ABC News talks to Lio and Heart of the City creator Mark Tatulli as well as B.C. cartoonist Mason Mastroianni about the shrinking comic page and how it’s affecting cartoonists. Mark mentions that his client list has lost 30 papers in the last 18 months. B.C.’s list has shrunk 5%, which is a big number when you think that B.C. is in the over 1000+ club.
“They are not part of the national conversation anymore,” Tatulli said. “It used to be that you could turn on Johnny Carson, and hear him say, ‘Hey, did you see that strip today?’ I remember that show ‘Newsradio,’ when they had a whole episode about ‘Dilbert,’ and of course everybody knew what they were talking about.
“Today, new comics, nobody has a clue,” he said. “We have a very solid following. But it is more niche than it has ever been.”
Just saw that ABC News online article, it was originally from 2010. Even we are 1 year ago this month the New York Post dropped its daily comics page for good, and not even the New York Daily News ever picked up some of the dropped New York Post comics – especially Garfield (But the New York Post still keeps old hat comic strip Gasoline Alley going).
Might wanna check the link. That’s 5 years old.
Ah, yes, 2010. I was kind of down on the prospects of the business at the time. The Rocky Mountain News closing really affected me. Both my strips ran there, daily and Sunday. It was a blow, both financially and emotionally. Cartoonists tend to dwell on depressing things. I think that’s what motivates us to be funny. It’s kind of a defense mechanism. Not the best time for me to be talking to ABC news.
Alan -since this article is five years old, can you follow up on this report to see how things have gone since then?
Just in case Mark reads this: how have the last 5 years been since this interview? Any improvements?
BTW, those four big papers that closed in 2010 were all in JOAS and had been for a long time, so they were kind on life support to begin with correct?