How You Can Get Your Comic Strip Syndicated Part 2

…Or at least, get ahead of the game.

Dick Kulpa is a formerly syndicated comic strip artist through LA Times Syndicate and TMS, former publisher of CRACKED Magazine, and now performing as South Florida caricature artist Captain Cartoon. He is also known as the creator of Weekly World News’ famous “Bat Boy,” as acknowledged by the Washington Post.

In this article he’s presenting tips and anecdotes based on his personal comic strip production history in an effort to help aspiring comic strip artists avoid pitfalls and hit the right path the first time. He does not speak for any syndicate, Kulpa’s observations are his own, based on his experiences.

By Captain Cartoon

Working with syndicates associated me with some of the finest media professionals I’ve ever dealt with, for a number of reasons. Chief among them — when these people said “we want you to succeed,” they meant it. Plus, you felt there was truly a team behind you, working toward your success. Were I to do this again, I’d immediately dump the %#&@ day job and devote all energies entirely to the strip.

I “achieved my comic strip dream” three times in my career. The strips I drew were either movie-based strips already in existence (Bruce Lee, Star Trek), or based on a current fad (Ghost Story Club.) However, there was a huge problem. These strips did not pay nearly enough for me to go entirely “comic”. Subsequently, I had to work the “day job”, and find quality time to get these features done.

One of my 1983 Bruce Lee Sunday strips.

So how did I land these gems? I started out doing the same thing cartoonists do. Sample strips were sent to syndicates, and reject slips rewarded my efforts.  (Hey, that was better than nothing!) My Double Eagle & Co. comic strip was viewed as “too limited” in scope, or its main character was seen as “too heroic-looking.” Samples sent to LATS (LA Times Syndicate) in the late 70s drew similar responses.

(At one point I considered bribery, and another, calling in my cousin Guidoski — something I clearly needed to do when I published CRACKED Magazine.)

But things suddenly changed in 1983.

This strip, from the 1976 reboot, expanded on characters and themes. This sample represents a departure from daily punchlines with a two-week continuity storyline. Inspiration for this story came after someone stole a six-pack out of my 1960 Chevy's back seat after a bowling night.

Relevant Comparison: I drew up one “actual” Star Trek sample strip, sent it in to LATS — and received a phone call three days later. My timing was perfect — I was asked to fill in on the last 8 weeks of Bruce Lee. Within a month of its completion, I was assigned Star Trek.

Sample from the 1983 daily Star Trek run. This feature was problematic for me, as I juggled a full time day job with a part time, meeting-laden city council schedule. As a direct result, half of my strips were drawn on the right brain, the rest, from the left side. And it shows. Star Trek's major problem at the time? Star Wars was also out as a strip, and newspapers only had room for one.

Networking — “Knowing someone in the system”: Famed paperback writer Allan Zullo, (Sports Hall of Shame and many others) contacted me about a  “Goosebumps-inspired” comics feature for potential syndication in 1995. Zullo and I shared the same home town, and connected at the National Enquirer offices, where we both worked at one time or another. The resultant Ghost Story Club would eventually achieve syndication in 35 newspapers around the globe.

Ghost Story Club departed from conventional comic strips in a number of ways. This strip, published before the MIB were ever heard of, also features a prominent guest star, arranged between me and the former WWN owners. I also plotted this particular two week story. TMS considered GSC to be one of its more "stable" strips.

Movie and “fad-based” strips have a shelf life of about three years, I’m told, and that rule held true in my tenure.  But I took particular interest in the marketing of these comics. And therein lies some valuable insight.

Aside from stating the obvious, i.e. “present your best stuff,” I’m suggesting you, as the creator of your feature, keep a mind’s eye on “silly little things” like marketability and ancillary product sales.

Let’s say you send in your samples (approximately three to six weeks’ worth) and, out of the thousands they see, the syndicate’s front people react favorably to your feature. After agreements are nailed down and everything’s in place, a syndicate salesman, the all-important foot soldier fighting for your tangible success, will present your feature to a newspaper’s managing editor, and hope for the best.

