What Huey Freeman May Soon Learn That Dick Tracy May Never Get To Know

A proper post about the 75th anniversary of Dick Tracy will have to wait until Wednesday, but scanning the tributes that appeared in some Sunday editions I ran across a interesting piece of information: the strip's in 52 newspapers. That may be worse than it sounds, as some syndicate figures don't count newspapers but sales; since dailies and Sunday are sold separately, you can say you have two clients when it's one paper that happens to be purchasing your feature seven days a week. I have no idea if that applies here or how many overseas clients the phrase "many others" describes.

My hunch is this doesn't make Dick Tracy a hugely profitable strip. Further, anecdotal evidence has begun to suggest that a lot of longtime features, creators long dead, are selling in that netherzone of 25 to 75 clients. Very few Blondies out there. Imagine a television landscape where local stations could choose to purchase a version of The Honeymooners (with Brad Garrett) or Sanford and Son (with Charles Dutton). I bet they'd have some buyers, I bet some of them would be good (most in a dependable sort of way), and I suspect that they'd make it tougher for lower-rated shows than for a hit like Lost.

I hate it when cartoonists use strips like Dick Tracy or Alley Oop as the reason they don't own a big house in Malibu; that's never been the case. But en masse and over time it's easy to see how this phenomenon might make things tougher for sustainable diversity below the fold. That's why features like Boondocks (if Aaron McGruder never returns) or the rumored-soon potential retiree For Better Or For Worse should be applauded when they come to an end that suits the creator, even when there's some money left on the table.
 
posted 12:40 am PST | Permalink
 

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