Tag Archives: free association

Gag Writing While Doing the Mundane

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How to Become a Slightly Warped Cartoonist: Part 9

In an earlier post I said that I draw very few cartoons about things that happen to me. That isn’t to say I don’t get ideas while going about my daily life. Here are some ideas I generated on a shopping trip, along with my thought process and what was happening when I came up with them.

Motor homes going 40 MPH are the bane of coastal Oregonians’ existence. I’m stuck behind one of the most enormous ones I ever seen. It’s so enormous, I’m amazed it doesn’t have a “Wide Load” sign on it. What’s the opposite of a wide load? Continue reading →

Fairy Tale Cartoon Characters who Lived UnHappily Ever After

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How to Become a Slightly Warped Cartoonist: Part 7

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 →

Creating History Cartoons Even if You Flunked History

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How to Become a Slightly Warped Cartoonist: Part 6

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 →

Go Ahead. Be An Extremist When Gag Writing

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How to Become a Slightly Warped Cartoonist: Part 5

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 →

Writing Cartoon Gags Using Buzz-Words, Fads & the News

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How to Become a Slightly Warped Cartoonist: Part 4

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 →

How Do You Come Up With Your Ideas?

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How to Become a Slightly Warped Cartoonist: Part 3

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 →