This past week, the comic strip FoxTrot has been running a series of strips about the characters dealing with an “ink outage”: Calling other comic characters to confirm that it’s widespread, emergency reserves only being enough to sketch the tops of Jason’s and Peter’s heads, etc. It seems pretty clearly to be a reference to the Great Eastern Blackout…
But don’t cartoonists work on a several-month leadtime? That is to say, the strip must be finished and delivered to the syndicate months before it will actually run. FoxTrot has even poked fun at this practice in the past: One of the characters complains how hard it is to be up-to-date in a comic strip, and another walks in and asks if they’ve heard about Watergate.
So how did Bill Amend manage this one? Coincidence? A pre-filed set of strips, set aside at the syndicate “to be used in the event of major blackout”? Special arrangement with the Powers that Be?
Hey, those strips probably only take a few seconds to draw, since they are mostly blank. Amend probably has some sort of mechanism in place to bump strips to the top, i’ve noticed he is usually up to date on geek stuff.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Yesterday’s comic talks about people blaming the USA or Canada, and that would be pretty darn coincidental, wouldn’t it?
I’m sure all syndicated cartoonists have a procedure for getting strips out within 24 hours’ notice or whatever, for emergencies. Like if tomorrow’s Dilbert had a joke about dead nuns, and Mother Theresa died this afternoon (yes, I know, hush), the syndicate might call up Scott Adams to fax over another strip, which would then be sent to the papers as a more tasteful replacement instead.
As Governor Quinn says, Sunday strips need six week’s lead time for the color printing to get done, so that’s a different matter. This is why synchronizing color and black-and-white strips for larger story arcs is seldome done, because of the difficulty in coordination.
The Sunday after Star Wars: Episode II premiered, FoxTrot had an inside joke based on the film. I guess he must have somehow found out about that plot point before the film came out, huh?
You’re remembering a different strip than I am. The strip I remember right after AOTC was something like
Peter: “So how did you like the movie?”
Jason: “Really, what are the chances that I wouldn’t like a Star Wars movie?”
Peter: “About the same as the chances that Lucas would let a cartoonist in on an advance screening, so he can say something substantive?”
Jason: “Well, maybe not that low.”
In other words, yet another joke at the lead-time.
But if Amend has a method for bumping in “current event” strips, why don’t all cartoonists have the same thing? Or at least, why don’t we ever see any of them using it?
Well, to be fair, The Boondocks is pretty much consistently up on current events. Doonesbury, as well. They tend to have a little bit more lag time because those strips have to be fully drawn. These Foxtrot strips are pretty much just text and a couple of lines, so they were easier to produce so quickly.
Oh, I recall from my copy editor days one particular daily syndicated comic that frequently didn’t arrive until the last minute, if not later, because of the artist’s procrastination.
Another example of FoxTrot’s short lead times: he did an "all your base are belong to us"strip VERY early in the lifespan of that cliche.
As for finding out about Star Wars II early, I don’t think its that hard. Weird Al wrote his entire Star Wars song based only on what he read on internet spoiler sites.
I remember reading that Bill Amend does his strips only a few weeks in advance, much to his syndicate’s chagrin. This, plus his knowledge of the internet (he tends to be VERY fast at catching the latest pop-culture things going around on the internet) is probably how he manages to stay so current.
I wouldn’t be suprised if they keep some “timeless” strips on reserve, to use after the ones based on current things.
Really? I remember that strip, and I thought it was a tad stale around the edges, but, of course, I suppose for a comic strip that it’s pretty amazing that they got it within a year…
Really? I remember that strip, and I thought it was a tad stale around the edges, but, of course, I suppose for a comic strip that it’s pretty amazing that they got it within a year…