“For the action, the cartoonists will all do a version of one of Thomas’ comics. The theme and writing in each strip will be similar, though ‘we’re all plugging in our own characters,’ said Bell. The idea is to satirically protest the erroneous notion of many editors and readers that comics by African-American creators are interchangeable.

“What might the action accomplish? ‘I hope editors will start allowing minority cartoonists to compete for all their comics slots, not just one or two slots,’ replied Bell, whose 2003-launched “Candorville” strip runs in 60 to 65 papers.”

The story.

Nice idea, but I have two concerns: one, that this message might go over the heads of their intended audience and become quickly forgotten, and two, that people may not see all or even half of these cartoons at one time in order to even receive this message. I’m sure these comics have different circulations, and some may appear in different papers than others. If it were a simple show of solidarity, that’s one thing, but in order for this to work, people need to see as many of these strips at one time as possible. And I doubt that’ll happen.

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