Mark Wright

The Title is twice right. This post is not funny.. But so am I .. at least in print.

I've recently tried my hand at doing a web-comic for a website me and two other guys are writing for.

Now I'm very happy with my graphic work... there is no problem there. The problem is my punch lines.

So i'm wondering if there is sites you guys have come across in your travels which might have also hosted some advice or what [not] to do when writing comics.


~Mark

clavus

Write.

Write down your comic ideas, puns and punch lines in a notebook. Make it a habit. Every time you get an idea, write that fucker down. Eventually, you will have a whole bunch of half-assed joke ideas, and you will find yourself refining them, working them from another angle, etc. Tell a joke a few different ways to force yourself to see what the crux of the joke really is. Every comic artists I know does this. Some of my comics are from ideas that I wrote down more than a year ago. My brain needs time to churn things over.

GL

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The_Jazz

Mark, that's advice that you want to take since it's being given by an actual pro. I saw this thread when you posted it but didn't have anything to add. I hoped clavus or one of our other resident professional funny guys would see this so that I could reinforce their message.

Good luck. Now go make me laugh.

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LordEden

I have never written a comic even tho I tried to get my best friend to draw the comic if I did everything else, but no go. I have written standup and generally try to come up with new material for when I get back on stage. Claus is right, write EVERYTHING down. I have a note in my phone with one line summaries of jokes I've made.

Writing jokes for any media is hard and takes lots of practice. As I say to Cinn daily, "Not every joke is a winner." You will make a lot of bad jokes, but you will be able to shift through the bad ones to find the good ones. The strong jokes that get laughs you will be able to build on and turn into funny jokes (or one liners for you comics).

Figure out what really makes that joke funny, is it the environment? The character? The deliver? Background joke? What is the root of the joke, what really makes it funny. You could deliver the funniest joke in the world, but if the environment isn't there to support it, then it will die a horrible, slow, silent death.

From what I've read about webcomics, it takes awhile for your art and humor to get where you want it to be. It's like fucking; no one was a pimp daddy mac master fucker their first time. They worked at it through failure, giggles, sore knees, chafed skin, and all the awkward things that happen in bed because the end result was awesome. Just keep working at it, you will eventually be good enough that women don't have to fake it for you in order to not hurt your feelings.

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