Day by Day (webcomic)

Last updated
Day by Day
Author(s)Chris Muir
Website daybydaycartoon.com
Current status/scheduleDaily
Launch dateNovember 1, 2002
Genre(s) Political, humor

Day by Day (also Day by Day Cartoon) is an American political webcomic by Chris Muir. The humor usually centers on four principal characters who had initially been presented as co-workers at an unspecified firm until the firm went out of business on December 25, 2007. Romantic relationships among the principals resulted in marriages and children, with one of the couples opening a small bar in the unnamed Texas Rio Grande Valley ranchland in which the strip is now principally set. These characters, their friends, and their families remain the strip's focus. The strip has a conservative libertarian viewpoint, and often makes reference to political weblogs. It was a Yahoo! Pick in the "Comics and Animation" category in 2004. [1]

Contents

Format and history

The strip is updated daily, including weekends. It usually follows a loose "strip story arc" throughout a given week. Except on Sundays, the strip is usually three colorized panels, comprising a combination of newly drawn art and a library of hand-drawn elements that Muir has digitized and reuses. As with many newspaper comics, the strips for Sundays are larger and have more panels. Muir has stated in interviews that by crafting the cartoons digitally, and using previously drawn faces, expressions, and body postures, he can react to breaking news by crafting a relevant comic and putting it up the next day, breaking or delaying the main storyline.

Generally, the strip features a running commentary on political events with the characters interacting in a vaguely seen office setting. In addition, the author often shows a "Doonesbury-esque" White House strip with an unseen President talking to his staff. Muir has often used the same treatment to show goings-on at the United Nations and The New York Times .

The home URL was written vertically on the leftmost edge of the strip, beginning on May 2, 2003, running until the site's redesign in 2006. The comic itself has run since November 1, 2002, with a hiatus from September 12, 2004 to November 30, 2004. The large-format Sunday strips started in 2005.

In 2007 the strip controversially portrayed Hillary Clinton in blackface and as speaking Ebonics. [2]

Financial model

Like many other web comics, Day by Day is supported by a combination of contributions from readers (via PayPal, Amazon and other payment vehicles), banner advertising, and merchandise. Originally it was published without the benefit of syndication. [3] In 2005, the strip became available for print newspaper syndication and was carried by the Hemingford Ledger, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the North County Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune. In October 2007, Day by Day discontinued service to newspapers. Also in October 2007, E-book compilations of Day by Day cartoons became available for free on WOWIO. [4] It had a peak readership of more than 200,000 people a month. [5]

Characters

Creator

The Day by Day strip is drawn by cartoonist Chris Muir (born October 30, 1958, in Syracuse, New York). Prior to that, he drew a single-panel comic called Altered States for about five years for Florida Today (a Gannett newspaper). [12] Muir currently lives in Florida.

As to the strip's political viewpoint, Muir stated that he "wanted to present the point of view that I never see represented in what I call Old Media: the papers, magazines, TV (until Fox News), etc. Where's the voice of the other half, the moderate-conservative half of America, on ethics, economy, politics and the age-old dynamic betwixt men and women?" [12] The strip is popular amongst conservative bloggers, and often mentions bloggers and blog posts. Muir cites the work of several other cartoonists as inspiration, including Gary Larson and Garry Trudeau. [12]

In February 2007, Muir visited Iraq and was embedded for five days in Mosul. [13]

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References

  1. ↑ Yahoo! Picks > Entertainment > Comics and Animation > Comic Strips
  2. ↑ Norman, Brian (2010). Neo-segregation Narratives: Jim Crow in Post-civil Rights American Literature. University of Georgia Press. p. 164. ISBN   978-0820335971 . Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  3. ↑ Stein, Harry (Summer 2005). "Laughing at the Left". City-Journal. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  4. ↑ WOWIO: eBooks, Comics and Graphic Novels | Books Evolved
  5. ↑ Anderson, Brian C. (5 February 2013). South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1621571124 . Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir :: April 12, 2014 Archives Archived April 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir :: July 21, 2007 Archives Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ "Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir :: November 5, 2007 Archives". Archived from the original on February 1, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2007.
  9. ↑ Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir :: November 23, 2007 Archives Archived January 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "Me,Too. – Day by Day".
  11. ↑ Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir :: July 16, 2007 Archives Archived August 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  12. 1 2 3 Dean Esmay (30 October 2003). "Interview With Chris Muir". Blogcritics. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  13. ↑ Chris Muir (2007-03-07). "Featured Embedded Report: Chris Muir from Iraq". The Long War Journal.
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