Tornoe’s Toon: The Death of the Funnies
Cross posted at Laugh!.
Here’s my cartoon that appeared in April’s Editor & Publisher magazine.
Comics and cartoons are always getting the short-end of the stick. They continue to be one of the most popular features in newspapers, yet they’re often the first things cut in order to save money. And the cartoonists themselves are making less, as their client list shrinks and some syndicates lower their payment rates.
People like reading the comics on paper (one of the reasons I’m launching Laugh! magazine). So when newspapers get giddy at the prospects of devices like the iPad, I just worry that the great profession that has helped defined newspapers (and helped make them unique) will begin to wither away.
Tags: comics, funnies, newspaper cuts, Newspapers, sunday comics
Some people are saying that devices like the iPad are the future for comic books. What about for cartoons as well? Could cartoons break away from newspapers? That’s a good question.
And they even publish the same Peanuts cartoons over and over and over…
When I have to spring several hundred bucks for some over-priced Apple gadget locked in Apple’s walled orchard to read a newspaper, it’s the day I stop reading that newspaper.
Our iPad arrived on Friday… I’m in love.
It really is cool, stupid fast, easy to use, and the picture quality is amazing.
Keyboards are so 2009. 😉
@Pandora: You have an iPad? I’m jealous 🙂 The syndicate I work for has a cool free iPad app you should check out: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/msnbc-com-cartoons-hd/id364593244?mt=8
In terms of people reading comics on electronic devices, it’s certainly possible. However, it shifts the income model from newspapers paying for comics to individuals paying for comics, and as I cartoonist I don’t think that model will be successful. It will turn cartoonists into hobbyists rather than professionals.
But at least people in Delaware will have Laugh! 🙂
My son has an iPad, which I play with while he’s in school! Maybe I’ll have a grown-up “lunch iPad” party.
Thanks for the app, Rob!
Robs right, if people have to purchase the funnies thier days are numbered. Sad, ’cause I love ’em.