Friday 17 February 2012

Huge 2000 word article at the Columbia Journalism Review has loads of facts and figures and speaks to the major players:
Cartooning for a Sustainable Future
Will editorial cartoonists find their (paid) place on the web?
By Alysia Santo
The proprietors of YubaNet, a two-person news operation covering California’s Sierra region, count a subscription to Cagle Post as one of their most important investments. Pascale Fusshoeller, the site’s editor, says that the cartoon section draws consistently high traffic numbers “every single day.” “If the cartoons aren’t up by 7 am, I get e-mails or calls like, ‘Hey, there is no cartoon today,’” says Fusshoeller. “Some people are very attached. They start their day with these cartoons.”

Other cartoonists choose to self-syndicate rather than sign with a third party. Mark Fiore, who won a Pulitzer in 2010 for his animated political cartoons, says he was syndicated with Universal Uclick for a few years, but felt “they’re no better at it than I am.” Instead, he chose to “pound the pavement” to sell his own work. Now, he collects advertising revenue from his website and his YouTube channel. “In a way, YouTube is a syndicate for me; they are selling the ads, and getting my work out there.” There’s no way to undercut syndicates, says Fiore, “unless your selling it for pennies,” so cartoonists have to find a way to offer something unique from what the syndicates offer. “The syndicates are cartooning’s best friends and worst enemy,” says Fiore, but to break free from that, “You’ve got to figure out the hustle.”

Wednesday 15 February 2012

The Daily Mail on a great exhibition of photos:.
Rabbis, rags and rainy Whitechapel: Stunning photos from the 1950s celebrate Jewish life in post-war East End
This one takes me back to some of the references I was using to draw From Hell:

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Iwas in transit when this news came down:

DC Plans Prequels to Watchmen Series
Brian Azzarello, a comics author who is writing the mini-series for the Watchmen characters Rorschach and the Comedian, said he expected an initial wave of resistance because “a lot of comic readers don’t like new things.”
Some people have no shame.
But Mr. Moore was unconvinced, saying that the endeavor only weakened the argument that comics were an authentic form of literature.
"Everything goes from grand to paltry."- Bacchus

Monday 13 February 2012

A rather astonishing news item from over here.
Secret documents lift lid on WWII mutiny by US troops in north Queensland
An Australian historian has uncovered hidden documents which reveal that African American troops used machine guns to attack their white officers in a siege on a US base in north Queensland in 1942.
Information about the Townsville mutiny has never been released to the public.
But the story began to come to light when James Cook University's Ray Holyoak first began researching why US congressman Lyndon B Johnson visited Townsville for three days back in 1942.
What he discovered was evidence detailing one of the biggest uprisings within the US military.
"For 70 years there's been a rumour in Townsville that there was a mutiny among African-American servicemen. In the last year and a half I've found the primary documentation evidence that that did occur in 1942," Mr Holyoak told AM.
During World War II, Townsville was a crucial base for campaigns into the Pacific, including the Battle of the Coral Sea. ...(more)

Sunday 12 February 2012

Those of my readers following my series of posts about the old ROMANCE comics may be interested to read my review of Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics at the Comic Journal. This forms a useful addendum to Part 4 of my series.