There are many aspects to cartooning, and I have yet to find one I don’t enjoy. I read incessantly about the topic, from the best known syndicated strips to the lesser known gag cartoonists of old. For whatever reason, the gag cartoonists of old interest me most.

I’ve created a line of business-related gag cartoons which are, I’m very grateful to say, gaining in popularity. Thus far, they’ve appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review.

Because I’ve now got quite a number of them and they cover a bunch of areas surrounding business (legal cartoons, medical cartoons, generic political cartoons, insurance cartoons, among a bunch of others), I figured it was time to build a site where they can be made available for newsletters, Powerpoint presentations, publications, etc. I’ve also added a store where you’ll find lots of products and gifts featuring these cartoons.

I’m still creating new “Spectickles” – now that it’s out there in syndication, there’ll be LOTS more of those, as well as “Foggy Bottom” with my good buddy and fellow military vet Dave Ditullio, and “Karma Café” with Funnies Extra publisher Richard Cross. I suppose there’s no way to sustain all those commitments without a sustaining passion for cartooning, but there you have it.

Check out the new Bill Abbott Business Cartoons website and let me know what you think!

This year has seen it’s highs and lows, our successes and our losses. On this day though, none of that matters.Thanksgiving, to me, isn’t just a sumptuous meal. It’s an opportunity – a gift. Despite the challenges and difficulties, there are so many things to be grateful for. This is the day when I allow myself, and encourage my family, to seize the luxury of escaping the baggage and weight of the world. To pause a moment and look around. There’s so much to be thankful for.

Sincerely wishing you and yours a beautiful, memorable, grateful and Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours.

Today for Veteran’s Day, I’m going to kick back with a fresh cup of coffee and watch my all time favorite movie, “Stand By For Action”, 1942 with Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Charles Laughton, and Walter Brennan. I served on the USS Arleigh Burke for 4 years, so watching a movie about a destroyer in action with a crew of truly the greatest generation is an absolute pleasure. I’ve worn my copy of this DVD thin. Later, I’ll be joined by fellow vet Dave Ditullio for some cartoon work, followed by a libation tipped in honor of those still standing watch over us.

Getting syndicated is a massively challenging task and as a result, highly comptetitive. I was extremely fortunate when I had the interest of a major syndicate editor, but due to economic reasons, the launch wouldn’t be possible for at least a year. At the same time, I had been speaking with Bill Kellogg, the Marketing Director for Ink Bottle Syndicate and the man responsible for bringing “Tundra” to over 550 newspapers in the U.S. and overseas – no easy task. As a matter of fact, the major syndicates are very interested in Bill’s success formula, which in my opinion is good, old-fashioned hard work – Bill is one of the busiest people I know! With only a minimum of threats of violence to his person, car, pets, wardrobe, and associated inanimate objects, he agreed to sign “Spectickles” (I’ll remain camped out on his front lawn wearing an intimidating grimace till we officially launch, or until my wife yells at me to stop it, whichever comes first.)

This is an incredibly exciting time, and Bill has begun the long process of introducing “Spectickles” to editors nationwide. If, perchance, you are interested in seeing “Spectickles” in your local newspaper, here’s what you can do:

If you would like to see “Spectickles” in your newspaper, and if you are willing to write a short letter to your paper to request that they consider Spectickles, please e-mail my marketing guy, Bill Kellogg, at bill@inkbottlesyndicate.com with your city, state and newspaper name. He will e-mail you the name and contact information of the person at your paper who handles the comics section. Requests from actual readers can make a big difference.

Well, that’s it for now – I’ll keep you posted as new developments occur. See you in the Funny Papers! Cheers!

So, in early 2009 I went all in. I approached a number of licensing agents, approached some major companies, and started to see some pretty amazing opportunities appear. I had the great good fortune to see my work appear on greeting cards, calendars, figurines, coffee mugs and a whole bunch of other stuff. It appeared I was well on my way to hitting and surpassing the financial goals I’d set for myself.

The reality kicked in, and sales weren’t what they could’ve or should’ve been. This is a humbling experience. I began to seek answers to the lackluster sales in licensing, and one thing immediately became clear: I hadn’t created an engaged, committed audience – I’d skipped that step and went straight to manufacturers. As a result, I had lots and lots of people picking up the products with my characters, enjoying a hearty belly laugh, but then setting them back down and walking away without making a purchase. There was no emotional connection or buy-in, and that made all the difference in the world.

Whether you are a cartoonist or licensed artist, you have to (if you want to be successful in licensing, most particularly character licensing) find a way to connect with your audience, keep them engaged, and provide them with a means to follow you, your story, your art, your techniques, and your future intentions. And keep building that audience – the most imperative element of all. I did a great deal of research with other artists and cartoonists, and this was the brilliant column of light leading to the answer that I’d somehow missed along the way.

I’m not complaining – we’re still signing with new licensees and broadening the possibilities with my characters. But I owe it to the licensees to give them the best chance at not only recouping the investment they’ve made in my art, but of profiting from it as handsomely as my supporting efforts can manage.

So how do you go about building that audience? What tools and resources are out there to guide you in developing a systematic approach to communicating and building an emotionally invested audience? There are countless ways and viewpoints, but here’s a few I found exceptionally helpful:

Books (conventional and Kindle):

“How To Make Webcomics”

“How To Use Facebook For Business”

“The New Rules Of Marketing And PR”

Podcasts: The podcasts cover a broad spectrum of topics within the field of art and comics, but as you listen, you’ll hear about successful techniques, tools and resources that have led to some of these artists having committed audiences numbering in the millions.

