At times in my life I have worked as a part-time professional cartoonist. I have never been brave enough to take the plunge into full-time cartooning/illustration work because it is a risky, poorly compensated business. Daryl Cagle, an established, ‘successful’ cartoonists recently penned a missive to and about aspiring cartoonists. He had this to say…
Ironically, editorial cartooning is a terrible business. Newspapers pay only a few dollars a week for packaged groups of talented cartoonists who are, in turn, poorly paid. The professionals compete for fewer and fewer staff cartoonist positions at papers that are cutting back, as the internet crushes print. More and more professional cartoonists can’t make ends meet. The syndicates aren’t really a barrier to success for the aspiring cartoonists, just a hurdle on the road to more frustration in a dying profession.
My profession is fading away, I’m poorly paid and there are thousands of rude, talentless wannabes who want my job … but Britney Spears shaved her head – at least the life of a professional editorial cartoonist has its little pleasures.
You have no idea how sad this makes me. At least the pure joy of cartooning remains…even if no one ever sees it.
UPDATE: Another cartoonist responds to Cagle’s assertions about the reality of editorial cartooning…
Hey Daryl,
Wow. Your rant on the reality of editorial cartooning was brutal. I agree with every point. Even though I draw 5 cartoons per week, I also work 50+ hours at my day job as an advertising art director. Could I survive on the daily toons and still eat? No. Do my cartoons suffer because I frequently draw them after a twelve hour workday? Yes. The question I’ve yet to answer is why do I still do it if it pays less than working at Wal-Mart. I guess that answer is editorial cartooning is not a “job” but a passion. The luckiest few find success if they can combine the two and live comfortably. If those aspiring cartoonists knew what it really takes, they may put their crayons down and continue doing something else they think they’re good at.
Take care,
Justin.
Depressing…
6 users commented in " Too Many Cartoonists, Too Little Time… "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI understand how sad this makes you Dadman. It causes me some concern as well.
But then I wonder if this isn’t just a new marketing model being created and editorial cartooning being something that is distributed through the Internet instead of being threatened by it.
There have been similar comments about comic strips dying due to the death of newspapers, and several classic strips are in fact in trouble. But there are also a slew of new niche internet comic strips that have provided a good living for their creators. One in particular that I read is the “Order Of The Stick“, which is dedicated to role-playing, and as such has a limited audience, but the artist in this case has managed to turn his internet creation into a profitable enterprise entirely on his own, no syndication required. He even managed to quit his day job. I read it myself. He’s published paper versions of his creation and they sell out of traditional bookstores too.
I think OOTS is one of the first of a new model of comic strips. I wouldn’t be surprised if a new model of editorial cartooning also comes together.
“… as the internet crushes print…”
At one time, buggy whip manufacturers had to adapt, too. Internet crushing print? Then go on the internet! It seems to be working for people like Scott Adams (Dilbert), Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Cox and Forkum, and Chris Muir (Day by Day).
Also, to paraphrase Mel Brooks as Yogurt in Spaceballs: “Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money on the (cartoon) is made! (Garfield) the T-shirt! (Garfield) the coloring book! (Garfield) the lunch box! (Garfield) the breakfast cereal! (Garfield) the flamethrower (the kids really love this one) and last but not least, (Garfield) the doll… adorable”.
Obviously, Jim Davis had it figured out decades ago.
It surprises me that Daryl Cagle, an established cartoonist that is very internet saavy, would have such a dim view of the future of editorial cartooning. I think editorial cartooning may not translate quite as well to a web-based business model as serial strip/panel cartoons do. I don’t know. I have to think he knows what he’s talking about. But maybe he’s just an old fogey cartoonist that isn’t adapting well to the new media…
I’m not sure either Dadman. Editorial cartooning may be a different animal altogether. But I do know that there are some editorial cartoonists who have allied themselves with internet media and at least get their product out there for people to read it. Whether they are making any money or not is beyond my knowledge.
For what it is worth, my own company is one that has always been profitable in a print world with paper products, and we are struggling every bit as hard as Daryl Cagle is to keep our large corporation from being brought down by the Internet. In fact that is a major part of my actual day job. When I’m doing it instead of hacking up a lung and feeling like I’ve been driven over by a streetsweeper like I do today. Sigh.
Ironically, Cagle seems to be one of the cartoonists doing a good job of leveraging the internet to increase the exposure of professional editorial cartoonists. I get a near-daily newsletter from him that highlights the work of multiple professional cartoonists on various current topics. And yet he says ‘my profession is fading away…”
Depressing…
I hear you, but as I said there are other businesses that are suffering exactly the same fate, including my own. And mine is one that employs thousands of people in several states. I love the Internet, and had I lived at the turn of the last century I would have loved the automobile. But the impact on society is inexorable, market forces are difficult to stop.
I still suspect there is a way to leverage those talents in the age of the Internet, but if I had the answer to that, perhaps I would have the answer to my own internet challenges…
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