The third Success in Comics seminar is over. It was the first time it was held on the East Coast. The previous two seminars were held in Las Vegas. For those not familiar with the Success in Comics seminar, it’s organized by Tundra creator Chad Carpenter and his marketing/sales guy Bill Kellogg and it focuses […]
Chad Carpenter started his comic panel Tundra 21 years ago as a local comic in Alaska and it has since become the largest self-syndicated comic strip in the US boasting a client list of over 500 papers. Notes: Chad’s from Wasilla, Alaska and has been doing Tundra for 21 years. He was the most well […]
Bill Kellogg is the marketing/sales person for the Tundra operation. He hooked up with Chad in 2005 to sell Tundra outside of Alaska. Tundra has since become the largest self-syndicated comic in the US. Notes: My job is to sell to newspapers To get into papers you must have a packet typically with 24 b/w […]
Amy Lago is the comics editor at Washington Post News Service (previously Washington Post Writers Group). She’s one of the best in the business. She walked through the stuff you can’t put in your comics if you’re publishing in newspapers. Notes Presentation title: How to succeed in comics without really trying Newspapers have a lot […]
Tom Gammill is a comedy writer. He’s worked on Seinfeld, David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and currently a writer on The Simpsons. Notes: Tom Gammill reviews how he got into writing and attributes it to his early attempts to write comics “You need to be nice to everyone” Tom showed us his early cartoons from […]
Mark Simon is a cartoonist, illustrator and animation producer. He gives a presentation called How to get millions of dollar with free advertising. Notes: How to get millions of dollar with free advertising Promotion is advertising What is promotion? Any coverage in media that you don’t pay for Promotion always tells a story; you give […]
Mark Anderson is a single panel gag cartoonists who’s sold cartoons to some of the best known magazines. He also has developed one of the best pay-per-use comic sites on the web. Notes: Presentation Title: Finding your Path Mark grew up in Iowa and loved cartoons; Bill Hoest was a big influence in determining to […]
Tom Richmond is a MAD Magazine cartoonist, freelance illustrator and current president of the National Cartoonist Society. Notes: Presentation: How to be a successful freelance illustrator Went to school in Wisconsin. Didn’t learn a thing about cartooning. It wasn’t very a positive environment Started drawing caricatures during the summer job in Chicago He wanted to […]
Stephen Silver is an caricaturist, illustrator, character designer and I dare say and after listening to him, I’d add motivational speaker for those in the arts. Notes: Nothing just happens. Effort determines the outcome Find what your passion is, make it your career Stephen grew up in England but family migrated to US Stephen would […]
Jeff Keane is a past National Cartoonist Society president and does the comic panel The Family Circus which was started by his father Bil Keane in 1960. His presentation gave us a look at how his father’s career started and evolved and eventually created one of the most iconic comics on the funny page. Notes […]
Tim Brennan is a founding partner in Reed Brennan and Associates a pagination and technology company owned by King Features. Got into newspapers in 1968. Tim was part of a project to study effects of information delivered electronically into homes in 1980’s Time ended the study in 1984. Tribune Media Services was formed based on […]
Ed Steckely is a professional illustrator in New York City who contributes to MAD Magazine. He talked about how the majority of his income is now in advertising illustration and what that all entails. Notes: 80% of income now is advertising illustration Was a caricature artist at theme parks Stressed the importance of learning to […]
John Read enjoyed a 21 year career in the entertainment industry (movies, commercials) and teaching cartooning to kids age 7-12. Inspired by Jud Hurd’s Cartoonists PROfiles, he started Stay Tooned! magazine. John shared the four things NOT to do with your cartooning career and the 12 you should. Notes: Stay Tooned! is an old school […]
Mark Parisi is the creator of the comic panel Off The Mark and his wife, Lynn Reznick Parisi, is the business manager for the strip. Off the Mark has been sold both in and out of syndication (currently syndicated through Universal Uclick). He’s been doing paid cartooning professionally since 1987 when his feature was picked […]
The first speakers in the Success in Comics Seminar were also the hosts: Chad Carpenter, creator of Tundra and Bill Kellogg who has sold the strip to over 500 newspapers. Chad first talked about getting into cartooning and how he made the strip a success as regional comic in Alaska and then Bill talked about […]