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The Second Most Frequent Question Cartoonists Are Asked: "How do you come up with your ideas?" That's why this is a web site on how how to come up with cartoon ideas, not on how to draw cartoons. In this humble cartoonist's opinion, if you have really good ideas, it really doesn't matter how well you draw. So how can you, a normal, non-brain damaged individual, come up with great cartoon ideas? For several weeks I took careful note of what was happening when gag ideas came to me. Most just popped out of the cosmos whole cloth--or cartoon?--in my head, but others were prompted by external influences. I kept a sort of journal, recording not just the cartoon ideas, but what I was thinking about and doing when I came up with the idea. Perhaps following some of the same techniques will help you come up with a few jokes yourself. I was surprised at how few cartoons I draw about events in my daily life. In fact, if you want to drive a cartoonist nuts say: "I bet you'll draw about this," whenever something you think is funny happens. Most funny things that happen are funny only in context. Have you ever tried to tell someone about an incident, and upon realizing they're not laughing, you say: "I guess you had to be there." A good cartoon has to be easily understood. A cartoonist has only five seconds to get her point across. Five seconds! Outside of parents trying to rescue a cookie that has dropped to the ground, there's hardly anyone else who has to succeed in so little time, so you don't have time to give a background story Here's a description of one of my July sessions and some of the cartoons it produced while I was listening to Christmas carols. Magazines lay out their seasonal issues six months ahead. Many cartoonist, myself included, do a lot of free associating, especially when I've been asked to draw a cartoon on a specific topic and I'm on deadline. I often know nothing about the topics I'm drawing about. That's OK. Being unencumbered by knowledge makes the task easier. It's sort of like a vacuum. If I don't know anything about something, I make stuff up. |
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Poor Rudolph. They won't let him play in any Reindeer Games. Reindeer games? What kind of games do reindeer play? |
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Deer and other ungulates sure play a lot of games. Think about "Where the deer and antelope PLAY?" What games were THEY playing? |
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Architecture Cartoon 4385: As a buffalo runs through a construction site a man asks: "Build a home where the buffalo roam? Bah!" |
Want to get any of these cartoons on T-shirts & other stuff? |
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