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Comics: Meet the Artist
With Steve McGarry
National Cartoonists Society
Hosted by Suzanne Tobin
Washington Post Comics Editor
Friday, Nov. 30, 2001; 1 p.m. EST
Welcome to the Washington Post Style section comics discussion, hosted by Comics page editor Suzanne Tobin.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) has invited its members to create a special cartoon for Thanksgiving Day including the URL for the Network for Good Web site: www.networkforgood.org -- a site from which readers can direct contributions to their choice of relief associations. Readers will also be able to bid on the special artwork from participating cartoonists through Dec. 3, with proceeds going to The September 11th Fund.
NCS President and "Badlands" cartoonist Steve McGarry joined Tobin Friday, Nov. 30 at 1 p.m. EST, to discuss the effort.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Suzanne Tobin:
Hello, comics fans and welcome to "Comics: Meet the Artist." Today our guest is Steve McGarry, president of the National Cartoonists Society, who is joining us from Huntington Beach, Calif. Welcome Steve, and thanks for coming online to talk about the Thanksgiving Day tribute and auction your organization arranged to benefit the Sept. 11 victims.
Steve McGarry: Hello to everybody and I'm delighted to chat with you today. I don't normally get to talk to the public, since they keep me in a little locked room listening to cartoonists complain about the number of pages in the newsletter.
Washington, D.C.:
Has there ever been another occasion in which cartoonists were asked to "comment" on a particular event, such as you arranged for the Sept. 11 tragedy?
Steve McGarry: Back in the '80s, Garry Trudeau of "Doonesbury," organized a "Hands Across America" initiative, and I have to be honest, I was still living in Britain then, so I wasn't a part of that. Comics readers may remember two years ago during Memorial Day weekend, when the cartoonists all got together and designated one day when all their strips were a tribute to Charles Schulz, who had died earlier that year.
Bill Holbrook, "On the Fastrack":
Has there been any discussion of making the Thanksgiving project an annual event?
Do we have any numbers of how many readers responded?
Steve McGarry: Hi, Bill! Thanks for coming online. The number of features that you do, I'm surprised you have time to join us. You're probably typing with your nose and drawing with both hands even as we speak.
No numbers, yet. But we can see from the size of the bids coming in to networkforgood.org, that it's touched the hearts of the readers.
As for an annual Thanksgiving event along these lines, I think it would be difficult, because it's hard for strip cartoonists to adopt the role of editorial cartoonists, to which is essentially what we asked them to do this year.
It's certainly something we can discuss.
Brenda Starr:
As you can see by my
nom-de-cyberspace, I'm a lifelong reader
of newspaper comics. In fact, I learned to
read from puzzling out the balloons. I'm
curious -- how many strips and cartoons
are syndicated throughout the country?
A good cause -- I will donate. Thanks.
Steve McGarry: It's interesting that you say you learned to read from the comics, because we hear that so much and many of us know that to be true. In fact, one of the things the National Cartoonists Society is keen to become more active in is newspaper literacy programs. And we're also in discussions with the American Library Association to further this aim. We know we have the perfect medium to encourage youngsters to read.
As for the number of cartoons syndicated, I would guess it's a couple of hundred. We have 700 members in the NCS, and we are predominantly strip and panel cartoonists. Many of these people don't appear in newspapers in the States, but are very successful throughout the world. For example, James Kemsley is Australia's most successful cartoonist and his "Ginger Meggs" strip appears in more than 100 newspapers in his country. But he doesn't have a single U.S. client. The NCS doesn't take a straw poll on where you're appearing.
The only criteria for membership is that you're a professional cartoonist, earning the majority of your income for at least three years from your cartoons.
Boondocks, Md.:
Actually, I'm from Silver Spring. I wanted to defend Boondocks in advance, because I'm sure it's going to take a lot of heat from lots of folks who haven't given it a fair chance. Like Doonesbury, Aaron MacGruder approaches culture and current events not as political leaders or mainstream forces would LIKE us to see them, but as they would appear to characters who would have to live in a world that doesn't question the absurd, disturbing, or idiotic in our society. That his characters are bright, insightful, uninhibited African Americans makes it all the more worth keeping. I'm white, and half the time I feel like these amazing characters are speaking my mind (the recent strip comparing Bin Laden to Bush, for example). The other half of the time I feel like they've just taught me something. If you stand by Trudeau, I hope you give MacGruder fair play, too.
