newspaper syndicate model wasn't generating enough income to justify the toil of a daily strip. (Gary Tyrrell writing for the FLEEN blog interviews "rstevens," creator of DIESEL SWEETIES, here.)

Anyway, sorry to see SPOT go. But, thanks to the Internet, it's there. Here's Mark, writing the first post-SPOT blog entry on Sunday:

"There’s a Spot the Frog-shaped hole in certain newspapers today. With luck the papers will fill the space with something other than ads.*

"Here’s the interesting thing about media. As NBC once trumpeted during summer reruns, if you haven’t seen it [the episode], it’s new to you. Or something like that. For readers who came to Spot in the last few years, you have a thousand or so strips you haven’t read. It’s like the light from a dying star. You can enjoy the glow of an exploded sun for years.

"* Your Comic Strip Here."

On his home page, you can add your name to a list of people who would be interested in seeing a third collection of SPOT. There's also a nifty song about bullfrogs. I'm hoping that Mark Heath will continue to create and let us in on more cartoons in future.

Mailbag Q&A

I get mail. Below are a few of the questions I've gotten recently and my response. Most of these are good solid questions about making a living as a cartoonist and pricing your work.

--------------------

Question: I need some info on the top paying markets.

The best thing is to go out and see what mags are out there (or what Web sites) and gear your work accordingly. By doing this, you will begin to establish that ever-moving shark, proactive, market-seeking-out mentality that all freelance cartoonists need.

On a chatboard, one fellow who wants to be a professional cartoonist was asking me to describe the cartoons in Playboy to him. I don't think anything I would write would be as helpful as him seeing the cartoons they are running for himself.

So, yes, one must be self-motivated to see what's out there and persevere. I'm not sure if this is what you wanted to hear, but, for me, it's what works.

--------------------

Question: I'm an aspiring cartoonist with a weekly one panel strip that I'll be marketing to newspapers. I'm having trouble finding any information about pricing each strip. I'm self-syndicating. Can you help me?

My advice is not to do it, but I figure that you don't want to hear that.

First, you need a Web site. You really need an online presence. I don't know if you have a site or a blog, but it's necessary. [I had searched for a Web site for this cartoonist and not found one.]

Most newspapers pay $5 a week for a comic strip or panel. That's $5 for a week's worth. The bigger papers (Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, etc) pay up to $200 a week.

One of the most successful self-syndicated cartoonists is my colleague Chad Carpenter. I hope he doesn't mind me shining the Mike Lynch Cartoons spotlight on him. His cartoon panel TUNDRA is in about 200 markets and he self-syndicated his panel. I urge you to look at his site and consider creating something similar. Editors will want to see a lot of consistent output, that's why a site is crucial.

And let's keep in mind that Chad has been doing this for 15 years. A lot of success in cartooning is over the long haul.

I would also urge simultaneously submitting your package of cartoons to the major syndicates. Just let them see it and see if you get any comments or interest.

This is my 2 cents.

--------------------

You probably get this all the time, but I've got a great one box cartoon idea. What should I do with it?

Gee whiz, just one? Come up with 9 more and that'll make a decent batch, then mail them out to The New Yorker!

Then, do it again the following week!

Like they say in the Lotto commercials, Ya never know!

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That's all for now. My thanks to those who wrote. I appreciate! Feel free to add your own 2 cents in the comments section.

Lee Salem Interview

Universal Press Syndicate head Lee Salem answers questions about newspaper comic strip syndication for the Wet Ink blog. Dawn Douglass conducts the interview. Here's just a snippet:

... Many aspiring cartoonists probably do not know that to accept a development contract, they must also sign a full "real" contract, to have it in place should the feature get picked up. Most lawyers will charge about $1,000 to represent the cartoonist. Do you typically give, or even ever give, legally represented cartoonists a better deal than they could get on their own? (For the sake of full disclosure, whether or not to hire an attorney often comes up in cartooning circles. My feeling is that you're not going to budge on the most important parts of the contract no matter what, so the $1,000 is a waste, that creators should just ask for what they want and negotiate their own deals. Am I wrong?)

LEE: Personally and professionally, I would recommend a lawyer. Syndicate contracts are long term relationships and even if a layperson fully grasps all the nuances of a contract, it's best to get an informed perspective. For the sake of full disclosure, I know of contracts that were negotiated by the cartoonist that are better than some negotiated by a lawyer, and vice versa.

