The Round-up
February 24, 2013 in General, Links, News
© Bob Godfrey @Procartoonists.org
We are sad to note that Bob Godfrey, the much-loved cartoonist behind Roobarb and Custard (above) and the equally wonderful Henry’s Cat, has passed away at the age of 91. Obituaries for the Oscar-winning animator can be found at The Guardian, The Telegraph and the BBC. The Guardian also offers a guide to Godfrey’s career in clips. In a sad coincidence, Richard Briers – who narrated Roobarb – died last Sunday.
The Telegraph is celebrating 25 years of pocket cartoons by Matt Pritchett, with a series of short videos in which the cartoonist discusses his work and looks back over his career so far. Begin by finding out about Matt’s typical day; other clips look at his first front-page gag, the tricks of the trade, his favourite cartoon of 2013 thus far, and how he’s turning into one of his characters.
Jamie Smart has plans for a new children’s comic, initially to be made available online for free, in which all characters will be creator-owned. He is on the lookout for cartoonists to join his Moose Kid Comics project – for which he hopes to attract investors and subsequently launch in print form. Read more and find out how to get involved here.
Finally, a Google doodle on Friday celebrated what would have been the 88th birthday of Edward Gorey. See the doodle at full size here.
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by Alex Hughes
After Gin Lane: Giving it all away
September 6, 2012 in Comment, General
Following From Gin Lane to the Information Superhighway we see that there are cartoonists who are positively embracing this new era of social media and sharing.
Hairy Steve © Steve Bright @ Procartoonists.org
Webcomics and viral cartoons are a couple of the ways that you can effectively give your work away to the web but get paid back by other means. Successful webcomics work on a business model based on the idea that you give away a regularly updated cartoon on your website and build a following of readers who come back day after day. British examples include John Allison‘s Bad Machinery or Jamie Smart‘s Corporate Skull.
© Peter Steiner @ Procartoonists.org
The profit comes from selling merchandise to the more loyal fans – bound compilations, prints, sketches, T-shirts, toys and so forth. Similarly, viral cartoons can drive lots of new readers to your website. How much money can be directly attributed to virals is arguable, although, for example, the well-known New Yorker cartoon “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” is said to have earned its creator, Peter Steiner, more than $50,000.
The website Kickstarter has recently become one of the biggest publishers of comic books in the USA, from independent cartoonists using the crowd-funding model to raise money directly from their fan-base. Here in the UK, Procartoonists.org‘s very own Adrian Teal (The Gin Lane Gazette) and Steve Bright (Hairy Steve – in collaboration with Jamie Smart) have developed their own crowd-funded projects.
We’ll be considering another aspect of the communication change – After Gin Lane – and what it means for cartoonists next week
Tags: Adrian Teal, Bad Machinery, Corporate Skull, crowd-funding, dog, Gin Lane, Hairy Steve, Jamie Smart, John Allison, Kickstarter, Peter Steiner, social media, Steve Bright, The Gin Lane Gazette, The New Yorker, viral, webcomics No Comments »