My road to syndication was a winding one, and here’s how it came about. I’m writing this because I LOVE to read other cartoonists stories. I just eat that stuff right up!
I was in high school when Calvin and Hobbes first came out. I fell in love with it immediately, and soon decided to pursue syndication myself. Never mind that I wasn’t an artist, I’d never written cartoons before, and I was NEVER going to be as good as Bill Watterson. I had decided it, and so it shall be. Ah, youth…
Anyway, I started writing a cartoon in college that sucked. Boy, did it suck. It was called Half Empty (I still like that name!) and it was about a girl named Holly and her best friend Dot and their adventures in college. It was WAAAAAYYY autobiographical, to the point that now I cringe when I happen upon it and wonder what the heck made me send this out for other people to read!!
But, send it out I did. To resounding no’s all around. And yet, Jay Kennedy from King scribbled a wonderful note at the end of my rejection letter saying that he liked it and to keep trying. Now, I have no idea if he encouraged everyone, and if he didn’t, what he could have possibly seen in this strip worth encouraging (it really was that bad!) but I was so demoralized and so young, that had he just blown me off too, that would have been the end of it. That note is the entire reason I kept trying. I still have it.
I was going to share one of these cartoons, but I can’t find any. Perhaps that’s for the best.
A few years later I tried again to get syndicated. This time I wrote a strip about 6 college age friends, 3 boys and 3 girls who make their way in the world. The main characters were Wanda and Joe. It was also called Half Empty, and it was also rejected all around. But Jay Kennedy once again came through for me. He graded all the cartoons in my submission so I’d know which one’s worked and which didn’t, and he wrote me a long, encouraging letter that pointed out my strips strengths and weaknesses, told me how to improve on the weaknesses, and asked me to resubmit the strip to him. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement. Here’s the first cartoon in that submission. My female lead in my cartoons always has curly hair like me. Freud would probably have a field day running through my psyche…
And yes, I did send it out just like that. Two boxes over two boxes, because you often see strips printed like that in newspapers. I did it this way because it fit exactly on a piece of typing paper. I probably used a felt tip pen to draw it with. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! Sigh…
I worked really hard on my resubmission and sent it off to King Features with high hopes. Soon, I heard back from Jay Kennedy again. Another encouraging note. Another rejection. But this time he gave me his phone number and asked me to call him so we could discuss my strip. And …I never called.
WHAT?!! You never called? Why the heck not?! Believe me, all my friends and my family badgered me daily, but at that time I was almost pathologically shy and I just couldn’t gather up the courage to do it. I tried and tried until I was sick, and then the television show Friends debuted and it was a very similar concept to my strip and I realized that it would look like I was copying and I let that be my excuse to give up. I let this opportunity slip through my fingers. I’m not saying that had I called I would have gotten syndicated. I probaby wouldn’t have. But it was stupid, and it’s something I’ve always regretted not doing. At the very least I would have had an extremely helpful conversation. I ended up giving up cartooning for about six years.
In that time I had 3 children. I wrote two unpublished novels. We moved across the country. And I started thinking about trying again. I decided to write about family life because I was kind of immersed in it daily. I began writing cartoons and I thought they were good. Much better than the ones I wrote when I was younger. I gave the family twin girls because I’d always wanted them, and I wrote and wrote and wrote. And then I got pregnant. Surprise! With twins. Surprise! Just like my strip. Talk about being psychic! So, next I’m thinking that I need to have the Torres’ win the lottery…
I stopped, had my twins, and resumed writing when they were two. I decided to buckle down and get serious. I would draw up a strip a day for six weeks until I had enough for my submission to the syndicates. This would be a test to see if I could produce on the schedule they required. This would be my last try.
I’ll write part two tomorrow.
5 comments
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October 30, 2008 at 1:21 am
Kate
I love this story! And ya know what? I actually liked Half Empty (the 2nd version)! I think Jay knew you had the potential to have a really good strip and he probably was dismayed that you never contacted him (maybe you should contact him now and see if he wants CBW! LOL). However, I do think things happen for a reason & I think the timing probably just wasn’t right for Half Empty. I’m glad you went on to create CBW and I am looking forward to reading part 2 of the story (even though I already know how it goes, it’s fun to read it).
Oh, I also think you should submit your books for publication. They really ARE fantastic and I am willing to bet a lot of the people who enjoy CBW would want to read them!
October 30, 2008 at 8:13 am
clearbluewatercomic
Kate, I know there’s no way for you to have known this, but Jay Kennedy died suddenly in early 2007. I was so very upset because I’d always wanted to meet him and tell him how much his encouragement meant to me. I don’t plan to pursue syndication again with any syndicate. CBW will live or die as a web comic.
October 30, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Bruce Shapiro
I first started reading Clear Blue Water. When the San Francisco Chronicle picked it up. After disappeared from the Chronicle continued reading it from the syndicated comics selection my Yahoo homepage.
Now I pick your comic/blog up daily via an RSS feed- it’s all the same to me although I do wish there was some way for you to get paid from all this.
October 30, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Leslie Helwig
UUUUUUUUggghhh politics politics, I think you rock something fierce Karen, but I have had it up to forehead with stupid politics. I have to deal with it in radio, tv, and now my favorite web comic. Let’s just agree all politicians are lying nimrods and leave it at that!
The only reason I am voting next week is because too many women fought for my right to do so and I must do it for the principle of the thing.
But frankly I do not want either of them. I plan to write in She-Ra for president and Sailormoon for vice president, no not really, but that is about how I feel.
But I love your blog today! How neat to see how a strip comes together. I know you feel self-conscious artistically, but as a narrative, I get lost in the plot. I forget they are just characters. The times when I want to kick Manny’s butt, I have to realize he is not real. I just feel so awful about the way you have been treated. This doofy country really does not know a good thing any more. They keep stale overused comics like Hagar, Ziggy, Mary worthless, Family Circus(aaaaaa die already Jeffy you are not funny), Nancy, Tarzan, just to name a few, but cool people like you, Brooke McEldowney, Joe Humble, these people can’t even get their foot in the door, it just makes me want to kick someone in the shins.
Buuuuut at least with the web there is freedom, flexibility, and the right to the first amendment. So here is where you will thrive, with clever marketing and CBW products, I bet you will be a household name before you know it and Polly Anna will walk again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 31, 2008 at 9:27 pm
clearbluewatercomic
Brian, you and me both! Though I’ve got several ideas up my sleeve and I hope to make this a success in the end. I’m glad you’ve kept up with my strip. Thanks for following me here.
Leslie, I am sorry I keep beating this dang drum… I really cannot help myself! Tomorrow is NOT a political strip and either is the Sunday. M-W of next week are and then there should be a SHARP drop in politics until peace reigns once again.
I think you should switch that around. SailorMoon would make a much more awesome President than She-Ra. I always wanted a whiny teenage president who could kick some serious butt in a crisis!
That’s very sweet what you wrote, and I’m okay with where I am now. No worries!