When I assumed drawing the Star Trek feature, I once heard that a salesman was told “I don’t care if Da Vinci is drawing it, show it here again and I’ll throw you out.” Oohhhh-kay.

I penciled this "study portrait" of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as I prepared to take on the Star Trek newspaper strip.

Your comics feature, which you risked rejection for by submitting it to syndication, in essence puts the syndicate in a similar position: Acceptance (sale!) or Rejection (“Get out!”) These battle-hardened skeptics aren’t going to be easily convinced, though they really do want to be.

Expect the syndicate’s sales department to wield clout as to whether a strip is accepted. Remember, they’ve got a stable of ongoing comics and features already on their plate, as they are marketing THOSE too. NOW, let’s say you’ve developed your feature, gotten it local exposure and garnered “genuine, enthusiastic responses,” with web site counts to match. You’ve now developed ammunition with which to leverage the sale of your feature. You can use it to persuade syndicate reps to take you on, and they can use it to sell your strip.

The reader is the final judge. The Internet provides instant access for exposure, experimentation and development of your comic property, and you need to be prepared to listen and implement what you learn. A former editor of mine made major decisions in entertainment content based on input from (drum roll)…his Cuban gardener. Trouble was, that insight almost always worked.

View your works through a “reader’s eye.” Professionals look at brush strokes, composition, contrast and other devices, sometimes to a fault. Readers, looking to be entertained, view those same works differently. That’s why many hi-tech, fancy SFX films flop…the pros making them get too close to the technicals and overlook the obvious. Here’s where associates, non-artist friends, and even strangers, can help.

My failure to get my hometown daily paper back on the Star Trek bandwagon contributed heavily to the strip's eventual demise. I really needed reader input. Instead. my work disappeared via Fed-X, and aside from seeing veloxes of the strips, I had no idea how my work was playing. Taking their point of view, I was a sitting politician, representing a conflict of interest., and the paper endorsed my county board candidacy a year later. My mistake? Trying to hold onto elective office, which I should have resigned immediately after taking the strip on. This cartoon appeared in the suburban Loves Park POST-PILOT.

As we close out this essay, keep one thing in mind. Syndicates want you to send them the next Dark Side, or Bloom County. They want your submission to dazzle them silly. Nobody wants to send you reject slips. Hopefully, I’ve helped you to anticipate their desires. But wait — what if you’ve incorporated everything here, and “they” still reject you? Does that mean you are through?

A syndicate told me one up-and-coming Hollywood producer submitted a character as a potential comic strip feature, and was turned down. Undaunted, he went on to make his movie, which became the then-highest grossing theatrical release of all time. To this day that character has never appeared as a comic (to my knowledge.) Side note to that producer — “Hey, I’ll draw it for you, just phone me at home.”

If you review Part 1 of this essay, you’ll see I harvested benefits from my 1971-1976 Double Eagle and Co. strip which have paid off to this very day, and I’m sitting on a treasure trove of archived material. So, who knows? The principles listed above can apply to any property, be it music, children’s books, magazines and products. It’s all about common sense.

Epilogue: While hitting “the big time” with “national syndication,” I would quickly learn that such was not the case. Syndicates will start up a strip’s production with a set amount of newspapers, with expectations that it will grow in time. If you ever land that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, treat that feature as if it were bigger than Blondie, as I believe its chances of becoming so will expand exponentially. Treat it as a part-time job, it’s a good bet it will stay that way.

I will always be eternally grateful for the opportunities, personal associations, mutual respect and achievements relative to my syndication experience, and especially that pizza TMS Fed-Xd to me. All this cannot be taken from me. So to David S., Allan Z., Eve B., Mark M. and Doug P., my hat’s off to ya. Likewise to Mary E., for treating me as a respected erstwhile colleague.

Links: Captain Cartoon’s Web Site, Ghost Story Club Page, Learn to Draw Faces and Figures, Captain Cartoon History

Captain Cartoon Uploads Muammar Gaddafi caricature for free use

Captain Cartoon's latest "free use" caricature: Muammar Gaddafi

Florida cartoonist Captain Cartoon just released a “free use” sketch of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi (Muammar Qaddafi?) on his “Free Clip Art” web page.
“I’m a big supporter of hard copy newspapers,” says the Captain, ” So I’m doing my part to help these folks save some money.”
You can see this caricature, produced as a warm-up sketch at a local restaurant’s “caricature nite,” right here on the Captain’s free clip art page.

