Between Friends Blog

Accepted - The Final Installment of my Syndication Story

(This is the final installment of  the story of my road to syndication.  You can read the first part here, second part here, third part here, fourth part here, fifith part here.)

"The race isn't always to the swiftest, but to those who keep on running."

In August of 1993, my husband surprised me with a gift.  It was a solid birch wood secretary desk that we had been admiring for some time but felt was a financial extravagance we couldn't afford. Unbeknownst to me, he had been making payments on it for months.

When I asked him why he had done it, he told me that he thought I needed something nice to happen.  It had been a long year of struggle for us.  We had been trying to begin a family but things had not been working out for us.  And it was coming close to the end of my development period with King Features and I was anxious as to what their decision would be regarding picking up the strip.  Tim was concerned about me being turned down and having to deal with another major disappointment.

Not more than a few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.  I can't tell you how happy I was.

Shortly after this, I got a call from Jerry Craft (Mama's Boyz) who was working for King Features at he time.

It was about 5 pm and Jerry called to ask me a question about colouring my work.   He wanted to know what type of colouring I preferred - pastel or bold - or something like that.  After talking about the colouring issue he said, "Oh yes, and congratulations."

I had no idea what he was talking about.  The comment was totally out of context with anything we had been discussing, and in my confusion, rather than just asking him what he meant, I simply said, "Thanks" and we both hung up.

All night long, the conversation between Tim and me repeated itself over and over . . .

"Does that mean they're going to syndicate you?"

"I don't know . . . what else could it mean?"

"It must mean they're picking up the strip."

"Do you think it means they're picking up the strip?"

"I don't know . . . what else could it mean?"

It was a long night.

The next morning Jay called.  He very calmly told me that "Just Between Friends" was the next strip that King was taking out to syndicate.  I told him that was great news.  Then we got down to what we needed to begin working on.

I had done it.

After all those years of rejection and striving and wondering if I was wasting my time, I had finally succeeded.

In February of 1994, Between Friends launched in 31 newspapers across North America.  Six weeks later my son was born.

And nearly 14 years, two kids and 130 papers later, I'm still going.

Life is pretty good.

Developing the Strip

This is a continuation of the story of my road to syndication.  You can read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four if you would like to either catch up or refresh your memories.

"Sandra often writes her strips in short continuities in such a way that her jokes are funny but only in the context of the series... The real power of Sandra's work is her ability to concisely encapsulate experiences the reader has had, adding a twinge of humor to events that at the time may not have seemed all that funny.  JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS is more about an upbeat reflection on the readers' lives than it is about belly laughs."

This is an excerpt of an outline Jay Kennedy (my editor) had prepared to introduce my strip to editors, sales people, etc. at King Features.  It was surreal for me to read this.  I'm not sure I can even explain why.  It was the first time I had seen an analysis of what someone thought my strip was...more than the simple descriptive that it was a comic about three women friends and the interaction between them.

All of sudden, I was working with someone who was interested in talking about cartoon noses and lettering and how to draw hands and line weight and what was awkward about certain drawings and what I could do to improve them.  So many times in the past, I had asked people, "How do these comics look?  Do they look professional?"...and I'd always get the same generic answer..."They look great"  I hated hearing that because I knew they didn't look great.  Working with Jay was such a pleasure, not only for his insight and knowledge of the medium but for his pleasant ways, his patience and yes, for his directness.  He didn't beat around the bush, he got to the point and I very much appreciated that.

During my development period we focused mainly on my artwork.  Jay's biggest issue (although, by no means the only one) was that my women characters didn't look distinctive enough.

"Maeve" is a much more beautiful and sexy woman today than she was in my early strips.  I used to draw her with a big jaw line which was distinctive but not very feminine.  The fact that she is a divorcee and a character who frequently has romantic escapades really called for a more attractive rendering.  As Jay points out above, jewelry was one way to help distinguish her.  She always wears large, gold hoop earings today (unless I draw something else for a special occasion she is attending) which is in contrast to Susan's (a plainer, less fashionable character) nondescript, little round button earings.

Also, notice the character of "Helen" in the above strip with "Maeve".  Helen is Maeve's assistant at the office.  (I really enjoy Helen's character...she's a direct, no-nonsense person with Maeve as well as with her two teenaged kids)  While Helen was a very slim character in these early strips, she evolved into a heavier woman.  I like the fact that she is heavy but still stylishly dressed with a variety of accessories and long eyelashes.  She's confident and beautiful but not stereotypically "model-thin".

A big problem I seemed to have was not drawing my characters in a consistent style.  Jay frequently pointed out hair and nose and neck length discrepancies.

