Donna Lewis changes syndicate to Counterpoint

DD read his Counterpoint email before I did this morning...

Donna Lewis – Reply All to Counterpoint, Reply All Lite Lost? – finding Lite update

D. D. Degg

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/03/02/donna-lewis-reply-all-to-counterpoint-reply-all-lite-lost/

 

 

WaPo doesn't understand comics 1: Today's Reply All LITE panel [CORRECTED]

 

... has the Scary Gary comic strip from May 18, 2019* squished into local cartoonist Donna Lewis' Reply All Lite's panel space. Lite only appears in the Post as far as I know, while the main strip is widely syndicated. Whoops. Lucky they don't think the comics matter anyway.

 

*Thanks to DD Degg for correctly identifying the substituted strip. In my defense, the original is only about 3" high in the actual paper.

Donna Lewis' Reply All vs Reply All Lite (updated 2x)

by Mike Rhode

This week, the Post switched from Donna Lewis' Reply All comic strip to her Reply All Lite comic panel.

I asked Donna if the panel was a modification of the strip, or all new, and she told me, "All new.  Never the same punchline as the strip. It began syndication March 20th, 2013 – after a year on the Internet."

"After I had been doing Reply All comic strip for a while, I began having lots of material I couldn't use at the time. Also, I needed a lot of practice learning to draw so I was drawing a lot of one off bits. At some point, I began posting the single panels for practice and to use material I liked and to build my Facebook audience. We realized in pretty short order that single panels get shared much more than strips, probably because there's no click or major investment of time required for a single panel. I was able to use the single panels to build my Facebook audience and, ultimately, the Lites were a whole lot of fun." 

I wonder if you're the only person to do the "same" strip as 2 different offerings. Some cartoonists like Wiley draw them so that the strip can be cut into a panel, but I've never heard of anyone doing it like you are.

"I just have a lot of material. I usually do 14 Lites a week. And, quite frankly, some punchlines are far funnier by themselves. Four panels are really much different (for me) than one panel. No set up puts all the pressure on the punchline. They're really fun to write."

I checked in with Amy Lago of the Washington Post Writers Group syndicate about Reply All Lite.

She says, "Lite has more of an online presence at this point.  The only place it’s running in print is the Washington Post.  Panels are notoriously harder to sell (because papers tend to run fewer), so that’s no surprise.  Our thought at the Writers Group was that Donna was creating them anyway, so why not try to syndicate them?  And judging by their popularity online, it was the right move.  I’m just not sure printed papers will catch on, though I’m thrilled the Post likes them."

Amy also says "I can’t think of anyone else who’s done two different versions of the same strip at the same time either," but D Heine has suggested Joe Martin's Mr. Boffo.

updated June 4, 2015

Donna Lewis profiles herself on GoComics

Meet Your Creator: Donna Lewis (Reply All, Reply All Lite)

 by Donna Lewis
GoComics on December 20, 2014
http://blogs.gocomics.com/2014/12/meet-your-creator-donna-lewis-reply-all-reply-all-lite-.html

At the end, Donna buries the news that her first book will be out in February.

Local cartoonists and the 9-11 comic strip

Comic Riffs recently ran an article about comic strips doing a 9-11 commmemorative. We've got four strip local creators, so I asked them - are you doing a 9-11 strip?

Donna Lewis of "Reply All":

Yes. :-)

USA Today has a preview panel here and they included a panel of mine. :-) (very honored).

Richard Thompson of "Cul de Sac":

No, I didn't do one. I couldn't find a graceful way of putting a 9-11 comment into the small world of Cul de Sac that didn't diminish the commentary and the strip. The one cartoon on 9-11 that's stayed with me over the last decade is a Tom the Dancing Bug from a few weeks after the actual event. It's here. I couldn't offer anything as eloquent as that. For what it's worth I'm going to post three old cartoons I did on 9-11 on my blog.

Gene Weingarten, writer of "Barney & Clyde":

Yep, we have one.

Kevin Rechin, artist of "Crock" could not be reached for comment.

Cul de Sac and Reply All pick up papers

Congratulations, friends!

Meet Lizzie, the latest addition to the Pioneer Press comics page lineup (this is an interview with Donna)
By Molly Guthrey, Pioneer Press 08/27/2011
http://www.twincities.com/life/ci_18763817?nclick_check=1

'Cul de Sac' returns to E-N; Sunday strip that ran on a trial basis in 2008 chronicles the life of a chatty preschooler.
By René A. Guzman
 San Antonio Express-News August 28, 2011
 http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/article/Cul-de-Sac-returns-to-E-N-2141635.php

Donna Lewis' Reply All starts in Post on Monday

Donna Lewis' Reply All starts in the Washington Post on Monday; it's replacing Watch Your Head.

Here's the interview I did with Donna last year. I'll be asking her another set of interview questions this coming week, but she'll be on the Washington Post's chat on Monday so you can ask your own questions.

Donna Lewis' Reply All comic strip launches

Washington continues to be an incubator for comics strips, and they're not coming from the University of Maryland's Diamondback (Liberty Meadows, Boondocks, Watch Your Head) all the time now.

Local cartoonist Donna Lewis' Reply All comic strip will launch soon from the Washington Post Writer's Group. The strip is described as "Reply All is about those moments in today's information-overloaded environment when you forget your adult-self and toss the megaphone to your fifth-grade inner child. The strip explores the value of honesty, the power of knowledge and the impact of a bad-hair day on one's self-perception." It launches on February 28. Donna recently told me that she's reworking her earlier webcomics because she thinks her art has improved.

Congratulations, Donna! My interview with her quoted in the PR is here.