Cartooning - Removing Confusion

Introduction

Have you ever read a comic and thought, "I don't get it"?

Me too, it happens, even with the pro's, and while it can make things funnier if you have to put some work in, not everyone will persevere. There's a risk your reader will go away unfulfilled and never come back.

That's not a position you want to get into!

An Example

I had this idea about the lights around our building being tested during the daytime. It uses some degree of observational humour so the drawing is important.

Look at the first example:

First example can confuse

The man on the right is pointing towards a light that's not working, but it looks more like he's pointing at the one in the centre of the frame. So when he says, "They've missed that little one" it might not make much sense to you.

(You have to look more closely to see the broken one on the far left.)

The solution is simple, I took out the middle light:

Revised drawing

With only one light, the potential muddle has gone.

It might be better to have the broken light in the middle of the picture, but the joke relied on the pickup truck being ahead of it. This would then need the truck to be facing the other way, but they don't look as good when drawn from the rear.

Link to comic: http://funstreak.webcomic.ws/comics/39/

Idioms - Keeping it Simple

Intro

Months and months ago, when I first started using FunStreak for experimenting with ideas, I trawled the web for as many usable idioms and well known sayings as I could find.

I was looking at this list the other day and had been mulling over how to do the next cartoon. I'd chosen "Fighting Fire With Fire" and had always considered it should feature a fireman, maybe on some sort of fireman inititive day failure.

With this in mind I decided to look up similar idioms and maybe have a list:-

• Adding fuel to the fire
• Burn the midnight oil
• Feel the burn
• Keep the home fires burning
• Like a moth to the flame
• Baptism by fire

The list could be, "Sayings that don't help when putting out house fires"

It was OK, but I've created a few list based cartoons recently, so I shelved that idea.

Go For The Simple

In the end simple is king, I'd found a great bit of dialogue and just needed a line to explain what was going on. I could have mentioned the well known saying right then, but I chose not to. I think it's better for it.

You're Fired - Funstreak 28th Sept 2017

Link to the original cartoon: funstreak.webcomic.ws/comics/24