Over at The Nib, Maki Naro and Matthew Francis present a comic called “When “Peanuts” Went All-In on Vaccinations” which recalls a series of 1968 strips which advocated for the then-current campaign to stamp out measles. Naro and Francis note that Peanuts creators Charles Schulz was the father of small children and had talked about vaccinations in previous strips in the 50s. They also point out how the audience of Peanuts was not effective at reaching those most at risk who could not always avail themselves of vaccinations – poorer children and kids of color. It’s an interesting look at a great strip and its place in a very different time.
It’s also just the latest excellent strip on The Nib, a site we’ve been chronicling for a long time. As we reported a few months ago, sadly The Nib was dropped from its home at First Look Media. Founder and editor Matt Bors hasn’t given up though, and has taken the Nib to a reader supported model.
This week Bors reprinted a newsletter on Medium (ironically The Nib’s first home) that explains what they’re up to and gave out some statistics:
I had our former intern Erlend Sandøy draw up a lovely anniversary image (that’s all of you dancing around the fire) and illustrate two data points I really wanted to get out there: that we’ve published over 4,000 comics and put over $1.5 million into the hands of cartoonists. In another six year, I want to be able to say we’ve doubled those numbers.
$1.5 million.
That’s a lot of money to pay to cartoonists. In its six years of existence, The Nib has published many funny, insightful and powerful comics – we’ve linked to many of them here in our “A Year of Free Comics” feature. Keeping it going via a subscription model is a challenge, but Bors is so dedicated to keeping the site going…we wouldn’t bet against him.
Bors and the Nib will be at SPC this weekend – you can buy some of their outstanding print collections or subscribe to the site here. I just did and it feels good.
