Biblography

Adam Huber:

http://www.bugmartini.com/

Nedroid:

http://nedroid.com/
http://nedroidcomics.livejournal.com/

Gilbert Shelton:

http://www.ladybud.com/2013/10/16/the-fabulously-freaky-comics-of-gilbert-shelton/
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/shelton.htm

Brandon Graham:

King City - Published by Tokyo Pop in 2007

Walrus - Published by Picture Box 2013

Joan Cornella:

http://cornellajoan.tumblr.com/

Joan Cornella / Conclusion

The final illustrator I looked at was Joan Cornella, an illustrator well renowned on the internet for his surreal, often inexplicable comics:

The main thing I noticed about them is that they're all about subverting the reader's expectations, and then subverting them again and maybe even once more afterwards. IE: The policeman doesn't have shoot the 'murderous man' he was only stabbing a puppet... but wait, the policeman is a puppet too, being held by the puppet the man was about to stab?!

The vibrant colour palette, the often dark subect matter, the similar and simple looking characters and recycled facial expressions all add to the surreal nature of Cornell's comics. This is something I was eager to experiment with.

Here I tried lampooning one of the big movie twists: The reveal that the planet of the Apes was actually Earth all along. In this case the planet of the cats is revealed to be the Earth all along, but then suddenly the statue of liberty's mask falls of, revealing a giant mouse inside, much to the cat's horror. I feel like the double subversion of a classic movie twist, coupled with the bright colour palette and recycled expressions (tricky when the two characters are of a different species) really adds to the surreal nature of the comic. I also feel like I finally managed to get the simplicity side of the illustration right for once.

From what I've learned doing these experiments, I feel like the most important part of any comedic illustration is simplicity (unless the detail is part of the joke). Nothing should get in the way of the joke. If detailed facial expression adds to the joke, then do it. If a wild colour palette adds to it, then do it. But these things shouldn't be done for their own sake. They might make the illustration nicer, but it could be at the cost of losing it's message.

Brandon Graham

Brandon Graham is an illustrator probably best known for his comics King City and Multiple Warheads. I haven't seen someone illustrate humour quite like he does, so I felt he was certainly worth a look at for my project.

Both from Brandon Graham's published sketchbook Walrus

From Brandon Graham's King City

From what I've seen, Graham has two ways of illustrating humour. Either through puns, or less commonly through giving a serious looking scene ridiculous dialogue.

For the puns, they really add to the worlds he creates. Usually there is not much humour happening in the story, which usually tends to be more adventure focused, so what humour there is tends to come almost entirely from the puns... and what's more they tend to add to the surreal nature of the worlds he creates. Having a gang named after a pun on 'Bad omen' doesn't hinder the setting, it adds to it.

The other kind of humour he uses is a simple subversion of the readers expectations, but I think it works. The clash between silly dialogue and serious characters is quite memorable, and the dull colour palette adds to that clash too. At a first glance you expect something sombre or quite dull, and instead you get what is essentially toilet humour.

I did two experiments, one for each different style of humour. All in all I think the second one (serious illustrations with an immature joke) works much better. The puns of the first one dont seem as visual as Graham's, relying on the text to explain what's going on. The second illustration however was much simpler to illustrate (despite being more detailed). I feel like I made it clear what was going on unlike the first one.

Gilbert Shelton

Gilbert Shelton is an illustrator probably best known for either his comic The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers or the album cover he produced for the Grateful Dead's Shakedown Street. Both of which I'll be looking at.

It's almost immediately obvious that drugs are a big part of his work, with almost every Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic focusing on them either getting into trouble as the result of taking drugs, or getting into trouble in the search of drugs. The stylized characters and vibrant colour palette add to the hallucinogenic theme of his work. The vibrant colour scheme might be a result of the older printing methods used, but I would say it's intentional, especially as one comic centres on the brothers deciding not to take drugs, during which the colours get more dull and the characters become more realistic.

Another thing of note is that besides the characters, everything else is drawn quite realistically, with a lot of detail and the use of vanishing points, which almost seems to anchor the characters in a surreal reality. It really adds to the 'drug trip' theme in a way that an unrealistic background would not.

Here's my experiment:

For this I was focusing on using a vibrant colour palette with a more detailed illustration, which did make it more surreal looking. I think if I were to do it again I would have put more effort into the background, which could have only added to the surreality.

Anthony Clark / Nedroid

Anthony Clark (better known by his pen name Nedroid) is the creator of the online webcomic also called Nedroid [2]. While it often covers many subjects, it's usually focused on the same recurring characters, usually Reginald the bird and Beartato the bear-potato. Most of the humour comes from subverting expectations, hypocrisy and lampooning popular culture.

