You know "For Better or For Worse", the daily newspaper cartoon right? They get 1,500,000 hits a month on their site and it reaches over 220 million readers each day.

If info like that isn't enough to put a bullet in your head I don't know what is.

I know when reading their fairly intensive overview on how their strip is made I should have walked away with grander ideas. Something along the lines of "Why would they choose to split 55 hours of work across 5 different people?" or maybe "How does the inker's creepy fetish glove protect her artwork from smearing?" but I keep gravitating on the fact that a group the size of the United States has access to this daily.

Did you know: People will eat crap and smile if you let them. The masses expect comics to be bad and we cartoonists do a great job of matching expectations. "For Better and For Worse" exists on the sole principle of being something different. It isn't an animal strip, it isn't about kids, or politics, or non-sequiters - it is about a flawed family. And on that sole principle alone it reaches 220 million readers a day.

I don't mean to rag so heavily on FBoFW. I'm sure many, many people enjoy it each day, but I can't think of a weaker example of the comic model to strive for. How?

1. The comic strip has a writer.

This is a very bad sign as comic art is a very visual medium and creating a harsh divide between the two disciplines ends up with stilted comics. I'm very happy to say this isn't always the case (Alan Moore and Warren Ellis are great examples) but it is a strike against it from the start. I never knew this about FBoFW but I always felt the disjointed nature between each aspect. This also tends to create text heavy strips that feel more like illustrated short stories as they are compelled to stick to the script as to not offend the writer.

2. There are multiple people working on a strip.

Since writing, directing, and painting are respected as solo arts since when is comics the only form in history to benefit from multiple cooks in the kitchen? I don't believe comics are a group activity.

3. This is a day job for them.

Have you ever loved something with all of your heart? Now imagine that you are asked to work with a team of 5 others with varying viewpoints on the subject. Now imagine that you need to work with them to find a clear vision even it isn't the one you had in mind. Now do this 9-5 everyday for the rest of your life. Did you enjoy what you loved more before, or after the change? Imagine how this affects the quality of the work and their love of it.

4. It feels like someone crapped on face after reading this comic.

Yep, re-read the above. I get less than nothing from this strip. It makes me wish they printed patches of blank newsprint just to save the potential.

The lesson I'm trying to take away from this is that if these... artists (shiver)...can do it any one of us can. In what ways did they succeed and how can we do it one step better?

Josh