The Daily Cartoonist

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Phil Dunlap retires Ink Pen

Alan Gardner101 mins

Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap

Phil Dunlap has decided to retire his strip Ink Pen. It was launched in 2005 and even optioned for animated film in 2006. Phil will keep the strip alive on GoComics with weekly strips.

Regarding the decision to end his syndication run:

Yes, Ink Pen will be ending as a syndicated daily newspaper feature, for all the obvious boring reasons (sales, papers, market, etc). But I will be continuing it, after a brief hiatus, as a weekly feature on the GoComics site. The new weekly strips will be appearing on their own page, and reruns beginning with the first strip will continue on the regular Ink Pen page.

10 thoughts on “Phil Dunlap retires Ink Pen”

  2. Damn. Damn damn damn damn. Glad he’s continuing it in some form, but damn. I really loved this strip. Ah, well…maybe it means other cool stuff will appear from his pen! Keep writing, Phil.

  4. Sad news.

    I?m a sucker for a superhero comic strip.

    Glad it?s not stopping outright.

    Good luck in future, Phil.

    ROLFE

    p.s. anyone (Or Phil) know if you can buy a signed copy of the collection?

  6. That’s a real shame, and the third strip I’ve lost in the last month.

    At least Google has picked up Little Nemo. (What? That was a one-off? Dang!)

    Best of luck to Phil! And to Tyr, too.

  7. I’m sorry to see another one bite the dust owing to the slow, rattling death of newspapers. I understand some trades succumb to change, like blacksmithing…but there really has to be a way for such creative people to still earn a living with their skill at commentary, and eliciting smiles on so many faces. i subscribe to two major online comic sources…there needs to be more of that, and more pay making its way into the artists’ pockets.

  8. Is retiring a strip almost like a death in the family? I guess it’s a different set of feelings for everyone.

  9. This is a real shame. Ink Pen was the first strip featured at Comic Strip of the Day.com and has made it a good half-dozen times since. No telling how often it’s been on the “possibles” list when something else was featured. The metahumor and the art both made it stand out and put it on the short list of strips that I had to restrain myself from featuring all the time.

    I’ll enjoy the reruns, but I’m really going to miss this strip.

  10. Most print comic strips don’t bring in a lot of money. First off, you are splitting it with a syndicate. Second, the actual price of a strip is like $10 per week, depending upon the paper. Third, newspapers are in decline and will probably never recover.

    So, it would appear that the new model for a strip is online. I would love to know more about the viability of this model, as I am sure most of us would. Ink Pen has an audience, and that is the one prerequisite for online success.

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