How You Can Get Your Comic Strip Syndicated Part 1

…Or at least, get ahead of the game.

Dick Kulpa is a formerly syndicated comic strip artist, former publisher of CRACKED Magazine, and now performing as South Florida caricature artist Captain Cartoon. He is also known as the creator of Weekly World News’ famous “Bat Boy.”

In this article he’s presenting tips and anecdotes based on his personal comic strip production history in an effort to help aspiring comic strip artists avoid pitfalls and hit the right path the first time.

By Captain Cartoon

Thousands of up-and-coming cartoonists, and even some comics veterans, would love see their comic strip creations on the comic pages. Sadly, 99.437 percent of these folks will never make it, and are fated to work their day jobs till the end of time. That need not be the case.

I’ve been syndicated on three separate occasions, with three different newspaper comic strips: Bruce Lee and Star Trek through the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and Ghost Story Club, via Tribune Media Services, Inc.

My very first comic strip,  Double Eagle & Company, appeared in single newspapers three different times, from 1971-1976. It was this feature that gave me credibility as a daily comic strip artist, something that would play well six years later.

In terms of artwork, I was capable, but by no means “great.” There are many cartoonists with abilities far better (than mine were back then,) who probably can’t figure out why their “world-beating comic strip” isn’t syndicated.

This essay assumes you’ve developed a strip with viable characters and relevant theme, and are prepared to collect some reject slips. If you need drawing lessons, there are lots of online resources for that. Here’s one.

For the bad news: Today’s average, decreasing circulation newspaper is hard-pressed to afford new features, let alone support those they currently publish. Syndicate salesmen face challenges like never before (and hold that thought.) Conversely, newspapers more than ever should actively seek fresh stuff, and raise the bar for its comic pages, features which once served as major forces behind sales and circulation. But that’s another story. By nature, newspaper editors deal with facts, not dreams.

And most editors are reluctant to cancel established strips. Two little old ladies calling the desk crying over the cancellation of Rex Morgan, M.D., could probably save that feature, even if the vast majority of the paper’s readers outgrew it. I’m exaggerating, however comic strips certainly outlast TV shows in the longevity department, for the wrong reasons.

On a high note, the Internet has emerged as a new “broadcast” power, providing a potent exposure outlet for comics features. Had the World Wide Web been available in 1971, I would have saved myself considerable effort. Dilbert got its start there, way back in the 1990s.

Learn from my efforts, both miscues and successes

My first comic strip, The Double Eagle & Co., appeared twice weekly in 1971 in the Loves Park, Illinois POST, and was rebooted in 1975 — then again in 1976 — for two different daily newspapers. The DE&Co. strip projected my own interests, i.e. a geeky love for a 1960 Chevy. That restrictive theme appealed primarily to other hard core nutcases like myself thinking along similar lines, and might be more marketable today via “niche marketing.” Ah, that optimism still prevails, but it’s also why artists starve to death.

This 1975 strip was redrawn and sold to LA-based CAR-Toons Magazine, which published it in the mid 80s.

DE&Co. needed to appeal to enough of an audience to make it financially viable. While I initially believed any comic featuring a funny joke and good drawing would attract tons of readers, I learned it was not enough. I needed people wanting to see and “read” what I had to express.

This strip used my "car-boy-girl" love triangle theme, one I'd use repeatedly during the strip's run. Gals could not have liked it...LOL. It did open my eyes to character "expression."

While a subsequent reboot attempted to correct the comic’s limitations, via implementation of different characters, situations, more relevancy, more classic cars and so forth, I could not sustain a daily strip for the paltry $12 per month fee I received (about $100 in today’s money. The newspaper was not chincy, they simply paid me rates set for syndicated strips.) After nine months, the editor and I agreed to end the effort, upon my initiative.

