Comic rant

Tomorrow I'll be do a signing at a comicfestival in Arnhem
so let's talk about comics!

Today I stumbled upon the comics of Lucy Knisley. She also draws autobiographical
comics and this panel came from a comic where she talks about how people look
at artistic jobs, hers in particular. The funny thing was that that little doodle looks
like how I draw my boyfriend! ;-)
You can read the whole comic here.
In the comic she tells how an old man pities her for wanting to become a cartoonist.
Although I can understand his opinion I like Knisley's positive look; You can focus on
how difficult it is to make money and how insecure creative jobs like ours are, but let's
not forget that it's also a lot of fun and very fulfilling.

And now a little rant because then I saw this on a blog;

In the US it's so normal to PAY comicartists for signing that it's specially announced
that they'll do it for FREE! And oh, they will not make drawings, only AUTOGRAPHS!

How different it is in Holland where all comicartists make drawings for free and only
if they're very lucky they get a trainticket and a meal. The organisation of the biggest
Dutch comicfestival, het Stripschap, even refuses to offer this to signing comicartists
because they feel it's the task of their publishers. And then there was this other
festival organizer that sent me an angry mail because I dared to cancel my signing
three weeks in advance... They sure know how to show their appreciation to all those
comicartists who offer their spare time and talent to their festivals for free.

So why am I attending this festival in Arnhem despite it all? For my readers of course,
but also because it's one of the few that still shows some respect to comicartists and
makes a festival fun.
Okay, end of rant and let's have fun tomorrow! :-)