Of course, one of the biggest changes in the look of my characters was that of "Laura" who is pictured in the above strip with Susan.  Laura had long hair, was very blaze and smoked.  She was the least developed character of my three women.  I just never seemed to get a fix on her.  One day, Jay called me and said the sales people had suggested that I feature Helen more often as she was an African-American woman and it would help make my strip more diverse.  I tossed the idea back that perhaps I should just drop my "Laura" character altogether and replace her with a new African-American character since I didn't really feel that she had a strong connection in the strip anyway.  Jay was so excited about the idea that I swear he almost dropped the phone in haste to get back to his meeting with this proposal.  I have this visual in my mind and I get a little chuckle whenever I think of it.

Jay's comment that Maeve is "generic looking" was also made to me regarding Susan.  He mentioned that they basically had round heads with two dots for eyes.

The little girl in the above strip was a recurring character I had in my early strips.  She was an obnoxious papergirl who belonged to a union, "Papergirls United".  Jay didn't like her and she disappeared pretty abruptly.  I kind of liked her but in hindsight, she didn't really bring anything to the premise of the strip.

Another thing that was addressed art-wise was my lettering.  I tended to write my words slanting upwards to the right.  I notice I still have the inclination to do this today even though I line the top third of each panel as a guide.  I'm conscious of it but it seems to be some kind of ingrown habit.

There are many little things that Jay suggested to me to improve the strip visually... like black and white contrasts, making images larger to fill the frame, feathering hair to look more realistic... and I think it's obvious that these changes improved the appearance of the strip and the characters.

There is one thing that's different about my women characters between then and now that Jay did not suggest to me...and I take sole credit for this particular improvement.  What is it, you ask?

Underwire.

Next:  Accepted

Working With Jay Kennedy

(Jay Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief of King Features, drowned in a riptide in Costa Rica last March.  He was Comics Editor when he plucked my strip out of the submissions pile and gave me the opportunity of my life.  I've been going to write this section of my syndication story a number of times over the past few weeks...but kept feeling a wave of sadness and I would put it off.  Jay was insightful, knowledgeable and always a gentleman. I consider myself fortunate to be one of the cartoonists who had the privilege of working with him.)

This is the continuation of the story of how my strip, Between Friends got syndicated...Click here for Part one...Part two...Part three   

By 1992, I was beginning to wonder if I was beating a dead horse with my comic strip idea. 

I had managed to sell my strip to the St. Catharines Standard, the Hamilton and the Burlington Spectator and the Brantford Expositor...all southern Ontario dailies.  My strip, "Just Between Friends" also appeared in a few weekly papers as well.  All in all, I was making about $100 per week.

I had given up my effort to sell my strip to other papers. Between creating a daily strip and working full-time, I found it difficult to keep up with the business of selling my feature.  More than a time factor though, was the fact that it was hard to take the constant rejection.

I had sent out what I had decided was going to be my last submission package to the major syndicates.  If this package didn't get a positive response, I was going to try a different tactic and see if I could get a book collection published.

One afternoon, two weeks later, my husband and I came home from shopping and I saw the message button flashing on our answering machine.

It was Jay Kennedy.  COMICS EDITOR OF KING FEATURES. He wanted me to call him in New York.

I grabbed my husband and started yelling, "DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS?! IT'S JAY KENNEDY!! IT'S KING FEATURES!!"

I drank a glass of water and walked up and down the stairs about 6 times to burn off some energy.  And then I called New York.  Karen Moy answered.  I told her who I was and she said Jay was waiting for my call. 

He told me he liked my strip...that he had shown it to Joe D'Angelo (President of King at the time) and that Joe liked it...he said he remembered seeing my strip before (I received a rejection letter from him about 3 or 4 years prior) but thought that changing one of the characters to a married woman made the strip better.  He did his best to engage me in conversation but I really didn't know what to say...until he said King wanted to offer me a development contract.  "How soon can you have it in the mail?", I asked.

My development contract covered an eight month period of time.  Jay and I were to work on my feature together and if I could address the concerns they had with my strip by the end of the eight months, King Features would pick up my option for syndication.

A few weeks after I signed the development contract with King, I received a letter from an editor at Universal Press.  It read:

Dear Ms. Lundy:

Thanks for sending "Just Between Friends."  For the past month your strip has been wending its way through the editorial department.  We liked the writing and the interaction between the women.  As one editor said:  There's a kind of Bob Newhart show quality to this:  It's not uproariously funny, but you keep watching it anyhow."* ( * I love this line)

Several people mentioned that the husband is a bit stereotypical and doesn't seem to have any friends.  Also, Susan, Laura and Maeve need to have stronger voices and should be more distinct.  Perhaps you have done some strips that address these concerns.

