Chewing Pencils

The Heroes and Villians exhibition is being shown in Melbourne over the next few months. Sounds like it would be worth a look if you’re in town:
Heroes & Villains: Australian comics and their creators is a free exhibition at the State Library of Victoria that explores the colourful, and sometimes controversial, history of Australian comic […]

Method 1:- The Mock Up
Nobody can give you a rock solid, water tight, 100% guaranteed method to sell your cartoons. Don’t believe anybody who says they can.
Probably nine times out of ten you will be unsuccessful with your submissions. That’s the reality of the business. But there are some things you can do to give […]

Mark Kennedy, story board artist has a great blog called ‘Temple of the Seven Golden Camels.’ Recently he posted an entry about some photocopied sheets called ‘The Comic Strip Artist’s Kit’. He says,
“The other day I got an e-mail from Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist who did many Disney Comic Books and created […]

Hopefully you’ve read this post on the next wave of cartoon troubles caused by our Danish friends. I don’t want to comment on whether they are right or wrong or get embroiled in another free-speech argument. But I do want to reflect briefly on the opportunity this presents for cartoonists.
When the original furore erupted, many […]

Looks like those crazy Danish folk didn’t learn their lesson from a year or so ago:
A new cartoon crisis with the Muslim world could erupt after Danish television stations broadcast footage last week deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.
In Tehran, dozens of Iranian protesters pelted the Danish embassy with stones and petrol bombs, witnesses said. […]

One of the real challenges of the cartoon business is promoting yourself and your work. While we like to think that people will flock to our website and swoon over our cartoons, the reality is that most of our visitors find our sites by accident, stay for a minute or so, and never return.
I firmly believe that […]

I came across this old post by Mark Williams over at Lowyat.net about the lies artist are asked to swallow when conducting the business side of their craft. I’ve heard them all, so it’s worth checking them out to equip yourself for when they are told to you!
You’ll be surprised at how often you hear […]

The server that hosts Chewing Pencils was down for thirteen or so hours overnight. All seems to be fixed now, but my apologies if you were after some info and couldn’t access it.

Whatever you do, don’t sell your work!
Well, you can if you want to, but I’ve found I can make significantly more money by selling a license to use my work instead of the work itself.
Selling your work outright usually means giving away your copyright. That’s always a dangerous move because it means you, as the […]

Just a quick pearl of wisdom from the desk of Matt…
Blogs and deadlines do not go together well.
I’ve got a huge pile of stuff to get through at the moment, so the blog is going to suffer for the next few days. I love the blogging, but other things must take priority from time to […]