mzalen, Wed, May 21st, 2008
Evolution DOES exist. In the cartooning world, at least.
Back in the good ol’ days, cartoonists were hired by newspapers to draw comic strips specifically for that paper. The newspaper would give the cartoonist lots of room to play with – say, an entire page – and the artist would be granted almost complete creative liberties (subject to the censorship of the editor, of course).
Now if any of you are wondering when exactly “the good ol’ days” refers to, it’s the beginning of the twentieth century. Yes, I know that things weren’t exactly sanitary back then, and that crime and corruption was way up, and that the television didn’t exist, and by consequence there wasn’t much to do, but those were still good days. And do you know why?
Because cartoonists had it easy! And since I’m a cartoonist, that’s what’s most important.
You see, if a newspaper paid an artist to develop a cartoon specifically for them, then that meant cartoonists in general had a lot more opportunity. Imagine how many newspapers existed in the country, each choosing different cartoons from whoever happened to approach them. Now fast-forward to today, where newspapers generally select a few cartoons out of the handful that are mass-marketed. The result is more than just cut-throat competition - it’s a transformation of the medium as a whole.
As I said, cartoonists once had complete freedom when developing their strip. They had a huge amount of space (up to one full page in the paper), they had almost no format restrictions, and they had a captive audience which was willing and eager to experiment with new ideas.
Today those liberties don’t exist. Thanks to advances in the world of entertainment, giant media conglomerations have been created, and these corporations have realized that it’s easier – and more profitable – to think nationally, rather than focus locally. For cartoonists, this means an end to regional comics. Instead, a cartoonist must create a feature which conforms to the proper standards – both in terms of dimension, and in terms of appeal to a much broader, general audience.
Now if adapting to this challenge wasn’t difficult enough, the internet has taken things one step further.
You’ll find that all cartoonists, whether they’re self-syndicated, syndicated, or completely independent and unpublished, have some sort of web presence. At the very least, this means a webpage which includes a blog. At the most, it means a much more elaborate site, complete with a games section, an online store, and more.
Think about how far we’ve come. A few decades ago cartoonists were paid to be creative artists, focusing only on their craft. Today they’re expected to be no less than cartoonists and writers, with many taking on the additional roles of webmaster, tee-shirt designer, and marketing agent.
How is this affecting the quality of cartoons? Well that’s for you to decide.
Cheers!
Matt
