The top comics-related news stories from October 4 to October 10, 2008:
1. Akron's Chip Bok accepts a buyout from his paper, underlining the massive difficulties even the best editorial cartoonists are having retaining a staff position.
2. Berke Breathed ends Opus and his own 30-year newspaper strip cartooning career.
Five For Friday #137 -- Right To Left Five For Friday #137 -- Name Five Manga Series You Personally Are In The Midst Of Reading, Whether Or Not The Series Is Ongoing Or Finished (Titles Only)
*****
1. Yotsuba&!
2. Dr. Slump
3. Times of Botchan
4. Dragon Head
5. Slam Dunk
This Subject Is Now Closed. Thanks To All That Participated.
*****
Five For Friday is a reader response feature. To play, send a response while it's still Friday. Play fair. Responses up Sunday morning. Seriously: titles only. If you're not in the midst of reading five series, and I have no idea if anyone is, that doesn't make you a bad person, you just don't get to play this week.
The last day for Chip Bok after 22 years at the Akron Beacon-Journal will be October 13. One of the more prominent editorial cartoonists in the U.S, Bok accepted a buyout, word of which was finally made official on Thursday, October 9. According to a post at The Daily Cartoonist, this was the third buyout offered to Beacon-Journal employees, an increasingly typical event as newspapers nationwide rush to reduce staff in order to better match existing advertising revenues, shifts to some sort of model that includes a more aggressive on-line component and to prepare for the future given well-known projections for declining readership as the current generation of readers gets even older.
Bok will continue doing cartoons for Creators Syndicate and work on other projects, according to Gardner's post.
Editor and Publisher notes a number of high-profile cartoonists taking a buyout or otherwise being shown the door: Stuart Carlson (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) Jim Borgman (Cincinnati Enquirer), Richard Crowson (Wichita Eagle), and Peter Dunlap-Shohl (Anchorage Daily News). There are now less than 80 full-time staffed cartoonist positions at US newspapers, a precipitous drop from 10 years ago and an even steeper decline from the all-time high.
A widely published cartoonist whose clients have included Time and Newsweek, Bok is featured on-line through the Cagle site and at Comics.com. He is syndicated by Creators. His blog is here.
Having come to Akron from a stint in Florida that included a run at the Clearwater Sun and illustrating Dave Barry's column, Bok joined Akron's staff in 1987. He won two NCS editorial cartoonist divisional awards in 1995 and 1999, a Fischetti award in 1988, the Berryman award in 1993 and several state Associated Press honors. He was on the Pulitzer finalist list in 1997, and has published two collection through the University of Akron Press.
From his drawing board at the Akron Beacon Journal, Chip Bok has won two National Cartoonists Society awards for Best Editorial Cartoonist (1995, 1999). He was a Pulitzer finalist in 1997. Other awards include the Fischetti Award (1988), National Press Foundation Berryman award (1993), H.L. Mencken Award (1993), and four Ohio A.P. Awards (1992, 1996, 1999, 2000).
The husband and father of four returned recently from a cartoonists' USO tour to this most recent buyout offer.
Now, clearly with that kind of resume, we're no longer talking about a few people losing their jobs here and there as a historical consequence and a slide down the charts in value and talent, but a full-on endangerment of staff positions being taken away from all but maybe a dozen cartoonists. Although even then, I would have thought Bok one of those cartoonists -- a well-regarded national figure working at a local paper whose prestige, frankly, was greater than that of his employer. Bok is talented enough that he should find a career in syndication, but that's become an increasingly crowded fields whose rewards are limited because of the number of people competing for that money and those slots, some of which have used their full-time staff positions to allow themselves to accept syndication money at a price less than that that might sustain them at a certain client level.
There's a point at which this is no longer a profession but a quirky job, like driving a Zamboni or being the guy who does a blog about amusement park rides. I'm not certain we've reached the tipping point, but if you can't envision this steamrolling into an extinction event in the next half-decade, you're probably not trying hard enough. I think this would be an immeasurable loss to American journalism and cartooning. If you have a cartoonist in your paper you like to any extent at all, show them support. Maybe think about writing a letter to the publisher thanking them for that hire. Because honestly? I'm not sure I have any other ideas except to suggest everyone hold on, dig in, and hope.
Where, where, are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over,
And thought I found true love.
You met another and
Phht! you were gone.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* I was totally stumped yesterday during a radio interview as to what the world financial crisis might mean for comics publishing in other countries, but here's an article that may provide a bit of a clue: a line of BD shuts down after looking -- one would guess unsuccessfully -- for a buyer. Moreover, the article suggests it might be an early sign of market unrest.
* the prominent blogger and cartoonist Mike Lynch publishes the explanation proffered by a group against the recent Orphan Work Act as to why they put out word last week that it was working its way through the House under cover of financial distress. Supporters were calling their congressman to try and get it started, although it doesn't look like it was re-introduced onto the floor.
* the Italian Masters of Comic Art show opening at Scott Eder Gallery comes with the usual terrific gallery featuring some of the best cartoonists out there, if you have five minutes or so to burn. The Andrea Bruno pages are worth a click-through all by themselves.
* the writer Steve Duin goes to four Portland comic shops.
* not comics: incredibly deep editorial cuts expected at the LA Times. I'm not sure how much of this is due to the unique culture that has developed at the Times over the last few years and how much of this is specifically indicative of national trends, but either way, it's troubling.
* another piece recognizing the death of comics character Jonathan Kent in current Superman in-comic continuity. I still think this is an odd thing to do, because it reduces what was once a powerful element of Superman's origin -- learning the limits of his superpowers through the passing of his adoptive parents -- to a much-later-in-life question that comes with a goofy superhero/villain combat element, because who can't relate to someone losing their parent through a vicious crime related to one's work?
* finally, here a missed it piece: I'm not sure why Devil's Due self-distributing a comic whose rights situation has been questioned is the focus of this story rather than Diamond declining to distribute it -- there's really only two choices for Devil's Due, and this is one of them. Then again, I totally missed the story, and should probably just shut up. I'd be interested in seeing figures for how much penetration a company like Devil's Due can make into the comic store market by itself, but I doubt that's forthcoming.
* the Italian Masters of Comic Art show opening at Scott Eder Gallery comes with 
