Comic Kudos - Between Friends

This made me laugh out loud today!!

Comic Kudos: Ballard Street

It's been quite a while since I (Anne) gave a shout out to any of my favorite comics. I've made a New Year's Resolution to be better about this in 2013. (Yes, I know it's already the middle of April - I'm a busy, disorganized person. Sue me.)

One of my absolute favorite comic panels is Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen. (Don't worry if you can't pronounce his last name, I get it wrong about half the time.)

I've been a fan of Jerry's work since his first comic "The Neighborhood". True story: In 2008 John and I flew to Los Angeles to attend our very first Reuben Weekend. Next to me on the plane was a guy flying home to L.A. In the course of our small talk, he asked what brought us to L.A. When I told him we were attending a sort of convention for comic artists he launched into a tidal wave of praise for one of his favorite comic strips - "Ballard Street" and lamented its removal from the L.A Times. Lo and behold, one of the first people I met when we got to the hotel was Jerry. I promptly passed on the comments of his fan and thought "what a small world".

But I digress.

Do I even need to explain what I find so funny about the above cartoons?

Perhaps it's the looniness of the inhabitants of Ballard Street - I struggle between the thought that these are folks from far off the beaten path and the nagging feeling that, to the contrary, I actually meet people like this on a regular basis. Nuts like this don't exist. They couldn't exist. (Except they do.) I propose we get rid of all the reality TV shows and put up panels of Ballard Street on the cable networks instead. Much more entertaining.

The other thing I love in Jerry's cartoons are the dogs. They have their own secret lives going on and, without a word of dialogue inserted into their mouths, we know exactly what that secret life looks like. Plus they have that added bonus of the crazy "chicken toes" of the dogs of venerated New Yorker Cartoonist George Booth. ("Chicken toed dogs" is my own pet name for the paws of Booth Dogs - I don't know when I started calling them that, they just always look like chicken feet to me.)

So head over to Ballard Street and get a bigger dose of the asylum that is running around in Jerry's head. (Today's - April 12, 2013 - made me laugh out loud!)

John Is Blogging!

John is blogging regularly over on his new King Features site - lots of great stuff! Go check it out!!

Edison Lee Comics

The Facebook Thing....

 Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. What to do with Facebook.

We've never posted many strips on Facebook. There are a variety of reasons, the biggest of which centers around the whole "who owns what" issue.

I wasn't the least bit surprised when Instagram woke everyone up one day with the announcement that "Voila! We now own the rights to everything you've ever posted using Instagram! Have a nice (ripped off) day!"

Since Edison is a copyrighted property with the syndicate lawyers of King Features behind it, those rights would probably supersede that of Facebook. But it still gives one pause.

Then there is the question of money. 

And, lets face it, that is an important question. When we post comics on Facebook the only one who sees any of that money is Facebook itself. We would be far wiser to have strips only available on an ad supported site.

Like, I don't know, maybe -

THE NEW OFFICIAL KING FEATURES WEBSITE FOR BRILLIANT MIND OF EDISON LEE".

Somewhere like that.

But, in general, people are lazy. (Me included)

They are going to go to the place they go everyday anyway rather than a separate website. And where everyone is right now is Facebook.

So, starting this week, we are going to make a better effort to post strips on Facebook and boost Edison's visibility on social networking.

Since we are going to muck about in this direction, we would like you, the readers, to do something too.

It's a pretty simple thing.

Well, four simple things to be specific.

First, go to the Edison Facebook page and hit "like" - not on the posted strip but on the page itself. I'm shooting for 500 likes in the next 2 weeks. 1000 would be outstanding! Here is a link: Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee Facebook Page

Second, see where it says "check us out at our main page"? Right there in the "about" section? Click on that and head over to the new King website.

Third, let us know you were there - click on an ad, leave a comment on a strip, leave a comment on John's blog (which he is updating faithfully every week, I might add).

Fourth, find 5 other people and get them to do all of the above.