In any case, we'd like to see another 3 dozen samples or so...

When it rains, it pours.

Next:  Developing the Strip

Approaching the St. Catharines Standard

My road to syndication continued...(first part here and second part here)

The first time I met with Murray Thomson, the Managing Editor of the St. Catharines Standard, I took samples of my strip, "Just Between Friends" as well as some editorial cartoons I had drawn. 

Murray Thomson called the editorial page editor into the room to show him my ed. cartoons.  The editor looked them over and put them down on the desk.   "We can buy all kinds of political cartoons from the syndicates.", he told me.  He was obviously unimpressed.  In fact, it was easy to see that he thought they stunk.  "...But we'll pay you $25 for local editorial cartoons."  Okay, so they stunk...but at least this offer vindicated my efforts a little.

"I'm not that familiar with local politics.", I told him.  The truth is, I couldn't think of anything more boring. 

"Well, maybe you should be.", he said.

  Ouch.  Sheesh.  I just wanted to draw cartoons...I didn't want to hang out at Council Chamber meetings.  Mr. Thomson thanked the editorial editor and he went on his way.

Now Mr. Thomson turns his attention back to my strips.  He takes his time reading them and he smiles periodically.  It is harder to sit there in silence while he reads my work in front of me than it is to listen to the editorial editor's rebuke.  He seems to like them.  And I feel this sense of relief...or something like that...because my cartoon strip is where my heart is.

We chat for a while.  We talk about the characters...about the lettering...not in any great detail but we do discuss them.  He says to keep in touch and send him more work.  I am elated.

Shortly after this meeting, I call him to follow up.  Mr. Thomson tells me he has shown the strips around the newsroom and the feedback he is getting is that the women characters are too neurotic...or words to that effect. 

"I"LL CHANGE THEM!", I say immediately.

And he says... "No".  He tells me I have to be true to myself. And he says to keep in touch and send him more work.  So I know the strip needs work but I don't exactly know how to improve it...I need to change the women...but I need to keep them the same.

This goes on for four years.  I put my strip away for months at a time...I go back to it.  Now and then I send strips to Mr. Thomson... and he always seems interested to read them and chat with me.  One day at work, I am frustrated...with the job...with the strip getting nowhere...everything.  During my lunch hour, I jump in my car and drive downtown.  I walk up to Mr. Thomson's office...at noon hour...and ask to speak to him.  His assistant tells him I am there...and he takes the time to see me.  Out of the blue...middle of a busy day...no appointment.  We talk for maybe twenty minutes.  I couldn't tell you what we talked about...other than it had to do with my cartoon strip.  I thank him for his time and I go back to work.  And it hits me that I had a lot of nerve to just show up at his office like that.  And yet, he was willing to take the time to talk to me in that calm and congenial manner of his and I feel very good knowing that he takes me and my cartoons seriously.

In the midst of this four-year period, I meet Tim.  This is one of the times I get distracted from doing the strip and it gets put on the shelf.  About two years go by and one day, after we are married, I am griping about the fact that I am getting nowhere with my strip.  He just looks at me and says, " Well, you're not doing anything about it."  He's right.

I take the strip out again and I go back to Mr. Thomson.  I'm sitting in his office and he's reading my work. I tell him he can publish them for free.  I just want my work in print.  He says no... if they were to publish them, they would pay me.  He sits there reading them and I can tell he's thinking something over.  He's trying to come to a decision.  I can see it.

He says...very slowly..."I think...we're going to print these."  Or something like that.  I just remember he said my strip was going to be on the comics page of the St. Catharines Standard and that I let out this long breath (apparently I had been holding it) and thanked him.  It was January and he was going to start them in September.

It took Murray Thomson four years to say "yes"...but the important thing to me during that time was that he never said "no".  I will always be grateful to him for his kind ways and his interest.  I consider him an instrumental part of my success.

In the next six months, I have sold my strip to several other newspapers and by September 1990, "Just Between Friends" appears in the St. Catharines Standard, the Hamilton and the Burlington Spectator, the Brantford Expositor and two local weeklies.

The strip looks like this:

Next:  Working with Jay Kennedy

Approaching the Toronto Star

My road to syndication...continued...

In my other life (pre-husband-children-etc) I sold ad space for a local magazine.  One evening, at some sales function, I met a local real estate sales person who was one of the top selling agents in our region.  We were talking about sales and in the course of our conversation I asked him what he did to become so successful.  He told me that when he first started in real estate he was completely green as to "HOW THINGS WERE DONE".  He had no idea what the protocols were for networking for contacts and finding clients.  He was ignorant, motivated and starting at ground zero...and he told me that, in his enthusiasm, he went out and did everything he wasn't supposed to do.  Apparently, that worked very well for him.

