CSotD: Garfield: The Future of Comics
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It's fashionable to hate Garfield, with his repetitive dread of Mondays and abuse of Odie and embrace of lasagna and so forth and so on.
Or, at least, that's what I assume still goes on there. To tell the truth, for all the strips I read every day, Garfield isn't one of them.
However, that said and notwithstanding and nonetheless, thank god for Garfield.
He is the future of the comics industry.
No, I don't think that all cartoons will one day look like Garfield. I'd be horrified if they did.
But I'd be equally horrified in all novels one day sounded like Amelia Bedelia or Juney B. Jones or even Percy Jackson.
But my point is that if you expect that a kid will grow up without ever cracking a kids' book, but will then jump joyfully into the loving arms of the Brothers K, or will never see a Cars movie but skip straight to Eric Rohmer, you're hoping for what has never been and never will be and never could be.
Ditto with comics, and as comic books become more aimed at 20-somethings, and — perhaps more to the point — at 20-somethings with an obsessive appetite for complex, interwoven storylines, the days of kids lazing over the latest Superman or Fantastic Four have long passed.
I think my first comic book subscription was to Spooky, but maybe it was Casper. Later, and by "later" I mean at maybe nine, I discovered "Classics Illustrated," and I guess Superman and the rest of the DC crew had come in the intervening years.
That's not going to happen in a world in which comic books cost five bucks and you have to know that, in a parallel universe, the character on the left was killed but is now alive again only gay and black and in need of anti-psychotic drugs and the brother-in-law of the character on the right.
Which makes Garfield and friends our only hope. Wherever actual newspapers go, syndicated comics are still a mighty accessible way to reach uncommitted readers. Webcomics may change that, but the principles will be the same: Keep it simple, accessible and fun, and let that be your niche.
Newspaper comics for me began with Barnaby, though in the form of a collection and not individual strips in the paper. In the paper itself, Pogo was visually fascinating but I couldn't figure out what was going on. I liked Peanuts and Miss Peach and Family Circus, and I adored the Sunday Mark Trail. My first continuity strip was Buz Sawyer — simple graphics, simple dialog, simple storylines.
There's no point in hating Garfield. I don't read it, but then I don't eat Froot Loops for breakfast, either, and I don't feel I have to actively, loudly hate Froot Loops because I'm not afraid anyone thinks I eat them.
And I wouldn't care if they did.
Life's short enough without pissing it away imitating what other hipsters are snarking over.
And I'm glad we've got Garfield, because the kid who reads Garfield today will read Curtis tomorrow and Big Nate after that and then we'll have him hooked.
Here are some contemporary strips that I consider gateway strips. It's not all of them, but a sample, and, while you won't see them featured here very often, if I ever expand my empire into "Comic Strip of the Day for Kids.com," you probably will.
First up, let's satisfy the "equal time" requirement by balancing that aforementioned cat strip with a kid-friendly dog strip that hipsters also love to hate. Marmaduke is not only accessible in both graphics and gags, but even a little interactive on Sundays with that final panel.
Beetle Bailey, with its repeated themes of drinking, scrapping and mostly unconsummated lust, isn't exactly geared for kids, but the simple gags are accessible and it's not like they don't have access to all that stuff in less gentle contexts.
Today's Mutts might be a little obscure for little kids, but the gentle, art-driven gags are generally accessible and, besides, many a cartoonist started by being inspired by the artwork of a strip he didn't actually understand. Mutts is some of the best art in syndication.
Curtis offers kids a chance to get into continuity stories with short arcs and punchlines that don't require you to have seen a whole lot of the world yet.
Not only is Big Nate a good example of a crossover strip that both kids and adults can enjoy, but it's proof that there's a good future in kid-friendly material, given that even kids who never see a newspaper know and love Big Nate, which has gone multimedia at a level that, while it hardly challenges the mighty Paws, Inc., is nonetheless a pretty good sign that you can appeal to kids without giving up (A) creativity or (B) eating regularly.
'Scuse me while I drop a few names …
Speaking of kids and my not being one any more, I actually wrote this yesterday and just stripped the Sunday strips in this morning, before heading off at sunrise to meet up with frequent-collaborator Christopher Baldwin for a little fact-finding road trip for our next project together
We've been working together for about a dozen years and I'm glad I found him when I did, because he's not a kid anymore and I'm not sure I'd be able to lure him in at this stage.
He's got a number of pretty interesting irons in the fire and happens at the moment to be in the stretch portion of a successful Kickstarter campaign that you can still get in on.
If ain't none of us getting rich these days, he's getting by, and that's pretty good.
Moreover, his newly adopted hometown of Glens Falls is artistically richer for his presence, or, at least, it will be until the next rain storm.
And then, to continue this theme of collaborators I'm glad I started working with before they outgrew me, as soon as Chris and I wrap up our
project, I will be digging into a similar bit of work with Dylan Meconis, or, as I like to call her, "Eisner Nominee Dylan Meconis."
And not only do I get to work with her again, but I'll get to see her this fall at the Billy Ireland Festival of Cartoon Art, where she will be appearing in connection with the new film, "Stripped," in which she is one of the featured artists.
Though let me be clear here: When I say I wouldn't be able to attract this pair as collaborators anymore, it doesn't mean you wouldn't. They're every bit as open to commissions as any of us.
I mean, the prom queen doesn't go stag, then, does she?
What I mean is that, for instance, some months after Dylan and I collaborated on the series from which this illustration comes, I got an email from a company regarding use of one of the pics from the series, which I passed on to her, and they paid her more to license that one picture than I'd been able to front her for the whole project.
Geez. When I wrote the story, I didn't expect the ending to be that happy.
Anyway, here's the trailer for "Stripped." If you haven't got tickets for Billy Ireland, you'll get a chance to catch it somewhere else, I'm sure.
And it neatly completes today's circle.
Stripped Trailer from Frederick Schroeder on Vimeo.
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