Chewing Pencils

The Cartoonist’s Bible
Franklin Bishop
New Burlington Press, 2006
192 pages

I’ve spent the last few days enjoying a bit of quiet time browsing through Franklin Bishop’s The Cartoonist’s Bible. It’s a nicely presented, spiral bound book that covers all the usual drawing tips (body construction, facial expressions, perspective, lettering etc) but also contains some good information on the business side of the profession.

Quoting Bishop from the introduction, “There are many books on cartooning but this one is exclusive in that it gives you the priceless benefits of a professional cartoonist’s insider hints and tips that would take years of hard work on your own.”

That’s a big claim - he obviously hasn’t heard of Chewing Pencils - nevertheless, I think that this is one of the few cartooning books that HAS got some useful information on how to make money from cartoons. There are a lot of good ideas, however my feeling is that it doesn’t quite go far enough to be really useful for anybody who already has the basics under control. For instance, the section on setting up a website recommends utilizing free web space and free Internet service providers. As I mentioned in this post, this sends the message to potential clients that you are too cheap to pay for some proper hosting and Internet access and thus you will find it difficult to charge the going rates. This may be appropriate for somebody starting out, but if you’re in it for the long haul then you have to spend some money.

Bishop also says, “Don’t worry about how much you will be paid for your work. With a sensible attitude, and by producing good work, you will find that, in general, all publishers will pay you a fair fee.” Yes, there are some good, honest publishers out there. There are also some that simply don’t know how much they should charge, and there are others that will bleed you for everything they can for as little as they can. I think it’s far better for the artist to know exactly how much they should be charging so they can work out whether or not a job is worth doing. There is no excuse for signing a contract that will cost you more than you earn.

The biggest positive of The Cartoonist’s Bible is the chapter on ‘Tools and Media.’ Bishop covers the tools a cartoonist can use, how to set up a decent work space, how to use ink, brushes, pens, gouche, watercolour, acrylic paint and computers. For a self-taught artist like myself, finding out what materials are available often happens by accident. Working out how to use them takes a lot of time and some wasted money. Again, there’s not a lot of in depth detail, but there’s more than enough to whet my appetite to have a go with some of these things and enough instructional information for me to get some decent results.

Bishop’s book could use a bit more depth in some parts, but overall it is a valuable resource to own. It might be UK focused and concentrate on the traditional tools and markets, but the principles are relevant regardless of the region you’re working in. It forms a good overview of the profession, but if you’re looking for some more detailed information you will need to look for something a bit more specific to your topic of interest.

Note that some versions may have a different (but similar) cover to that shown here.