Some of my best cartoon ideas came from listening to people around me. A business partner actually came up with this sight gag, and I jumped on it...it also enabled me to do a full panel spread, which I reasoned would stand out on the comics page and attract readers by default.

What did I gain from this?

Cater to audience interest: My strip was not unpopular, but comics features on the same page were all “top ten” national strips. In fact, the Double Eagle came close to being cancelled mid-term, but a spontaneous contest I launched within the strip generated the newspaper’s highest response to any of its contests, which saved the day. Of course, what caught readers’ eyes was the split-back 1963 Corvette I drew as the guest “car”actor in that contest strip. That opened my eyes in a “Eureka” moment.

And it helped that the editor was a friend to the feature. After all, the main character resembled him more than me. He identified with the DE&Co.

Make sure your environment is comic strip production-friendly: I could not justify the time and energy invested in Double Eagle & Co. for the long haul, particularly with co-workers and business partners who did not share my vision. On several occasions, I’d hear objects being slammed and snide remarks uttered as I drew. My own father was not supportive, and back then threw out over 100 originals, claiming a basement flood destroyed them. This was not conducive to creativity.

Are you prepared for this “full-time” effort? Writing and drawing a daily comic strip is a 24-hour undertaking. Ascertain that you have the resources to do this. You might find your family rebelling, or your social life ending, especially as you’re burning the midnight oil. And guess what? This can be a major issue even after you hit the “big time,” something I’ll address in Part 2.

Material Sources: I wrote as well as drew the Double Eagle & Co. strip, but when I first began this massive project, I had just one idea on paper. Eventually, I’d have a list containing 15-20 potential gags, assuring myself of choices. It was a constant thinking process, requiring a pad in my pocket at all times. These ideas would come in a number of ways: From friends, from experiences, getting lucky, and sometimes, out of thin air. But as I progressed, my mind trained itself to generate these ideas, giving me a capability to create humor “on demand.”

While I consider it most desirable to be both writer and artist of a strip, there are many such teams out there doing this. Remember these “marriages” are often difficult to sustain. However, two heads are usually better than one, whether you utilize a partner, or simply show people advance copies of your strips, which leads me to my closing points for today.

Submit your work to scrutiny: Get reaction from people around you, to your work, your humor, etc. Believe it or not, nobody in the real world cares what a great artist you are, and syndicates DON’T care what your mom thinks. Artists function as cameras. Readers want a “payoff.” i.e. an intellectually satisfying “reward” for reading your feature, and this would be delivered via a solid punchline. Friends often patronize you with “great job,” but learn to see through that. Even today, I know when the person I’ve caricatured likes their picture, via immediate, spontaneous reaction. DON’T fool yourself.

This DE&Co. strip is from the 1976 reboot. One of the all-time most influential pieces on my career, it was reprinted in a shopping guide in 1977. Cops saw it and raised Hell via television, radio and newspapers, demanding that I resign my newly-obtained city council seat. Naturally, this made me a hero in my community, which people recall to this day. The strip was eventually redrawn and published in CAR-Toons Magazine in the mid-80s.

Whenever possible, get exposure for your strip, either via neighborhood newspapers, small weeklies or through web sites. If you don’t post your own site (though you should,) Facebook and WordPress are great venues, with national and international reach. I actually published 48-strip collections into a newsprint book form, enabling me to distribute the strip wherever I wished. One reaction I recall…the Rockford, Illinois police department wanted to know where these books came from, because, according to the officer calling, “everyone was laughing their asses off.” This occurred over the 1975 version of the series, prior to the cop-donut comic strip above.

Readers don’t give you a second chance. Folks sizing up a comic feature will decide if they like it — or hate it — from first read. Regardless as to any developments, improvements, etc., you’re hard-pressed to get those readers back. Make sure that when you’re about to hit the comics syndication circuit, you’ve collected solid consumer or focus group response. A “proven” feature is more likely to get syndicate bosses’ endorsements, as well as justify your continued efforts.

