The commitment and ability to produce a daily cartoon strip is something I’ve always admired.
It’s that brief reprieve from all the news which can be discouraging, disheartening, and depressing. It’s also light-hearted and the highlight of my reading of the newspaper each day.
An escape from a crazy world
My father told me about my paternal grandfather’s notification of being conscripted for the First World War. Even though my grandfather was going to be shipped to Europe to fight, his focus that day was reading the Sunday funnies in the local newspaper. He so enjoyed the simple humour that was removed from the world politics. Eventually he died from wounds received in that war, but his affable demeanour lived on in my father. It also trickled down to me. I still look forward to reading the comics every day.
The commitment
Creating the content that is original, entertaining, and amusing on a daily basis must be pressure-filled. There will be good days and not-so-good days. A cartoonist must always be banking new ideas so there’s a bag of content to access. Thought provoking ideas can also be another destination for the cartoonist. Publishing a blog is no different.
Sadly, political cartoonists have too much material these days with which to work.
I’ve committed myself to publish a blog post twice per week. It does add a bit of pressure. The content and context of each post requires much thought and creativity.
I can’t do this alone
“Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends”
Augmenting certain posts with song bites and videos increases the entertainment value and the links provide more meat. Unlike these cartoonists that are on their own, I rely on the talent of others to provide some additional spice to my posts.
The Question/Answer weekly posts are easy though, as I just take them from my board game Duck Soup…The Restaurant Game.
Can’t bat a thousand
I know that I’ll have posts that are weaker than others. I notice that occurs in the comic strips I unfailingly read as well. The material is only okay, but I still enjoy the artwork.
Nonetheless, my respect for them outweighs the empathy. Besides, I’m sure they’re compensated well. And their job is probably envied by most artists. Keep up the good work.