Royal Oak - With a foosball table and entertainment center adorned with beer bottles complementing a pair of skis in the corner, Adam Miller’s apartment has that laid-back college, bachelor pad feel.

But Miller, a 1998 MSU graduate, is no longer a college student - he’s an engineer in Royal Oak grappling with his transition into the working world.

Sitting in the living room after a long day of work, he seemed wistful for his college days but noted his beer posters, often standard college decor, had been replaced by a few paintings and other kinds of artwork.

When Miller, 27, was a student, he studied engineering arts. He recognized, however, his talent for another kind of art - drawing comic strips. He never thought he could make a career out of this hobby, but began sending his work to different syndication companies shortly after graduation in hopes of hearing the opposite.

And after receiving only rejection letters from companies around the country, Miller’s comic strip, “Bachelor Party,” was finally chosen for syndication by Creators Syndicate in July.

“Bachelor Party” explores the lives of recent college graduates and was one of four comic strips picked for syndication out of 20,000 submissions.

And Miller’s reaction to finding out that “Bachelor Party” was one of the strips picked that year included a string of shocked obscenities.

“It’s not printable,” he said after pausing to laugh. “Along the lines of ‘Who sent this crap to me?’”

Coincidentally, the letter of acceptance for syndication, while an unbelievable dream for Miller, came only because a phone call to confirm the decision was impossible.

“They sent me a letter and claimed that I didn’t put my phone number in the submission, but I don’t care,” he said. “They’re syndicating it and I’m happy. What’s really nice is that I framed the letter and if they had just called me, I wouldn’t have anything to frame.”

Comic competition

Miller’s excitement and attachment to that piece of paper is anything but overrated.

Comic strip syndication for any artist, whether an accomplished professional or recent college graduate, is not easy.

John Newcombe, director of development for Creators, said Miller was one of about four artists chosen each year for syndication.

“Things are getting tighter and tighter in the market partly because of the Internet,” he said. “People aren’t reading and newspapers are struggling for survival and there becomes less and less space.

“When we started this company 15 years ago, even a mediocre comic had a chance of surviving, but now you have to be phenomenal to make it. There’s so much competition and so little space.”

Newcombe said there are a number of things an artist must accomplish in order to become recognized among the thousands vying for a spot.

“The world view, the way it’s laid out and the most important and most difficult of all is just being funny on a daily basis,” he said. “Most people will get into just about any world as long as it’s funny.”

And whether or not those artists have years of experience doesn’t seem to be a factor when looking for syndication.

“We have people who have been syndicated before, been in the business for 30 years and then there’s Adam just fresh out of school,” Newcombe said. “We really judge the merit solely on the strip itself and not the résumé. I don’t read the cover pages or résumé. I just go straight to the comic.”

Ghetto potential

Miller’s experience at MSU began where he started drawing the comic strip “Student Ghetto.” The strip, inspired by two of Miller’s friends, explored the funny, sometimes raunchy, antics of college life.

“I was a junior and it kind of started as a joke,” he said. “But I knew I could draw, so I wanted to give it a shot and see what happened.”

But Miller admitted he wasn’t perfect.

“I wasn’t very sensitive to some PC issues,” he said. “Some of my earlier strips are a little too touchy, but I didn’t think so then.”

Eventually, “Student Ghetto” began appearing in The State News once a week on the opinion page during the summer of 1996, and then, as a daily comic strip in the spring of 1999.

“No one really knew who I was because my face wasn’t in the paper, but occasionally I would get, ‘Hey, that’s the guy who draws the comic strip,’” he said. “That usually came at bars, like, ‘Hey, way to go dude!’ I got lots of drunk comments.”

After graduating, “Student Ghetto” continued to run as repeats in The State News until February 2000 because Miller no longer had the time or energy to keep up with new strips every day.

“I had to give it up because of the massive hours of work,” he said. “I was working full time, and plus after work, I didn’t want to sit around and draw. I wanted to do something else, because work sucks.”

Miller also worked as a freelance illustrator, drawing editorial cartoons for various publications, including the Detroit Free Press. Despite the artistic stints, he wasn’t convinced he had what it takes to become a professional.

“I guess I always thought about it a little bit, but I always thought it was too hard, plus when you’re younger you’re more susceptible to the criticism,” he said.

But soon after graduating, Miller began to send out “Student Ghetto” to various syndicates in hopes of continuing the strip.

Reactions weren’t what Miller was hoping to hear - syndicators didn’t like the idea of trying to market a college strip in newspapers geared toward older readers.

“I got actually a couple of different responses,” Miller said. “I got some handwritten letters, which was nice. And Kings Features Syndicate called and talked to me for awhile and basically said there’s no market for it. They loved the strips and drawings and stuff, so I spent the next two years trying to think of something else.

“And I actually gave up and went back to ‘Student Ghetto,’ so I sent in my submissions again under a different name and this time I got signed. Just a different name and a different premise.”

The launching pad

Marketing for “Bachelor Party” will begin within the next few months, with syndication beginning in a few newspapers thereafter. But Miller will likely have to wait until at least next fall to begin seeing his comic in any newspapers.

And there’s no telling how many papers “Bachelor Party” will begin appearing in and no way to predict success, Newcombe said.

