But GOOD fiction almost always relies on the author’s own knowledge and experience. Take any of the best comics out there, and chances are it’s about something the cartoonist knows well.

Well, I think that in every comic strip (or at least those still done by the original creator) there is, to a point, some part of the cartoonist being put into the strip, and into the characters. But cartoonists generally write fiction, and fiction can be about anything the writer wants. They don’t have to write exclusively about something that they know. And even if they do, then it is most likely fictionalized.

Yes, most African-American cartoonists tend to write strips with mostly African-American characters. But that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t write a strip with white characters, or nondescript characters, or animals. George Herriman, considered by many to be among the greatest cartoonists in history, was a Cajun man with some African ancestry. His most famous strip, “Krazy Kat,” was about animals. Sure, different times — a strip about African-American characters definitely wouldn’t be accepted back then — but it shows that there are other subjects that African-American cartoonists can tackle.

One who bought Soup to Nutz.”

I think that’s only half of a utopian editor, Rick. A real utopian editor is one that won’t DROP Soup to Nutz (of Non Sequitur).

“Angela, I was responding to what Darrin said regarding his question: ‘So why don’t I just draw animals, white, or nondescript characters?’”

————-

So saying that my choosing to draw a character who’s roughly the same age (30-something now, not 20-something) and ethnicity as me, is the same thing as creating a strip about my life? Candorville, unlike, say, “K-Chronicles,” is not an autobiographical strip. If it were, I’d have an illegitimate son with a crazy vegetarian, Hillary Clinton would be stalking me, and my best friend would be selling fake botox out of his trench coat in the nearest alleyway. I’d also be receiving regular visits from my time-traveling 88 year-old self before being reincarnated 3000 years from now as a flying squid creature who can’t tell the difference between the Congressorus Republicanus and Congressorus Democratus exhibits in the Museum of Anthropology.

If only I would “bend” a little instead of just illustrating my diary…

———-
“How about this – describe the utopian editor.”
———-

I’m not sure what that would be, but I know it would begin with one who has the title of “Comics Editor.” Right now, almost all the nation’s comics pages are thrust into the hands of features or managing editors who may or may not care for that responsibility. These are editors who have other responsibilities they consider far more important. Many of them resent having to deal with e-mails and phone calls from readers who are inexplicably passionate about something the editors secretly consider to be unimportant.

One who bought Soup to Nutz.

http://www.rickstromoski.com

I said “as of TODAY,” CURTIS and JUMPSTART are the only two strips by black creators that appear in over 100 newspapers. I am very aware that The Boondocks launched in over 100 newspapers. In the recent past, so did ZITS, BALDO, SIX CHICKS, and LIO. However, Boondocks has been gone for almost two years now. So, editors surely can’t be using Boondocks as an excuse as to why there are not more strips by black creators on their pages TODAY or why they catagorize these strips mostly by race and not by the topics they cover (as they do with strips by white creators).

Part of the reason Aaron MacGruder moved on to television was because after almost 8 years the number of newspapers carrying The Boondocks was decreasing, rather than increasing. But, it wasn’t due to the floundering newspaper business (other popular strips were still growing), he had just peeved off an awful lot of people.

If black creators took your advice and decided never to bring their legitimate concerns to the attention of editors for fear of being perceived as “rocking the boat” or “ganging up on people,” there would STILL be ZERO strips by black creators in newspapers today like there was in 1988. And, if woman creators had not been aggressive about wanting space on the comics pages, they too would still be absent (or grossly underprepresented) like in the early ’80s.

http://www.buzzle.com/showImage.asp?image=24652

And btw, regarding your observation that only Curtis and Jump Start are still the only two “black” strips with over 100 newspapers, The Boondocks launched with over 100 newspapers, a feat unheard of for decades. It had over 300 papers in the first few years. After seven years, Dilbert didn’t have nearly that many.

Okay, let me try to make this as plain as I can one final time…

1) Yes, I agree that having black characters doesn’t necessarily make a strip “racial” and yes, every strip should be judged on a variety of factors. What I don’t accept is that a newspaper saying that Cory’s strip is too much like Darrin’s strip makes them bigoted or racist. ALL strips constantly get compared on such shallow basis. When there are many hundreds of strips to consider and very few slots to fill, and when your goal is to get as wide variety of comics as possible, then you *must* have a wide hoe. There is no other way to do it.

2) Yes, editors discriminate. It’s THEIR JOB to discriminate. Calling somebody a racist or bigot, or even implying that they are, is inherently offensive (and ignorant of editors’ task, IMO) and is just going to cause anonymosity among editors who already think comic pages are more pain and more cost than they are worth. Of course, people will bend over backwards to keep from being called racist, which puts more responsibility to not play the race card unless an offense is truly valid. The success of The Boondocks, the fact that all cartoonists have heard “It’s too much like [X]” and so on, belie the assumption that editors must be making decisions based on racial bigotry since so-and-so’s wonderful strip isn’t in more newspapers.

3) Cartooning is a zero sum game right now. When anybody gangs up together to exert pressure, it comes at a cost to those who don’t have that united power. I don’t think it’s appropriate. Should panel cartoonists gang up to pressure newspapers to make more space for their format? No, because that added space would come by cutting the space of other cartoonists. When times are hard, we should look out after EVERYbody’s interests and not start splintering off into us vs. them groups.

4) Now is not the time to put even more pressure on editors. There are tons of deserving cartoonists who aren’t in the number of papers they should be and would be if the industry were healthy. But it isn’t. In fact, it’s dying. I won’t post the url here, because it’s a mile long, but today’s New York Times has a story in their “Media and Advertising” section titled “An Industry Imperiled by Falling Profits and Shrinking Ads” which says:
The talk of newspapers’ demise is older than some of the reporters who write about it, but what is happening now is something new, something more serious than anyone has experienced in generations. Last year started badly and ended worse, with shrinking profits and tumbling stock prices, and 2008 is shaping up as more of the same, prompting louder talk about a dark turning point.

“I’m an optimist, but it is very hard to be positive about what’s going on,” said Brian P. Tierney, publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News. “The next few years are transitional, and I think some papers aren’t going to make it.”

If things don’t change, and very soon, newspapers will start dumping more comics and the industry will start dumping more newspapers.

Sorry, but I can’t help but feel that this campaign is a bit like flogging a dying horse because it won’t carry you further. I know that isn’t the intent, but like I said, being called a racist hurts. Believe it or not, editors are human, too.