When the Comics Reach the Readers' Tipping Point

NOTE TO READERS: In the wake of recent newsroom events, more than a few readers have urged and encouraged Comic Riffs to re-post this rant, which was first published two weeks ago today. So, never one to refuse my readers, here's that re-post. All references to "shrinking patience" and "bout" are, quite seriously, coincidental. (I should also note: After Henry read this, he grinned a Cheshire grin, mulled in bemusement for a moment, then offered only two words: "That's. Good.") *Phew.*

Henry Allen's patience is shrinking like a stamp-sized comic. Pica by evaporating pica, the funnypages are testing his will to read. He might find "Judge Parker" beautifully drawn, but it is Henry who will be rendering his decision to swear off the micro-funnies.

"It's not worth it anymore. They're too damned small," he bemoans over the transom. Henry, who happens to be my pod's Pulitzer winner (for a while in Style, it seemed one was practically assigned to every Post pod), won his Prize for cultural criticism -- from Andrew Wyeth to R. Crumb, the man knows more than a wee bit about visual critique. And perhaps just as important to our discussion today, he relishes the well-illustrated comic.

Prompting our newsroom banter is this week's shrinkage of "Doonesbury" in The Post's print edition. In migrating from Style's Page-3 to Page-2 -- and untethering itself from The Reliable Source layout as part of the paper's larger redesign -- Garry Trudeau's 40-year-old strip has lost roughly a half-panel in width.

Henry's verdict: "That's it. It can't afford to shrink that much."

In The Post, "Doonesbury" sees a shrink. (UPS) Enlarge Comic

Thing is, "Doonesbury" still runs larger in The Post than do the comics on the funnypages proper. As many readers know, the consolidation of The Post's comics from three pages to two earlier this year resulted in shrinkage -- which throughout the industry has been on ongoing fact-of-life for many years. This reduction is widely perceived by editors to be a necessary evil, the cost of doing business now -- even given that demographically, many print comics readers are older. It's many of these older readers who write to Comic Riffs to say: Look, you're shrinking me right out of your reading audience.

In other words, one kind of shrinkage begets another.

Which mirrors Henry's latest personal declaration: That the stripping-down point has about reached his tipping point. When even mere legibility becomes a bout, it's tempting to throw in the towel. (As commenter "Mrhode" posted on Comic Riffs yesterday about The Post: "My wife's given up reading the comics in her 40s because you print them too small.")

Many readers, of course, will simply reply: Venture to the almighty Web -- there, the size of your comics is often only restricted by the size of your monitor or mobile device. Which is true. But the hitch and the glitch there are: Most newspaper comic artists still draw their ART so it "reads" visually when super-downsized in newspapers. So it's still print-page size that -- gradually for years now -- has led to an artistic dumbing-down of so many comic strips.

That said, I hasten to add: Visual simplicity and a clean style do not automatically equate with "dumbing-down." A couple of days ago, commenter "ishkabibbleA" asked me in this forum, in part: "Does uber-simplistic artwork lower the instrinsic value of a comic?" To which I reply: (a) Absolutely not; and (b) let's break this down into two distinct types of "instrinsic value."

First, in terms of AESTHETIC value, there's nothing I embrace more than the clean, well-rendered line. To me, a "simple," beautifully drawn "Peanuts" can hold more aesthetic value than highly filigreed artwork that becomes so cluttered -- no matter how stylish -- that all sense of line and composition are deflated if not defeated.

For purposes of today's Incredible Shrinking Comic debate, however, I also contend that comic strips have an instrinsic COMMERCIAL value that depends hugely on how effectively the art works within its specific medium. On this latter count: Such "simple-looking" comics as "Dilbert" and "Pearls Before Swine" (while also being consistently hilarious) actually gain value because at postage-stamp size, they're still relatively legible and their artwork doesn't melt into inky, Lilliputian mudpuddles. On the flip side, often more detailed art -- which for so many decades was an outright selling point of the funnies -- is reduced to annoying eye-chart art.

Given such splotchy Rorschach-test art, readers like the esteemed Henry Allen won't stick around, because they can tell you what such art means without having to gaze at it. It means: "Farewell, because you can kiss my comics readership goodbye."

And trust me, newspaper editors, when I say: That's no small loss. Because although millions of comics fans can barely see the strips in the newspaper, they can read the writing on the wall.

More and more, Comic Riffs is sent video. Or rather, video links. Here's a cartoonist peddling a book. Here's a cartoonist inking a panel. And oh look, here's a cartoonist inking a panel at a comic-con while telling amusing anecdotes between taking audience questions -- in order to peddle a book.

Some of these videos, though, distinguish themselves in eye-catching ways. For instance, "MAD" cartoonist Tom Richmond -- whom we interviewed recently upon his return from his USO tour to the Mideast -- has posted this short clip from the trip. The comic-book panel effect is stylish enough that I wish the video were longer. Here's the travelogue taste that leaves me wanting more:

TOM RICHMOND's USO TOUR:

Another video link 'Riffs was recently sent is part of cartoonist Tom Gammill's continuing video series, done with a self-aware shtick. The grabber here is the piano of "Momma" and "Miss Peach" cartoonist Mell Lazarus -- the baby grand is covered with the sketches of some well-known cartoonists. As Lazarus explains: "We had a bunch of drunken cartoonists in the house one night, and they just, you know, destroyed a perfectly good French provincial baby grand piano." 'Riffs fast-forwards to the one-minute mark, just to glimpse this instrument in all its doodle-graffitied glory:

MELL LAZARUS'S "CARTOON" PIANO

And to reflect the range of video links that come our way, 'Riffs re-posts this Spanish-language interview with Eduardo Barreto ("Judge Parker" et al.). (If you don't speak Spanish and would like to read the accompanying translated article, you can click here.)

