But evolution is finally happening, in the form of animated online cartoons. New technology has made them cheaper and easier to produce, and with the newspaper business looking increasingly gloomy, full-time cartoonists–there are perhaps 60 today, down from more than 200 in the 1980s–are beginning to realize that this could be the future.
“It’s definitely where the action is,” says Mark Fiore, 37, who left newspapers for online animation in 2001 and says he’s convinced the traditional print panel is facing its demise. “When I’m hanging out with print guys and they’re crying into their beers, I try to keep my mouth shut, but I feel like I just have to tell them–‘You gotta do animation!’ "
Newsday’s Walt Handelsman isn’t as grim about print. But the Pulitzer Prize winner is online now, too–a year ago he taught himself Flash software, and now he supplements his daily panels with animated features, like a musical ditty by NSA telephone eavesdroppers. “I haven’t been this excited about my career since I got my first job at a daily paper,” he says.
“This isn’t cannibalistic … Print cartoons are always going to be with us,” says Ted Rall, who will become president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists next September. “It’s exciting, no question, but the challenge is creating a paying market for it online.” Fiore says he keeps his expectations realistic. “Nobody’s going to become a bazillionaire,” he says. “But it’s exciting, and it can really work.”