“That’s entirely dependent on how well it does - you never know,” he said. “In our business, it’s really strange. When Charles Schulz started ‘Peanuts,’ it was only in six papers, and 1,200 papers with ‘Calvin and Hobbes.’

“Some things have longevity and other things are short lived. It depends on how people respond to this brand of humor.”

Creators syndicates comics such as “B.C.” and “The Wizard of Id,” and was the original launcher of “Baby Blues.”

Newcombe said icons like Schulz should function as a kind of motivation for new artists like Miller who are being syndicated for the first time.

“Schulz had six papers at the end of his first year,” he said. “If he had gotten discouraged and quit, it would have been understandable, but a great loss,” he said.

But despite the uncertainty of the future of “Bachelor Party,” Newcombe is optimistic.

“I like it because it’s sort of aimless characters and they’re not really sure what they’re doing with their lives,” he said. “I remember that period well, it was that weird sort of drifting period.”

Comic options

And although Newcombe said the rise of Internet news has been a downfall for comics artists looking for a spot in newspapers, not everyone agrees.

Kathie Kurr, director of communications for Universal Press Syndicate, said the Internet can positively affect artists, especially with competition between newspaper comic strip artists not slowing down anytime soon.

“I don’t think its gotten any easier, I think its always been hard,” she said. “One bright spot that’s made it a little easier is the opening of the Internet for artists. There are many more places to go now to display and introduce work to consumer audiences than in the newspapers.

“If you go on the Internet, you’ll find a whole lot of sites that work only for cartoonists or cartoonists may create their own site and post their own work.”

Universal syndicates 25 different comic strips, such as “Doonesbury,” “Garfield” and “Cathy.” Kurr said of the 50 to 100 submissions that are received each week from hopeful artists, only about six are chosen each year for syndication.

But she said even with the Internet available to comic strip artists looking for other ways to display their artwork, many newspapers continue to have stable comic pages.

“There are very few newspapers that, when they want to reduce costs, will reduce comic pages,” she said. “That remains stagnate. That’s why it’s challenging getting new strips into newspapers - because they have to drop something before they put something in. That’s the way its always been.”

But Tara Connell, a spokeswoman for Gannett Co. Inc., admitted the space available for artists to draw Sunday comics may be decreased, or the comic strip may have to be dropped entirely.

But this decision is not one made by Gannett national headquarters, but rather by the 95 newspapers the company owns in the United States.

“Each of our newspapers makes this decision autonomously,” Connell said. “I think in some cases studies are done, and in other cases it’s a community sentiment kind of thing.

“Some studies are done, but they tend to be very expensive and we have some papers that are pretty tiny and we also have some that are big and comics are a big deal and are very popular.”

Experience

It’s not surprising for artists to become discouraged when faced with more competition, smaller newspapers and a large time commitment to overcome in order to succeed.

But Rick Detorie, who draws the comic strip “One Big Happy,” knows the story well. He worked in advertising after college before getting his break with Creators about 14 years ago.

“I got the idea for the comic strip and I was determined to get something syndicated, so I sent the idea to all the syndicates and as I was waiting for the rejections to come in, I came up with the second one and sent it to everyone who rejected me,” Detorie said. “It was a big rotation.”

Detorie ended up sending four different comic strip ideas, and eventually was asked to submit his original, “One Big Happy,” one more time.

The strip is based on one of Detorie’s books, “How to Survive an Italian Family,” which details his family experiences living with his parents and two sisters in Baltimore, right next door to his grandparents.

But like Miller, Detorie didn’t attempt to make a career out of his drawings until after college.

“I actually went to an art college, but I majored in graphic design and illustration and didn’t do many cartoons in college,” he said. “The only ones I did were in the margins of my notebook and I never believed I could ever make a living as a cartoonist.”

“One Big Happy” debuted in 1988 in 22 newspapers, and now appears in more than 300 across the country.

But the first years weren’t easy.

“That’s the first hurdle, if you can survive the first year and keep getting papers,” Detorie said. “That’s an important goal. Most strips that start out aren’t around in two years. I was walking on pins and needles just seeing what was going to happen next.”

And even though “One Big Happy” is now one of Creators’ most successful comic strips, Detorie knows that journey to the top is rough for new artists.

“It’s bound to be more and more difficult,” he said. “It’s bad news because cities used to have two major newspapers in every city and now it’s pretty much just one and when a strip would be introduced, those papers would compete with each other to pick up the new strip, where now there’s no competition, so the paper can decide whether or not it’s the next hot strip.”

Dreams may come

For now, Miller continues to work in Royal Oak and draws a new strip every night after he comes home. He has more than 130 ready to go before “Bachelor Party” is launched.

Miller also gets up early every Saturday to work on the strips that will be in color and appear in Sunday newspapers.

All this work is done in hopes of making it big, and Miller imagined a perfect scenario: “The strip sells to every paper in the world, it’s Dilbert-sized, I make millions of dollars and live in a boat on the Caribbean,” he said. “I’d like to move around.”

Until then, Miller said he’ll keep it simple.

“The only way to give it my best is to do everything I can, so if it doesn’t work out, at least I can say I gave it my best,” he said.