THE WORLD OF EDUARDO BARRETO:

The reason Comic Riffs posts these trio o' videos today is because there are so many cartoonist-featured videos out there in the cinesphere, and so little time to find the interesting, the compelling, the flat-out funny. So this is an APB to comics fans: If you've got favorite videos featuring cartoonists, we'd like to see 'em. We welcome all such video links, and 'Riffs will spotlight some of them in the weeks ahead.

The theater floor is now yours.

ELSEWHERE...

'RED AND ROVER' (WPWG)Enlarge Image

Ever since Comic Riffs asked readers the other day what strip they would move to KidsPost -- so "Frazz" could return to the daily comics page -- one of the most mentioned features after "Peanuts Classics" has been Brian Bassett's warm and fuzzy strip, "RED AND ROVER."

"Red and Rover" was launched in 2000 by Basset, who was already drawing the strip "Adam@home" (Basset turned over the artistic duties of that latest strip to another cartoonist earlier this year). With its secretive boy-and-pet communication (Red can understand what Red's thinking) and its sweet nostalgia for childhood circa the '60s, "Red and Rover" emerged as a natural, some editors have said,to win some of the newspaper slots once held down by the retired "Calvin and Hobbes."

Basset draws "Red" with a sure, simple line that befits the subject matter. Lines are literally, elegantly rendered as a bit soft-focus "fuzzy." This effect gives the strip a certain "Leave It to Beaver" glow -- "Red," in fact, can look more like the old black-and-white "Dennis the Menace" TV show (starring Jay North) than the "Dennis the Menace" strip itself.

So what do you think, 'Riffs readers? If you're not a fan, feel free to Impugn That Toon. Otherwise it's time to Defend. That. Toon.

ELSEWHERE...

MORE TRUDEAU IN THE POST: Back in March, of course, Comic Riffs interviewed "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau about the new and burgeoning Twitter account of his fictive reporter Roland Hedley. Several weeks later, Hedley's Tweets made The New Yorker. Now, with Hedley's book of Tweet nothings ("My Shorts R Bunching. Thoughts?") out in bookstores, Post media critic Howard Kurtz today has some great comments from Trudeau about the challenge of maintaining Hedley's Twitter account.

VIDEO UPDATE: Kurtz "twinterviews" Hedley on CNN's "Reliable Source.

What adds to the meta-nature of Kurtz's entertaining column are two things:
(1) Trudeau/Hedley humorously tweeted last Friday: "Just did book twinterview w/ snarky media critic. Accused ME of narcissism. Dude! Yr so vain, you probably think this tweet is about you."
[8:26 AM Oct 30th from web]
AND...
(2) Columbia Journalism Review staged a Great American Tweet-Off between Kurtz and Hedley over the summer. (Still not sure who, um, "won.")

[As Comic Riffs noted Sunday, Hedley will hawk his new book in this week's series of strips.]

MASH GAME: Was chatting with the Empress over the weekend about The Post Style Invitational's cartoon mash-up -- and wanted to make sure to point comics fans to the final results (winner: a "Dagwood sandwich" gets a whole-new bedroom definition) from the weekend. Enjoy.

"Doonesbury": Back with flying colors. (UPS)
Enlarge Comic

First The Washington Post pulled a trick on loyal "DOONESBURY" readers. Now, for the second straight week, fans of Garry Trudeau's satirical strip get a welcome treat, especially in light of syndicated cartooning's general tough times.

Starting Monday, The Post will run "Doonesbury" -- which now occupies Style's Page-2 -- in color. Vivid, eye-catching color -- from the camouflage greens and beiges of the strip's Iraq troops to Rick Redfern's rust-colored post-buyout beard and the precise tint of Zonker's man-'do -- a shade perhaps best dubbed Walden Blond.

" 'Doonesbury' will now be in color daily," Style Editor Ned Martel confirms to Comic Riffs. Moving the strip to Page-2 amid the recent redesign has made that possible, Post management said.

Upon discovering this news, Comic Riffs can't help but be struck by the thought: What a difference two weeks make. A mere fortnight ago, The Post began running "Doonesbury" at the shriveled, barely legible size of roughly one less inch in width (which Comic Riffs immediately rallied against). Then last week, The Post restored the strip to near-prior size (which 'Riffs heartily applauded). Now, The Post editors make a smart "Doonesbury"-related decision for the second straight week.

(At this rate, I'm liable to get downright, well, optimistic and hope for "Frazz's" return to the daily comics -- or perhaps a longer shot yet, "Cul de Sac's" return to Sunday color.)

Enlarge Comic

The print Post begins running the strip in color just in time to see fictive Fox News journo Roland Hedley start to promote the new true-life "DOONESBURY" book, "My Shorts R Bunching. Thoughts?" -- a collection of Roland Hedley's narcissistic Tweets. (I read this breezily hilarious book two weeks ago and I must say: I was laughing at conspicuously audible levels at how dead-on it parodies some Washington pundits' Tweet nothings.)

As for "Doonesbury's" open in-strip promotion of its own book, that merely seems to reflect the current frequency of this stunting as newspaper comics combat tough trends. (As "Dilbert's" Scott Adams told Comic Riffs this year: What better place to do it?) Plus, Trudeau has long been a master of the fourth-wall wink -- even in fewer than 140 characters.

THE RELATED READ:

TRUDEAU TWEETS: The "Doonesbury" creator tells Comic Riffs why his character Roland Hedley has a use for Twitter.

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: Garry Trudeau on the powers of political satire.

TRUDEAU'S 'POST' LAYOFF: Rick Redfern tries life as a (gulp!) blogger.

THE FRIDAY LINE: From tee-offs to teed-off, here are today's most frightening cartoon links, culled from across the mighty mighty Web...