… to the readers who were inspired by the post below to send a donation. I’m not sure if it’s a sustainable model in the long term, but maybe direct reader support is what will ultimately keep the genre formerly known as newspaper cartooning afloat.
… adding two thoughts:
(1) papers that can’t afford cartoons are probably not a “sustainable model in the long term” themselves. Syndicated cartoons are pretty darned cheap!
(2) The catchphrase you hear a lot is that cartoonists need to “reinvent themselves” — which always makes me think of the bit from Spinal Tap:
Nigel Tufnel: Well, I suppose I could, uh, work in a shop of some kind, or… or do, uh, freelance, uh, selling of some sort of, uh, product. You know…
Marty DiBergi: A salesman?
Nigel Tufnel: A salesman, like maybe in a, uh, haberdasher, or maybe like a, uh, um… a chapeau shop or something. You know, like, “Would you… what size do you wear, sir?” And then you answer me.
Marty DiBergi: Uh… seven and a quarter.
Nigel Tufnel: “I think we have that.” See, something like that I could do.
Oh, also: Happy New Year! The future’s uncertain, but never boring.