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Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. I know I am. As the comic con season winds down, I am slowing up my pace. This year did not go quite as well as I planned, but I am hearing from everyone in Artist’s Alley that this year was pretty weak. I only have two big shows left. I will make plans in a few months for 2019 after I see how the end of 2018 blesses me.

The great news is that with all future show expenses logged in, I am only about a hundred bucks in the hole for 2018. I should be making a profit this year. The profit will not wipe out last year’s loss, but a win is a win.  I will take what I can get. Come December, I will decide how big I cut back my appearance schedule. I will be cutting it back unfortunately… but I hope to still see everyone should the logistics work out.

King Features Syndicate

I finally mailed in my comic strip’s submission to King Features Syndicate. I have mailed in submissions in the past but I never hear back. The first time I submitted my work was 12 years ago when I developed “Just Say Cheese”. The other time was 4 years ago when I submitted Charmy’s Army to them for the first time. I never heard back either time. I have my calendar marked on March 13th, 2019. This is the date I give up on hearing back. Why did I pick March 13th? It is my birthday. I always take that day off from work so I can play around and spend the day doing things I love to do. It will be the perfect day to accept my fate because I will just plan something crazy to overshadow reality. Maybe I will drive out to the Hill Country for Kolaches…. That would be awesome. Living in Texas is such a blessing!

Being picked up by King Features Syndicate would be the ultimate success story. When I was six years old and I first dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, King Features Syndicate was the first syndicate on my radar. To me as a kid, King Features Syndicate was my future. They had Beetle Bailey cartoons on television. My local television network ran Blondie movies on Friday evenings. Dennis the Menace the television series was also in reruns on another one of the local networks. King Features was a money maker and they were going to make me filthy rich.

Of course, money is not the reason I want this dream to come true. I want to get national exposure and share my stories with as many people as I can reach. I want to bring the energy I experienced as a kid when I read the comics section every single day. I want to create magic. I want to create comic strips every day for the rest of my life and call this dream “a career”. My chances are ever so slim. I cannot recall the last time King Features picked up a comic strip and debuted something new in their amazing, historic lineup.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MINNESOTA!

This month marks my first anniversary in The Zenith City Weekly in Minnesota. I was so happy to pick up my second newspaper. The first paper to run me came so quickly. The Weekly Bulletin here in Texas was the third paper I emailed. I was so excited. I figured since they were so quick to pick me up that I would have a hundred papers running my comic strip in a year or two. Eighteen months later, I picked up my second paper. It is not going as easily as I thought. 98% of the papers never email back. The other 2% pass because they get their comic strips from the weekly service provided by King Features Syndicate. I am betting the other 98% are probably getting their comic strips from the service as well.

I am so happy with the three newspapers I am running in currently. If this is as good as it ever gets, I am fine. I am experiencing  something that so many cartoonists work so hard for but never achieve. Right now, this is the most amazing hobby anyone could ask for.

– Davy Jones

#comics #comicstrips #charmysarmy #kingfeatures