* Cartoonist Mike Dawson, who I first encountered when he was drawing the late, lamented Gabagool series, talks in a brutally honest manner about his struggle to maintain an audience. (link via The Comics Reporter.)
* I think this piece is really important. Dawson is absolutely upfront about his sales, citing actual numbers for each of the graphic novels he's published. I imagine these numbers will shock some, depress others. But it's good that a well-known cartoonist is speaking truthfully about how his works sell. Having known many cartoonists for the past couple of decades, the numbers Dawson cites don't surprise me at all. Many have experienced similar lack of interest in their work. Why have his numbers so declined? Why did they never reach the stratosphere to begin with? Dawson is a good cartoonist and a witty storyteller. But he has plied his trade at a time when superheroes are all most comic book stores care about, working in genres that require a great deal of finesse, skill and effort to bring to a mass audience. More than anything, you can rest assured that Diamond, the monopoly North American comics distributor, is not at all interested in the type of work Dawson is doing, and they're not much interested in the stores that would be passionate about carrying it, either.
* The only Dawson graphic novel I have ever seen in a comic book store is his Freddie Mercury one. I think I read excerpts of that online, and found it not my cup of tea. This is another problem Dawson faces that all cartoonists need to understand -- even your biggest fans -- and man, I loved Gabagool -- is not necessarily going to be attracted to everything you do. I loved James Kochalka's autobiographical and magical realism comics, but Super-F*ckers and his children's books don't resonate with me at all. That doesn't mean anything other than that not every work a cartoonist creates will work for everyone who has liked some of their work.
* Dawson discusses social media at length in his piece. That's a part of the puzzle, although none of us really know how big a part. Dawson clearly regrets throwing away 1,200 Twitter followers at one point, and well he should. Like it or not, if you create any art these days and are not supported by a massive corporate publicity machine, you're on your own when it comes to promoting your work. Dawson, and every cartoonist like him, needs a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest at a minimum. He should be posting sketches and strips and panels and interacting with the public every day. Will it make him a best selling cartoonist? Probably not. Will it help raise awareness that he's out there working and creating comics and help grow his audience a little? Almost certainly.
I actually like the Freddie Mercury gn.
ReplyDeleteBut posting every day seems onerous. Regularly, for sure. At LEAST weekly, I'd think. But creating that tidbit to hook others takes a surprising time, time away from the actual creation of the stuff he WANTS to do.
I'll write a blog post. Then fuss for over 50% more time finding the right (?) photo that's in the public domain, and deciding on the pull quote, and the topics tags, and the title, and copying the whole thing to my parallel blog.