3500 Posts

 


Wow! This is the 3500th posting here.*

Toot! Toot! I am blowing my own horn.

Thanks for peeking in.

I was going to end the blog four years ago, you know. I was moving out of NYC and going to live in the foothills of the White Mountains. But that plan did not work out. I always had a couple more things to share. And you guys out there have been so attentive to the cartoony goings on here. The traffic keeps going up and up.

My thanks to my inky pal Mark Anderson for suggesting I start a nutty ol' blog way back in 2005 and to the one and only Jim Salicrup, who was one of my very first readers and commenters.

And thanks to all of you out there who make this blog part of your day. You guys are great.

*This doesn't count 2006-07 when I was blogging at MySpace.

Happy 4th Anniversary

Above: a drawing of my cluttery desk.

Happy birthday to this here blog, which turned 4 years old this past weekend.

When I first started, I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. I thought for sure I would run out material in a short while.

Like Yoshihiru Tatsumi says, being a cartoonist is like being lost in the desert, going from oasis to oasis; it is, as his 2009 autobiographical book title sums it up, A DRIFTING LIFE. There is no set path to cartooning success. You just keep working, hoping for the best. If an editor likes your work, you will make a sale. If fans like your cartoons, some of them will buy a t-shirt or a book.

So, all my thanks for being out there. This blog has grown so fast with massive traffic. And I hope it's been of value to some.

Post #2000: Don't Work for Exposure

This is my 2000th post at the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog on Blogger.

For something that I started on a whim in 2006, I had no idea until recently how much this thing is part of peoples' routines. My thanks to you for reading, for making your comments.

I write a lot about how you sell cartoons, why you need to keep your rights, and why it's important to persist, in spite of the odds.

Which brings me to the Google story that some of you may already know about.

And keep in mind that this company made $1.42 billion in the first quarter if 2009 (an 8% increase over the same quarter in 2008).

This New York Times article by Andrew Adam Newman shares the good news that some illustrators received from Google:

Google wants your artwork for its new browser.

And then, the other shoe is dropped:

Google will not compensate you.

Please keep in mind that the call went out to established, paid professionals.

I'm glad that some artists said no to this working for exposure proposal. After all, many print illustrators are seeing their fees cut. In the meantime, a Google spokesperson says,

" ... we are currently working with dozens of artists who are excited about the opportunity to be involved in this project."

And, Google adds, it isn't releasing the names of these excited artists.

I am frustrated that those dozen of artists agreed to this. They are wrong.

I continue to write and draw my own cartoons full-time. But I'm also making choices to cut my overhead in as many ways possible (no Reubens convention for me this year, no MoCCA, no vacation, etc.).

Yoshihiro Tatsumi says in his huge autobiography A DRIFTING LIFE, that being a cartoonist is "like a traveler in the desert, searching for an elusive oasis."

While there is no guide, there is common sense. Keep walking. Keep moving.

Keep moving -- especially when a corporate giant like Google, that as we all know pays a decent wage to many of its employees like programmers, executives, media consultants, secretaries, etc., asks for your hard work for free.

I'll be here tomorrow, ever insanely optimistic that cartooning will work out for me and for all of us.

Hat tip to Tom Tomorrow.

What's On Your Shelf?

A busy day here, full of about 1/2 cartooning-related stuff and 1/2 snowblowing.

I have a lot of shelves here in the studio. Here are four of them. They are woefully untidy, but I thought they may be of interest.


Above: the top shelf is for mostly older paperbacks containing single panel gag cartoons. I've scanned in some of these for blog purposes in the past.

On the second shelf: newspaper comic strips (MUTT & JEFF from NBM's "Forever Nuts" series, PEANUTS, WALT & SKEEZIX) and manga (of which NANA and YOTSUBA&! are standouts).


And here are 2 more shelves. The top shelf is a general pile that needs sorting. A cat walked on them, causing them to tilt at the same angle that all those bad buys were filmed in the old live-action BATMAN TV show. (It's called a "Dutch Tilt," by the way.) You can see all my interests: old comedy movies, graphic novels, comic books, even a cookbook (for the cool retro illustrations).

The bottom shelf is part oversize magazine gag cartoon collections and part learn to cartoon books. No New Yorker books here. They are in the living room, available to page through.

Unseen: at least 8 more shelves of books and ephemera.

A hat tip to Robot 6, where I got the idea to show my shelves.

My First Blog Entry: Meet a Cartoonist February 7, 2006

Below is my first blog post from three years ago; February 7, 2006.



This cartoon of mine appeared in Punch Magazine, before it folded. thought it was an appropriate thought to start this, my first blog entry.

I'm a full-time freelance cartoonist living in NYC. Mostly, I draw what are called single panel or gag cartoons for magazines. I've got a couple of cartoons to draw for Wall Street Journal. WSJ approved a couple of roughs and now I have to draw finishes. I don't like drawing finishes since they never look as good as the roughs. So, I was putting it off, reading blogs, and I read Jim Salicrup's blog. I like Jim and his blog was really interesting --even just the lists of stuff he bought at the comic store. And then I thought, what the heck, I'll defer drawing for even longer and start my own blog!

I better go draw now. After all, it's 3 weeks till rent's due! More cartoon talk another time ....

1,455 Postings and Counting

Above: the daily grind ... a cartoon I did within a month after quitting my day job.

It just crept up on me without me noticing. I have written 1, 455 Mike Lynch Cartoons blog postings since February 7, 2006. Wow. I had no idea. That's amazing. That's a lotta yakkin'!

Thanks for being there, and for taking the time to read. Your comments and emails are catnip.