From the Daily Cartoonist:

 "From the Bristol Herald Courier comes word that they will be dropping Jeff MacNelly’s Shoe and opening the spot for auditions of other features. Auditions will go on for six months - one month for each new feature with Pickles up to bat first. The other current features (13) are to be ranked by readers. The ranking will be by paper ballot (mailing it in or faxing), but as the editor says, “This doesn’t mean that we will let the popular vote decide which comic to lose and which one to add.”

 Tom here...I like reading things like this because it gives me hope for the future of some new strip. At least some editors out there are trying to shake things up occasionally, and give new features a try.  Naturally, though, this doesn't mean some schlub off the street, as you can see by the next paragraph from that same article, which ends rather ominously for those of us clinging to syndication dreams:

"Why “Shoe?” Because while it’s a favorite of newspaper editors, it isn’t with readers, and we need to free up one spot for the audition, which will include some of the country’s most popular comics - “Get Fuzzy,” “Zits,” “For Better For Worse” and “Pickles,” samples of which I recently reviewed. “Pickles” is about a married couple of seniors and would have great appeal to our mature readers, who dominate this and every other newspaper’s circulation rolls."

 Me again...So, again...in the larger sense, I'm very proud of the Bristol Herald Courier.  Three lusty cheers of 'huzzah' to them for shaking things up.  Of course, the comic that's going to get chosen to replace "Shoe" is more than likely going to be ANOTHER established comic that's gaining readership.  A step up from a zombie comic, but still, it's not like a door just swung wide open for a newbie.  In all fairness, the Bristol Courier might be also giving some very unknown comics a try in their 6 month period, but it looks like they're going with some big, established names.  I'd put forth the idea that if you're going to do this, choose two or three complete unknowns from the ranks out there, and let them duke it out with "Pickles" and "Zits."  (Both fine comics, by the way...Zits is brilliantly written and drawn, and I have to say that "Pickles" can actually crack me up from time to time.  Pretty good writing there.)

 But aside from the "woe is me, the poor starving cartoonist" aspect of all of this, the line "Pickles...would have great appeal to our mature readers, who dominate this and every other newspaper's circulation rolls" should send a shiver up your spine.  Read it aloud to yourself a couple of times. 

 Do you hear that noise in the distance, Mr. Anderson?  It is the sound of inevitability.   Or the sound of one last nail being driven into the coffin of trying to get syndicated.  Unless your demographic is squarely in the 50-75 age group, your chances of getting one of those mythical syndication contracts is pretty much down to zero.  Newspapers are a dying art form, or at least one that will shrink considerably in the years to come.  It is not inconceivable that my baby daughter and her entire generation will grow up with hardly any exposure to actual newspapers.  Most people get their news from the internet and TV as it is, right now.  Does anyone actually think that's going to change and swing back the other way?  That people are going to suddenly throw down their cooler-than-crap Apple iPhones and say "Hey, I want to read a good OpEd page right about now."  I don't think so.

 You want to get syndicated?  Make sure you have a lot of characters that are bland, innocuous, aimed at an older audience, and throw in a cat or a baby.  Bingo!  You've risen to the top of the stack.  You've created something that won't offend anyone, or push them, or make them think, or occasionally outrage them.  Heaven forfend that we should toy with the status quo now and again as artists.  Perish the thought.

 Man, I'm sounding like the bitter old bald man I am.   However, while it does frustrate me a bit on some levels,  it's just another example of how we need to band together and dive headfirst into the interweb with our 'toons.  We need to be unafraid and realize that the lack of editorial shackles and newspaper constraints is a glorious, freeing thing.  10 years ago, my advice to a young cartoonist would've been to keep writing and drawing, gather up their 6 weeks of strips, and send them to the 5 syndicates and then go have a beer and wait.   Now, I wouldn't even bother with that...set up your own site, market yourself, drive traffic to your site, promote other artists you respect and admire, and share the glory with the strips you like out there.  I'd rather have 1,000 people reading my strip who loved it for its artistry and word craft, than to have millions reading something bland and safe.  

We've talked about this issue on and off on the Podcast, and I thought I'd weigh in on the subject.  A lot of famous comic strips have a tendency to continue on after their creators have passed away, put in the hands of relatives or completely new artists.  Obviously, this is troublesome to anyone trying to get that precious foothold into the syndication world, because a continuing, aging strip means no room for something new.