“Escape From Illustration Island”

“Webcomics Weekly”

“Tall Tale Radio”

These are just a few to get you started, but sufficient to keep anyone busy for a considerable period of time in learning the methods for effective audience-building. Good luck and feel free to chime in with additional ideas and experiences!

My beautiful Shelly and I beside the small lake, just outside the historic building where we’d had out ceremony and reception.

Two of the finest warriors I’ve ever known and with whom I’ve gone into harms way stood with me during the ceremony – thank you Ed and Dave – your presence made the day extraordinary.

The ceremony just concluded, and Shelly and I are heading out to greet our guests as they enter for the reception. Shelly’s beautiful smile was the beacon that led me home after so many months spent overseas.

My background is a bit far afield of what you’d expect for a cartoonist, but whatever the events that led me here, I’m happy this is the result.

4 year old Aidan is overpowering me, dragging me onto the dance floor.

Thank you to all who follow my work and make every day a pleasure to be a cartoonist.

Cheers!

We’ll be reaching out to more of our Navy friends, family and professional associations and see their reaction. To date, hundreds of Navy Chiefs are excited to see it – we hope not to disappoint! ‘Chief’ and his “Foggy Bottom” gang will be available for weekly newspapers through Bill Kellogg’s Ink Bottle Syndicate – be sure to ask for it in your local weekly newspapers!

The Yang to ‘Chief’s’ Ying is another of our latest characters, ‘Sarge’. We gave him a ‘flat-top’, an appropriate rank tattoo on his right arm, the ever-bubbling cigar, and colors suitable to an Army-related character.

Dave, on the other hand, will be showing ‘Sarge’ around to his fellow Army servicemen and women for their feedback. Again, the response has been very positive. We look forward to hearing your feedback, and if you like it, let us and our syndicate, Ink Bottle Syndicate and its Marketing Director, Bill Kellogg know!

Here’s one of the earliest cartoons I created, heavy on cross-hatching and strictly black and white. Color hadn’t yet entered my skill set.

Like most cartoonists early on, I’d had my sights set on syndication and had submitted several concepts to the major syndicates, all of which were impersonally rejected. The work had been created with that in mind – heavy use of bold blacks, drawn to what I’d understood to be the required dimensions for reduction, etc.

After a steady stream of military deployments, I’d find myself reinventing the work when I’d return home – not really a bad thing. I started adopting a more ‘cartoony’ style, abandoning the chase for a more realistic look, which tends to be less memorable and engaging in cartooning. Part of what’s required for a successful cartoon is a distinctive, memorable look, the start of what some describe as a brand.

You can see here where I began to abandon the cross-hatching style and give the characters a rounder, softer look.

Soon, I began trying to identify traits that I considered visually funny. Among the first was glasses. I started drawing large glasses on my characters and giving them something of a dumpy look. If you look around, you’ll find physical traits that you consider humorous, and when exaggerated, make for a character that becomes memorable and fun to look at. Now, mind you, we’re not looking to do so in an effort to be mean or cruel – I’ve heard some VERY unpleasant stories from caricaturists who draw people who are paying to have their features distorted in a cartoonish way. Turns out, they didn’t like that!

Among the first cartoons where I begin adding glasses as a humorous feature.

When I went to my family home near Albany, New York, my mother has a picture of my great grandparents. I hadn’t really given the matter a great deal of thought at the time, but when I saw my great-grandmother’s glasses, I knew they’d make a great addition to my developing characters.

Among the first uses of the stereotypical “Spectickles” over-sized fifties-ish glasses.

Within a few years, I’d finally landed where I suspect my “Spectickles” characters will remain in appearance. I sought feedback from family, friends, cartoonist colleagues, and the buying market to better tweak my characters, resulting in what you see now. But, as you’ve read, the process took time, a great deal of thought and consideration, and the acquisition of new skills to get where I wanted to go.

I continue to work in new mediums, create new characters and cartoons, and utilize different tools as the mood strikes. All of which are an essential part of developing as an artist and cartoonist. And most importantly, to me anyway, all of which has been enormously enjoyable and rewarding.

From “A Wing And A Prayer” cartoon collection with author Ken Alley.

“Karma Café” with publisher Richard Cross.

But there are times when stepping away from familiar work to create something entirely new can recharge the creative batteries. Such is the case with “Foggy Bottom”, my latest collaborative effort with artist, writer, and fellow military veteran Dave Ditullio.

Dave and I come from odd backgrounds for cartoonists. He was in BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training at the same time I was going through SWCC (Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman) training at the same facility although we didn’t know each other at the time. The training is similar (a high-quality beat-down of historic proportions), but our missions are different. Dave had to leave training due to a family issue and I went on to serve overseas with the SWCC Teams. We actually met for the first time at a Naval Reserve Center in Buffalo, NY and hit it off right away. We’re both absurdly competitive and our military backgrounds make us something of an anomaly in our geographic region. Luckily, our wives are patient beyond measure as Dave and I typically turn our competitive nature into abusing one another. Rarer still is the fact that we’re both artists – exceptionally unusual coming from our Special Warfare calling.

We recently decided to use the energy we typically expend on abusing one another into a cartoon we call “Foggy Bottom”, the embarrassingly odd name of a Washington D.C. suburb, although that has nothing to do with our cartoon. We’ve developed a cast of underwater characters and present them in a single panel format. We’ve got TONS of material, and we have the good fortune to be represented by Bill Kellogg’s Ink Bottle Syndicate, so keep your eyes peeled for “Foggy Bottom” in your local weekly newspaper. And, if misfortune should find you without “Foggy Bottom” in your local weekly newspaper, by the power of Thor’s Hammer, demand it!