Every once in a while I receive the urge to draw something silly; I could show you some questionable comics I drew years and years ago, but let’s just say that I’d better leave those sleeping dogs lie. My humour is not only questionable – it’s outright offensive to most people. As an example, while doing my military service I drew a comic that featured an infamous German dictator and his rather infamous doctor accomplice. I found it hilarious to display them as a comic due along the lines of Laurel and Hardy. I guess the military leadership I saw in real life inspired me.

My debatable humour is not my only obstacle: I also suck at drawing. More specifically, at drawing original things. I can do decent sketches based on others’ works, but I can’t make an original composition very well. This is not a good thing for someone aspiring to produce comics.

While all of this might or might not be interesting, where is it all leading? I drew an inane comic just now, and just for laughs I thought I’d put it up here. After all, what’s a blog for if not to be filled with content of dubious quality? Before I do that I’ll show you some other comics o’ mine. Have you heard of Flakey? He was an impressive early robot constructed by SRI, and in an AI class back in 2000 we got to see a video clip showing off his capabilities. Most impressive was the scene where he accepted a vocal command and then performed the task admirably. The task was “Bring Lesley a bagle.” This is crucial for understanding many of the comics below.

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey1.jpg

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey2.jpg

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey3.jpg

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey4.jpg

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey5.jpg

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey6.jpg

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/Flakey7.jpg

I love Flakey5, personally. But I guess I’m just a tad biased in this matter.

Now, onto the topic of my recent comic. Compared to the ones above, it sucks. Sorry, there’s just no getting around it: Flakey was poorly drawn but the jokes were topical, the cast was specified before I started drawing, and the humour was accessible (if you can ever say that computer science humour is accessible). There was a plan behind it all. With this latter comic I just started drawing a bit, without any idea what to produce. I had read a bit about Chiaroscuro paintings and thought that the technique was interesting, so I went with a completely black background. Some experimenting to and fro resulted in this:

http://www.cynicalstuff.com/images/comics/saturday_afternoon.jpg

Note how dull the comic is; note how the text and images don’t really match; note my poor use of the space; note how the hockey hair magically disappeared in the second and third “frames”; note how my experiment with leaving the eyes see-through only results in the appearance of spectacles; note how I’m mixing obsessive symmetrical thinking with chaotic assymetry; note how I fail at drawing convincing emotion.

So what is it that I’m saying? That I’ll give up drawing strange comics? Of course not. But the next time I pick up the drawing pad I’ll have a plan beforehand: the art style needs to be thought over, the cast needs to be defined, and the jokes need to emerge before I start scribbling random things.

Regardless of artistic deficiencies, I think that I am able to create a decent comic - it just requires a bit more work if the raw talent is missing. John Stuart Mill wrote marvellous philosophical and economical pieces, but he always claimed that he was nothing special. Anyone could do what he did if they had the same background and upbringing, he claimed. I don’t agree fully, but hard work can definitely make up for many shortcomings; genius isn’t always a trait one is born with – I believe that it can be aquired.

Well. Except for me, when it comes to comics. I’ll settle for someday possibly becoming competent.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.