Cartoonist blames the medium
Lincoln, IL, native Julie Larson has to get a full-time job, despite being a nationally syndicated cartoonist. She tells the Journal Star that she isn’t happy about it:
“The culprit is the Internet,” Larson said. ” ‘The Dinette Set’ is available 24-7, with that day’s strip available for free all over the Internet. The free-for-all is killing any chance for a cartoonist to make a modest income.”
When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer dropped its print edition in March, Larson also saw her compensation drop.
“I used to get $375 for four ‘Dinette Set’ Sunday cartoons. Now that they’re strictly an online paper, they only pay $40,” she said.
Actually, the culprit is the business model of relying on dead trees to disseminate the product. Another culprit is her syndicate for giving her columns away for free.
What she and other creators ought to do is self-syndicate, or to embrace the Web. Chris Muir is making a living with Day by Day. The Internet isn’t going to go away to accommodate Julie Larson.
And newspapers like the Journal Star ought to be embarrassed they are still running Peanuts.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
I agree the syndication company should be blamed. Of course the newspaper will try to get the strip at a bargain, but they should hang tough and demand the same money for online as they did for print. At least she’s not blaming the large (sorry, couldn’t resist.)
As long as she doesn’t blame the 3XL.
great advice-share it with the rest of the syndicated cartoonists. They’ll enjoy it.part of the job is
loyalty to the trade, syndicated or not, working hard, and self-promoting are part of being syndicated.
do you work for free? do you eat for free? do you own a free car and will you give your paycheck away after producing a months worth of work??
big talk, little knowledge.
The webcomic cartoonists and the armchair comic ‘experts’ comments are flooding i.
They don’t seem to understand that we are under contract with our syndicates and don’t pick and choose when we want to work and how much compensation we should receive for our work. We work by the rules.
The internet comics are unorganized and many are not for
mainstream readers.The tried and true method of mainstream comics is being Funny, Consistant and Orignal-EVERY DAY.
It also includes creating comics for a WIDE Demographic…not pigeon holing. creating…they’re for All ages, all walks of life, we write about what people can relate to, make them smile and laugh, keeping it clean.
AND ‘SYNDICATED’ cartoonists also self-syndicate. I began writing my comic, Suburban Torture in 1989 and worked hard to sell it to alternative weeklies. After 3 years of sending samples to syndicates, I got picked up by King Features syndicate.
That’s where webcomics fail. Go selfsyndicate themselves to a syndicate. That’s where the top tier comics are.
Webcartoonists’ commenters charge that syndicated cartoonists don’t have much competition…Wrong.
The reason there seems to be not much competition in the newspaper funnies is because those who make it into print have been selected from 7000 cartoonists submitting their cartoon for syndication and only 2 or 3 are picked up a year for syndication.
That’s competition.
Syndicates are selective for a reason.
How many Webcartoonists have been approached by syndicates?
And we don’t all rely on syndicates alone to sell..
There seems to be an assumption that we sit back and expect sales.
I, continue to create promotional sales material on my own, sending material to editors of mainstream and alternative papers.
I selfpublish my books, greeting cards, arrange speaking engagements and booksignings, doing it the ‘oldfashioned’ way-Real Contact with real people-no surfing the internet
blindly throwing my stuff out there hoping to become famous.
Do webcartoonists really think the newspaper will disappear?
It won’t…it will restructure and reboot WITH columnists and cartoonists as part of the traditional newspaper line-up.
I’m fully aware of where SOME cartoons are headed-on the internet, but there will alwyas be a huge group of readers who will continue to read it in print.
It’s cynical and pompous to think otherwise. Like TV, there’s an audience for all shows.
I have a big fan base, readers LOVE TDS. ON and Off the Internet.
I have REAL LIVE fans, I communicate with them, I have met so many in person , have had a personal connection with them for years, have made wonderful friends for life… It’s not via the Internet.
Thanks again, Allan
PS….And, YES, the internet police will reign this copyright infringement problem eventually. The FCC has begun it’s work on the problem. The FCC Chairman has said by 2010, copyright protection and compensation for intellectural property will be enforced.