Sunday Mailbag: Inktober?

Q: I saw you make a snarky remark on Twitter about the “Inktober” online initiative and I’m wondering, why do you hate Inktober? It seems to me you should support something like that, being a cartoonist who works with traditional pen and ink a lot.

A: You mean this tweet?:

I have to admit I’ve been a bit of a smartass the last couple of years about Inktober, but I certainly do not hate it. I’ve made fun of it now and then mainly because I usually spend a hundred plus hours a month every month dipping pen nibs and brushes into ink doing inked art, so I don’t find it much of a challenge nor much of an accomplishment to manage to do 31 little inked drawings in a month. That’s why I roll my eyes a bit at the whole concept.

However Inktober definitely does not deserve my dismissive attitude, so I’ll take this moment to apologize to everyone who participates in it for my smartassery. I’m sorry. I have to remember that all that time I spend inking is because it’s my chosen job. My making fun of Inktober is a little like a personal trainer belittling someone who is proud of meeting a twice-a-week workout goal for a whole month just because that trainer works out for hours every day… but that’s their JOB. Those new workout folks don’t deserve that. Meeting that goal was a real accomplishment for them. I should be supportive of people making the effort to work with ink, especially if it’s outside of their usual comfort zone.

Frankly working with traditional media ink on paper or board is a dying art, and anything that gets artists to put down the stylus and work without a net (or a CTRL Z key) with real pen and paper is a worthy effort. I need to stop disparaging Inktober, and I will. No more making fun of Inktober. If you participated, good for you!

I am still not going to do it, though. 😛

Thanks to A.E. Neuman for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about  cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!