Those Sunday special comic sections
I think almost every child growing up in the nineties or earlier would have some distinct, sweet memory of pouring over the cartoon strips featuring in the Sunday issues of newspapers. It was amazing how much creativity, wit, philosophy and humour could be stuffed in that limited space of 3-4 panels. Content aside, I loved the slightly blotchy splash of colours and the variety of cartooning styles. Apart from comic magazines sold at the railway stations (which I loved), comics, especially those created abroad where quite expensive to buy. So, the ones printed in the newspapers were a special treat. My partner recalls helping his grandmother cut out strips and painstakingly create entire issues of Asterix and Phantom over the years, till he began finding online versions of the comic issues. In a way, my brother and I owe our speedy reading habits to attempts of finishing entire comic books while sitting in clandestine corners of bookstores. I spent a good chunk of my first salary on buying the entire hardbound collection of Calvin and Hobbes, and we continue to find poor excuses to buy printed comic books (If this phrase confuses you, it’s because you don’t have Indian parents). Newspaper comics were also my earliest inspirations to draw, and my abiding love for the medium is evident in my brave attempts to depict my life in cartoons every now and then. So, when I recently came across a documentary on cartoonists talking about the art form how it is being impacted by the eminent death of newspapers, I was instantly hooked.
From print to pixels – what’s lost in the translation?
The documentary explores the tumultuous, creative process involved in drawing, especially when it takes the form of daily deadlines. Even before reaching that stage, getting syndicated is terrifyingly difficult process wherein a handful of cartoons are selected (Usually 2 selected out of 5000 submissions a year) and sold to most newspapers through the syndicate. Punishing as the process may be, many cartoonists felt that it still meant that they were only expected to the one task they feel passionate about – draw. As the cartoonist Greg Evans commented, “We’re basically artists, and not entrepreneurs in that sense…”. However, with more than 2000 newspapers having to close down in the past 15 years (in US alone), it would seem that the rules of the game have changed considerably. Some cartoonists are geared up and even favour the transition, feeling that the new platform of web-comics is more egalitarian (anyone can publish!) and make it big, if they succeed. The ‘if’ part is easier said than done though. Apart from drawing, artists then need to have considerable business acumen to cater to public interests, popularise their work on various platforms, and create merchandise (almost 60-70% of their revenue comes from here) to make a living. Bill Watterson fought hard to keep Calvin and Hobbes from being merchandised. Nowadays, it seems to become an integral part of bread and butter. Not everyone sees it as selling their soul to the Devil though. However, this way of cartooning also makes it hard to create independent work. Audiences are now consumers, and an artist’s independent sensibilities or interests may not find a place among popular ‘likes’ of the day. With an exponential increase in content on the internet (anyone and anything can be published, remember?), it becomes nearly impossible to sift through things, visibility itself being at the mercy of whimsical moods of the netizens. There are chances of overnight fame, as there are of unpredictable disinterest when the crowd moves on.
Creativity can’t die, but what would the resurrection look like?
Moving into new media is not just transfer of images from print onto the screen. It also changes our perceptions and understanding of the phenomena in fundamental ways. In his book outlining the major shifts in culture and cognition due to the transition from an Oral to a Literary civilisation, Walter J Ong wrote, “Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form. More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness.” What shift in thinking structures will ‘swipeable comics’ bring? Does it call for a more immersive experience as artists are freed from the physical boundaries of the paper, and viewers can interact with comics in newer ways? Will writing itself become more visual in nature as various kinds of graphics become available? These are new frontiers for artists and viewers alike. The good thing is, cartoonists are compulsively creative and constantly reinventing themselves in all kinds of ways. Our shared love for storytelling is a big part of what makes us human, and images just make it more fun. So comics are here to stay, metamorphosing through new media and enriching our lives in imaginative ways. It’s not a replacement narrative either, print versions will be around as long as people love the tactile feel of the pages ( I like to sniff them too). Armed with brushes, pens, paper and Adobe Illustrator, cartoonists feel optimistic about the adventures lying ahead. I, for one, support their cause wholeheartedly.
At the end of a rainbow 