August 31, 2015: Self-Syndication Launch
And to the that, the world said "Who gives a
Tomorrow, August 31st, marks eight years since Buddy and Romeo arrived on the doorsteps of 15,000 people. As you read on though, you’ll realize this isn’t a celebration. Let’s not forget the subject matter of this Substack. Save your congratulations and fond memories — because this is a pity party.
Mates and Dates came off the heels of having just concluded four years on another, more narratively and visually complicated daily strip called My Guardian Grandpa. The idea, which turned out to be a pipe dream my editor and I shared, was that the strip would begin in this one newspaper, expand to the two sister newspapers in our home state, get picked up by the parent company and sent out to their other papers across the country. It didn’t happen with My Guardian Grandpa and seven years of effort to get the strip syndicated failed. But maybe, just maybe, Mates and Dates would be different… Maybe we would finally make it. Maybe the key to our success would be failures!