Some good hands-on information in this frank and informative interview via Comics Reporter.

New Site for Kieran Meehan

Cartoonist Kieran Meehan has a spanking new site. Meehancartoons.com is up and operating as of this week, just in time for the Reubens (which are coming up this weekend).

Kieran is syndicated with King Features (the newspaper comic strip" Pros and Cons;" formerly "A Lawyer, A Doctor & A Cop"), and he also produces a daily cartoon panel for the Evening Times, in Scotland (which is also where he lives).

Congrats, Kieran, on a great site -- and continued success! I look forward to seeing you at the Reubens!

DBR Media 2000-2008

DBR Media, a syndicate founded by three former King Features Syndicate staffers, has ceased operations, citing overhead as its main hardship.

Although a formal press release has not been forthcoming, a mass email was sent to DBR contributors. It was signed by Diane Eckert, Executive Editor, and Brad Elson, Director of Operations of the Altamonte Springs, Florida-based syndicate.

Here is a portion of the email to contributors:

"As you know, DBR Media has been experiencing very hard times. We have left no stone unturned in trying to keep everything afloat ....

"Unfortunately, we have no choice at this point but to shut down operations. We are well aware of the many sacrifices everyone has made in addition to our own personal sacrifices. There are no sufficient words to say how grateful and honored we are that you are part of DBR’s family, and that is what we consider you.

"Please know that every effort is going to be made to compensate you. Money is still owed to us from clients. We are hoping to recover that.

"It has been a journey of eight years. Despite the hardships, it’s been a pleasure to work with you. Your talent and dedication are what’s made most of this possible to begin with."

DBR syndicated comics, puzzles and text features.

The world of comics and cartoons and editors that work with them is a small world full of very good and kind people. Very sad that it's a little bit smaller now.

Pitching Your Comic Strip

From yesterday's CNN Money site comes Pitching your ideas to the big shots. Sure, it's another one of those "here's how you get your comic strip submission to stand out in the sea of 5,000 other submissions" sorta articles. You've seen these articles before, but I always read these to see if there's anything I haven't thought of.

"Ultimately it boils down to the cartoonist's voice: a sense of humor that very many people can relate to or project themselves onto," says Brendan Burford, King Features' comics editor.

The graphic next to the article is of THE SIMPSONS, a TV show as if we don't all know that. (Maybe it's because today's Matt Groening's birthday. But I digress.) Why the CNN Money folks put a TV show instead of a graphic from a comic strip, I don't know. Maybe the next time they do an article about THE SIMPSONS they will put in a graphic of THE BUMSTEADS.

Hat tip to Comics Reporter!

Above graphic "Tack's Cartoon Tips," a 1923 how-to booklet by "Tack" Knight, that I found linked at Cartoon Snap via Dave Blog. Complete Flickr set of the book is here.

And these comments at Cartoon Brew got even more information on Tack, a guy whose work I've seen in cartoon history books. His cartoons are easy to point out. He signed his name by drawing a thumb tack. ... Hmm. He does not seem to be doing that in 1923 by the looks of this booklet.

Diversify Your Newspaper Comics Like a Portfolio

... so writes Joanne Kaufman in today's Wall Street Journal (quoting Janet Grimley, assistant managing editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer). This is a thoughtful piece with a lot of quotes from editors, syndicate people and cartoonists young and old.

And the article goes on to cover the fact that it's so difficult for a new cartoonist to break through all the old "legacy strips."

"For their part, long-established cartoonists suggest a little perspective is in order. 'My father always points out in defense of his strip that when he started it he was competing for space with 'Little Orphan Annie,' 'Dick Tracy' and 'Pogo,' ' said Brian Walker, a cartoonist and comics historian who was referring to 'Beetle Bailey' creator Mort Walker. Other cartoonists see it purely as a marketplace issue. 'My feeling is if you can do what I'm doing and it knocks me out of the paper, do it. Do it,' challenged Lynn Johnston. 'I'll applaud you. But as long as the editors and readers want my strip, I'll keep working.'"