Steve McGarry: I don't know Aaron personally, he's not a member of the NCS. But we absolutely support the rights of cartoonists to express themselves in their work.
College Park, Md.:
First and foremost, Bill Holbrook, if you're still here, just let me say your work is Grade A. Always one of the best five comics of the day. Thanks
I was just wondering what this cartoonist organization is? A kind of Union, or some elite clique for the 1,000+ syndicated artists? Do you have any power to get Berke Breathed drawing again?
Steve McGarry: Encourage competition? How dumb do you think we are?
But, seriously, we're not a guild and we're not a union, we're a fraternal society. Our aim is to promote the profession and the art of cartooning.
Des Moines, Iowa:
Steve, might I say you look great, and is
that an accent I detect? Anyway, I've been
a fan of yours for... like a week now. My
question concerns the cartoon auction.
If you find this to be a great fundraiser
will we be seeing this kind of thing again
for other areas of need?
Steve McGarry: Yes, I'm British and I'm typing very slowly in case my accent's too thick.
The charitable arm of the NCS is the Milt Gross fund. Milt was a cartoonist back in the day who left a chunk of cash to aid indigent cartoonists and their families. And now it's a grown into an organization that also donates to other worthy causes, such as the United Way's Sept. 11 fund.
We're delighted when we can use our talents and our platform to help. It's just a matter of deeming when and where it's the appropriate time and place.
Bethesda, Md.:
I have heard a lot lately about how other charities are suffering because of all the current attention to the Sept. 11th funds. I have also heard that money is not getting to the right people, that organizations are having trouble determining who the survivors/victims are, etc. Just curious about your take on all this. Are we directing too much attention/money to those victims at the expense of other needy persons/causes /organizations?
Steve McGarry: In this instance, the original idea came from Patrick McDonnell of "Mutts." A number of cartoonists had contacted me to ask if we were going to react or do something about Sept. 11. We were sort of scratching our heads to try to figure out something to do that wouldn't seem self-indulgent or self-serving. When Patrick suggested the Thanksgiving tribute, it just seemed perfect. Then it begged the question of rather than just commentingon the tragedy, was there something constructive we could do to help? We quickly decided we should direct readers to the experts, in this case, networkforgood.org, where there's a myriad of choices of how they can help, or donate or volunteer. And then the auction just seemed the natural conclusion to what we were planning to do that day.
Hilary Price, "Rhymes With Orange":
Comment:
Drawing the Thanksgiving Day tribute
cartoon felt really good. As a cartoonist,
you spend a lot of time with yourself,
staring at the wall -- it's not an immediate
gratification type of job.
Getting the chance to be part of a larger
group and doing something you knew
would help raise money for the people
affected by Sept. 11th was a gift to me.
Hilary Price
hilary-rhymeswithorange.com
Steve McGarry: Hi, Hilary! You're reaction is typical of what we were hearing because I think everybody everywhere felt that they wanted to do something to help. And as I said earlier, we're lucky that we have such a unique platform and the opportunity to do something that helps others.
As for your point about the solitary life of a cartoonist, that brings us back to the earlier question about what is the NCS. Cartoonists tend to sit in solitary confinement and relish the opportunity to occasionally interact with similar quirky individuals. That's probably why we get 500-600 people coming to our annual convention, because for three days they get to interact with other human beings.
Lorton, Va.:
Three parter: First, it was great to see the drive to feed the hungry on the funny pages. Second, when will we see the Reubens on TV? Third, are only artists, such as Illiad, part of your organization, or would they be considered for membership?
Steve McGarry: A number of people have said "We have the Oscars, we have the Emmys, why not the Reubens?" Candidly it would be the most dreary three hours of television you've ever seen. No singing, no dancing. It would just be a bunch of middle aged men mumbling acceptance speeches and thanking their wives. We have to sit through it live, and we only stick around so we can heckle the eventual winners.
Alexandria, Va.:
Tell me it isn't true: I hear that Frank Cho is going to stop writing "Liberty Meadows" as a daily strip at the end of the year.
Steve McGarry: I'll let you answer that, Suzanne, seeing as Frank hasn't paid his NCS dues for a couple of years.
