End of the Road for Brewster and Bono?

Creator of the strip Walking Across America, Paul Peterson, has said that the journey of Brewster and Bono may end soon for lack of funds. That would be sad as I was hoping they could make it to Elizabethton. Paul is a good friend of mine and has created a clever strip in which his characters walk across the nation and reflect on what they find. I find the strip educational, enjoyable, and includes nice touches of theological, political, and social commentary. Like all starving artists, Paul and his illustrator, Yul Tolbert, are out of bread. Paul is asking for a donation from readers and potential readers to keep the strip going. I have pasted his letter below.

Perhaps some of you have ideas for how Paul and Yul can keep this strip going. While I haven't as yet figured out nor desired how to figure out how to get advertising on my blog, I do know that some blogs gain revenue that way. I have no idea how much you can make from that or if that is a direction Walking Across America wishes to pursue.

While I know nothing about the comic strip world, perhaps some of you do? So for all of you owners of huge newspapers and publishing houses, here is your chance to get a strip for your paper!

Here are a few strips from this past week as Brewster and Bono travel through Indiana . Click the strip to see it enlarged:




He even has the Sunday strip in color!


Contact Paul here. Here is his letter. Good luck guys!

Dear readers of Walking Across America,

The journey of Brewster and Bono is now over 350 comic strips old. From the coast of Maine to southern Indiana, they have covered a great deal of territory. But America is a big place, so they have a long way to go. It will probably take 1200 to 1500 strips for them to reach the Pacific Ocean.

Or not.

Sadly, the journey of Brewster and Bono may end very soon. While they have many fans from their web site and email list, thus far there has been no luck breaking into the newspaper market. Cartoon syndicates say they receive around 3000 submissions a year, and only 2 or 3 new strips are chosen. From the way I packaged our portfolio, I know that one syndicate didn't even look at it before returning it with the standard "thanks, but no thanks letter."

There are more syndicates to which we will submit the portfolio, but buying lottery tickets might be a better investment of time and money.

On the bright side, a newly forming syndicate of renegade writers has said they want to market Walking Across America. Only time will tell whether this syndicate will actually materialize. In the meantime, Brewster and Bono are at a crossroads.

Initial funding for this project has now been used up. There is no more money to pay artist Yul Tolbert. Yul has indicated that he would like to continue the strip and would work for even less than the little he already gets, but he does need to get paid something for his efforts. In my case, I've never made a penny from the project, nor do I have much expectation of ever making money from it.

So . . .

I invite you to consider a pledge to help keep the strip running for next three months. Hopefully, in the next three months something positive will happen in the marketing area. If not, we'll assess where we are at and whether to keep going.

Here's the process for now.

If you would like to help, send an email indicating how much you would provide over the next three months. I will total up the pledges and determine if there is enough to continue. If there is, we'll keep going and you can either mail your support or pay online by credit card through the completely safe and secure PayPal site.

So, please consider whether you enjoy the strip enough to help keep it going. I will send out an email at the end of the week letting people know the outcome.

Thank you from your friends at the PBS pledge drive . . . I mean, Walking Across America.

Have a Happy and Blessed New Year

Paul