It's "Advice Time"! The topic? Cartooning!

[Dart Zaidyer]

Here's the story: My lifelong dream was to be a cartoonist. No, really. When I was a kid I started my own comic strip. It didn't get any good until I realized Garfield sucked and there were better things to look to for inspiration.
So I wrote and drew and I was pretty proud of my work. I had about 5 years' worth of material going for the 7 or 8 years I'd spent developing my strip. But when it came time to go "professional", I'd already read Bill Watterson's horror stories and heard about the success of Penny Arcade and PvP, and the general consensus was that syndicates were vapid, greedy, out of touch, and old news.
So when I went into the wide world of webcomics, I came across a major disappointment:
My comic strip was the same as everyone else's, ever.
The worst part was that I had developed it in a content vacuum, unaware that everyone else got the same ideas at about the same time.

Talking animal mascot? Check, everyone does that. Self-awareness? Ditto. Character named after the cartoonist? Check, Real Life Comics. Cameos by the cartoonist/his pencil? Check. Excuse to draw badly or not at all from time to time? Also check. The list goes on.

The question is, what can I do to inject some originality? What would make my comic strip stand out among a sea of me-toos and I-don't-cares? If everything's been done, what are the paths that have been explored least?

I'm hoping that I can find some answers. I would appreciate whatever constructive input you have.

[Kairyu]

Well, I'd say "Insult the reader," but people actually do that already. Maybe try adding some unique new characters?

[ShadowTiger]

Walk around with a notepad around your neck on a string or something. No, seriously. Ever since I began doing it, it's been flooded with little ideas that pop into my head. Try to notice little quirks that you observe. Connect them with other things that seemingly have no meaning.

Also, working backwards from a funny event can lead you to almost surreal circumstances, and those are almost always funny if you do them right.

[MANDRAG GANON]

Well, it's pretty hard to be original since like you said, everything has been done. I dunno...an Absract comic? LoL. Just because your comic is the same, doesn't neccessarily mean its bad, sure it has elements the same as these other comics, but are the stories original? Look at TV, family guy is a good example of being the same as most other cartoons only what they do makes it great. Animal mascot or what ever. It doesn't mean it will be bad. *shrugs*

[theplustwo]

It would be helpful if you linked to your comic someplace. It's like asking for PC help without posting your operating system.

Plus, I'd just like to read it. :)

I have had pretty much the same story as you. I grew up with Garfield, until I realized that Calvin and Hobbes was way better. I've been doodling ever since I can remember, and had a comic strip in the school newspaper, and now have a webcomic. I think the most important thing is having clearly defined characters (I should learn to follow my own advice). Basically, tons of webcomics have interchangeable characters that are essentially talking heads with no real motivation for their actions.

There are too many comics that just feature wacky randomness as opposed to real character driven humor. Scott Kurtz has characters that he's built on for several years. I think his storylines get a bit too involved much of the time (you practically have to read a months worth of back story to "get" a given strip) but his characters are definately well rounded.

A good inspiration for character driven comedy is Chuck Jones. Aside from generally being a genius, his road runner cartoons are an excellent example of character driven humor. The jokes are made funnier because we know the characters so well. Also, they work within a set of disciplines, which I've always thought was a good practice. For example, the road runner never leaves the road, and never physically harms Wile E. Coyote. Any violence towards him is self-inflicted (except some possible dues ex machina, or even dues ex Acme).

The discipline thing works in other venues as well. Jack White creates a set of disciplines that he follows for each White Stripes records. White Blood Cells had no bass, and no solos. Elephant was recorded in 10 days using no equipment manufactured after 1966. I think adopting disciplines can help force an artist to be more creative and come out with better material than he would have otherwise.

Take Dinosaur Comics, the panels are exactly the same every day, but the strips vary greatly in content and style so it works. There's even a fan-made review (http://qwantz.com/fanart/dinosaurcomicsreview.png) that speaks to this with great effect.

So basically I think the trick to making a good comic is to first establish a set of disciplines you wish to follow and then work on getting your characters as well-rounded as possible, which will lead to origional situations and gags because nobody is going to be using your exact displines and your characters will react to situations in unique ways.

Hope this helped. :)

[Dart Zaidyer]

It would be helpful if you linked to your comic someplace. It's like asking for PC help without posting your operating system.

Plus, I'd just like to read it.

Well, currently it's nowhere on the internet. I have no decent hosting solution, and I don't want to have to build my site around obnoxious ads that have nothing to do with my strip or something like that. Webcomic communities are also out of the question... I want full ownership and control over my own work. If you can recommend hosting, that would be greatly appreciated.

Plus, most of my stuff is written on line paper with a pencil. That makes it really hard to clean up after scanning.

I've already got a site design lined up though, as well as a small selection of sample strips.

[theplustwo]

Ah, well, I use www.pronetspace.com . I actually signed up when it was HostingScene, but it was bought out by ProNetSpace. I'm not sure if their hosting packages are the same now as they used to be.