And the winner is – Justin Thompson.
Mike Belkin, creator of the Unfit comic strip has selected Justin Thompson to take over the art and give it a new look. You can refresh your memory of Justin’s artwork here:
http://www.looking4cartoonist.com/top15 [no longer available]
It will take a month or so before the new art finds its way through the pipeline. I’ll let you know when that happens. Justin and Mike are refining the characters now. (The Mike character might become less Archie-like.)
Let me acknowledge the inescapable reality that whoever was picked would infuriate 80% of the people who had an opinion. I already warned Justin and Mike to expect a Category 5 crapstorm. Let the venting begin.
The decision was Mike’s alone, but I would have made the same choice. Allow me to explain why. First, I just flat out enjoy Justin’s art. It has what I call “look back” appeal. After I finished reading Justin’s submission, I looked back at the art several times just to see how he did it.
For me, the only other “look back” comic strip artists are Breathed (Bloom County), Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), and now Darby Conley (Get Fuzzy).
Second, the art has to appeal to every generation, particularly the generation of newspaper editors. Justin’s take on the characters evokes the feel of Lil’ Abner (the best drawn comic of its time) while still looking current. That’s a tough balancing act. As excellent as the other submissions are, none had that characteristic, in my opinion.
Third, many of you chose Justin as your first pick. More importantly, the sales team at United Media (they syndicate Unfit) all had Justin among their top picks as well. I’m not surprised. I think Justin’s art will be the second best in the comics after Get Fuzzy.
Fourth, Justin was the only artist who changed the ethnicity of a main character. I don’t know if that change will become permanent, but it showed a sensibility to the audience and the market that caught my attention. It was a smart chance to take. Art is about taking smart chances. I met Justin the other day and he is indeed a smart guy.
Fifth, Justin actually worked for a time as a floor trainer, just like the character he will be drawing. What were the odds of that? It’s not a requirement for the art job, but it can’t hurt to know the feel and flow of the environment first hand.
Sixth, Justin’s characters seem ideally suited for licensing, more so than any of the other submissions, in my opinion. His characters have the impossibly good-looking proportions that will appeal to kids and women (the main buyers of licensed goods) without being too cute for guys.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to share with you a bizarre coincidence about Justin. This is the sort of truth that sounds fishy, but I promise it’s just a coincidence. Justin has a day job in the company that handles Peanuts licensing. The first coincidence is that United Media syndicates Peanuts, as well as Dilbert and Unfit, so there are multiple business connections in common. The second coincidence is that Justin is relatively local to both Mike and me. It’s a big planet, so that’s odd too. The third and biggest coincidence is that Justin sits one cubicle away from Stephan Pastis, the creator of Pearls Before Swine, who also has a day job there.
I realize that with so many coincidences it all reeks of being an insider job, but you have my word that it wasn’t. The common connections did however make it easy to check his references.
Regarding the artists who submitted and were not chosen, I was very impressed. I didn’t expect to see such a high quality of work. Many of you are already being published, and the rest of you should be. I’m often approached by people who are looking to hire cartoonists for various projects, and now I know who to recommend. I hope this process has a secondary financial benefit to at least some of you.
I offer my sincere thanks to all the artists who submitted, and to you readers who took the time to comment. I appreciate you all.