Glad I Asked

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments on yesterday's post. Most of your comments confirm my own intuition. Even I wouldn't know how to answer the question, "Do you like this cartoon?" of my own work. Nor would an up or down vote mean much of anything to me or my editors. In this profession, engaging readers in the debate is the big Thumbs Up no matter whether or not they agree with the cartoon. The only Thumbs Down would be if no one responded.

In gratitude for your taking time to answer my question, I want to take a few moments to answer some of yours.

First of all, you sweet worriers, never fret about me or the thickness of my skin. I've been hearing from readers for nearly thirty years and there isn't anything anyone could say that would cause me to flinch. Editorial cartoonists have a unique digestive system that turns bile into fuel. Vehement responses make me smile. There are some people on this earth that you want to be on record as standing against.

I approach every response from a reader knowing that I have had the audacity to stick an opinion under his/her nose before they've even had their coffee in the morning. That gives everyone the perfect right to respond however they like. No worries.

There's a timing issue involved in posting the final drawing along with the preliminary sketches, much as I like the idea. I'm trying to be as fresh as I can with these postings, so you actually see the notes hours before the drawings are done.

But there's a larger debate going on in this and other newspapers. In this online world, should we be posting all of our work on the website before it runs in print? You know that news stories appear on the site as soon as our reporters can write them. Should my cartoons be posted the same way, or do we post them online as they roll out in print? Sometimes I draw two or three cartoons in a day and then none for a few days -- I instinctively space them out so there's a steady diet for readers. Does the online world negate such thinking?

As for the posting of Zits sketches, you'll probably notice I've constructed a firewall in my brain between the strip and the editorial cartoons. This blog will likely stick to my editorial cartoons and anything else I generate entirely on my own. If Jerry Scott and I ever decide to do a Zits blog, it will be an entirely different animal that springs from the very different process of creating the strip.

OK, slightly mushy but here goes. I'm really liking talking with you all on this blog. Look, editorial cartoonists typically work in private, alone with our thoughts all day long. If you ever saw the flotsam and jetsam that flows through a newspaper office, you'd understand why we erect barriers to protect a little island of privacy so we can hear ourselves think. Over the years I have managed to paste together phone and email filters that help me cope with the torrent of requests that rush in if one dares to put out a welcome mat.

So I had a few doubts about opening up a porthole that was sufficiently sealed when I started this blog, and maybe indeed I will someday look back at this period of innocence when I could communicate intimately with you small tribe of blogophiles. But for now let me just say that I'm having fun.

One thing I like about bloggers is that they seem to be idea-driven, enjoying the give and take with few ulterior motives. Contrast that with the email world, in which probably two-thirds of the messages I receive amount to, "Please send me something for free." Email made that kind of requesting so easy that I've all but abandoned it professionally. Bloggers seem to be satisfied exchanging thoughts. Way more fun!