Previously I said I rarely draw cartoons about things from my life. Drawing about my pets is an exception to that rule.
How can you look at a cat with its head in a toilet and not laugh, Continue reading
Like the historical characters I wrote about yesterday, horror movies and fairy tale cartoon characters come with back stories readers are familiar with, and like historical characters I usually have them dealing with life in today’s world.
Stick a bureaucrat into almost any fairy tale, and you’ve probably got the makings of a cartoon. The Princess and the Bureaucrat? Continue reading
I draw very few cartoons about things that happen to me. In fact, if you want to drive me nuts, whenever something funny happens say, “I bet you’ll draw about this,”
Most funny things that happen to you are funny only in context. Have you ever tried to describe an incident where at the time it happened everyone involved was laughing hysterically, but the people you’re telling the anecdote to look confused, not amused? That’s what I call an ”I guess you had to be there” moment. Continue reading
In yesterday’s post I created a list of ten terms I’d heard in the news and showed how I came up with ideas for the first seven using free association while gag writing.
Today I’m going to generate ideas for the remaining three terms using antonyms (opposite definitions) and carrying ideas to extreme and absurd conclusions. Continue reading
This is another in my series of posts trying to answer the second most frequent question I’m asked as a cartoonist: how do you come up with your ideas?
Every day I make a list of buzzwords, fads, and news items I hear or read about. Here’s one of my lists and the thoughts I had when I went through it to come up “Aha” moments that I turned into cartoon gags. Continue reading
In my next series of posts I’m going to try and answer the second most frequent question I’m asked as a cartoonist: how do you come up with your ideas?
I do a lot of free-associating. Here’s a description of one of my sessions and some of the cartoons it produced. Continue reading
In yesterday’s post I addressed the most frequent question cartoonists are asked. To see what that question is, I guess you’ll have to read that post. Today I’m addressing the second most frequent question, “How do you come up with your ideas?”
Frankly, I don’t know. For the most part my cartoon gags spring whole cloth—or whole cartoon – out of the cosmos and into my head.
Al Capp, creator of Li’l Abner said that being dropped on your head as a small child gave you a leg up if you wanted to be a cartoonist. Continue reading
The most frequent question cartoonists are asked is, “Do you draw for the New Yorker?”
“Of course,” I reply. “All good cartoonists draw for the New Yorker. I’ve even drawn covers for them. However, they’ve never had the good sense to buy any of my work.”
Fortunately for me, hundreds of other magazines have.
You don’t have to be able to draw well to be a successful cartoonist. Continue reading
The most frequent question cartoonists are asked is, “Do you draw for the New Yorker?”
“Of course,” I reply. “All good cartoonists draw for the New Yorker. I’ve even drawn covers for them. However, they’ve never had the good sense to buy any of my work.”
Fortunately for me, hundreds of other magazines have.
You don’t have to be able to draw well to be a successful cartoonist. Continue reading
My web gurus say I have to start blogging and using Facebook more to drive traffic to my cartooning website. It used to be that just having great cartoons was enough. The good old days. Yikes. I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old curmudgeonly fuddy duddy, so here goes. Continue reading
Anyone who’s watched Portlandia knows Oregonians like everything to be organic. Even our websites. “Organic internet solutions.” That’s Portland’s Watermelon Web Works motto. I know this because I hired them to create a new, and I hope improved, McHumor.com website. Continue reading
