Village Voice releases The Comics Issue

Comments ⁹

1. Gerry Mooney

   Yow! Quite the eye-opener. I always thought I was doing something “wrong” with my cartooning and illustration, career and that’s why I went and got a real job years ago. But even the successful household names aren’t making a living at it!

2. Rob Tornoe

   “…many of the artists in this issue aren’t getting paid, but have contributed work for the exposure.”

   I think that says it all.

3. Dave Stephens

   It is very, very, very, very difficult to make a living as a cartoonist. The pay was really lousy 20 years ago and is, from my 20 years of doing this full time, a whole heckuva lot lousier these days due to the internet exposure of talented artists available in India, Russia, China, etc. and these artists gladly accept $5/hr for work that used to be done here in the US… Heck, I’ve seen offers of $1 an hour snapped up on the various online markets that offer work to cartoonists.

   It blows my mind that The Village Voice thinks it is acceptable to treat cartoonists this way – do they treat their writers that way, too? I’m thinking not…

   More importantly, The Village Voice USED TO PAY cartoonists. And now, they don’t. That is a sea-change in attitude. I guess the next step for The Village Voice is to CHARGE THE ARTISTS for the privilege of appearing in their fine paper… LOL

4. August J. Pollak

   “Also, many of the artists in this issue aren’t getting paid, but have contributed work for the exposure.”

   Wow. Wheelbarrows aren’t made that are big enough to carry stones that size.

5. Jamie Smith

   ?If The Village Voice Is So Big, Why Don?t They Pay??

6. Jim Lavery

   And as we all know, one can die from exposure

7. Jesse Cline

   “And as we all know, one can die from exposure”

   Or get put on the sexual predator watch list.

8. Milt Priggee

   A big part of the problem is the VV just like most other newspapers who do NOT know the difference between a cartoon, a comic strip, an illustration, a humorous illustration or a piece of art.

   The bigger part of the problem is the business model of publishers understanding their product and wanting to make money is dead…..and not coming back.

   If you want to draw cartoons for a living… unfortunately you now have to do more than just cartoons. Either you diversify or you work at building your own digital wheel.

   The bottom line is publishers/editors don’t love cartoons and cartoonists love cartoons too much.

9. Mike Lester

   “The bottom line is publishers/editors don?t love cartoons and cartoonists love cartoons too much.” -MPriggee

   Well said.