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Positions - 11.19.01
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Fetal Positions
For those of you who don't know, The State News is the newspaper of Michigan State University. Casey and I both went to art school at Michigan State, where we created Fetus-X, and The State News was the first newspaper to print Fetus-X. After a few months in The State News, The Catholic League of America (based in New York) decided to organize a bit of a protest, because after all, old men from New York have the divine right to decide what comic strips college students in the American midwest get to read. In an amazing attempt to win the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Cowardice, the management of The State News decided the easy road of censorship was more appealing the uncharted territory of freedom of speech and diversity of opinions. Disappointed State News readers have since been left to wonder why they are paying taxes to have their intelligence insulted by "Frank and Ernest" daily. Those who read Fetal Positions regularly know that many Michigan State students want Fetus-X back in their newspaper. My advice has been, as it is to all newspaper readers, "write your local newspaper and tell them how much you love Fetus-X." Then I realized maybe I wasn't doing my part. Many of you have been kind enough to send numerous eloquent letters in support of Fetus-X to your newspapers. The least I could do is meet those newspapers half way, right? So a few months ago when I was on the MSU campus I stopped by the newspaper and told the editor in chief that Fetus-X deserved to be in their newspaper. It was a positive conversation. We traded a few e-mails. The newspaper's staff seemed receptive. All was brighter in the world. Then they stopped returning my e-mails with no explanation. After that, well, let's just say there was a convergence of events. Alternate timelines crossed. And I felt like sending this love letter to our good friends at The State News. It's a long one, so grab a drink, and enjoy.
"Naturally, I laughed my sack off." Hello again - About two months ago we were discussing the possibility of Fetus-X returning to The State News. After I stopped hearing from you, I assumed that you had found another local cartoonist who was eager and able to create high-quality editorial cartoons for The State News on a regular basis. Last week, on a visit to East Lansing, I discovered this was not the case -- The State News is still printing Jim Borgman's comics [from The Cincinnati Enquirer]. Later last week, Justin Bilicki (former State News editorial cartoonist and winner of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' 2000 John Locher Memorial Award) sent me an e-mail, subject "fetus in the state news." What I at first suspected mught be some info on future Fetus-X/State News collaboration was instead a link to a recent State News letter to the editor in which a reader explains how she thinks Darby Conley's comic Get Fuzzy "is a keeper" and Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow's Fetus-X is "a flop." Then, a day later, I was reading a Sacramento Bee story about Darby Conley and Get Fuzzy. This proved to be the deciding factor in my decision to contact you again, and take the time to describe to you many of the ideas I was hoping to get the chance to describe in a face-to-face meeting with you months ago. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss these topics and others with you in the future. Reading is Fundamental Fetus-X was by far one of the most well-read parts of The State News during its 2000 run. The State News Web traffic statistics for the month of July 2000 (the last full month of Fetus-X in The State News) clearly show this. Of all the State News content, from the biggest page one exclusive to the tiniest classified ad, Fetus-X consistently ranked in the top five of the most read items. At best it was #2, at worst it was #7 (on the only day it did not appear in the top 5). On the average, it was #4. The items more popular were (no surprise here) police briefs and page one stories, particularly those about the the national champion MSU basketball team. The average opinion-page staff editorial received less than three-quarters (74%) as many readers as the average Fetus-X comic. The average cartoon by award-winning student cartoonist Justin Bilicki received less than a third (31.3%) as many readers as the average Fetus-X comic. 73% of page 1 stories had fewer readers than the average Fetus-X comic. That's right -- State News readers felt that only a quarter of the stories deemed important enough to appear on the front page of The State News were as important as Fetus-X. As you can clearly see, Fetus-X was by far one of the most popular parts of The State News. That doesn't sound like something you'd want to cancel, does it? Letter People Letters to the editor about Fetus-X were also popular reads. When the then editor in chief cancelled Fetus-X, he cited negative reader letters as his reason. When I asked him to show me those letters, he responded that they had been printed on the State News opinion page. "All of them?" I asked. "All of them," he said. At the same time, Fetus-X fans had been sending letters to me to forward to The State News. The then opinion editor at The State News actually asked me to stop forwarding him letters to the editor after he received so many. The vast majority of these fan letters never saw print. Therefore, if all of the negative letters were printed, but only a small fraction of the postive letters, than the letters to the editor printed in the State News are not an accurate reflection of the letters received. They are not an accurate reflection of the voices of the State News readers. Fetus-X fans are disproportionately underrepresented. But let's look at the letters that actually were printed. So far, The State News has printed 22 letters about Fetus-X (not counting one about automechanics which makes a passing, neutral, Fetus-X reference). Of those 22 letters, 10 are positive and 12 are negative. Tellingly, the majority of non-student letters were negative, while most student letters have been positive. Also, one of the negative letters was from a student who thought Fetus-X was not offensive enough, suggesting it be cancelled in favor a comic he felt was "a hundred times funnier and a thousand times more offensive