| On Sunday, February 10, 2008, 11 minority cartoonists ran nearly identical versions of the same comic strip, to bring attention to a certain inequity on America’s newspaper comics pages. According to a recent survey (scroll to Feb. 8’s post) by the Washington Post Writers Group, about 70% of the nation’s pages run a grand total of zero comics by minority cartoonists, featuring minority characters. Most of the papers that do run such comics run no more than one, and only a handful run two or more.
Every comic strip faces a series of hurdles when trying to break into newspapers. Is it funny? Is it relevant? Does it have an interesting, or at least a legitimate, point of view? Are the characters engaging? Does the premise have longevity? Is the art effective? Does the paper already run other cartoons that tackle the exact same themes (single dad, smart-ass cat, elderly couple, modern family, teenage boy, teenage girl, college buddies, mid-life crisis, etc.)? Newspapers everywhere are slashing their comics pages, and the comics pages are being thrust into the hands of editors who didn’t sign on to deal with them and believe they’re really not all that important. In that sort of climate, editors tend to first judge strips not on their quality or appeal, but on their theme. If they believe they have their demographics covered, or that a strip wouldn’t appeal to their readership because of its demographics, they aren’t likely to consider reading the sales brochure, much less adding it. Strips created by minority cartoonists and featuring minorities face the same hurdles as every other strip, plus one. Regardless of their themes – whether it’s a political strip like Candorville or a family strip like Curtis – it’s considered first and foremost a “black strip.” That’s what we’re taking issue with. That makes just as much sense as considering “Cathy” or “Doonesbury” to be “white strips.” When trying to sell minority-starring features to newspapers, our sales force, and those of the 10 other participating cartoonists, are often told a variation of “we don’t have many minorities in our readership.” 20 years after the Cosby Show – and 30 years after The Jeffersons and Good Times – proved you don’t have to be black to identify with black characters, cartoonists shouldn’t have to explain, much less deal with, that anachronistic mindset. We think most readers, who have no problem identifying with dogs and cats, have no problem identifying with minority characters. The few neanderthals who do have a problem with it, unfortunately, are pretty damn vocal about it, so editors hear from them more often. In the debate about this at DailyCartoonist.com, some have pointed out that in cartoons, newspaper editors won’t even know you’re black if you don’t draw black characters. Why not just draw animals? Why not just draw white characters? This was my answer: “Why don’t black cartoonists draw something other than black characters? Why do Latino cartoonists draw Latino characters? Who do women draw women? Same reason most white male cartoonists draw white male characters (with the curious exception of Greg Evans). We’re drawing ourselves. In a country like this, where so many people see absolutely nothing wrong with lumping all minority strips together and too many editors decline to even read through a sales kit because they “don’t have that many minorities in the readership,” that’s obviously going to limit our audience. But mainstreaming minority characters on the comics page has to start somewhere. This whole thing probably won’t change the situation for the current generation of minority cartoonists. We all know that. And speaking only for myself, I can’t complain about my client list or the lifestyle it gives me. But this isn’t about me. What we’re doing is we’re trying to plant a seed of an idea and hoping it’ll grow, so kids reading our work today won’t have to face the same issue 20 years from now when they try to break into the industry (if it survives that long). So why don’t I just draw animals, white, or nondescript characters? Sidney Poitier was once asked why he refused to play villainous roles on screen. He replied something about how he’d do so as soon as he sees black people selling deodorant on TV (I bet you’ve all forgotten it wasn’t until the early NINETIES that they started commonly featuring black people and other minorities in mainstream ads). I’m not an eighth the actor Poitier was – although I bet he can’t draw a convincing hamburger in under five seconds (but I digress…). I’ll create an animal strip as soon as the presence of minorities on the comics page is no longer considered controversial.” If you’re proof that Darwin was right, take a moment and check out the participating cartoonists’ work. We think you’ll find that they have nothing in common other than the color of the characters’ skin. If you like one or two of them, write to your local paper and ask them to add them. Make sure you tell the paper to add ALL the ones you like, and point out that there’s no reason why they have to limit the presence of minorities on their pages. Tell them you’re a 21st Century American and you have no trouble identifying with or enjoying the exploits of minority characters. |
Darrin Bell on NPR’s “Fair Game” |
Visit Jerry Craft’s “Cartoonists of Color Unite” page.
