Cartoon Ethics

Is Recycling a Cartoon a Ripoff?

There has been recent debate within the cartooning community 

regarding the legitimacy of a cartoonist "recycling" one of his previous

cartoons.

Well, I admit here in open forum that I've done it. 

(click on images for larger view)

This cartoon (above) from the 1980's addressed the growing popularity
of assault rifles among gun enthusiasts. Since the 1994 ban ended in 2004,
these street sweeper killing machines are abundant in many patriotic
American's urban defense arsenals.

While archiving old originals in 2010, I ran across it and decided to 

re-release it to a completely new and larger audience. I scanned it,

added color (below) and sent it out for publishing as-well-as submitted

it to my syndicate among the other offerings.

I didn't consider for one second that I was duping anyone or violating

an ethics code, or even that I was being lazy. Neither was it larcenous,

as I own all my originals, copyrights, and publishing rights. I saw it as

addressing a topic that keeps resurfacing. Since it was first published,

an assault weapons ban had come and gone. Of course, the issue of 

effectively screening buyers has remained unchanged. It struck me 

how the cartoon was so apt for current times. So, I dressed it up with 

color and sent it out to a whole new audience through a new technology

that was not available 25 years ago.

In the current cartoon reissue debate, some have argued this is not an

unusual practice and many cartoonists have done it. The practice of

recycling one's work has been used in other creative media as well. 

Cecil B. DeMille did Ben-Hur twice. Hitchcock remade several of his 

films with technological upgrades and issued to new audiences. 

Movies have gotten released and re-released to new generations of 

moviegoers. Even Beethoven, Mozart and a host of other classical 

composers have reused themes in subsequent works.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have added a note at the bottom of the 

cartoon alerting readers to it being a reissue that I had done in the 1980's. 

If anything, it would've added impact to the issue.