Lincoln Peirce, the cartoonist behind Big Nate, recently sat on a panel at the Maine Comics Arts Festival with Wiley Miller (Non Sequitur) and Corey Pandolph (Bark Eater Lake/The Elderberries). The subject discussed was around the subject â??Surviving as a Print Cartoonistâ? which you read more about on Mike Petersonâ??s â??Nellie Blogâ??.
Iâ??m a fan of all of these cartoonistsâ?? work, and was interested to find out more â?? particularly about Lincoln Peirce who keeps a fairly low profile.
Here is an excerpt from a short interview with him, in which I ask him for some insight into the impact of the internet on the smaller cartoonists:
In large part, I think the internet reinforces the pecking order that has already been established by syndication. In other words, the potential impact of the internet is largely dependent upon a stripâ??s pre-existing popularity. Strips that are well-known because people read them in newspapers or compilation books are the ones that sites like comics.com or gocomics are going to feature more prominently. Those are the strips that more people blog about, those are the strips that are linked to more frequently, and so on. For those of us whose strips ARENâ??T among the 10 or 12 most popular, the challenge is finding ways to make people aware of your creation, devising methods of driving people to sites that feature your work.
You can read the full interview on my blog, Comic Insight.
No, I was not on that panel.
The panel was, Corey Pandolph (Barkeater Lake, Toby: Robot Satan, The Elderberries), Norm Feuti (Retail, Gill) and Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate), and Mike Lynch was the moderator.
I sat quietly (yes, you read that right) in audience with Mike Peterson.
The Wiley/Corey/Lincoln panel was the year before, at a books festival in Portland. I also blogged about that.
As for Wiley sitting quietly, well, it’s not like I didn’t know he was there …
Bugger, it makes sense now… I think I was getting confused between 3 posts of yours Mike. Thanks for that.
“As for Wiley sitting quietly, well, itâ??s not like I didnâ??t know he was there â?¦”
Well, I do take up a lot of space, especially in those tiny folding chairs. And, of course, there’s that God-like aura that tends to illuminate the room…
I remember reading about Big Nate back in cartoonist PROfiles. I don’t think I have ever seen it since. Nice to see that it is still being done.
“And, of course, thereâ??s that God-like aura that tends to illuminate the roomâ?¦”
Is THAT what that was? Man, I threw out a perfectly good pair of shoes for nothing!
who sits quietly…i thought i saw someone lift a cheek in the room. did i hear trumpets?