Basic Instructions ([info]basic_inst) wrote,
@ 2007-08-24 09:06:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
More Daily Tests
So, after last week the general consensus was that breaking up a single strip into four daily strips didn't work. Scott A. suggested two more things to try.

1. That I try one more time to fit my full four panel comics within a daily strip footprint.
And
2. That I try to actually produce one strip a day for awhile, just to see how that flows.

I was dubious of both ideas, but I swore to myself at the start of this project that I would keep an open mind.

I tried one, "How to answer the unanswerable" and it looked like legal fine print with some tiny drawings thrown in. Looking at it, it did occur to me that I wasn't entirely happy with the 3rd panel's joke anyway, so I cut it. The result is below.


Adams and I quickly agreed that this "Write four panels and drop the weakest" plan was worth exploring. Below are the next two day's comics.


 
Any comments? I'd welcome your opinions.



Last Instructions


(13 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]the_10thdoctor
2007-08-24 02:11 pm UTC (link)
Hahahahaah 'brought it' XD

It's working, I think. Everything's readable and there's still room for plenty of funny in three panels.

(Reply to this)


[info]apartment_5
2007-08-24 02:36 pm UTC (link)
blunt doug time.

This is the type of strip that I would skip when I first saw it due to the general wordiness.
All it would take is me reading it once to realize, "Wait! This is far more clever and witty than most of the items on this page!" Getting me to that first time, though, that's the key. After that, I'm yours daily.

I enjoy all three of these and it's nice to get more BI.

And this whole process is amazing. I'm both very happy for you and fascinated by what is happening.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bdonornot
2007-08-24 06:56 pm UTC (link)
I hate to say it, a sa big fan of BI, but I agree with Doug. Most peopl ein this world are stupid and will immediately pass right over it, thinking "Too much words!"

What if the first panel was just the title of the strip, in the largest possible font? I mean, I know it then cuts you actual comedy by a third, but then the title would at least grab a reader's eye.

You can also save space by cutting the secondary character out of some panels. You can keep their dialogue (they are just speaking from off screen) and then the primary character can be made bigger, making it so the artwork will grab the reader's eye as well.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2007-08-24 03:04 pm UTC (link)
The three-panel strip seemd to be the next best thing to your original format. The timing of three panels seems to work better with this layout. It is true that wordiness might lead people to skip the strip, but the humor would drop sharply, as Scott A. pointed out. In terms of marketability balanced with quality, I think the three-panel strip is the best format I've seen so far.
Joel H.

(Reply to this)


[info]ivan23
2007-08-24 03:07 pm UTC (link)
They still work - but I do think some editting is going to be required. The final strip on being X-Treme, while hysterical, is pretty damn dense. All of it's funny ... but I think you could lose half of it, port that half to a follow-up strip, and have two funny strips that are easier on the eye.

That said, man, I'm not an editor or a stripper, so take that for what it's worth.

(Reply to this)


[info]kylakae
2007-08-24 03:43 pm UTC (link)
I'd agree with Doug that "at-first-glance" some people might glaze over it because of all the text. However, I also agree that all the panels work well and once captured you'd have a loyal following. They are, after all, clever and funny.

(Reply to this)

hilarious
(Anonymous)
2007-08-24 04:33 pm UTC (link)
I don't know how helpful it would be for me to just say "hilarious" after every one of your comics, but that's basically the way I feel.

(Reply to this)


[info]cheferos
2007-08-24 04:34 pm UTC (link)
Did I happen to mention that I "brought it"?

Brilliant. That whole theme of trying to be cool or awesome without really understanding how is the crux of much humor. I'm imaging a board of directors addressing the shareholder representatives and saying "...so persuant to item 154 on the agenda, we would like at this time to reiterate vis-a-vis the market projection, the degree to which we "F'D THAT SH*T UP".

Remember that the Governator declined to change his last name early in his career. He was told that it would be hard for people to memorize and pronounce. I seem to recall though that Arnie said once they DID get it, they would never forget it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]llennhoff
2007-08-24 07:42 pm UTC (link)
One wonders what his career would have been like had he been known as "Arnold Schwartz".

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]nikau
2007-08-25 03:08 am UTC (link)
Honestly, I miss the old format.

But actually, when I think about it, it may only be the presentation *here* that I don't like. If you're aiming for publication in newspapers I guess you pretty much need to have the strip aligned in this way. But when you post these online, can you make the images larger in size? BI is very text-heavy and I felt that the text was way too small to read, meaning that my eyes just kind of slid past the densest panels, and I would end up not understanding the punch line. This happened with the "How To Be X-Treme!!!" strip.

Absolutely nothing wrong with the content though!

(Reply to this)


[info]skfromstamford
2007-08-25 04:15 am UTC (link)
what if you stretched each basic instruction over two days, with two panels and a title panel each day? The first day, you pose the question, the second day, you answer it.

(Reply to this)


[info]arovd
2007-08-25 08:50 pm UTC (link)
Actually, I think I like it best of all the tests so far...

(Reply to this)


(Anonymous)
2007-08-26 01:55 pm UTC (link)
In my humble, non-expert opinion.

The way I see the humour working is that you describe a situation, and then visualise it into a single panel. I like that a lot: the two complement eachother perfectly. However, it also "crowds" each panel because it is something on its own.

I'm not sure how this can be helped--or even if it should--but I'm afraid the format you use (both visual format as delivery) does not lend to small panels. Strips like Dilbert and Garfield have a lot of empty space in each panel, lightening for casual read.

You can make something different that's also good (you _have_ comical talent), but I doubt you can take BI and "cram" it into three panels without changing it radically. It's not the same, but it's still good.

Just my two cents, :)
Tarbo

(Reply to this)

(13 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…