The only thing that doesn't get mentioned is a Web-based business model for making money out of comic strips -- something I think is pretty important, especially if Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos can get people to buy Kindle. My friend Mark Anderson has more on Kindle here.

The article is accompanied by a too-small-reproduced illustration by Martin Kozlowski that I really liked. I wish it was reproduced larger! Heck, why are there space considerations on the Internets, WSJ?

How Did You Become Successful?

From Sandra Bell-Lundy's Between Friends blog, comes this great entry that talks about success and how does one get started actually being successful. She approached a guy who sold real estate -- one of the most successful people she knew:

"He told me that when he first started in real estate he was completely green as to 'HOW THINGS WERE DONE.' He had no idea what the protocols were for networking for contacts and finding clients. He was ignorant, motivated and starting at ground zero...and he told me that, in his enthusiasm, he went out and did everything he wasn't supposed to do. Apparently, that worked very well for him."

DILBERT'S Scott Adams' Syndication Advice

So, Scott Adams is trolling the Internet and he sees a cool comic called Basic Instructions. by another Scott, Scott Meyer.

Scott Adams writes on his DILBERT blog:

"It dawned on me that my blog readers might want to follow that conversation, like a reality show, and see if my sage advice can help a talented unknown hit the big time.

"Over the next month or more, with Scott’s permission, I’ll give you updates showing my advice and his responses. Your comments will guide us. When his work gets to the point where I think he should submit it for syndication, I’ll show him how that’s done and let you follow along."

More at the DILBERT blog.

I like the format and I thought that if similarly formatted THIS MODERN WORLD and TOM THE DANCING BUG panels can get syndicated (albeit only in the freebie papers and on the Web), then why not BASIC INSTRUCTIONS?


ABOVE: The disfigured Captain Christopher Pike from "The Menagerie" episode of STAR TREK.

PS Hey, nice thing about Scott Meyers is that he's also responsible for the Ask Captain Pike Web site. Go there and ask Captain Pike a question! It's fun!

Ahh. Cartoons and TREK! Pure blogging satisfaction. Scott, you made my day!

1971 Editor & Publisher Syndicate Directory

Here's a blast from 1971: the E&P 46th annual Syndicate Directory. Hang on! It's more fun than it sounds.


These annual directories list all of the syndicated newspaper features, and there are ads from the syndicates. promoting their wares.

Above: out of the 20 comic strips listed above, I only knew about 5. I enjoyed looking at these old comics -- GUMMER STREET, PIXies (with its odd half-capitals, half lower case spelling), THE COLONIALS -- and wondering what these strips were like!


Above: Something I didn't know: SKIPPY was revived by a syndicate! Percy Crosby was the best. He was the cartoonist behind the comic strip SKIPPY for 20 years. The strip ended in 1945. Mr. Crosby was Charles Schulz' favorite cartoonist. Look at the motion and energy in that strip. Skippy is alive. Go to Joan Tibbetts Crosby's SKIPPY site to see more of one of the best strips ever.

"LIPPY THE YIPPY provides adults and youngsters the opportunity for laughter at human foibles." You gotta love the hat flying off the old man's head in the final panel! I have to admit, I did not "get" this gag. This strip may or may not have actually run in papers, so says Allan Holtz at his Stripper's Guide blog. Explanation of his "Mystery Strips" project here.


Hey, I never noticed that Harriet Parker of THE BETTER HALF has the same hairdo as the Mom from THE FAMILY CIRCUS. Again, a bounty of strips, a good portion I have not heard of, represented in this ad from the Register & Tribune. LAUGHS FROM EUROPE, with that sad long-faced fellow with the incongruent Prince Valiant haircut, sitting on a box, ice-fishing, doesn't look particularly side-splittingly hilarious.

Here's Universal's tree of syndicated goodness. The 1971 dot pattern caused my color-reading scanner to strobe. Obviously, that effect was not in the original. What's up with 22-year-old Garry Trudeau wearing what looks like a pimp outfit? And what's up with the SHADOW GOODNESS feature? "Drawn by Dr. Richard Smith, a dentist ..." it says. Is this a cartoon feature? My favorite title of any feature is JELLY SIDE DOWN by Nancy Stahl, who both wrote and cartooned her feature. There were 2 paperback collections of her work in print, easily findable via used book outlets listed on ye olde search engines,