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I like Foxtrot. They used to put it in our college paper every day and now it'll be gone. *tear*
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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Saw this yesterday, makes me sad as it means there will be that many fewer pages in his "Complete Foxtrot" collection.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I may be putting myself on the wrong side of the debate here, but I have never liked Foxtrot that much. A laugh maybe every few pages. Not anything like Calvin and Hobbes which could make me laugh at every strip .
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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I will greatly miss foxtrot. I've known about this for a few weeks now, but its odd to see him talking about it in his strips.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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My local paper is asking readers what replacement strips they would like considered...and if there are any other strips they want replaced.
I swear, my list of "strips to replace" got so long. Blondie. Sally Forth. Marvin. Cathy. Garfield. There are so -many- cruddy strips infesting the comics page.
For replacements I requested Zits, Mutts, and Get Fuzzy.
Are there any other decent strips these days?
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Frazz. You should recommend Frazz. It's an incredible strip, funny, smart, and in a weird way educational, without ever being dull or condescending. It's a lighter-toned heir to Calvin and Hobbes, in my opinion.
Posts: 3658 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Puffy Treat: My local paper is asking readers what replacement strips they would like considered...and if there are any other strips they want replaced.
I swear, my list of "strips to replace" got so long. Blondie. Sally Forth. Marvin. Cathy. Garfield. There are so -many- cruddy strips infesting the comics page.
For replacements I requested Zits, Mutts, and Get Fuzzy.
Are there any other decent strips these days?
Or you could try the world of online comics which is where the awesomeness still remains. There are hundreds of GREAT online comics,
Sluggy.com was the first one that exposed me to this world Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: Or you could try the world of online comics which is where the awesomeness still remains.
Actually, I disagree with this. I don't see webcomics as the Lothlorian of comicdom, where some of the wonderfulness of an earlier era still lingers. I see webcomics as the vibrant future of comics, and think that the web is the ideal medium for comics. Newspapers are limiting--witness both Bill Watterson's frustration with the amount of page real estate that papers are willing to devote to a single comic and the limited number of comics that any one paper can carry. When I was a kid my family got four different newspapers, and the primary reason for this was to get a broad array of comics (seriously). Even with that, though, we were limited to the comics that the various comics syndicates thought would have mass appeal. With webcomics these limitations don't apply. The size of an individual comic and the number of comics available are so large as to be infinite, really. Layout isn't dictated by a newspaper page, quality of art isn't limitied, production schedule isn't limited, subject matter doesn't have to be family friendly, a large organization doesn't have to agree to carry a strip in order for the artist to find a wide audience....
Really, we're in a new golden age of cartooning.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Puffy Treat: My local paper is asking readers what replacement strips they would like considered...and if there are any other strips they want replaced.
I swear, my list of "strips to replace" got so long. Blondie. Sally Forth. Marvin. Cathy. Garfield. There are so -many- cruddy strips infesting the comics page.
For replacements I requested Zits, Mutts, and Get Fuzzy.
Are there any other decent strips these days?
My favorite newspaper comic is Brewster Rockit: Space Guy. Definitely one of most consistently funny newspaper strips I've read in while.
In general, though, I mostly only read webcomics.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Just came across an interview (well, kind of a composite interview) that Watterson gave in '05 in which he was asked about webcomics. From the interview:
quote:Q: Many young cartoonists are using the Internet to display their work instead of, or in concert with, print media because there are few barriers to entry and the medium provides the freedom to experiment with form, content, and color. Given your concerns over the state of newspaper comics, what do you think of this development?
A: To be honest, I don't keep up with this. The Internet may well provide a new outlet for cartoonists, but I imagine it's very hard to stand out from the sea of garbage, attract a large audience, or make money. Newspapers are still the major leagues for comic strips . . . but I wouldn't care to bet how long they'll stay that way.
I disagree that newspapers are the major leagues for comics, these days. I could just be unaware of it, but I don't know of a general trend in which webcomic authors only work in some kind of online "minor league" until they get picked up by a syndicate and go on to a real career as a cartoonist. I think that if Watterson were to pay attention to what's going on in the webcomic world (and he recognizes that he isn't) he'd realize that he had been operating on some faulty assumptions.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: I imagine it's very hard to stand out from the sea of garbage, attract a large audience, or make money.
I'm a faithful OotS reader, and I've only given Bill Burlew the cash he gets from a single Cafe Press t-shirt order. I know he's got the exposure and the audience, but how does a free webcomic make cash?
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Pete Abrams manages to support his family doing Sluggy Freelance. I'm not sure how many others do that.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I think there are at least five to ten webcomics that support a full-time income, and probably a handful more that could at the rate a lesser-known syndicated cartoon would pay, but the person doesn't want to devote the time/it would be a reduction in pay.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:I'm a faithful OotS reader, and I've only given Bill Burlew the cash he gets from a single Cafe Press t-shirt order.
Well, people who know his name also probably spend more money. I've given him about $100 over the last two years.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Wow. I've donated twenty dollars each to Randy Milholland and Jeph Jaques (and bought a QC T-Shirt), and I thought that was generous. I can't imagine giving as much as you.
EDIT: Incidentally, neither of them acknowledged the donation in any way, even though Milholland said about a month later that he was going to send GIFs to everyone who donated. *shrug*
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Oh, and I forgot what I really meant to say: Foxtrot is my favorite comic, and I totally identify with Jason. :-\
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I think Amend has a valid point. It *is* hard to stand out. There are maybe a dozen webcartoonists able to do it full time instead of a job, and my general impression is that they make less a year than I do. Compare that to Amend, who can now cut back to one day a week.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I actually am glad Amend is stopping. I think it's pretty brave of him, actually. He's letting it die in its prime, and not using it as a continuing cash cow for years to come. I've noticed that in the past few years the strip has started to lose a bit of its quality, and using too many of the same old jokes. I don't want it to putter along for another few years until it finally dies. I think it's better this way, even if I did love the strip.
Posts: 290 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I think Tom is saying he's "given" Rich $100 over the last two years through purchases, not as straight donations, since he was responding to a post referring to having "given" the cash of a Cafe Press t-shirt order. I know Tom owns the OotS game, throw in a couple of book orders and a t-shirt and you can hit $100 pretty quick. Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Yeah, I've bought a fair amount of Qwantz, Schlock Mercenary, Penny Arcade, Sluggy Freelance, and OotS merch. I've only actually "donated" to one webcomic, and that was back when Pete got the whole Defenders of the Nifty together on Sluggy. I'm no longer a Defender, since a) they never really got their act together with the group and b) the quality of the comic has gone incredibly downhill, to the point that it needs better and more vociferous defenders than I.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I sent a small donation to the creator of Real Life and got a (signed) Christmas card during his donation drive last year .
Revenue models for webcomics are only now becoming more fleshed out. Also, several webcomic authors make money by being more than webcomic authors -- having comics in-stores (typically manga format) or getting into papers (though only 'strip' comics can do that, really).
I think as webcomic creators become more adept at providing value for their readers and attracting interest in other things (essentially the role served by comics in newspapers) we'll see the number of full time webcomic artists skyrocket. I wouldn't be surprised if there are over a hundred in three years time, and that would be a lot (how many syndicated print cartoonists are there, after all?).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I saw this a while back. I'm going to miss Foxtrot. But at least it's still around every Sunday.
On the note of webcomics -- I tend to follow Dominic Deegan and Comedity. Occationally I'll be directed to a Penny Arcade, I haven't actually heard of any of the rest of the ones you mentioned Tom.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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