Modern Cartoonist is a 1997 essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

 by Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes

Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....

 published as a 16-page black, white and red illustrated pamphlet

Pamphlet

A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...

. It was originally bound in with copies of Eightball

Eightball (comic book)

Eightball is an alternative comic book series written and drawn by Daniel Clowes. The first issue was published by Fantagraphics Books in 1989, soon after the end of Clowes's previous comic series, Lloyd Llewellyn...

#18 and was also offered for sale individually. Although the back cover describes it as being published

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 by "The Catholic Federation for Preservation and Advancement of All Things Related to the Comic Book and its Creators, Inc.," the address given for ordering additional copies is that of Fantagraphics Books

Fantagraphics Books

Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...

, presumably its actual publisher. Because of its subject matter, its small dimensions and its illustrations, and its original distribution inside of a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

, Modern Cartoonist is sometimes classed as a minicomic

Minicomic

A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term "small press comic" is equivalent with minicomic reserved for those publications measuring A6 or less...

.

The essay is a series of portentous reflections on the comics

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 medium and its present and future challenges. It is divided into four parts: "The Current Situation", "So, Why Comics?", "To the Young Cartoonist" and "The Future and Beyond".

In a 2001 interview Clowes, while denying that the essay was a joke

Joke

A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...

, said that his intention in Modern Cartoonist was "to write something that had this certain tone that I find amusing, something that's on the razor's edge between this sort of pompous, heartfelt earnestness and its ironic counterpoint."

Quotes

"[O]ne of the reasons why comics are such a potentially alluring forum for the individual creator [is that] they are in a sense the ultimate domain of the artist who seeks to wield absolute control over his imagery. Novels are the work of one individual but they require visual collaboration on the part of the reader. Film is by its nature a collaborative endeavor. The filmmaker's vision, filtered through 'reality', is more accessible to a general audience but in most cases less a precise, preconceived vision than one based on compromise and serendipity. Comics offer the creator a chance to control the specifics of his own world in both abstract and literal terms." (p. 7)

"The new technology promises a structural shift ('democratization' is a word they use) in the reader's favor, giving him an exaggerated role in the give-and-take between artist and audience. He is to be given choices so he can 'interact' with the narrative. Is this a good thing? Is our every reader a worthy collaborator or does his involvement dilute the whole process? Do we, as readers, want this? This is where the 'entertainment media' at large is headed: to pander to the impatient lout and to provide him with material that ranges only from masturbation fodder to the narrative equivalent of a roller-coaster ride." (pp. 13-14)

Illustrations

Most of the pamphlet's illustrations feature an archetypal

Archetype

An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...

 cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

 working at his drawing board

Drawing board

A drawing board is, in its antique form, a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a large format book or other oversized document or for drafting precise technical illustrations...

. Several are exaggeratedly pessimistic

Pessimism

Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...

 in tone; the cover image shows him surrounded by collapsing buildings, while another shows him slitting his wrists. It is unclear if the drawings are in any sequence that would qualify them as sequential art

Sequential art

Sequential art refers to the art form of using a train of images deployed in sequence to graphic storytelling or convey information. The best-known example of sequential art is comics, which are a printed arrangement of art and balloons, especially comic books and comic strips.The term is rarely...

.

External links

• Review of Modern Cartoonist from The Comics Journal
  The Comics Journal
  The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...