{"id":2535,"date":"2016-03-01T09:52:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2024-01-09T09:57:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T17:57:50","slug":"maggies-world-038-the-little-red-hen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-038-the-little-red-hen\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie\u2019s World 038: The Little Red Hen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World 038: The Little Red Hen<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Easter with Mother Goose<\/em>\u00a0[Four Color<\/em>\u00a0#220] \u00a9 2016 DreamWorks Classics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We know the story, right? The little red hen finds the wheat, asks her friends for help planting it, they say they won\u2019t help, so she does it herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And harvests it and grinds it to flour and makes the bread and bakes the bread\u2014each time asking for help, each time being rejected. When she asks who will help to eat the bread, her buddies happily volunteer\u2014at which point, she says she can manage to eat it all by herself, thanks anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walt Kelly featured the hen in an issue of Easter with Mother Goose<\/em>. King Aroo<\/em> cartoonist Jack Kent provided a delightful version in Jack Kent\u2019s Book of Nursery Tales<\/em>. In the case of the former, I bet Kelly produced his work \u201cfor hire.\u201d In the case of the latter, I bet Kent was paid royalties. In both cases, the creator depended for payment and circulation on his publisher: Western Printing & Lithographing Co. for Kelly, Random House for Kent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re accustomed to that arrangement in the world of comics, but it isn\u2019t the only way comics have been produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centuries Ago<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Ben Franklin was a Little Red Hen. He used to sign his letters as \u201cB. Franklin, Printer\u201d and he invented the first newspaper chain. And he created the classic \u201cJoin, or Die\u201d political cartoon that was printed in 1754 in his Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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T\u00f6pffer figured out how to print his own comic books before there were any other comic books.\u00a0Enter: The Comics\u2014Rodolphe T\u00f6pffer\u2019s Essay on Physiognomy and the True Story of Monsieur Cr\u00e9pin<\/em>. Translated and edited by E. Wiese. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965. \u00a9 2016 University of Nebraska Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Comic-art pioneer Rodolphe T\u00f6pffer used lithography to solve the challenge of making multiple copies in an art form that combined freehand line drawings with hand-lettered text. Though T\u00f6pffer\u2019s writings were widely seen in others\u2019 publications, he produced that ground breaking comic-book work through his own comedic lithographs. They reached enough other people that they drew encouragement from such critics as Goethe\u2014and earned him the eventual international reprinting of 1837\u2019s Histoire de M. Vieux Bois<\/em> as The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t take long for creators who wanted to combine their drawings with storytelling to decide that the biggest bucks would probably come from getting a paycheck from a publisher, rather than from the challenges of self-publication. Although Winsor McCay produced his own animated films (and invented animation tricks to do so)\u2014he eventually turned to his salary from Hearst rather than another form of self-publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We produced our own magazines about the general field of comics before there were magazines about the general field of comics. We even got permission to use characters from his\u00a0Barnaby<\/em>\u00a0comic strip from Crockett Johnson.\u00a0Comic Art<\/em>\u00a0#1 \u00a9 2016 Maggie Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Black and White Boom<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

It could be argued that the do-it-yourself possibilities of comic art became attractive again via the avenues of self-publication available to producers of fanzines and underground comix, the latter starting with such publications as Zap Comix<\/em>. Heck, fanzines were self-publishing almost to the point of the Platonic ideal: You want it published? Find a school Ditto machine or learn how to cut mimeograph stencils, and away you go! Nevertheless, in many cases, creators continued to seek out ways to market their work to professional publishers, which dealt with such matters as printing, circulation, and payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, though, direct market comics shops offered a distribution network through which even individual creators could market their self-produced stories. Without going into the details of boom and bust and digressing into matters of distributor competition and the like, let\u2019s note a few of the successes. Keep in mind that the Little Red Hens in question were often aided by one or more people in a support group; the point is that they put together their own organizations to bring their creations to market. (And, no, this isn\u2019t a list packed with detailed descriptions; if you\u2019ve never heard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for instance, there\u2019s an abundance of information at the touch of a Google search. Nor, of course, is it by any means an exhaustive list.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Chronological Order, Then \u2026<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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  • 1976: American Splendor<\/em> by Harvey Pekar.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1977: (December) Cerebus<\/em> by Dave Sim.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1978: Following publication of the first installment in Fantasy Quarterly<\/em> (from Independent Publishers Syndicate) in February 1978, Wendy and Richard Pini took their Elfquest as their own project for WaRP Graphics, starting with Elfquest<\/em> #2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1980: Maus<\/em> by Art Spiegelman.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1984: TMNT (May) Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird produced a satire of Frank Miller\u2019s work on Daredevil<\/em>. Their Mirage Studios released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/em> #1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1984: Usagi Yojimbo (November) first appeared in Thoughts and Images\u2019 Albedo Anthropomorphics<\/em> #2, moved to Fantagraphics, and then appeared wherever writer-artist Stan Sakai chose.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1991: (July) Jeff Smith\u2019s Cartoon Books released Bone<\/em> #1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1993: (January) Strangers in Paradise<\/em> by Terry Moore.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1993: Wandering Star<\/em> by Teri Wood.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 1995: Stray Bullets<\/em> by David Lapham.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    Wups! I Went Right by \u2026<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

    1992: Image Comics\u2014The enterprise experienced complex ins and outs but was founded to enable self-publication by Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s an additional method through which comics creators publish and distribute their own material. Look online for self-produced comics, several of which have been on the Internet for years now. Whether it\u2019s Wondermark<\/em> by David Malki (starting in 2003), The Oatmeal<\/em> by Matthew Inman (starting in 2009), or the work of Eisner Award-winner (for 2014\u2019s \u201cWhen the Darkness Presses\u201d) Emily Caroll, gifted individuals have begun to populate the Internet. And support of their entertainment can, similarly, spread virally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Jack Kent\u2019s Book of Nursery Tales<\/em>, New York: Random House, 1970. \u00a9 2016 Jack Kent Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    Tomorrow<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

    Who knows? I\u2019ve lost count of the parents who have come to me to ask what possibilities might be Out There for their kids who \u201cjust want to make comics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I would caution creators with something science fiction and fantasy writer Theodore Sturgeon once said. When an accountant asked him who had done his taxes, Sturgeon responded that he\u2019d done them himself. To which the accountant replied, \u201cBut any accountant could do your taxes. You\u2019re the only<\/em> person who can write stories by Theodore Sturgeon!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Maybe that\u2019s another aspect of the situation. Creators can look to others for support\u2014while they remain in control of what they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you are a comics creator, is it time to do it yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Maggie\u2019s World by Maggie Thompson appears the first Tuesday of every month here on <\/em>Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

    Maggie Thompson<\/div>\n\n\n

    Published<\/p>\n\n\n