Syndicated, topical cartoon strips

[BroomJockey]

Okay, so the culture is "Old Media" vs. "New Media." Syndicated cartoons in newspapers generally have about a two week lead time. Sometimes more. I've heard a month for an artist who's bad about getting his strips in on time.

So that means that any cartoonist who wants to talk about something can only do so two weeks after it's happened. Before the spread of the internet, that was okay. Newspapers would often do follow-up stories, keeping things fresh in people's minds, so they'd know what the cartoonist was talking about.

Now, between the internet, TV, radio, and everything else, you can be inundated with details of a news story, and 20 more before the week is through. Every angle of a story is beaten over and played out.

In light of this, is it still worth having topical cartoons in the funny pages? Do they have a place there anymore? Would it behoove papers to loosen up their system and allow authors to insert more topical strips occasionally for a big story? Or should they jump from the papers completely, and just go online, where they can update in whatever order, fashion, and timing scheme they want to try and maintain relevancy?

In case anyone wondered, what prompted this was seeing a strip joke about Jon and Kate splitting up, about 20 minutes ago.

[Slytovhand]

In case anyone wondered, what prompted this was seeing a strip joke about Jon and Kate splitting up, about 20 minutes ago.

Who??

I think it's pretty much a waste of time to do them 2 weeks later.. unless there's a pressing need to do the follow-up story. I don't really see the issue of a cartoonist coming up with a quick sketch within an hour of a story hitting.. other than block.

[AdminAssistant]

Hm, from my childhood obsession with Garfield I remember Davis always saying it was 6-8 weeks for dailies, 10-12 weeks for Sunday. But that was before the Great Age of the Interwebs.

Honestly, the vast majority of strips are comic strips, and they don't need to have that instant cultural relevancy. Certainly not why I read Dilbert.

[BroomJockey]

Yes, which is why I'm talking about topical strips, like Mallard Fillmore. Ones that focus on world events, rather than the ones with their own internal world, such as Dilbert or Retail.

[AdminAssistant]

Yes, which is why I'm talking about topical strips, like Mallard Fillmore.

Ahhhhh, gotcha. Like Doonesbury? (Never found those strips funny, anyway).

I don't know...is our cultural attention span so short that we can't wait a couple of weeks? I just don't see it as a big problem.

[BroomJockey]

I don't know...is our cultural attention span so short that we can't wait a couple of weeks?

That was kinda what I was asking. IS it that short nowadays? Has the world changed to where a 2-week lag makes something irrelevant?

[Slytovhand]

Ah.. well, that's almost different.. and the answer is an overwhelming 'yes'.

There are moral outrages, there are natural disasters, there are economics and wars and deaths and a whole host of things that happen that seem to almost disappear over night - unless they are constantly kept in our faces by the media. Sure, some people do that, and some people who are affected (either directly or indirectly but emotionally) will stay on a particular bandwagon, but for most people... bye bye in a couple of days!

Eg - the AIDS epidemic.. it's still continuing, people are still getting it, Africa and Asia is rife with it, and people are still contracting the disease in the US, Canada, Australia, UK etc... but is the media coverage anything like it was back in the 80's? No. Have the number of new infections dropped that significantly.. no, not really. It's still just about as bad now as it was then... you just don't hear about it (well, in other countries... it's not as bad in the west, but a lot of that has to do with various factors).

The World Health Organisation does not publish predictions of HIV prevalence, but it does project AIDS mortality. Provided antiretroviral therapy access continues to grow at the current rate, the annual number of deaths due to AIDS is expected to peak at around 2.4 million in 2012, and then to decline to 1.2 million in 2030. Yet even in this scenario, AIDS will remain one of the ten leading causes of death globally.

(source: Avert)

I'd be willing to bet that some people think the war in Iraq was been over for years! If the media doesn't keep people informed, then they've got no idea what's going on. (or what they should believe)

[Flyndaran]

...
Eg - the AIDS epidemic.. it's still continuing, people are still getting it, Africa and Asia is rife with it, and people are still contracting the disease in the US, Canada, Australia, UK etc... but is the media coverage anything like it was back in the 80's? No. Have the number of new infections dropped that significantly.. no, not really. It's still just about as bad now as it was then... you just don't hear about it (well, in other countries... it's not as bad in the west, but a lot of that has to do with various factors). (source: Avert)

I'd be willing to bet that some people think the war in Iraq was been over for years! If the media doesn't keep people informed, then they've got no idea what's going on. (or what they should believe)

It is sad that so many need to have the same information pounded into their thick heads on a nearly daily basis or it would leak out.
Aids would be so much easier to treat if africans weren't so absurdly superstitious, and americans remembered that it was permenant and not curable.

[Slytovhand]

Flyn, I'm not sure if 'superstitious' included 'mainstream' religions, but I know the effect of Catholocism is a major part of the issue - no condoms!

Actually, I'd say a large part of it, like smoking, drink driving, drugs, and anything else that can kill or harm you, is that people think they're 'special' and 'it'll never happen to me' attitude...

[Flyndaran]

Flyn, I'm not sure if 'superstitious' included 'mainstream' religions, but I know the effect of Catholocism is a major part of the issue - no condoms!
...

I believe that's roman catholocism. American catholics just stick their fingers in the their ears on the condoms issue.

[AdminAssistant]

Flyn, I'm not sure if 'superstitious' included 'mainstream' religions, but I know the effect of Catholocism is a major part of the issue - no condoms!

Well, one of the things I heard is that some of the shamans or whatever were telling African men afflicted with AIDS that they could cure it by raping virgins. Stuff along those lines. But the Catholic Church, and in particular Pope Benedict, not helping at all. People are dying of preventable causes, and it is a shame that the Papacy can't see that.

[Slytovhand]

Well, one of the things I heard is that some of the shamans or whatever were telling African men afflicted with AIDS that they could cure it by raping virgins.

Oh, I could so go OT with that....!!!!! Who the hell doesn't bother to set a standard of ethics or morals on their deities in order to follow them?????

[anriana]

Gossip rags do fine on a monthly/weekly/whatever basis.