An interesting nuance of the business of syndicated comics is the Thanksgiving comic. It seems like an easy day to say “thanks” to your readers and/or maybe do a family dinner, turkey or pilgrims based comic.
But, what if you have clients outside the United States?
We frequently get substitute requests from newspapers in Canada looking for comics that don’t reference the U.S. holiday. And what if you have a large international client list? Thanksgiving references in Asia might result in head scratching, confusion and even tears. OK, maybe not tears.
Some cartoonists are savvy enough to write a comic that can be read as both a holiday and/or a general seasonal sentiment.
Some avoid the subject entirely.
But as we’ve seen in the past, avoiding a holiday without mentioning it has resulted in some GoComics commenters questioning the cartoonists’ patriotism … especially on holidays like Memorial Day or Veterans’ Day.
Oh, those GoComics commenters! Their energy in inspirational!
Happy Thanksgiving!
-John Glynn (who is very thankful for Mike Peterson and D.D. Degg)
We are all thankful for Mike Peterson and D.D. Degg
“Oh, those GoComics commenters! Their energy is inspirational!”
Well, we try. Or, at the least, we’re trying. 😉
Keep up the good work!
Yesn I do see the problem. I would assume a different comic for the-out-of-North America syndicators. But some just do a generic one and save time and effort. I understand. I don’t know what I would do with such a dilemma.
It would depend on my work load I’d suspect.
I never criticize them for what they do or do not do.