 On a zen level, complaining about this is like complaining about the sun coming up in the east tomorrow morning.  You can yell until you're blue in the face, but it ain't going to change a thing.  Just because Johnny Hart passes away, do we really think a syndicate is going to just stop putting his millions dollar product out there and put in some untried cartoonist who might be picked up by 25 papers if he's lucky?   Strips like "Beetle Bailey," "Hagar the Horrible," and the "Family Circus" are basically cash cows out there for the syndicates.  And besides, there's a long history in the comics world of strips outliving their creators for many years.  Do we really think Chester Gould is still writing "Dick Tracy?"  It was common practice for artists to be assigned to different strips all the time, and still is.

Of course, that works for some strips, most notably the soap opera ones like "Mary Worth" or "Apartment 3-G."  It's not about the artist or the writer then...it's about the storyline and the characters.  But I could certainly make a case that in your normal four panel strip (or one panel for that matter), it just seems wrong that people are riding the coattails of the original creator.  I suppose if my father was a famous artist and had created some classic strip, maybe I'd be taking over the reigns eventually and carrying on the legacy.  I'd personally like to think I wouldn't...I'd prefer to do my own thing, and respect the unique voice that created the strip by letting it die with him.   Isn't it weird that we don't question the continuation of "Beetle Bailey", but can you conceive of anyone drawing and writing "Peanuts?"  Or "Calvin and Hobbes?"  

 I'm sure a lot of this is simply a matter of rights and ownership.  If the syndicate actually owns the characters, then they are free to do whatever they want with them, as well they should.  Or, if it's the wish of the creator to hand the strip down to their children or estates, like "The Family Circus", then again...so be it.  

 But for me, I still don't like it.  I wish there were no zombie comics.  I wish that the syndicates would phase them out over time, perhaps...run "The Wizard of Id" for five more years, and then retire it with the dignity it deserves, and open up the space for someone new to fill.  The comics need new blood, and they're not getting much of it.  "Pearls Before Swine" and "Get Fuzzy" are great, but they're just two voices out there.  

 Cyncially enough, I know this utopian idea is just not going to happen.  Like I said above, we're talking about millions of dollars in syndication and commercial products here.  Shiva knows if I was in charge of the syndicate, I doubt I'd want to just stop running "B.C." just because the creator died.  But, luckily, we have an alternative today that we didn't have, even ten years ago.  The web.  I hate to sound like an old fogey and get out the "back in my days!" stories...but back in my day, you gathered up your 6-8 weeks of strips to submit, you sent them off to the 5 or 6 syndicates, and sat back and waited to collect your "dear creator, you suck" rejection letters. (I have about 10 of them in a file somewhere.)  And that was it, boys and girls.  That was your shot.  You'd never learn a damn thing about your strip...am I on the right track?  Am I close?  Are people laughing at all? Are my characters striking a nerve?  None of those questions would be answered.  There was no guidance, no response.  THAT to me is the single best thing about webcartooning...the immediacy of your audience.  Even if you know your stuff is being read by a handful of people, it makes you want to create more and keep going.  And very often, you start meeting other artists, other writers, and you see that there is support out there to be had.

 We need to find a way to make it pay.  We need to find a way to eke out even a side income doing this work, and there are ways to do it.  The internet allows us unparalleled freedom of expression and art, in ways that have never existed in history.  Think about it...when in the history of mankind have we been able to reach such a vast audience so easily?  Sure, YOU know about Van Gogh...but he died penniless and neurotic.  Now, put him on YouTube cutting off his ear, and he'd be on Letterman tomorrow night.

Anyway...I'm off topic.  (That will happen a LOT.)  I don't like zombie comics.  But they're here to stay.  It's best we don't waste valuable time and effort complaining about what we can't change, and rather turn that energy to finding ways we CAN succeed...ways we can get all our unique voices out there to be heard.  Let's work on that.

Hey there, Coast to Coast Fan(s).  As the Thing might say if he had a website, It's bloggin' time!  (Of course, just think about the size of the keyboard he'd have to use...and then there's that terrible taste in his mouth left by that terrible film...)  Anyway, this is my first attempt at creating a blog here, and I hope to update it on a fairly regular basis, expounding on stuff we talk about in the podcast, ranting about movies, comic strips, television, politics, life, the universe and everything.  Please chime in and leave me your comments...I'm fully aware that I'm a legend only in my own mind, and that most of what I say is crap.  But, thanks to the internet, I can share that crap with the world!

 Stay tuned!