Let's make some noise!

Synchronicity

Today's Edison strip features Honey Boo Boo in the punchline. This is one of those strips that actually is inspired by a real event or conversation. Back at Christmas my 76 year old father looked at me and said "I need your help with a pop culture reference - What is a Honey Boo Boo?"

Just like that. Swear to god. And we knew we would have to work it into a strip somehow. I think John did a great job turning it into a punchline that works with Orville.

As with all syndicated comics, that strip was written weeks ago.

So imagine my surprise when I read today's Curtis:

And then today's Brewster Rockit:

Talk about synchronicity!

Next year let's make January 30 official Honey Boo Boo day and see if we can get ALL the comics on board :-)

The Mike Peters Gun Violence Cartoon That Took My Breath Away

I subscribe to dailyink and one of the editorial cartoonists on my daily reading list is Pulitzer Prize winner Mike Peters. I've always been a fan of Mike's work - both editorial cartoons and Mother Goose And Grimm - and, having met Mike in person, I'm just a fan of him in general.

In my opinion his most recent cartoon on the debate swirling around gun control in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings is an example of editorial cartooning at its finest. I don't generally turn to the op-ed page of my newspaper expecting a light hearted chuckle. I want commentary. I expect it from the syndicated columnists I read, such as E.J. Dionne and David Brooks, and I expect it from the cartoonists as well. That's what I think editorial cartoons are supposed to do. They are social commentary.

Recently I was at a talk given by another Pulitzer Prize winner,  cartoonist Ann Telnaes. A member of the audience asked her if it was hard to show both sides of an issue in her work. Ann's response (I'm paraphrasing) was to say it wasn't hard at all. Because she doesn't do it. Because that's not her job. Her job is to present a certain point of view. It doesn't need to be fair. It doesn't need to be balanced. It must simply make a point.

The point of the above cartoon by Mike is pretty hard to miss.

It took my breath away.

I hope we are ready for some change on this issue.....

A note to family and friends about John's comic strip.....

We understand how difficult it is for some of you to pony up the $ to subscribe to King Features Dailyink and how confusing it may have been to try to access the strip on Comics Kingdom. And, frankly, it's pretty hard for us to post the strip on facebook everyday - especially since they make money off of it that we and we don't.

The new Edison Lee website is for you! You can now read the strip for free every day! You can add it to your bookmarks or subscribe to the feed. You can even go back through all the previous Edison strips right to day one in 2006!

What are you waiting for? Go visit today!

(and every day after that.......)

http://edisonleecomic.com/

Canadian Readers Make Some Noise!

Many Canadian newspaper readers in the Ontario area will have noticed a drastic change to their comic pages. As I understand it a large chain of papers has whittled their comics selection down to 4 comics per newspaper. One of the features most seriously affected is Between Friends by my friend Sandra Bell Lundy.

This sort of thing is starting to happen too often in the newspaper business. It may not do any good but please start creating a ruckus to the editors of these papers. Don't be the sort of reader who just shrugs and says "Oh well, I'll still get to read it on the internet".

A Donut Universe?

Remember, you can read Edison every day on Comics Kingdom or the Dailyink!

New Website Coming Soon

Some of you may have noticed that the link to John's blog is broken. Also that he hasn't written a blog post in over a year. The latter is responsible for the former - we can't access the page either :-)

That is about to change when King Features rolls out a shiny new website for The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee. Not only will you be able to read the strip there every day, John will be posting more often and his facebook and twitter feeds will also be there.

More details as we have them - probably within the next 10 days.

Why I Love Harley

Harley is Edison's younger cousin. Once upon a time, he was Edison's younger brother but the powers that be at the syndicate nixed him. He shows up from time to time and I always love it when he does because it gives Edison someone besides Joules and Don to take advantage of :-)

Sometimes Harley turns the tables on Edison and gets off a shot or two.

But not often.