than Fetus-X has proven itself to be." So, of the 22 letters printed, 10 (45%) were from fetus fans, 11 (50%) were from offended readers , and 1 (5%) wished we would offend him more. Does a near 50/50 split in reader response warrant a comics cancellation? Comics on Comics Not only have many readers proudly shown their support for Fetus-X, but many cartoonists have as well. Former State News editorial cartoonist Justin Bilicki has continualy shown his support, whether through drawing comics about Fetus-X (and having them censored by The State News), suggesting us for publication at The University Reporter where he now works, or forwarding me new State News letters to the editor. Sarah Krebs, who drew the comic "Boagie" for the State News for about a year before it began publishing Fetus-X, has written us to tell us she "enjoy(s) the toon, it's very creative, keep up the good work." John Addis, who's "Student Angle" replaced Fetus-X last year, drew Fetus-X into his comic strip twice, and refers to Fetus-X as "deliciously controversial" and says "at least [Fetus-X] was entertaining." And here is perhaps one of the most bizarre true life Fetus-X subplots. One of the most scathing letters to the editor about Fetus-X was a particularly nasty piece of hate mail that made numerous references to how Casey Sorrow and myself are completely unintelligent and have absolutely no artistic ability what so ever. No less than a day after the letter ran, I was visiting Casey Sorrow at the MSU Art Department where he works. On his desk I saw a few of his sketches with some of his scribbled notes, and amazingly on top of them were the name and phone number of the hate mail writer. Apparently the same person who had written to The State News to say that we were idiots with no artistic ability had come in to commission Casey Sorrow -- one of the Fetus-X guys with no artistic ability -- to do some artwork for the Detroit College of Law. Needless to say, that guy later felt pretty dumb for not being smart enough to figure out that the Casey Sorrow he was calling stupid in The State News was the same Casey Sorrow he was begging to hire. Then, months later, the same hate mail author applied to be a cartoonist at The State News. This man -- who had written a letter saying that the Fetus-X creative team had no intelligence or artistic talent -- submitted a portfolio which was so bad that it was rejected in favor of Captain Spirit. I find that sort of puts the hate mail into perspective, doesn't it? Get Fetus The most recent State News letter to the editor compares Fetus-X to the comic Get Fuzzy. Interestingly, The Sacramento Bee printed a story about Get Fuzzy two days later. The story describes how "The Sacramento Bee, which started running Get Fuzzy in April, has received a good amount of letters complaining about the strip. 'I believe I have given the comic enough of a chance,' reads one letter, 'but it doesn't get any better -- it only gets worse.' Gary Sawyer, of North Sacramento, says Fuzzy's fatal flaw is its 'consistent lack of humor.'" To counter those negative letters, The Sacramento Bee (because it apparently doesn't have any of its own fan letters) quotes a few people from the Yahoo! Get Fuzzy Fan Club, which has about 125 members. There is also a Yahoo! Fetus-X Fan Club, which has about 2500 members. Yes, you read that correctly. Get Fuzzy: 125. Fetus-X: 2500. What I find most interesting about the story is the environment it was written in. After The Sacramento Bee received "a good amount of letters complaining" about Get Fuzzy, their response is to write an article in support of the comic, letting the artist talk about his ideas and motives, and they go out of their way to find peoples who like the strip, running positive quotes from people who most likely don't live anywhere near Sacramento. Stands in stark contrast to The State News' response to the near 50/50 split in reader response Fetus-X has received, doesn't it? Print the damn thing Now, I will not dispute that there are many people who probably enjoy reading Darby Conley's take on the ancient comics genre I like to refer to as "White men and their talking house pets." And perhaps there are many of your [college student] readers who can strongly identify with middle-aged men from Cincinnati such as Jim Borgman. However, I believe that there is also a very large audience at MSU that would love to see Fetus-X in their newspaper again. The existence of this audience is obvious if one looks at the readership statistics from when The State News last published Fetus-X, if one looks at the response from other cartoonists, if one looks at the popularity Fetus-X has had on the internet, and if one looks at the volume of mail Fetus-X has received. I think the fact that The State News is still printing letters about Fetus-X well over a year after it was cancelled is only a testament to our ability to create memorable, thought provoking comics. Those comics have caught the attention of other newspapers. You can currently find Fetus-X in newspapers at about 20 colleges - but not in The State News. It's only a matter of time before a State News editor realizes what Josh Convington, Entertainment Editor of The Stanford Daily, has realized: "Unlike most college comic strips, Fetus-X is actually funny." Why can't that editor be you? Again, I look forward to discussing these or any other topics further, and look forward to seeing Fetus-X return to The State News.
Sincerely,
So, there it is. I think that letter is pretty difficult to argue against. After that, I'm not sure there's much more I can do to help you guys get Fetus-X back in your newspaper. So if you're one of those people who are sick of boring newspapers that talk down to you then you might want to bust off your own letter to the editor of The State News. Take a stand against censorship. Help bring Fetus-X to those people who need it most. Who knows? A new semester starts soon, and maybe a new attitude of freedom and openness and intelligence will be ushered in at The State News. Of course, if things are being run over at The State News anything like they were last year, they'll try to ignore your letters and refuse to print them. So what the fuck, send them to me at dudes@fetusx.com and I'll print them here and then forward them on to their editors. We'll see how they like that. Next week: Your letters! Peace,
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