And Another Outlet Gone
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Single panel gag cartoonists opened their mail Tuesday to find a note from Bob Mankoff:
Hello Artists,
I’m very sorry to pass along the bad, sad news that AirMail has suddenly stopped buying cartoons. We didn’t have any warning, or we wouldn’t have asked for your last batches. But I guess we should have known the handwriting was on the wall when no cartoons appeared in the last two issues.
Trevor is following up on all outstanding bills and will make sure everyone is paid in full for their work.
It’s always disheartening when a cartoon market is lost, especially one like AirMail that presented great cartoons in a classy way amid other well-crafted content. And although we all wish they were still publishing, the fact is that over seventeen hundred cartoons were published– an impressive body of your collective work. Also, though the market is lost, your work is not. All of those cartoons have an afterlife on CartoonStock to be browsed and enjoyed and, more often than you might think, paid for.
All the best, and more if you need it,
Bob
As Jason Chatfield noted, “Bad news opens with ‘I’m very sorry to pass along…'”
The Daily Cartoonist, who noted the new market 7 years ago, first heard about the news from Gag Recap‘s Ron Coleman and soon the news began appearing in cartoonist’ Blogs and Substacks that one of their better paying outlets was no longer available.
MIchael Maslin in revealing the news that Air Mail was no longer accepting submissions listed some of the newsmagazine’s cartoonist that regularly appeared in The New Yorker. He also links to the Substacks of Jason Chatfield, Tom Toro, and Michael Gerber who mourn the loss.
Tom Toro notes “There’s a cruel irony that this cartoon [above] was the final one [link added] they published.”
Last year the original founders of Air Mail passed the e-publication on to others (or here).
To be clear – the publication continues they just no longer accept and publish cartoons.
The Air Mail cartoon archives remain online, at least for now.
Mankoff’s CartoonStock also has an archive of Air Mail cartoons.
As of this writing Mankoff remains on the masthead (scroll to bottom) as “Cartoon Editor”
And Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook seems to continue as a regular feature.
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