Cartoonist Psychic

Even though she probably wrote this strip 6 weeks ago, my psychic friend Sandra Bell Lundy must have known I would have a cold this week.

Get Behind Thee French Fries!

An "Overbooked and Underpaid" post in which I rail upon the evils of diet sabotage! Click here to go to my Overbooked Blog.

Lake Effect Interview for Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

Last week I had the pleasure of heading up to the studios of WUWM 89.7 for an interview with Mitch Teich of Lake Effect. The piece ran on Monday and is archived here.

Mitch will be interviewing Hilary Price when she is here for the festival and also Stephan Pastis when he does the Milwaukee leg of his book tour. I'll post links as I get them.

Auction Art for Kenosha Festival of Cartooning NCSF Charity Auction Has Arrived!!

We now have almost all the art for the NCSF auction to benefit Children's Hospitals of Wisconsin and Margaret Ann's Place!

I cannot overstate the generosity of these cartoonists as they help us raise money for these worthy causes. As the art has arrived my emotions have run the gamut - gratitude, excitement, and awe. There are moments when I cannot believe I am looking at original art from giants in the industry. So much of my life has been spent losing myself in the world of comics and comic strips - since I was 3 - that seeing actual work by folks like Bill and Jeff Keane and Garry Trudeau is surreal to say the least. I must confess that I had Mr. Trudeau send his work to my house, rather than the museum, just so I could let it sit on my dining room table for a while. I can't afford to bid on it, so it was nice to have it in my house for 24 hours :-)

Below is the official list of work that will be offered for sale - there are a few changes from the original list so, if you are planning to come and bid, please go over the list carefully. 

Here also is a link to a photo gallery page that has some of the art - I haven't taken pictures of everything yet but will keep adding photos as I take them.

1. Archie                                                        
2. Baby blues                                                                                      
3. Beetle bailey                                                                     
4. Between Friends                                                                     
5. Blondie                                                                                          
6. Born Loser                                                                      
7. Brenda Starr                                                             
8. The Buckets                                                                              
9. Deflocked                                      
10. Dennis the Menace                      
11. Doonesbury                                              
12. Edison Lee                                                                      
13. Family circus                                                                   
14. For Better or For Worse                                                                        
15. Gil                                                                                              
16. Hagar                                                                           
17. Hi and Lois                                    
18. Jumble                                                                              
19. Lio                                                                                    
20. Lola                                                                                                           
21. Luann                                                                                                         
22. MAD mag                                                 
23. Mutts                                                          
24. The Norm                                                                                      
25. Pearls before swine                                                                     
26. Phil hands                                                                                   
27. Pooch cafe                                                                                               
28. Retail.                                                                                            
29. Rhymes with orange.                                                     
30. Sandra Boynton                                                             
31. Snuffy Smith                                                                                        
32. Soup To Nutz                                                                                        
33. Speed bump                                                                              
34. Zits 

Support Tall Tale Radio!

On the heels of my post about crowd sourced fundraising comes this very worthy project from podcaster extraordinaire Tom Racine.

Tom has the best comic "behind the scenes" podcast going on the web (in my opinion) and needs to upgrade his equipment to keep those great shows coming.

He's asking for a modest amount of money and he has some great rewards for folks who fund the project.

Head over and donate today!!

Crowd Sourced Fundraising: Kickstarter vs Indiegogo

I recently became aware of the crowd sourcing platform "Indiegogo" and, as the survivor of a successful Kickstarter campaign (Kenosha Festival of Cartooning), I thought I would share a little of my experience with that platform and why I might consider using Indiegogo for my next project.

Kickstarter - Pros:

1) Kickstarter currently has much higher name recognition than Indiegogo. Name recognition will not help you very much in terms of actual dollars pledged via the kickstarter site itself but it helps enormously when you are trying to spread the word that you are crowd sourcing a project. I personally did not get much funding from casual Kickstarter browsers. But tying the project to Kickstarter did help the project get coverage on other online news sites and blogs.

