And They Will All Live Like Cartoonists: The US Economy And Comics, Post #14

Last week was a bad one for comics and the current downturn in the economy, in a way that underlines the unique problems facing comics: peripheral weaknesses, a rapidly transforming business model and outside pressures that inflict more pressure than many traditional, internal ones.

* a letter to freelancers then leaked brought word from several locations that MAD was being moved from monthly to quarterly publication and that the side-project magazines Mad Kids and Mad Classics would be cancelled. That news is alarming in terms of its general historical import: MAD is arguably the most popular comics publication of the last half-century. A move to quarterly publication sends a scary message, one that my gut tells me will be felt by the readership more in terms of its implications than in terms of a felt absence from the stands. For the professionals contributing to the well-liked recent iteration of the magazine, the blow is much more severe. This means less work in the immediate future for a lot of talented writers and artists. More from Mark Evanier, Tom Richmond and Evan Dorkin. Richmond's post indicates that MAD may go on-line in more significant fashion in the near future. Evanier echoes the likelihood for the continuation of the strong MAD brand in his post, which depending on your personal reaction to past attempts to do this kind of thing with MAD and others, might either encourage or depress the crap out of you. The switchover begins immediately.

* the PW comics and pop culture blogger Heidi MacDonald unearthed word last Friday that layoffs directed by Time Warner hit the DC Comics division after all -- there had been speculation they might pass by that division entirely. Included were several MAD staffers, subscription manager Christine Sawicki and editor Bob Schreck. That it was Schreck made the news additionally surprising, in the same way it was stunning when Jim Borgman took the Enquirer buyout. It's not like you can't see the future there, you just never entertained the possibility that things would go in this direction. Schreck seems generally well-liked, has a pedigree that stretches back to the early days of independent comics from which many of today's top creators sprung, and was a big factor in stabilizing DC's lackluster Batman books and acting a general conduit for that company to talent outside the general superhero mainstream. He was also the DC point person in working with Frank Miller, I believe. Schreck is the one recent departure with the track record and contacts that one can imagine landing any variety of places, even in economically chaotic times.

* MacDonald's excellent Friday continued when she brought word of staff cuts at Diamond. I would expect reaction to that news to break down along the same lines as the much more severe and passionate reaction to their raising sales miniums. On the one hand, staff cuts make sense for Diamond in a "they're changing things around fashion." On the other hand, the small drop in overall sales from last year's record-setting levels doesn't by itself sound like direct justification for the necessity of a round of cutbacks unless other factors are somehow involved. In other words, it's hard for me to believe a company that's been as successful for as long as Diamond would be that fragile. Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, though.

* the Diamond news from about ten days ago now, that they were raising expectations of minimum wholesale amounts from $1500 to $2500, continues to be a hot topic of conversation. Here are two good ones from the UK: interested observer Richard Bruton and small press publisher Kenny Penman.

* things suck in magazine distribution, too. A few of you have mailed me a link to this article on Source Interlink joining Anderson News in demanding a new fee for magazines to be delivered to the newsstand regardless of number of copies that end up being sold. In a world where the magazine is spiraling downward as a reasonable way to deliver information content and where the economy is generally down, this is potential extinction-event news for a lot of companies and big names already teetering towards unprofitability. I don't know what comics companies would feel the impact and to what extent that impact would be felt if this becomes the norm and a new arrangement that avoids the additional fees isn't worked out, although it strikes me that this can't be welcome news at the magazine publisher Wizard, who don't look ready in any way to make a switch to an on-line identity and have done things like fire huge swaths of staff people and explore selling their building in a way that hints at their being a bit wobbly overall.

* and on to newspaper. Recently fired Ventura County Star cartoonist Steve Greenberg has landed on his feet at alt-weekly Ventura County Reporter. I can't tell if that's a staff position or an elaborate freelance deal, but it sounds firmer than a promise they'll look at his stuff if he submits. He details the spiraling decline of editorial cartooning, particularly staffed positions.

* did the announcement of a big sale of the Chicago Cubs for a shade under $1,000,000,000 have any effect with how financial folks perceive the Tribune Company's dire financial outlook? Not really. What about the New York Times? Was there a change in the general outlook for that company after they received more money from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu? Sort of, but in the wrong direction.
 
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