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Comics are Good Business

Cartoonists for Your Small Newspaper

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Cartoon by Mike Barnhouse  (see bio)

Cartoons on this page are copyrighted material, and may only be used with the permission of the cited content providers.

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Comics are Good Business for Any Newspaper

Comic strips have been a part of newspaper publishing since the 1800's. Comics were added to newspapers to help increase sales of the paper.  Some claim that the Yellow Kid, the first color comic (1986/87) eventually lead to the derogatory term "yellow journalism."  Anything's possible, I suppose.  Since many comic strips are humorous, we often call them "The Funnies" or "The Funny Pages."  At one time in America, it was popular to joke with a friend when parting, saying, "See you in the Funny Papers!"

Comics Add Readers

Believe it or not comics are one of the most important features for any newspaper, regardless of its size.  Lots of people (including yours truly) will often read the comics before anything else.  In fact, even the most specialized and serious periodicals, including magazines devoted to medical research and political rhetoric, include cartoons and comic strips.  You definitely want to include comic strips and other features in your small newspaper.

How to Find Comics and Other Features

You can find comics and other popular features by contacting the syndication services, such as United Features (Peanuts, Dilbert), or King Features (Spiderman, Crock, Family Circus), and others.  All the big services are on the web.  Do an internet search (with Google, MSN, YAHOO, for example) using the name of the comic strip or feature that you'd like to include in your paper. 

You may need to use additional words such as "features," or "comic" or "newspaper" in your search, if the agency doesn't show up on the first page or two.

You may be surprised to discover there are also local comic strip creators in your own area, and all over the world.  Some of these individuals produce very entertaining strips and cartoons, but are not listed with any of the big feature syndication agencies or services.  Many now have websites, or they're listed with state and regional newspaper associations.  You will hear of some only after you start publishing your paper, when they send you a copy of some of their work.

Popular Cartoonists for Your Small Newspaper

The cartoons at the top of the page are provided by (and used with the permission of), respectively, Randy Glasbergen and Dan Rosandich. 

Randy Glasbergen

Randy Glasbergen cartoons are available (for a reasonable fee) to use in newspapers, newsletters, magazines, advertising, web sites, and more. Randy says he’s always glad to hear from new publishers. You can contact him direct by email. Rates are based on usage and each request is answered personally.

Selected cartoons from Randy's web page are made available to weekly newspapers from DBR Media Inc. The DBR Media weekly syndication package features four Glasbergen single-panel cartoons each week on a variety of topics.

No matter how specialized your newspaper publication, Randy has material to fill the bill. The list includes hundreds of Business Cartoons, Computer Cartoons, Office Cartoons, Family Cartoons, Health Cartoons, and more.

Dan Rosandich

For the past quarter of a century, fulltime cartoonist & humorous illustrator Dan Rosandich has continually produced article illustrations and panel cartoons for magazines, newsletters, books, educational manuals, presentation specialists, websites, graphic design firms, T-shirts, fortune 500 company art director business cartoons, custom illustrations, medical cartoons offered by cartoonist Dan Rosandich including daily web comics-r-s and a wide variety of other projects. Dan's cartoons have appeared in Reader's Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, The American Legion, The Saturday Evening Post, Woman's World magazine, First For Women, Barron's magazine, The National Enquirer, Boys' Life magazine, Medical Economics, Highlights For Children, The Sun tabloid of London, and the late satire magazine National Lampoon. Pearson Educational Publishing, John Wiley & Sons Publishing, McGraw-Hill Publishing, Mosaic Media Publications, Teacher's Discovery Publications and The Xplain Corporation are some of the other publishers which have worked with Dan on an intermittent basis.

Dan's work also appears in the popular Chicken Soup For The Soul series of books which include Chicken Soup For The Christian Soul, The Pet Lover's Soul, The Gardener's Soul, The Mother's Soul, The Bride's Soul and The Woman's Soul. Rosandich also has his cartoons distributed and translated to the Italian print market in hardcopy format via New Blitz International based in Rome. The Public Relations Society Of America also calls upon Rosandich to create special colorized article illustrations. Rosandich also illustrates print ads for Computer Associates International. A leading worldwide provider of solutions & services for the management of IT infrastructure, business information and application development.

Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson is a cartoonist in the Chicago area. His work appears in Forbes, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping and other publications. You can see his cartoons online at www.andertoons.com.

Mike Barnhouse

Mike Barnhouse produces cartoons for small town newspapers about small town life. Mike and his lovely wife, Debbie, live in Winnsboro, Texas (in a small town, of course). Visit his website, ( www.smalltowntom.com ) to see more of his work.

© 2011-2012 Jim Sutton

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