2) Kickstarter has rules for its projects and funding that gives backers the impression that the project has been vetted. This probably allows backers to support projects with confidence that they are not being scammed in some way.

3) Getting my Kickstarter project approved was a little nerve wracking but, once the process was underway, the site was very easy to understand and work with.

Kickstarter - Cons:

1) Kickstarter offers only "fixed funding" which means that, if you don't 100% make your goal, you get NOTHING. Nada. When I would tell people this, they were often surprised and thought it was stupid.

I can only feel that Kickstarter sticks with this model because they feel that it creates a sense of urgency among backers that makes them more active supporters. More active supporters are more likely to raise their pledge if they feel the project is in jeopardy and also twist the arms of their friends to become backers as well.

Believe me, if you don't have active backers who REALLY, REALLY want to see your project succeed, it won't.

2) Kickstarter ONLY accepts donations via Amazonpayments. This was a nightmare for me. First, there was no mechanism for me to set up the campaign as a non- profit - which mine was - and, secondly, it took over a WEEK to get the account set up properly. There was always some button I hadn't clicked properly or some other mysterious problem on their end. And the problems were not quickly or easily resolved.

Another problem with Amazon payments is that a lot of my potential backers did not have Amazon accounts and did not want to create them just to donate to my project. So they would offer me a check or some other way to pay instead, assuming I could just put that money into the project account myself.

Except that you can't do that. Amazon payments has a STRICT policy that no one can "pay themselves" to fund a project. Even if the money comes from a genuine backer via a personal check, you CANNOT pay it to the Kickstarter project. If you do attempt to "pay yourself" in this way, Kickstarter will cancel your project and blacklist you.

Indiegogo - Pros and Cons

I'll be honest, I haven't attempted a project on Indiegogo yet but I have poked around the site as well as made a donation to a project and here's what I found.

1) Payments you can use - this is a HUGE difference - credit card or paypal. I honestly don't know ANYONE who does not have a credit card or a paypal account. Being able to accept these methods of payment would have made a difference to my project of at least $600 - maybe more. I'll never really know how many potential donations I lost when backers got to the payment phase, got frustrated, and decided to skip donating.

2) Flexible Funding - again HUGE. For a project like mine, the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, where I was just trying to raise as much money for the festival as I could, I would much rather have been able to keep what I raised, no matter how much it was. WARNING - on Indiegogo, the fees for a flexible campaign that does not reach its goal are much higher. 9% vs 4%

These two differences alone make me want to try Indiegogo next time I crowd fund a project.

OVRERALL CAUTIONS FOR CROWD SOURCED FUNDRAISING

Both these platforms take a significant fee for helping you fund your project. Between the Kickstarter fees and the Amazon Payments fees, I lost about $1300 of the total "$13,600" I raised. It does not look as though Indiegogo is any cheaper. Be sure to factor these fees in when you set your target goal.

DON"T attempt to crowd source a project without social networking and other types of publicity!!!! The three most important ingredients in my success with the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning were 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) News blogs like The Daily Cartoonist and 4) The Tall Tale Radio Podcast interview I did. My biggest donor, The National Cartoonist Society Foundation, would not have been aware of my project or that it was a good fit for their mission without that interview.

Spot the Cartoonist To Go On Hiatus - Maybe Permanently

I am putting "Spot The Cartoonist" on Hiatus indefinitely. To read why click here.

Politics in Comics

Depending on who you talk to, Edison is either a strip exclusively about politics or else it is a cute strip about a boy inventor.

What are the actual ratios? In looking over the strips of the past year, one can break Edison down into a few categories: very political, light social commentary, science, inventions, entrepreneurialism, and general silliness.

How many of the strips are truly political along the lines of Prickly City or Doonesbury? Roughly 20%.

Still - some folks seem to think it's more like 85%.

And they don't like it.

And they write us and tell us to knock it off.

Which, frankly, ain't going to happen.