Please keep that in mind when I tell you the following story about the Toronto Star.

I had developed a strip about some women friends (I called it "Just Between Friends" because I couldn't think of anything else) and was ready to get myself published.  Full of bravado, I looked at the editorial page of the Toronto Star, checked the masthead, found the name of the Managing Editor and, after taking a deep breath, I called him.  Amazingly, I got him on the phone immediately.  I asked him if he would be interested in publishing some of my cartoons.

Bear in mind here, this was not a follow-up call.  I hadn't sent any cartoons to the man.  I don't know what the heck I was thinking...maybe that I was opening the door to a conversation about my work?  God only knows, because I don't.

There was a pause...the MANAGING EDITOR OF THE TORONTO STAR tentatively asks me, "Have we spoken before?"

I feel this hollow feeling in my chest...a hot flush is welling up at the base of my neck...I have the first inkling that ... perhaps...I have gone about this all wrong...

"No.", I answer.  My bravado has dissapated.

"You mean...you're just calling me up out of the blue?"

The flush has risen to my cheeks. 

"Yes."

There is a pause of about twenty seconds...and believe me, twenty seconds of silence on the phone is a VERY LONG TIME.

The flush has engulfed me.

"Well...", he says, "I don't know if you're really serious about this...but if you are, I think you're setting your sights a little high to be approaching Canada's largest newspaper.

What could I say?  I thanked him for his time and hung up.

IDIOT.  Me not him.  All things considered, the editor was very courteous to me.  In fact, I'm not so sure I would have had this man's patience if the roles had been reversed. (I don't recall who the managing editor was at that time...I've probably blocked it out of my memory)

Fast-forward this story a little...I am bemoaning this moronic espisode of mine to a friend over coffee.  She wonders why I didn't go to my local newspaper, the St. Catharines Standard.  Hmm...now this may be a possibility.  She tells me her boyfriend's father works at the Standard.  Hmm...even more interesting.  She calls the boyfriend...the boyfriend talks to dad...dad talks to Managing Editor, Murray Thomson.  I have an appointment to see Murray Thomson.  I think this is probably more along the lines of the way things should be done.

Still...if I hadn't done the thing I wasn't supposed to do...would I have gotten to this step?

Next:  Approaching the St. Catharines Standard

You Gotta Start Somewhere

I drew this cartoon of myself and my friends when I was about sixteen.  I know that because I recognize the clothes...and the hair styles.  The arrow is pointing at me.

As I've mentioned before, "Between Friends" is loosely based on the women I grew up with.  I used to draw cartoons of the above four when I wanted to lampoon some crisis or embarrassment that had happened to one of us.   Eventually, when I decided I wanted to give comic strip syndication a serious shot, I began to develop a cartoon feature based on those cartoons.  I was in my twenties when I started writing the strip that most closely resembles "Between Friends" today and I had added a couple of characters to this foursome.

My first attempts at this strip featured five women characters.  I had sent out submission packages to King Features, Tribune Media, Universal Press, United and I think I sent to the Los Angeles Times Syndicate too.  I received form letters from everyone except King and Universal.  Lee Salem sent me a personal little note thanking me but saying he just didn't think it was for them.  An editor at King sent me a note saying they felt that five characters were too many to deal with and that I should take it down to three...and really develop those characters.

To have the personal replies and to actually be given some direction was pretty exciting stuff...and I was more than willing to work on the suggestions given to me by the editor at King. 

However, in the midst of this...just to complicate things...I received an actual contract from a much smaller syndicate.  (Along with my submissions to the major syndicates, I had sent out a package to a much smaller outfit...just to see what would happen.)

The syndicate's letterhead was a poor photocopy and the letter contained spelling errors.  The enclosed contract was terrible...even to my inexperienced eyes.  Signing it meant that they owned me lock, stock and barrel forever.  Period.  The editor/president had also enclosed a cheque for fifty dollars and told me they had sold one of my sample cartoons to a singles' networking newsletter...actually, it was more of Personal Ad catalogue.  I guess that was supposed to entice me...and while I was impressed with the money, I was embarrassed by the venue in which my work was being published.

Today, I wouldn't give that contract a second glance.  But at the time...I didn't know if I was passing up the only opportunity I would ever have to have my work syndicated.  I did take the contract to a lawyer who advised me to ask for a few amendments and send it back to see what the response would be.  In the end, I just decided to pass on the contract, work on the strip and continue to hold out for an opportunity to work with one of the major syndicates.

It was going to be a long wait.

Next:  Approaching the Toronto Star