Comics Still Have Long Lead Times

By: Dave Astor In the days immediately after Sept. 11, newspaper pages exploded with content about the attacks on America. But things remained "so 9/10" in comic sections.

One reason is that the vast majority of strips are designed to give readers a daily laugh rather than focus on current events. But another is that most comics are created weeks before they're printed.

Cartoonists occasionally get around this time lag via special replacement strips. For instance, some creators did substitute comics that referred to Sept. 11 or that replaced strips done before the tragedy that became inadvertently inappropriate after Sept. 11.

And there are artists such as Aaron McGruder ("The Boondocks") and Garry Trudeau ("Doonesbury") of Universal Press Syndicate who work just nine days ahead, so they didn't need to do substitute strips to offer timely Sept. 11 commentary.

Lead time for even nontopical comics has shrunk a bit at some syndicates since digital delivery began growing in the mid-1990s. Vice President for Comics and Graphics Amy Lago said United Media's daily comics go from artist to newspaper pages in about 3 1/2 rather than 4 1/2 weeks.

Universal Executive Vice President and Editor Lee Salem said "Doonesbury" used to be done two weeks ahead. "Every three or four years, Garry drops a day," said Salem. The average lead time for all of Universal's daily comics is now two to three weeks.

King Features Syndicate artists do daily comics about five weeks ahead, down from six in the late 1980s. (An exception is Bruce Tinsley's topical "Mallard Fillmore," at three weeks before publication.) King Editor in Chief Jay Kennedy said the one-week dip resulted from standardizing deadlines more than from electronic transmission.

Indeed, digital delivery doesn't necessarily shorten comic lead times because it involves "distribution, not production," said Tribune Media Services Creative Director Fred Schecker, noting "newspapers still want as much as they can in advance." So TMS talent still does comics four to six weeks ahead. And Creators Syndicate's lead time has held at about three weeks, said Director of Operations Lori Sheehey.

Sunday comics, because of color and printing requirements, still have fairly long lead times of at least six weeks.

Reasons lead times remain long

Why do even topical daily comics have longer lead times than editorial cartoons?

Lago said it's harder for a newspaper (or paginator like Reed Brennan) to assemble many comics into a section than to flow an editorial cartoon into a page of mostly text.

Salem added that comics need to be done earlier also because many clients still get them via postal mail.

And several executives said some comic creators procrastinate so much that setting deadlines very close to publication could wreak havoc with newspaper schedules.

The ability to do substitute strips can make long lead times more palatable. "It's not like I can't be on top of things if I need to be," said King's Tom Batiuk, who did a special "Funky Winkerbean" week about Sept. 11 that replaced a previously done Oct. 1-6 sequence.

Batiuk, who usually has a six-week lead time for daily strips, did say it can be odd doing a holiday comic six weeks before an actual holiday. "I celebrate Christmas a little early," he laughed.

A long lead time can have its benefits. Lago recalled a woman with psychological problems contacting United to claim Charles Schulz was using "Peanuts" to comment about things currently happening in her life. "When we told her he was doing the strip three months in advance," said Lago, "that stopped her cold!"

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'The Boondocks,' Post-9/11

Complaints, But No Cancellations

Perhaps most newspapers believe in the First Amendment after all.

At least three dailies this fall pulled some episodes of "The Boondocks" that ventured from the post-Sept. 11 media lovefest for President Bush and the U.S. war on the Taliban. But Universal Press Syndicate reported that none of the comic's 250 clients have canceled since the attacks on America.

"It could have been a lot worse," said cartoonist Aaron McGruder.

In the latest news, Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal Public Editor Mike Needs wrote last week that dozens of readers have complained about "The Boondocks." Some were particularly upset with the Thanksgiving strip that seemingly compared Osama bin Laden to George W. Bush (each is "from a wealthy oil family," each "bombs innocents," etc.).

But Needs also quoted Beacon Journal Managing Editor Thom Fladung as saying he's keeping "The Boondocks" because papers should run a variety of strips, McGruder has the right to political dissent, and there are readers who like his work. If readers don't like the strip? "Just skip it," said Fladung.

Some anti-"Boondocks" readers had actually praised the paper for several October episodes in which the comic was replaced by "The Adventures of Flagee and Ribbon." The readers didn't realize McGruder himself was satirizing hyperpatriotism.

"When you have too much blind patriotism, bad things can happen," said McGruder, 27.

Papers that temporarily pulled "The Boondocks" this fall included The Dallas Morning News, the New York Daily News, and Newsday, Melville, N.Y. McGruder said their actions, ironically, "brought more attention to something they didn't want people to see. I thought of writing them a letter saying, 'Don't put it back for awhile!'"

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Comics Raise Nearly $50,000

Nov. 22 Cartoons Had 9/11 Themes

Fifty-four Thanksgiving Day comics with themes related to the events of Sept. 11 were sold for $49,234 on Yahoo! Auctions.

"The total was way above expectations," said David Folkman, comic art coordinator for the National Cartoonists Society's auction committee.

The top-selling original, at $7,200, was the Nov. 22 "Mutts" by Patrick McDonnell of King Features Syndicate. Among the other comics that drew high prices were "The Family Circus" by Bil and Jeff Keane of King ($5,100), "Dennis the Menace" by Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand of King ($5,100), "B.C." by Johnny Hart of Creators Syndicate ($3,712), and "Cathy" by Cathy Guisewite of Universal Press Syndicate ($2,750).

Proceeds from the auction go to the September 11th Fund.

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