Deadly Weapons - Uploaded on January 3rd 2012

Crime Lab - Uploaded on December 18th 2009

Baddayatwork - Uploaded on November 21st 2007

Help You Help Me - Published on May 5th 2010

Advice About Comics - Published February 1st 2011

The first thing that clearly stands out is the colour palette consisting entirely of blue hues. What's interesting is that this palette only really seems to pop up in the comics focusing on Nedroid's recurring characters. More recently some comics are done in full colour, but most are still done with the bluish hues. I believe that it's either because of a similar reason to the Simpsons having yellow skin (so viewers can recognize it easier), or for tonal reasons. There's a slight air of melancholy to some of the comics, either over something as simple as Reginald dropping his invisible swords, or his incredible 'willpower' allowing him to eat an entire sundae.

Like Bug Martini, Nedroid is quite simply illustrated too. It's a little more detailed, but usually sticks with its simple design. It might go more detailed for establishing shots (and quite rarely, for the entire comic), but usually it's kept quite simple. Considering how sporadically updated Nedroid is, I'd wager that this is purely a stylistic choice. Clark doesn't have a weekly schedule, and even says on his comics 'about' section that he only updates it when he thinks of something funny. It's possible he usually doesn't add much detail because he feels it's not entirely necessary for the joke.

Another thing I found interesting was the use of recurring characters. Their personalities allow you to add to the humour in a way. For example, in Help You Help Me we see Reginald struggling to not eat a sundae. If it was too one-off characters in the comic then it wouldn't be as funny. Because Reginald is built up to be a lazy, arrogant ass, it becomes funnier when he does something lazy or arrogant, and by extension funny when he does the opposite too.

I took what I learned from Nedroid and made a little four page comic about an astronaut.

Here are my colour tests from the first page. I was experimenting with sticking with a limited colour palette, to see what effect it would have. As my comic was more sci-fi themed with the joke centred around the 4th wall, I wanted colours that would add to the surreality of it, so I was thinking of choosing either the cyan, green or purple. Of the lot I think the purple communicated that meaning the best. Here's the full comic:

I'm still struggling to keep my work simple, but I'm pleased with the result. The alien is a very flat character, but I feel like I was able to show enough of the astronaut's personality over the four pages to add to the joke. I feel like I could have communicated the joke in fewer panels, but as a whole I think it works alright.

Introduction / Adam Huber

For this project I will be looking at how comedy is illustrated, particularly in a comics. My final major project will be a graphic novel that I intend to be funny, and while I have confidence in my comedic skills, I believe I lack the crucial knowledge in how to illustrate those skills. To improve upon that, I will be looking at a variety of comedic illustrators to see how they illustrate humour, and I will experiment to discover how their skills can be applied to my own work.

The first of these illustrators is Adam Huber, the creator of Bug Martini [1] (previously titled Bug Comic):

Halloween Part One, uploaded by Huber on October 29th, 2009

The main thing that comes to mind when I look at his work is the simplicity of it all. The jokes are the most important thing to the comic, and there are no superfluous details that could get in the way of the jokes being told. Backgrounds are either non-existent or only consist of one or two objects, with no use of perspective, all the characters are of the same basic design (with only accessories to tell them apart) and the comic has a purely black and white colour palette... Even the narratives tend to be simple, often consisting of a list with a different joke in every panel instead.

World Flame War III, uploaded by Huber on December 13th, 2011

The comic is also updated very frequently: a new 4 panel strip is posted every weekday, so the simplicity helps in this department. Huber needs to crank out a comic strip five times a week, so he can’t spend his time finely illustrating every little detail.

What this says to me is that the joke is the most important part of the comic. Nothing must get in its way, be it overly complex backgrounds or wordy dialogue or even time (or rather the lack of it).

Taking what I learned from Huber and applying it to my own practice, I created I few rough comics:

The main I tried to adhere to was simplicity. My comics are certainly not as simple as Huber's, but compared to some of my other work they are much simpler. It was somewhat of a struggle to keep them this simple, adding further detail almost seemed like a reflex action I had to hold back.

Another thing I noticed is that when Huber goes with the 'list' routine, he often subverts expectations in the last panel. If the first few panels are of a serious subject then he'll go with something silly in the last one (creating humour by implying the silly thing is as serious as the previous ones), or the opposite where he creates humour by simply subverting your expectations. This is something I tried to capture in all of my comics, either by comparing a gang of goofy skaters to the rapist lunatics from A Clockwork Orange and the murderous maniacs from Mad Max, or by implying that being able to scratch your back in just the right place is as good a reason to become a cyborg as super intelligence is.