Which cartoonists have also been good at business?

Yeah, after reading a good third of his biography, Walt did make some good business choices, but also took lots of risks involving several loans and borrowing money from everyone. He even made huge mistakes involving ownership, but still bounced back.

I'd also mention Ralph Bakshi specifically for his work on Wizards. Fox turns him down for extra money to finish the battle scenes so he super-imposes old war footage, makes some rotoscope changes, and the film breaks even within two weeks of being released.
 
I've read that Walt Disney wasn't all that great a businessman, and that his brother Roy was always the one who handled that side of the company.
 
Walt didn't become a great businessman overnight, but overtime his large investments began to pay-off. He had to start at the wee bottom and slowly moved up in the world before he ever landed his first gig with the Alice shorts, let alone Mickey Mouse. You got to remember he also had to deal with snarky businessman like Charles Mintz (who put money over quality) and Pat Powers (who suckered Walt with fine print into paying him WAY too much if he left Powers' grip).

Walt was also a great convincer when it game to landing money. He actually pitched the story of Bambi to a bank in order to convince them to give him a loan for the picture (and was successful).
 
I think Walt's biggest success came when he moved into television and theme parks. The Disneyland show that started in the '50s provided a home for library content, just as theatrical shorts were dying out. And much of the original content on the show is what we'd call cross-promotion today. You'd see the animators at work on an upcoming film. You'd see Imagineers building upcoming rides. Disney got paid for running stuff from the studio vaults and plugging upcoming projects.

Andn then you've got the World's Fair stuff. WED (Imagineering's original name) had corporate sponsors paying for the development and creation of the Lincoln, Primeval World and Small World shows but the contracts allowed for all of them to be brought into Disneyland afterwards.
 
Hanna and Barbera are a very good example. Forseeing that the MGM Cartoon Studios was going to shut it's door, they prepared to carve out their niche in television, which they began to dominate (animation-wise) for 20 years.

I'd also say Jim Davis is one who was able to capitalize on Garfield's popularity and spearhead a series of successfull animations in the 80s and early 90s.
 
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