Suzanne Tobin:
Yes, it's true. His last daily strip will be published Dec. 29, and his last Sunday strip will be Dec. 30. From what I've heard, he's going into publishing comic books, and getting out of the daily grind. But I'm sure you'll continue to be able to see his work, just in a different format.
Suzanne Tobin:
So, Steve, when I asked you to do this chat, you said you couldn't do it on Nov. 23 because you were coaching your twin boys in a Thanksgiving soccer tournament. Being from England, are you a soccer hooligan?
Steve McGarry: Reformed soccer hooligan, actually. Despite my best efforts, I never played soccer for England, nor did I ever dent the U.K. top 40 pop charts. So my dreams of being the first boy millionaire pop star to score the winning goal in the World Cup finals did not come to fruition. Consequently, now I am a stage dad trying to live out my fantasies through my children. I've been their soccer coach for years, and am a certified American Youth Soccer Organization advanced coach.
I've also translated my love of soccer into my work. My soccer cartoon features have been appearing around the world for the last 20 years. For 8 years, I had a weekly page in Shoot!, which is the biggest soccer magazine in the U.K.
My work still appears regularly in soccer magazines throughout Europe. I have a weekly series that appears in the States here in the Spanish language press, which is called "Futbol Semanal," which means "The Week in Soccer."
In fact, I'm represented worldwide by Atlantic Syndication, which has a website at atlanticsyndication.com. They're representing me on my upcoming 2002 World Cup soccer package, which is being launched here in the States by Universal Press Syndicate. It'll be a sort of preview running from February to May.
Leesburg, Va.:
Steve --
I see from your Web site that you've played in lots of bands. How do the two arts compliment each other?
Steve McGarry: I've spent my entire adult life trying to make sure that I didn't have to get a proper adult job.
One way in which the two art forms compare, is that getting a syndication deal is alot like breaking into the music business. So many aspiring cartoonists think that getting picked up by a syndicate is tantamount to winning the lottery. In fact, that's only the start of the process. The parallel with the music business is that musicians will fight tooth and nail to get a recording contract, but then they quickly find out that it's meaningless unless they can spin that into a hit record. And it's the same with newspaper syndication. There are a number of features that get accepted by syndicates, and then fail miserably. It's a two-part equation.
Suzanne Tobin:
Steve, I know we here at The Post don't carry any of your work (blush, blush), but what can our readers see of your work over here in the States?
Steve McGarry: Shame on you! Here in the States, I do a daily feature called "Kid City" for United Media. It's aimed at third and fourth graders and it's run under the auspices of the Sesame Street people. It's in 125 newspapers across the country. I also do two other daily strips, "Pop Culture" which is an entertainment trivia feature and "Badlands" which is a Western spoof. Both of those appear in Australia, South Africa and we're beginning to make inroads into Latin America.
I also do quirky little one-offs. I've just had a lot of success with a Harry Potter poster, which appeared in dozens of newspapers in Australia. Your readers can see samples of all this stuff on my web site, stevemcgarry.com.
After which, they must immediately write to The Post, and ask why it doesn't carry my work.
Charlotte, N.C.:
Hi, Illustrious leader, Steve:
Do you think that since the events of Sept. 11, our readers are expecting a different tone to our humor in the comics? Perhaps less emphasis on sarcasm, and more empathy?
Steve McGarry: No. There is no such thing as a generic comic strip. I think readers expect their favorite comic strips to entertain them in the same manner they always have.
Rockville, Md.:
What's the newspaper comics scene like in Europe? Is there less happening there because of prevalence of comic books on the mass market?
Steve McGarry: You can't lump Europe together as one market. Strips are still big in Britain, where because they have national newspapers they pay very handsomely for exclusivity. The Sun, for example, has 11 million readers and has the largest circulation of any English speaking newspaper in the world.
Scandinavia has a huge appetite for comic strips, but slightly different tastes. France is a very poor market, but Germany has a very healthy appetite for comic strips. So you really can't generalize.
Steve McGarry: Well, Suzanne, I hate to ring off, but I've got to work out my soccer team for tomorrow's game. The deadlines can wait. One must have one's priorities straight.
It's been great fun, and I've enjoyed talking to your readers. The only thing that's marred the experience has been having to filter out all the improper suggestions emanating from "Soup to Nutz" creator Rick Stromoski, who should be thoroughly ashamed of himself.
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