Yeah... whatever that means...
Okay, so I have a "blog" now, which is so far being viewed by 0 people. Isn't that refreshing? Oh well, I haven't exactly promoted it yet, so that's to be expected.
On a whim, I started looking at other "Suggested" blogs, and I came across the recently-started blog of one
John Kricfalusi, creator of
Ren & Stimpy. Okay, so I'm poking through there, feeling oddly like a stalker, when I come across a passage where he is deriding the state of modern newspaper comics (See his blog from Sunday, March 05, 2006). One comment he made really hit home with me:
"There are people alive today who can draw really good cartoons, but they aren't in the newspapers for some unexplainable reason."
I think my jaw actually dropped a little when I read that. Now, I don't claim to be a good artist myself. In fact, I would be so willing to just write the strip and design the characters, and let someone far more talented than myself draw the panels. If Boritom was a newspaper comic, in fact, I would have the money to do just that. As it stands now, I do have someone helping me write the dialogue, at least giving me ideas on better punchlines, and sometimes, helping me restructure strips that are scripted too awkwardly. It has helped the strip overall immensely, and I do believe that my writing has improved as a result.
Still...My artwork leaves a bit to be desired... I deserve to work for free, because I haven't improved my technique enough to make the strip more successful and pleasing to the eye.
That said, I think it's disgusting that the authors of such strips as Something Positive, Ctrl+Alt+Delete and Sluggy Freelance are still barely making it off of merchandise and donations from fans. Meanwhile, the artists of such eye-raping crap as "Drabble" and "Cathy" are raking in cash like mad, by comparison, with their main salary from the syndication house, and merchandising deals from Hallmark and various other corporate feces producers.
Now, this is going to offend some of you who know me personally, seeing as how many of us work in call centers ourselves, but I am most repulsed by that so-called hero of the Cubicle Farm, "Dilbert." Something about the "style" of that strip just fucking irks me, and I can't stand to look at it. Nonetheless, it has even been made into a (thankfully) short-lived animated sitcom, and is one of the largest-selling merchandising franchises since "Peanuts." How is it that strip warrants so much adulation and cash, while genuinely original strips go unnoticed?
Of course, this is all from the standpoint of wanting life to be fair. If life was fair, it would destroy the basis so many comics are based on, and there wouldn't be any point to drawing them. At any rate, I shall continue slogging through, trying to make my art style better, to compliment the improvements in the writing, and cross my fingers that some day, I'll get off my ass and start getting the tedious work done of drawing all sorts of character movements needed to do a 10 minute flash pilot of
"Boritom: The Animated Series"
