It has been eight months, give or take, since I made the decision to move from my previous flagship site and accept Markos' offer to become a part of Daily Kos. He offered an irresistible lure—the opportunity to create a new space for political cartoons on the single most widely-read liberal blog. The transition from dead trees to digital has been a rough one for political cartoons, and whatever you may have have heard to the contrary, selling t-shirts has not been a viable substitute for most artists, particularly political artists, whose work is by definition quickly dated. But: Comics are popular! If I had a nickel for every time someone has told me that the first thing they turn to in their local weekly is the comics, I would have a very large pile of nickels. Yet somehow comics have not become an established part of political opinion sites, and I don't know why that is.
So, along comes Markos offering to create a new comics section, to set a new example for the political blogosphere, if not the entire internet: Comics are a valuable part of the mix, comics are popular, comics are worth paying for. How could I possibly say no?
So far, the experiment has worked out better than I could have possibly imagined. In eight months we've built up an amazing roster of contributors, and—I hope—given you all one more reason to come back and check in each day. And this is just the start! If Markos meets his funding goals, I'll be able to expand the comics section further. If I have any say over this, we'll eventually feature two or three different cartoons a day. I have plans, oh yes. But they depend on you all at the moment. If you agree that political cartooning is an art form worth supporting, then please consider donating to the fund drive, or better yet subscribing. And tell them you're doing it for the cartoons!
