(Commentary) It's that time again. Let's begin with a correspondent, in this case a writer, who commented on the last item in yesterday's Sunday Scraps:
"You wrote, 'Missed question: if Marvel's so gung-ho to try new things in an effort to boost sales, why isn't it launching creator-owned titles?'
"I suspect no one asks about this anymore (I and others used to ask about it all the time, actually) because it's obvious that Marvel is more interested in owning marketable multi-media properties than in publishing comics per se. Publishing is simply a means. But since Q and J are never going to admit to that, any 'answer' is assumed to be more of the smoke and mirrors we got when we still asked, which gave rise to rumors that Marvel might resurrect its Epic line.
"There was also talk early on that Max might include some creator-owned books, and Q and J have abandoned that, too, if they were ever serious about it."
I think that's probably right, and it's a shame -- were Marvel to set up an Epic-style imprint and begin offering contracts which offer the kind of rights creators are used to seeing from indy publishers, they might actually find themselves with properties capable of competing in bookstores. It'll never happen, of course; the prospect of publishing something they don't fully own (and worse, sharing the licensing rights with some filthy cartoonist or other) is undoubtedly inconceivable to Marvel's "grab it all, own it all" higher-ups. Hell, these slimeballs won't even honor a contract with Stan Lee to share the Spider-Man movie money!
Onward. Our second correspondent wrote in early last week, commenting my report on Belgium's Quixotic attempt to do right by its creative types. I'd listed a PDF of the soon-to-be-implemented law as being written in Dutch:
"That document is in French and Flemish - the two official languages of Belgium. Dutch-like, but not the same, and confusing them is a capital offence in both countries, in much the same way that Canadians get all upset when you call them Americans (even though they are Americans, the continent is called America after all)."
I stand corrected. Finally, let's move on to the main event -- last week I linked to an article which noted the lack of pro-war editorial cartoonists, and invited readers to submit links to such political cartoonists. I got a great deal of mail in response, and with your assistance, I was able to confirm the existence of exactly five them. Such cartoonists do exist, but apparently they're something of an endangered species.
Several readers pointed out the work of Michael Ramirez, cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times; the best examples of pro-war Ramirez cartoons can be found by clicking here and selecting the cartoons for January 12th and 28th (the link is to MSN's website, which doesn't allow the cartoons to be directly linked). Correspondents also pointed me to the works of New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas (examples here and here), Detroit News cartoonist Henry Payne (examples here and here), and Ed Gamble, cartoonist for Florida's Jacksonville Times-Union (examples here, here and here). Finally, reader Ben Towle pointed me to a website called Cybercast News Service, which carries the work of Tampa Tribune cartoonist Wayne Stanskal (example here). Not exactly an overwhelming number.
You can find a few more such cartoonists by bypassing the newspapers and going straight to the web. The aforementioned Cybercast News Service offers up the work of such cartoonists as Kevin Tuma and Paul Nowak. Multiple readers pointed out Rightoons.com, which features Bob Lang and Paul Nowak -- a man who apparently gets around. Closer to the bottom of the barrel we find an artist working under the name Fabricio.
Probably the best web-only cartoonists pushing for war in Iraq is the team of Allen Forkum & John Cox, whose work was submitted by Sean T. Collins and others; you can see examples of their work here and here. Overall though, editorial cartoonists -- especially the newspaper variety seem to remain overwhelmingly anti-war.
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