Mark Heath
Say hello to cartoon #292:
Now say hello to its close cousin, cartoon #5217
Puns are often a close-knit family.*
*Even now I’m wrestling down the urge to draw a cartoon of a family squeezed on the same couch, knitting.
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You’ll note two things about this cartoon: the parakeets don’t look like parakeets, and the joke is a pun. This lets you know that I don’t always research what I draw, and when I warn against the hazards of drawing puns, I’m preaching, not practicing (though in my defense, this pun hasn’t been drawn all that often.)
Yesterday I warned against the dangers of writing pun cartoons that have likely been done before. I mentioned Carbon Dating in passing, but here’s the proof. This one is carbon-dated at five years.
Note for tyro cartoonists: Beware the pun. If you strive to write cartoons with a fair chance of being unique, stay away from word play. I drew this five years ago, and I’d be surprised if anti-bacterial soap opera hasn’t appeared a few hundred times since then in submission envelopes.
I generally love puns. They’re easy to write. They’re goofy. Occasionally sublime. But not everyone likes them. And by everyone I mean editors.* Some buyers prefer the traditional format of drawing and caption, or drawing alone. I never sold to certain magazines until I submitted the standard drawing/caption.
Speaking for myself, writing too many puns can make you lazy. Puns are often obvious, a slap in the face for any cartoon. And puns are always time-stamped. You get one chance to bring it to life — to retain the element of surprise — and you have to be first. Was Cereal Killer ever funny? Maybe. If you were the first one to write it, draw it, sell it. But it reached its expiration date a few seconds after it was published.**
Once nobrowcartoons.com is online, you’ll discover that I’m a hypocrite. My inventory will be choked with pun cartoons. I still like them. I won’t run from my past. But unless I get an idea that’s bolt-from-the-blue brilliant, I’ll do my best not to write more of them.
And the world weeps in gratitude.
* But here’s the exception. If you’re submitting to trade magazines, puns will always be popular. The buzz words and jargon that inform any field are beloved. I draw a lot of science cartoons, and many of them are puns. The expiration date is stamped on each one, however; you probably won’t be the first person to pun on Carbon Dating. Your best bet is to pun on the terms that are newly coined, or more rarified.
**Which isn’t to say that you couldn’t write a funny cartoon with the Cereal Killer idea. Cartooning is built on the reefs of older jokes. It’s not enough to point them out. You have to add a new layer.
Now that I’ll be competing with the Mark Anderson juggernaut, a lot of my success will depend on this happening:
I figure a sentence of 8-12 years should do the trick.
For those keeping score, I’m up to 214 cartoons. To all of you cartoonists with only 213 cartoons, I laugh haughtily. The above is an early greeting card that swept the nation; as in under the rug.