I really really like your work but sometimes I feel like 90% of the jokes go over my head. Can you recommend me anything to read/watch/experience to better understand your comics?
Of course. One of my biggest influences is the cartoonist B.Kliban. While best known for his distinctive cat drawings, most of his cartooning output was single-panel work.
Much of it is easily understandable language or visual puns, but many of his funny works are just unusual situations, with no obvious meaning:
(I think that "Household Hint" could be considered a spiritual forerunner of Tiktok ragebait food videos.)
In his 1975 collection titled "Cat," among many funny cat comics, there are several pages which are just drawings of his beloved cats.
I feel a strong connection to Kliban's approach: Direct contour-line drawing, mostly anonymous characters in novel situations, and few traditional long-term narrative stories. And yet, there are recurring visual trends. (Have you noticed that he only draws one kind of cat?)
It is said that we train our audiences, in form or content. Over time, the reader knows what to expect from an author.
I think that a lesson can be derived from this graphic design manual.
(from Notes on Graphic Design And Visual Communication by Gregg Berryman, 1979.)
I believe we can draw a correlation between broadly-defined "art" (comics, painting, drawing, sculpture, video, etc.) and logo design:
With low "abstraction" (depending upon references that many people will get, explaining things in extremely explicit terms), material will be readily understood, but it is hard to separate this material from other stuff out there. It's harder to have your individual voice known.
With high "abstraction" (sharing weird comics, but consistently over a long period of time with many people,) an artist can have their message understood- or at least received enthusiastically- even if they're weird.
I drew this yesterday. It is probably understandable as both a humorous criticism of gamer-centric marketing and also as a visual-verbal pun to most English speakers under 40. I'm not sure if "Gamer Butter" would be accepted readily without people being familiar with other drawings I've made which lampoon consumerism and gadget culture.
B.Kliban and I have had the good fortune to share our works widely enough to have such a special relationship of artist and viewer, who accept the less understandable material alongside the more easily digestible. Thank you for the kind comment and question.
amandla
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
