Laugh Tracks

Congratulations, Tyr! (I guess?)

Tyr, the 1000-year-old Norse deity who frequently makes an appearance in Phil Dunlap's Ink Pen comic, found out today that he is a dad. With an infant almost as large as he is (and a wife many, many times larger), our viking friend certainly has his gauntlet-covered hands full. 

So what effect will fatherhood have on our fearless, centuries-old friend? Will he trade in his battle-axe for a  rattle, his flagon of mead for a baby bottle, and his animal-hide jerkin for a "World's Greatest Dad" sweatshirt? 

Stay tooned.  

Holy Moses!

Back in July we had a paper in Asia complain about this "Argyle Sweater" panel, saying it offended them. My first reaction was, "of course, but who hasn't been offended by split ends? Isn't it about time we brought this global tragedy into the spotlight."

But apparently they were talking about using Moses at the butt of a joke. I tried to assure them that  it's just a pun and not disparaging toward our Biblical hero, but the could not be assuaged. So we "suaged" them by sending a replacement.

W.T. Duck presents "Birth Control"

Take a duck who works as a photographer amongst human beings with crying babies, bridezilla complexes and clueless clients and we'll show you a portrait of “W.T.Duck,” the comic strip that quickly exploded in popularity with camera aficionados and comics fans on the Web and is now in syndication. Look for W.T. Duck to begin appearing in newspapers this January. If you'd like to see the strip in your home paper and aren't sure if they're planning to run it, a little friendly demanding never hurt anybody. In the meantime, check out the W.T. Duck home page for more strips.

Production notes: "Birth Control" was produced by What the Duck creator Aaron Johnson, with voice acting done by himself and his son, Jonas.

Oh, you cartoonists!

(WARNING!THIS POST CONTAINS INNUENDO)

While cartoonists are not normally known for their senses of humor, occasionally a prankster will slip one by his/her editor.

Noble editors who are just doing their jobs and trying to get home in time for the 6:30 Access Hollywood, but can't because Mr. Bigshot is late again and will probably miss a press run.

Now, I'm not going to tastelessly name names, but if you look in the below Elderberries by Corey Pandolph gag you'll be witness to a bit of chicanery we missed. Not seeing it? Look closely on Dusty's apron and read the embroidery -- got it? Just a bit too ribald for the comics pages, no?

I know it's hard to see exactly what it says, but with some help from our friends at Langley we were able to decipher it. See blown up version below it.

Got a new strip idea?

1. Do some research. To sell into this market you have to know what they're looking for; I love Perry Bible Fellowship, but I don't think it could sell into this market. Study your local paper's comics pages: what are the recurring themes? Family, pets, kids, ... occasional social/political commentary.

2. Assess the existing competition. If you have a new dog strip, you better be sure that your strip is better than Pooch Cafe, Get Fuzzy and the myriad of others out there. Why would an editor buy your strip if he already has something superior? Family strip? Foxtrot, Cul De Sac, Stone Soup, Zits, Baby Blues.

3. Distinguish your strip. What's different about your strip? Don't just say your humor ... because that's subjective. You better be able to give a logline about your strip that will make it stick in editors heads so that our salespeople can get and keep their attention on the work. Good samples are helpful ... a good logline and good samples are better. Logline example:

"Pooch Cafe is a about a groups of dogs who come together at a cafe to construct a catapult to hurl all cats into the sun." or "Pooch Cafe stars Poncho whose life is shattered when his master Chazz gets married to a woman with 10 cats."

It's not necessarily the ONLY thing about Pooch Cafe. But it's a quick line to let the editor know instantly about the tone and setting. Once (s)he gets into the samples he can see how strong the characters are.

More later ...

Richard Thompson does New Yorker illustration

 

Speaking of political cartoons, Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson created this depiction of President-elect Barack Obama for the new issue of The New Yorker. You can read the article here.

