Survival techniques for editorial cartoonists
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 10:41PM It’s no secret that newspapers are facing the biggest crisis they’ve ever experienced, particularly in the U.S. and that they way they are handling the drop in advertising revenue is to lay off staff. Particularly hurt are editorial cartoonists, who are not considered essential to the production of the paper. If you read Cagle’s blog with any frequency, it is becoming an obituary for cartoonist’s careers, with layoffs occurring at an extraordinary rate.
It is difficult for many of us who have been in this business to witness this in light of what editorial cartooning used to be. In the golden years, which I think occurred in the late ‘70s to early ‘90s, editorial cartoonists were highly-esteemed and well-paid members of the editorial board, often answering only to editors. The perception was that editorial cartoonists were fly boys, while the rest of the staff considered themselves as doing the grunt work. Ah, yes, the glory years...
Well, those days are over and newspapers no longer esteem us the way they used to. Syndicates such as Cagle Cartoons and Artizans in Canada, have brought cheap, plentiful cartoons to newspapers seeking to fill a hole in the text and editors have been inundated with similar cartoons on similar topics. There is very little to esteem, it seems.
The fact of the matter is and while many cartoonists will deny this, thievery is an everyday occurrence. You can blame the Internet for this, just as you can blame it for the demise of newspapers. Unfortunately, there is no going back to what used to be and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better and the bad news here is that I doubt it will get better.
In fact, I envision a future world of editorial cartoons being produced by very untalented people for very little money. That is, of course, they can convince the editor to replace the photo many papers are now running in place of the cartoon. Most talented kids coming out of college are not going to waste their time investing their lives in a career that provides little reward and will be attracted to where the money is. Right now, that is in video game production, animation and the like.
So, the question is, faced with almost-certain demise of this once-proud profession, what is an cartoonist to do? Let’s face it; there isn’t a lineup of employers looking to hire professional cranks who can draw funny-looking people. Some editorial cartoonists do have transferable job skills and may indeed find employment somewhere, but the vast majority are, as they say, up the creek without a paddle.
Some, such as Halifax cartoonist, Michael DeAdder, after losing his job when the Halifax News closed its doors, reinvented himself by expanding his repertoire to include weekly cartoon videos for the local CBC. The cartoons have been popular and DeAdder has blazed a trail for other cartoonists to consider -- video production.
Of course, the problem with video is that it takes an enormous amount of time and requires a completely different skill set than what is needed to draw static drawings. But video production and Flash animation ability will be tremendous assets for new online economy and should be considered by any cartoonist who wants to survive this revolution.
The other assets will include the ability to self-promote using the Internet. Heck, the way I figure it, the Internet got us into this mess, it should get us out. This will include setting up a website, blogging, podcasting, selling merchandise and whatever else the enterprising cartoonist is capable of doing.
I’m not going to lie about this: This is going to be a very hard time for many editorial cartoonists to transition from and this year will be difficult to watch, as so many more good cartoonists will be forced to consider new ways to support themselves.
The point is, now is the time to prepare. Even if you, as a cartoonist reading this, manage to survive this economic crisis, it is in your best interest while you still have a good income, to invest in some job skills other than drawing people with big noses.
As for editorial cartooning, it may survive, but in a different format. Think online.
Reader Comments (9)
Nice post..
I am also a big gamer and designer of console strategy games and that is in video game production, animation. I don`t think this is going to waste their time investing their lives in a career that provides little reward and will be attracted to where the money.
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