Because for every person who writes us and tells us to knock of the political stuff, 10 more write to say how much they like it. And because Edison is, like most people, a highly complicated personality. Furthermore, the strip was syndicated specifically because it had a strong socio-political bent.

And because the political ones are the ones John enjoys doing the most. They help him scratch an itch.

Take, for example the above two strips.

The first one, according to our mail, has been misinterpreted by some people as being anti business. John and I are not anti business. It would be impossible for us to be anti business, as we both run small businesses. And if you read every Edison from the past six years you will not find ONE strip that attacks small mom and pop businesses.

But you'll see us go after the greedy corporate bastards who buy off both sides of the political system and rig everything in their favor so they can stamp out their competition. You'll see us go after them every single time.

Not afraid to call a spade a spade.

And the second strip is interesting because it promotes the possibility that there are actually people in this country who LIKE Obama care and would be in big trouble without it. Its amazing how the voice of these people has been drowned out in the debate over healthcare. Only the naysayers seem to get media coverage.

So, for those of you who don't like the political strips - we understand, we really do. We hear you.

But they're not going away.

And if you hated the two above strips, you'll REALLY hate the strip that will run next Wednesday, August 1 2012.

Probably better read "Love Is" that day instead.

I Refuse To Take Orders From My Microwave!

 

I wrote this piece for my other blog about a year ago - it found its way, in a manner of speaking, into the Edison Strip from last Sunday.

"Over the course of the last five years or so we have had what could best be described as an era of appliance transition. Many of the appliances or gadgets that we bought when we were first married have started to give up the ghost. Which isn't really too surprising when you know that my husband and I are about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

Because of our habit of being underpaid, we tend to hang on to our gadgets until they truly, truly can no longer function or be repaired. And because we're frugal (read cheap) we get those babies repaired time and time again.

Aggravatingly, the era of the repairable appliance seems to have packed up and left to be replaced by planned obsolescence. 

Which is annoying in and of itself, but adding insult to injury is the rise of the "talking gadget". 

Thankfully, I don't really mean talking because my gadgets don't talk out loud. 

Instead, they converse with me via little digital messages, most frequently in red or white LED display tones.

I think the first was the DVD player. And it seemed harmless enough. Quite businesslike, actually - "Power On" and "Power Off". And informational, "Loading, No Disk". Stuff like that.

Next came the DVR with  a little personality thrown in - "Hello" and "Goodbye" when turned on and off. This filled me with pangs of guilt as I would shut it down.  The "goodbye" seemed a little forlorn - like the mother who sighs "you never call me anymore".

But this new guy - the microwave......

Him I'm already sick of.

Who does he think he is bossing me around all day? With messages like, "Close Door", and "Press Start!". And the manufacturers have thrown in a little feature designed for your convenience that is simply irritating. So that you won't leave your just zapped cup of coffee in there for the next two days, the oven now sends you warning beeps every 60 seconds after it finishes its heating cycle. And aggressively flashes "Done. Remove Food! Done. Remove Food! Done. Remove Food!" until you get your keister over there to open the door.

It's had a terrible effect on John. Hardly a day goes by that I don't come downstairs to find him actually arguing with the thing like a deranged John Cleese character from Monty Python.

And don't get me started on the GPS system for my car. I finally had to mute the thing. You can only spend so much time sitting alone in your car arguing with your windshield before you start getting funny looks. I don't care how charming that Australian guy's voice is supposed to be. My father in law has his set to the woman's voice and has taken to referring to her as "bitching Betty". He seems to like the company - says she keeps him awake.

I don't know how far this trend will take us - when my vacuum cleaner starts talking to me like C3PO from Star Wars, I think I may just have to clock out and go live in the mountains with a fishing pole and a cabin with a fireplace.

And no chipper, helpful know-it-all appliances.

I may be cold and hungry but I'll be damned if I'll be bossed around by a toaster oven with delusions of grandeur."