Earlier this month I told you that Mike Belkin was looking for an artist to take over the drawing of his syndicated comic strip Unfit. More than 80 people submitted samples. I’m amazed at the level of talent. I was expecting most of the submissions to come from toddlers and the criminally insane. I was very wrong, at least about the toddler part. The criminally insane are well represented, and their artwork is spectacular.
Now comes the interesting part. You can see the submissions for yourself at the link below. Pick the one you think would make the best artist for Unfit and let me know your reasons in the comments on this blog. Use the artist’s name so we know who you’re talking about. Remember that what constitutes “best” for comics is the one that works with the subject matter and is the funniest. You’re looking for the best COMIC art for this particular material, not the best artist in general. And it’s okay to say you’d rather see the current artwork continued if you think it works best.
I’ve also been working with Mike over the past month on tightening up the writing in Unfit. I’ve already seen a big improvement. But comics are a rare art form, and there’s no guarantee that great art and great writing can combine into a great comic. There’s an “X” factor that either makes the art and writing work together or doesn’t. So this will be a fascinating experiment.
Check out the submissions and let me know what you think.
www.looking4cartoonist.com [no longer available]
If you need to remind yourself what Mike’s original art looks like, click here:
http://comics.com/comics/unfit/index.html [no longer available]