THIS MODERN WORLD

This came up in the course of a conversation on Twitter, and I think it bears repeating in the slightly more lasting context of the blog: when altweeklies cut cartoons as a “cost-cutting measure”, it is not actually a cost-cutting measure at all — it is Accounting Theatre, something editors are forced to do to appease the corporate bean-counters. The actual savings are probably about what you’d get from eliminating breakroom coffee, though arguably more self-defeating — breakroom coffee is unlikely to be popular enough with readers to have 27,000 followers on Twitter.

Unfortunately appeasing the bean counters is destroying an art form. There’s a reason there are so few people under 35 producing this kind of work today — given the market, why would any sane person bother? If current trends continue, the altweekly cartoon will ultimately be a (fondly-remembered) blip in the history of cartooning, not unlike the underground comix of the 1960s and 70s.

(…adding: please forgive the constant flogging, but I suppose this is an obvious place to encourage you to join Sparky’s List.)

Unspeakable! (Hint: vaginas are involved.)

Never mind the Simpsons — thanks for all the great years of Life in Hell. Thanks for making cartoons an integral part of the altweekly papers, until they weren’t. Thanks for leading the way, and changing my life in the process.

I have said before that the continued survival of this little corner of cartooning in which I toil is largely dependent upon the support we receive from publishers, which is increasingly in decline. Lloyd Dangle tossed in the towel awhile back, as did Lynda Barry, and now Matt Groening himself has retired his long-running, ground-breaking strip.

“Life in Hell”‘s newspaper count has dwindled over the years as cutbacks and consolidation forced out many features. Syndicated by Acme Features Syndicate, which Groening created, the strip hit a peak of nearly 380 papers in the early 1990s. In recent years, the strip appeared in less than 40.

One high-profile cancellation came from LA Weekly, which removed the strip back in 2009 due to budget cuts. Pandora Young, an editor for Mediabistro’s FishbowlLA (and a former LA Weekly staffer), was incensed by the news.

“Groening has been good to the Weekly over the years — making himself available to the staff for interviews, illustrating covers for the Weekly for the paper’s small standard fee despite his enormous success, and continuing to read the paper itself,” Young wrote when she found out.

“Dropping the cartoon seems incredibly short-sighted, so it’s probably safe to assume it was a decision made by the corporate offices in Phoenix.”

I’ll never understand why so many altweekly publishers have become so indifferent to the art form that helped define and establish their papers, to the extent that said art form is now dying on the vine.

But for now: thanks, Matt. Thanks for all the years. Thanks for the inspiration.

Catching up after a week at Netroots Nation and another at an undisclosed vacation location.

–Last week’s cartoon is here, the latest is here.

–Josh Holland interviews Matt Bors and me, here.

–Americablog’s Gaius Publius asks me Five Questions, here.

–many thanks to everyone who subscribed to Sparky’s List while I was travelling. Not sure if I got a mention somewhere or this is just the natural progression of these things, but it was great to come home to.

–I’ve got a backlog of signed print orders due to the vacation; I’ll try to get those out this week. Also, I owe some people thanks for recent donations. Apologies for the delays.

–from @drreganc, a picture of Droney in front of the Pentagon.

Me, Jen Sorensen and Matt Bors, visiting the studio (and borrowing the handiwork of) Big Nazo.