Daily Nous Seeks Cartoonist
I would like Daily Nous to run a regular humorous comic strip having something to do with philosophy, the philosophy profession, or academia. The strip would run every other week. The format (single or multi-panel, black & white or color, serial or stand-alone, etc.) and, of course, the content, would be up to the artist(s). The artist(s) will receive a small amount of compensation and a large amount of philosoblogospheric fame for their work. If you are interested, email me at [email protected].
I pitched a comic about a handsome advice columnist named Huey Generis who’s always right because he has the magical ability to hop between possible worlds and watch as various options play out, handsomely. He also fights crime.
I still can’t figured out why Justin passed.
This fella might be interested:
http://www.ethicistforhire.com/
He’s hilarious, already does philosophy comics, and already has quite the following on twitter (@ethicistforhire)
The best comics in the field are this guy:
http://existentialcomics.com
But not an academic–since this is a professional audience you probably want occasional shop humor, so ethicist for hire’s a good choice
Another excellent webcomic is chaospet- a lot of my favorite philosophy comics are there, like this one: http://chaospet.com/250/ He’d also be worth considering.
Chaospet is very funny. http://chaospet.com/168/
Chaospet would definitely be my vote! The “oh, no, a consequentialist” in the middle part of his Trolley Problem series makes me laugh every time I re-read it. http://chaospet.com/31-trolley-problem-again/
This is probably already widely known, but worth mention regardless: Zach Weinersmith of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (http://www.smbc-comics.com) often posts philosophy-related comics. (Maybe he majored in philosophy or something?) Anyway, I’m sure he’d be happy to do a continuing series of just philosophy comics.
I’m personally interested to know what this “small compensation” is. Artists (especially beginners) often go underpaid for their work on the assumption that the “exposure” will make up the difference. There’s also the idea that since visual art tends to be perceived as a fun hobby that artists would be pursuing anyway, it ceases to be perceived as a form of labor. Given that this hypothetical comic artist will be doing the concept work, writing, as well as the art itself on a bi-weekly basis, how much exactly will you offering per comic? As a philosopher who does art commissions on the side (not comic-style art, however), I know that even one comic strip (sketches, inking, colors, lettering, etc) can take hours of work, not to mention the effort it takes to come up with amusing ideas. Are you prepared to pay this artist at least minimum wage for their work? Pardon me if this was your intention all along, but this is a big problem in the freelance art community and the almost playful tone of your offer with the exposure-talk tacked on at the end makes me a little suspicious.
Hi Anon Grad Student. Thanks for your comment. I am aware of the complaints that many artists and writers have about requests for free work (often premised on the benefits of exposure and resume-building) and I agree with the claim underlying these complaints; I don’t conceive of such work as any different from other kinds of work in terms of meriting compensation. (The expectation that people will take on extra work for free is a big problem in academia, too.) Let me add that as someone who writes and does a little design work, I understand how time-consuming it can be, especially if you really care about the finished product.
Other persons who provide content for Daily Nous on a regular basis receive compensation (e.g., Louie Generis). I hope to be able to come to an agreement with an artist (or artists) that they see as fair. That said, I won’t be discussing compensation specifics publicly.
The only compensation I want is “The Adventures of Huey Generis: Smooth Modal Operator” – give the comic a second chance, would you?