For media houses and publications, the online environment means increased pressure to react quickly to what is going on around you. “You can’t write a comic about a week-old issue, the stuff still needs to be relevant,” said Rico Schacherl, one of the creators of the Madam & Eve cartoon, during a Toyota US Woordfees discussion on 9 March.
The cartoon moved from Mail & Guardian to online publication, Daily Maverick, in August last year.
After more than 25 years in the industry, creators Schacherl and Stephen Francis recognised that print media is changing and felt that an online platform would be a better fit.
“Newspapers and editors have become so serious…They’ve cut out all balance of enjoyment; the humour, the satire, the funny articles, the lighter columns – all of that has been stripped out and Daily Maverick is picking that back up again,” said Schacherl.
According to Francis, the transition from print to online felt like a step in the right direction.
“We get a lot more views from being on the Daily Maverick, even compared to our own site. It seems to me that it has been a great blessing going to the Daily Maverick,” said Francis.
Rico Schacherl and Stephen Francis, creators of popular cartoon Madam & Eve. PHOTO: Tyler Setzer
The online platform has allowed for greater freedom in terms of creativity, added Francis. “It’s a much more creative environment,” he said.
According to Schacherl and Francis, social media platforms are useful for tracking engagement and maintaining relevance amongst the online community.
“[One of our cartoons] got 100 000 views on Facebook. It’s nice to see an audience response and it can vary tremendously. Sometimes we predict that something is going to do great and then it doesn’t. Then we go and do something that is relatively silly and people love it and they share it. Nowadays, the feedback is immediate,” said Schacherl.
To see more of Madam & Eve, readers can visit the Daily Maverick, where a new cartoon is posted every Friday.
Audience members waiting in line to get their latest copy of the cartoon, The Fourth Domestic Revolution, signed. PHOTO: Tyler Setzer