Editor, Daily Nexus,

Do you wish the Nexus had more cartoons on Fridays? Do you wish the ones they did have were actually funny? Are you sick of looking at a blob in a squiggly box? Meet the person who tried to do something about it and failed.

I’ve been drawing snowman-based comics for years and last year I thought the Nexus would appreciate an additional cartoon for their white space-dominated “Comics” page. Most newspapers -even high school ones – would die before using white space. I figured that the Nexus would jump at the chance to add any filler to their Comics page. I was so wrong.

My first attempt a year ago was enlightening. I went to the training session and asked the editor about drawing comics. I was met with quizzical looks. Did I mean draw the illustrations accompanying articles? No, I told him, I wanted to draw cartoons. When we went to the Nexus’ office after the training session, the Art Director wasn’t there. He wasn’t there the second night either. Frustrated, I figured the Nexus just wasn’t open to additional comedic material and left.

After awhile I decided to give the Nexus a second chance. This time I went straight to the Art Director during his appointed hours. I told him what I wanted to do, was met again by confusion and engaged in the ceremonial cartoon/illustration explanation. Art Director Mark Batalla informed me that regular Nexus illustrators draw the comics and if I wanted to do comics, I had to illustrate as well. The comics are drawn by artists, not comedians. Art is a very fine subject, but it does not necessarily lend itself to comic aptitude. This is why the cartoons suck, I instantly realized. I also realized the Nexus didn’t want to do anything about it. In fact, they covered up the white space by simply blowing up their current comics. I now post my cartoons on the web at dryicesnowmen.com.

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