Spooner Color Guides

I thought it might be interesting to post the color guides that I would send to American Color when I was doing Spooner. I sent instructions and they would do the actual coloring.
They charged a fair rate to do the coloring, but the fees they charge for "handling" Sunday comics files are just plain unethical. Those fees, which go into the thousands, were definitely part of my consideration when deciding whether to retire Spooner.

Gasoline Alley Sunday

A lot of folks don't get to see what it was that made Sunday comics special. Today the Sunday comics can actually be smaller than the dailies, if that's possible. Frank King was awesome in his day, and I thought I'd post an example of what's possible when you have a full page for your comic.

I find it odd that there is so much more freedom with web comics, yet the majority still stick with the awful format of daily newspaper comics. We have more people than ever doing comics nowadays, yet most of the innovations happened before any of us were born.

I won't get into the monopolization of syndicates, or how newspapers moan about money yet profits are double-digit and the industry is considered a cash cow. The best work in comic books is coming from independent publishers, and it would be nice to see the same spirit with comic strips.