SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Sunday, U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) gave the Trump Administration a 48-hour deadline to come up with a relief package agreement, but it’s not clear if that will happen.
Money from the first – and only, at this point – federal stimulus package, the CARES Act, has helped keep businesses, families and individuals afloat nationwide.
Sacramento cartoonist Eben Burgoon has received some of those funds. In August, the City of Sacramento awarded him $3,000, one of some 300 Creative Economy Recovery grants the city awarded to artists and arts-related programs. It was funded by stimulus money the city received through the federal CARES Act.
"I don't think there would be any way I could survive the way I have been surviving if I didn't get some of those grant opportunities,” Burgoon told ABC10 on Sunday.
The year has been particularly hard on artists, he said.
A year ago, Burgoon was in Dubai as a guest speaker at an international book festival. In February, he lead a workshop in Egypt.
"It’s been really wonderful, and it’s taken me places that I never thought I’d ever go to,” Burgoon said, of his career writing and illustrating comics. “I got to see the pyramids...because people like comic books!"
When the pandemic hit, however, all workshops and conventions got canceled.
Burgoon said his work and income prospects “quickly went to, like, 'I don't know what I'm going to do.’ By March, I lost thousands and thousands of dollars in work: canceled workshops, canceled speaking gigs."
He estimates $10,000 to $12,000 in established speaking engagements, workshops and projects dried up in the first three months of the pandemic. Starburns Industries, from which popular cartoon series Rick and Morty emerged, had been working with Burgoon to turn his series B-Squad: Soldiers of Misfortune, which Burgoon created and writes, into a cartoon series. Burgoon said the pandemic put that project on hold, for now.
Burgoon has been adapting to this new normal, adjusting his workshops for zoom and collaborating with other artists. He said the pandemic opened an opportunity for him to illustrate his first children’s book; he partnered with Davis author Jay Schwerin on a book called Downtown Tom. Burgoon is also working on a forthcoming comic book called Tiny Wizards, which he wrote.
"I couldn't be more proud of Sacramento for stepping up and saving the arts community,” Burgoon said.
He just applied for a second round of Creative Economy Recovery grants through the City of Sacramento, funded by remaining CARES Act money. He and other local artists are now waiting for a decision.