by Wimpystuntmen on Sun Jul 01, 2001 9:01 am
Friday's cartoon was originally a panel which I drew a few years ago. The Noah's Ark sign was well placed and the joke immediate. However, when I was submitting a new batch to a local paper over here this year I decided to change the format to a strip to see if that would increase my chances. I particularly liked this gag and re-drew it as I thought it would still work as I could add more animals to the line.<P>It's true I probably should have changed the wording around as we do read left to right.
I'm curious now to change it around and see if there is a different response from readers. I think as I've had the gag for so long it didn't matter to me and I probably lost objectivity. Yes the layout is important to the gag. It's like those times when you know you've got a great gag but when you put it down on paper it just doesn't work. Visually it doesn't do justice to what you had in mind. Whether its the drawing, layout, or the gag itself who know's. Probably all 3.<P> The panel I also think of as a painting and therefore I think poor art shows out more. My lesser artistic skills lend better to a strip shape because of this.