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RSS FeedThe Morning Line: Honey, They Shrunk the Strips
Cartoonists have joked for years -- through gritted teeth and inky fits of frustration -- that newspapers publish their strips so small that the occupation has been reduced to scribbling on stamps. But some days now, when we look at the narrow-depth, four-panel comics -- such as "Prickly City" -- we're convinced the panels are literally the size of stamps.
Four-panel cartoonist or postage-stamp designer? The line continues to shrink. (Universal Press Syndicate)
So what the #$%&! do you do? Well, some of your real options as a cartoonist are:
(1) Convert to a three-panel strip.
Good luck with that. For some comic strippers, how you write gags is as inborn as left-and right-handedness: You're either a three-paneler or four-paneler. (How "For Better or For Worse's" Lynn Johnston works in five panels is a whole 'nother matter for another time.)
(2) Cut your wordiness waaay down.
Some strips lend themselves to "Mutts"-esque brevity (or go silent like "Lio" -- a sly decision in a world of comic philately). But some strips -- like a verbose "Non Sequitur" -- are damned if they're gonna pop their fat word-balloons. (The legendary, and legendarily ornery, political cartoonist Paul Conrad represented a whole other camp -- he told me cartoonists who use so many stinkin' words should just up and become novelists.)
Hello, Editor? Yes, I want to report a breach of legibility. (Universal Press Syndicate)
(3) Take a stand and watch how fast your client list plummets.
Most any creator not named Trudeau who dictates strip dimensions to editors today will soon have fewer newspapers interested in his/her services than "reporter" Jayson Blair. Which leads to...
(4) Find another line of work.
Why, there's always children's books. And Web comics. And children's books. And scribbling three-dollar caricatures for tourists on the boardwalk. And did we mention children's books?
And as Garry Trudeau noted here last Tuesday, even political cartooning slots are endangered. (Two days later, the L.A. Times waded into this topic too.)
So there you have it: Syndicated cartoonists are between a professional rock and a hard place -- and both the rock and the hard place are getting harder and harder to see as they shrink. And then there's always the option that an artist suggested to me once: Newspapers should include a tear-out plastic magnifying glass every so often with the comics pages. Well, at least that's one solution that shows a little vision...
So, for you devoted print readers, would you rather have fewer strips bigger OR more strips smaller?
By Michael Cavna |
July 21, 2008; 6:00 AM ET
| Category:
The Morning Line
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Posted by: William | July 21, 2008 6:23 AM
Make them smaller? You must be kidding! As the previous commenter suggests, get rid of the strips I don't like!
Posted by: Phred | July 21, 2008 6:57 AM
How about removing the clutter? I do the crossword and sudoku but if you took 'em out in favour of more or larger comics, I wouldn't mind. I don't read, or rarely read, bridge, stickler, poker, scrabble, or that weird jumble so if you pulled them I wouldn't mind. I probably wouldn't even notice. I'm a chess fan but I haven't seen the chess column in a long time. Put a comic or two in its place.
BTW, I read them all, but I've sort of given up on Tank -- too many words to make the effort for what will probably be a so-so punch. And I'm a writer who will never use a dozen words when a hundred will do. :-/
Posted by: f2 | July 21, 2008 7:43 AM
Someone forgot to close a bold tag...
Posted by: wiredog | July 21, 2008 7:50 AM
Some strips can't convert from 1/4 to 1/3 sized panels because they maintain a 1/2 strip break so that their dailies can be rearranged to fit square slots. Not that that's a common thing for papers to do, but in the fight for newspaper space against the legacy zombies, I guess you sometimes take whatever edge you can get.
I've also noticed that both Sheldon and Barkeater Lake both experimented with the extra space once they left the papers to become web strips.
Posted by: Brent | July 21, 2008 8:29 AM
OK, smaller strips for more of them....but, edited by someone farsighted who is over 70....THEN see how small they will not get.
Even a few of the on-line strips need 125% to read....never thought that would happen.
I am thankful that the San Antonio Express-News is truly trying to keep comics, one of the few.
Posted by: PearlandPeach | July 21, 2008 10:06 AM
Oh well, the LA Times link is "Page not found"
Posted by: MSchafer | July 21, 2008 11:24 AM
Tough one. I too would like to see soduko and bridge and the like banished to a different page than the comics, rather than accept the zero-sum game. Personally I think a collectible pull out section, along the lines of Eisner's Spirit, may be a viable idea again, especially if it's got some of the Tokyopop manga strips running in it.
Posted by: Mike Rhode | July 21, 2008 11:52 AM
Does anyone else find even the Post's online comics a little too small? I usually resort to the zoom feature on my browser to read "Opus".
Posted by: Andrew | July 21, 2008 10:59 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
I have always admired the Post for having three pages of weekday comics that are not shrunk (or at least not shrunk as much as other papers'). If you got rid of the strips I hate and made the rest bigger, I would be happy. I certainly don't think you should try to add more by reducing the size further.