In addition to his illustrations for The Washington Post, The New Yorker, National Geographic and other publications, Richard Thompson writes and illustrates the Universal Press daily, Cul de Sac. The feature appears in 200 papers and was a nominee for the 2008 National Cartoonist Society's Best Comic Strip honors. The first Cul de Sac collection, which came out this September, features a warm introduction from Bill Watterson.

If you haven't been reading Cul de Sac, you'll want to start in time to see how this situation plays out:

I guarantee you it will be interesting. 

Oliphant's dilemma: Liking the new guy

In addition to our regular comic strips and panels, Universal Press Syndicate distributes editorial cartoons from some of the finest folks in the business, including Pulitzer Prize-winner Pat Oliphant.

During Mr. Oliphant's visit to our Kansas City office this week, he stopped to talk with a Kansas City Star reporter about the election of Barack Obama and the difficulty of lampooning a president he actually likes (something that hasn't happened since he first moved to America in 1964, he says).

Though "No Drama Obama" might not be an easy target as, say, Sarah Palin (whom he always depicted with bats flying around her head), a man of Oliphant's talents will certainly be able to come up with something amusing about the president-elect. In the meantime, those wishing to catch up on Oliphant's unflinching take on the Bush/Cheney years should hit up this excellent collection.

Oh, and Pat also graced a few of our office dry-erase boards with some sketches that are a bit saltier than what we usually send out to papers. But as much as I'd love to post them here, I'd probably get fired.

Action News Family by Don Asmussen

San Francisco Chronicle staffer and Bad Reporter cartoonist Don Asmussen and Amuse sold this hilarious treatment to Al Roker Productions (yes, that Al Roker -- tremendous comics fans himself). ANF tells the story of the Anchorton family. It's now being prepped for pitch to the networks by two established TV writers to polish for the brass. Conceptually it's sophisticated, but at its heart it's traditional family show.

Amuse

Amuse is the Film/TV division of UPS.

Bridget McMeel works out in LA as our development exec with our agency William Morris. We've had a good run of projects we've sold ... but cripes, the development process take forever. It makes syndicates seem speedy ...

I work in KC with the content and engage the cartoonists when we get nibbles. I travel to LA fairly regularly to pitch and have general meetings. We sell to producers, networks, studios, whoever ... as long as they feel like the right partner for the individual property.

(Here's what we have in development as of today)

FILMS:

- Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children (New Line/WB) based on the Tom the Dancing Bug character

- Small Apartments (Deviant Films) based on the novel by Chris Millis (John "Close to Home" McPherson's occasional writing parner)

- Pooch Cafe (Sony Pictures Animation) based on the strip by Paul Gilligan

- LIO (David Kirschner Productions) based on the strip by Mark Tatulli

-INK PEN (contractually not at liberty to divulge who were partnering with on this yet) based on the strip by Phil Dunlap

TV:

- Adam@Home (optioned to a network/contractually not at liberty to divulge) based on the strip by Brain Basset

- Tank McNamara (optioned to a network/contractually not at liberty to divulge) based on he strip by Jeff Millar and Bill Hinds

- Action News Family (optioned by Al Roker Productions) and based on the concept by Don "Bad Reporter" Asmussen

We had sold a few other properties that the options had expired and not been renewed. It's a funny business ...but one of the best things to happen to us lately was the success of the film "Alvin & the Chipmunks" ... an established brand that parents trust ... sound familiar to comic strips?

But we don't just take our comics ... if the idea is strong enough, we'll try and sell anything we think we can. Don Asmussen's "Action News Family" is a good example of that. he just came up with an incredible funny treatment and it just clicked as far as why we thought it would sell.

Pat Oliphant is in the house!

Who was the charming gentleman who just walked by my desk? Why, the one-and-only, legendary, Pulitzer Prize-winning master of editorial cartooning himself, Pat Oliphant. Not an everyday occurence around these offices, believe it or not.

Early on during his Kansas City stop, Mr. Oliphant chatted with Matt Schofield of the Kansas City Star about making fun of the president elect.