Newsweekly Comics Meltdown ("very probably a fatal blow" for Tom Tomorrow)

The Beat ^ | 1/28/09 | Heidi MacDonald

[denydenydeny]

Yesterday, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow revealed the dire news that his strip, This Modern World, and all other weekly cartoons were being canceled by Village Voice Media, publisher of the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, and 13 other newsweeklies.

This still leaves me with eighty-odd papers, as well as Salon and Credo, so it’s not a fatal blow. And believe me, I wasn’t so naive as to imagine I was going to get through this economic mess without taking some hits. Nonetheless it’s a serious chunk of major cities to lose in one fell swoop (don’t get me started on the joys of consolidation this morning). Anyway, if you live in one of those cities and think this is a bad decision, you might want to share those feelings with the local editor. Politely, it should go without saying. And keep in mind: it’s not just my cartoon, it’s all of them, so put in a kind word for my compatriots while you’re at it. The only thing any of us have going for us in a situation like this is reader support.

The Minnesota Independent confirmed the cuts. We’re too bummed to get dressed and run to the corner to get a copy of the Voice to see which other strips were running. Their comics page mentioned only Tomorrow and Mr. Fish, but there were others.

Today, Tomorrow has updated the situation and runs a quote from Derf who says it’s doom-time:

OK. This is it. We’ve reached the apocalyptic final struggle for the future of cartoons.

Village Voice Media is the largest group of weekly newspapers in the biz. It is suffering from the ills that have befallen the rest of the newspaper industry: dwindling revenues and withering readership. Their corporate response, which was delivered to me Monday, is to “suspend” all cartoons across the chain, said suspension to last at least through the rest of the first quarter, and quite possibly beyond. That’s right. NO more cartoons. None. This is very probably a fatal blow to me. Not only is it a significant income hit, but these are six of the largest and finest papers in the weekly industry. I’ve been in the pages of some of these publications for years. The Riverfront TImes was one of my first papers. I started run- ning there in 1991! This isn’t about me “sucking ” either. Since I won the Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2006, one of the highest honors bestowed on a cartoonist, I’ve been losing papers steadily. The reason cited is always budget cuts. Always.

[denydenydeny]

"Tom Tomorrow"'s This Modern World comic makes Ted Rall look like a neocon.

[A_Former_Democrat]

Wow, the Robert F. Kennedy Award. What a man you are, Tom.

[nickcarraway]

With all branches of government run by Democrats, what would be the point of Tom Tommorow?

[Chode]

Tom Terrific he ain't...

[Chode]

and the RATS, take another one in the..............................HA ha!!!

[Moose4]

Woohoo! Great news.

}:-)4

[JennysCool]

Since I won the Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2006, one of the highest honors bestowed on a cartoonist, I’ve been losing papers steadily. The reason cited is always budget cuts. Always.

Psssst! Dude! Have you ever considered that they're just trying to be nice to you?

[Navy Patriot]

Hey Chode, Tom Tomorrow is used to that.

[2ndDivisionVet]

But is Zippy the Pinhead okay? That's what's important!!

[Mojave]

Maybe if he learned how to draw...

[PAR35]

The chain has 15 papers, but he only speaks highly of 6 of them?

“but these are six of the largest and finest papers in the weekly industry”

[ffusco]

Tom Tomorrows strip is so condescending and smug. Couldn’t happen to bigger piece of crap.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Since there are hundreds of Internet comics, dozens of which are good, it seems to me that someone could publish a subscription mailed newspaper with just comics in it. Just including the Internet backlog of comics that were done, then died out could take years.

Instead of just a single panel, all those archives could be run a week at a time. Two editions of the paper could be provided, the family version and the adult version.

The big questions are how many people would want an entirely comics newspaper mailed to them, and how much would they be willing to pay for it?

[Apparatchik]

Schadenfreudelicious!

[Petronski]

[DemforBush]

Took the words right out of my mouth - TMW is about as leftist and shrill one can humanly get.

[castlebrew]

Considering the amount of total garbage, and the 3- to 4-day delay for “news” articles in the local fishwrap, I’d pay of ‘comics only.’ Real news I get from the WSJ or FR.

[castlebrew]

"I'd pay for comics only"

[Chode]

no doubt... prolly likes it too.

[jiggyboy]

For your leftists friends, a perfect substitute for a “Tom Tomorrow” comic strip is a minimally-drawn cartoon character saying “I hate George Bush and Republicans!”. Simply forward the same thing to them once a week on the same day.