From: [R--O--E] at [email.afip.osd.mil]
Date: Mon, 08 May 95 15:39:13 EST
Subject: Library of Congress exhibit, part 2

     Symposium on May 6th
     
     The session opened with some remarks by Harry Katz, the exhibit 
     curator.  He talked about the two collections that form the core of 
     the Library's collection.  Ron Patel then made some remarks and 
     introduced Robb Armstrong, creator of Jump Start.
     
     Armstrong had driven down from Philadelphia for the talk.  He 
     introduced his wife and baby and then explained that Jump Start is in 
     many ways an autobiographical strip.  When he had a baby, so did his 
     characters.  He said that he had been cartooning since being a child.  
     It was a way for him to fit in and make friends.  He'd draw Charlie 
     Brown or Fred Flintstone and have an instant buddy who'd overlook his 
     stutter.  His mother encouraged him by taking his drawings to work and 
     hanging them all over the shop.  When he was in college his mother 
     died and he started a cynical strip called "Hector" for the Univ. of 
     Syracuse newspaper.  It was a hit and helped him meet his wife.  The 
     strip got lighter and more autobiographical as it went on.  A friend 
     submitted it to a syndicate for him which rejected it while asking for 
     something like it.  He came up with Jump Start featuring Joe the cop 
     and Marcy the nurse and their busy lives (although the syndicate 
     picked the name.)  He now talks frequently at schools to present a 
     black role model who's not a basketball player, but doesn't consider 
     himself a "black" cartoonist.  He hadn't thought of himself in those 
     terms although it does provide a good hook for newspaper publicity.  
     Seemed like a nice guy and was pretty funny.  
     
     After Patel introduced the famous people in the audience, Mike Peters  
     & Jeff McNelly did an Abbott & Costello routine.  They both showed 
     slides or transparencies of their work.  Both avoided saying anything 
     very substantial but they were funny.  Peters interrupted McNelly when 
     Dale Messik joined the audience to introduce her.  Peters also said he 
     had a stutter and was sort of a star's kid (his mother had a variety 
     show in St. Louis) so cartooning was a way to meet people.  
     
     The editorial panel came last.  On it were Jack Loftis, Houston 
     Chronicle; Kim Marcum, Baltimore Sun; Ron Patel, Philadelphia 
     Inquirer; and Phyllis Singer, Newsday.  
     
     Loftis began by saying comics readers are the newspapers dream readers 
     because they're so loyal.  He catagorizes strips types as 1. 
     contemporary strips, 2. classics, 3.  family or kid-oriented, 4. 
     continuity - adventures & soaps and 5. boffo (catagory breakers like 
     Calvin and Hobbes apparently.)    He feels that newspapers when 
     changing shouldn't cancel a strip with the syndicate; they should drop 
     it for a few days and see who complains.  When the Houston Post 
     collapsed, the Chronicle picked up all their strips.
     
     Kim Marcum spoke of the "hunch" about when to kill a strip.  Hunches 
     can lead to mistakes though - Atlanta ? pulled "Baby Blues" and got 
     100,000 phone calls.  The Sun is having to cut back strips but is 
     factoring in "intensity" factor like "Zippy" or "Love Is" fans.
     
     Singer talked about pulling a controversial strip.  Doonesbury's 
     Sinatra strips were pulled when Mafia ties were implicated.  Trudeau 
     had used a photograph which moved the strip closer to journalism and 
     so it must follow stricter standards.   The man in the strip's photo 
     was not charged with murder but conspiracy to murder and was also 
     acquitted so the strip was inaccurate.  Also people can view strips 
     differently so BC and Wizard of Id's overt Christian messages on 
     Easter got complaints about bashing religion and others thanking them 
     for promoting religion.
     
     Patel pointed out that strips have a 100 year history of being 
     circulation builders.  Newspapers have territories they don't want 
     outsiders like USA Today coming in to.  After all the strips started 
     in Heart and Pulitzer's paper wars.  
     
     Q&A session produced some interesting points.  A strip may cost a 
     newspaper $45/week so there's an economy of scale compared to 
     producing your own strips.  Editors also wouldn't invest enough time.  
     Many decisions are made by the newspaper's editors personal preference 
     although reader reaction is taken into account.  Someone questioned 
     Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes' size requirements - they were all 
     negative.  "We have to bump something for them"  Did they all look for 
     replacement strips for Larson's Far Side.  Yes, "Close to Home" and 
     "Non Sequiter" were picked by most of the panel.
     
     Overall it was a lot of fun and for the unreconstructed among us, both 
     of the sessions were videotaped.  Hope this was interesting to you; I 
     enjoyed it.
     
     Mike Rhode