What's It All About, Alfie? pt3

Yeah, I know, I just can't drop this subject. But it's something that is near and dear to my heart. Hey, it's good to be passionate about something in this life!

Yes, it's important to create a unique and visually appealing comic strip, but I think it's also important to remember the people who will be reading it. That does not mean that you should necessarily cater your humour to what you think people will like; I think you should please yourself first, but always keep in mind those very precious people: the readers.

What specifically do I mean? Well, now I'm gonna focus my gripes from web comics to the ones in the newspapers. You know what I see a lot in the newspaper strips these days, that I never used to see? These navel-gazing cartoonists. What do I mean by that? I mean cartoonists who write jokes and comments and criticisms about their cartoonist colleagues, about newspaper editors and about the syndicates that they work for. Not only do I find this just in poor taste, it's usually not funny, and most importantly, what do the readers get out of reading that crap? Cartoonists get paid to entertain, not to bitch about their bosses and their co-workers. Readers don't need to know about that stuff in the comics pages; save it for an interview or a blog or something. It really drives me nuts when I see that kind of poor excuse for writing in the comics pages. I'm talking about this kind of drivel. I for one, will not miss this "comic strip".

Any thoughts here? Anyone else feel the same?

Comments

[dwarf at large]

Well yes, I agree. I think the cartoonist to beat all cartoonsits, Bill Watterson (who you mentioned here once)had the right elements, perfectly mixed- irreverence, a strong opinion about the world, a young perspective and very loveable characters. He has left a space- but I think someone can fill it.

Someone should try to bring both the cynic humour and that wonder back. :)