Hopefully, you’ll glean some important knowledge about developing comic strips. A great theme, solid illustration, “laugh-out-loud” humor, and most importantly, relevancy to the targeted reader, must be part of the mix. Good, stylized art is extremely helpful, as I would learn the hard way that the vast majority of “mainstream” readers preferred simpler cartoony strips as compared to the Marvel-inspired but then-underdeveloped style I offered.

Sadly, my first attempt at comics syndication hasn’t succeeded…yet.

Panels from the 1981 "special" Double Eagle & Co. Comic Strip, featuring the strip's so-called "best" character, "Officer Jaws", drawn overnight and published in the Loves Park Post to commemorate the birth of my "greatest character," my daughter. According to the strip's story, it took all my cartoon creations to push this ragtag car to the hospital for the birth of this girl, who went on to become President. In 1985 a hand-colored version was UPS'd to Steven Spielberg's Amblin Productions, resulting in a direct phone call from his secretary requesting that I sign a release enabling them to "look" at it, which she admitted they already had done. Cancellation of "Amazing Stories" ended any chance of this story being utilized.

Links: Ghost Story Club, Captain Cartoon History

My next post: Part 2: How syndicates will view your work — the inside story.

Cartoonist Launches Anti-Gang Hero ‘Gangbuster’ as a Free E-Comic Book

Kids see Gangbuster as "a cool dude."

“Gangs are bad, you know it’s true, don’t let bad guys fool you. Read this book, and I’ll detail, why joining gangs leads to jail.” — Gangbuster

The anti-gang comic book Gangbuster, available in hard copy newsprint form for 25 years, has now been posted online as a free downloadable E-booklet.

Plotted and drawn by South Florida cartoonist Captain Cartoon, Gangbuster was created as a preventative communications tool in support of ongoing efforts against the ever-growing proliferation of street gangs. “As compared to ‘boring’ brochures and like materials, kids readily open a comic book,” says the Captain. “Gangbuster combines adventure, color — and an important message — kids find easy to digest.”

Agencies see the book as an ideal bridge-builder with youth, and kids who read the booklet overwhelmingly agree with its all-important message that “youth gang activity is bad news.”

Gangbuster comics have been distributed by police departments and youth gang agencies in four states, and interest in this unique presentation is growing. “I’ve received hundreds of inquiry letters seeking sample copies,” says the Captain. “And today’s cash-strapped agencies need all the help they can get.”

“Our recent E-Comic Book launch now puts Gangbuster within reach of anyone and everyone.”

“What intrigues me the most about this edition is its longevity,” reveals the Captain. “While I’ve updated Gangbuster‘s look to fit the times, the message has stayed the same. In terms of criticism, there’s been absolutely none.”

“Of course, Gangbuster was assembled with advice and input from a number of youth counselors, editors and youth culture experts,” he added. “I simply functioned as a ‘tool’ for the counselors when I put Gangbuster together.”

Captain Cartoon is former publisher of Cracked Magazine and former editor of Weekly World News.

Read the Gangbuster E-Comic Book here.

Cartoonist says ‘Use Cartoon Billboards and Campaigns to Stop Union-Busting GOP’

As corporate-backed Republicans target the working man’s major organizations, i.e. labor unions, political cartoonist and caricaturist Captain Cartoon thinks it’s high time to fight back — with cartoon campaigns!

The veteran political cartoonist has harnessed cartoon campaigns in support of (or in defense of) numerous issues, with admirable success. His most recent campaigns utilized gigantic cartoon billboards drawn on behalf of various police unions.

“I’m neither pro nor anti union,” says the artist. “Rather, I’m ‘pro-America.’ However, it’s becoming more apparent to me that there’s a definite ‘Republican-fueled’  targeting of ‘the little guy’,  and what better way to accomplish this  than to destroy one of the common man’s most powerful institutions, i.e. organized labor,” he said.

To that end, Captain Cartoon is prepared to draw cartoons — at discounted rates — in support of union supporters in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.

“Trust me, political cartoons — created and presented effectively — tend to get their point across, if not send the bad guys ‘heading for cover,'” he added, “I aim for the jugular.”

See  the Captain’s latest cartoon billboards, as well as impressive results of some of these campaigns, here!