Week 1b

Today in class we watched a documentary called Stripped: A Revealing Look At the World's Greatest Comic Strips. The documentary focused on the perspectives of several comic artists. It started off by talking about the history of comics. I found it interesting that being a comic artist was very desirable in the 40s and 50s, up through the 90s. Unsurprisingly it was also very competitive. This was because in order to have your comics published, you had to pitch them to a syndicate who would then sell them to newspapers. In order to do that, however, your comic had to really stand out. As the 90s approached, popular characters from newspaper comics started appearing on TV and in movies. However, the transition into the 2000s and up to present day created new challenges for comic artists. Newspapers began to close down, meaning less income for comic artists and less chances for new artists to get their work out there. However, the internet was the answer to the decline in newspapers. Comic artists began posting their work online for free. This was liberating in a sense because syndicates no longer were in control. It also created new challenges in creating income. Thankfully, artists began to figure out that as a consumer base was created, the demand for products relating to their comics also increased. It soon became a balance of online presence with in-person presence at conventions and meet ups. This appears to be the route for those interested in pursuing a career in comics today. Overall, I found this documentary interesting in terms of the business side of the comics industry. I had never really thought about how the industry worked, so it was very informational in that regard. However, I would have liked to have seen more about each artists creative process. I felt that what they did go into was rather short, and I would've liked to have seen more in terms of materials and such. What they did mention was interesting. It was cool seeing the stacks of sketchbooks some artists had, while others did things digitally. It was also interesting to hear that many kept notebooks for ideas with them at all times, which I thought made since given that many of them had to come up with something new everyday. In terms of actually drawing the characters, I remember the wife of the creator of the Peanuts said that her husband, Charles Schulz, liked to imagine the characters actions in his head while drawing them. I thought that was cool, and another idea I would like to implement in my future comic creating endeavors. In the end, I found this documentary to be an interesting look into the world of the comic industry.