What a BARGAIN!!!! Lemonade for a dollar. You cannot get that deal these days for fresh, hand-squeezed lemonade. No sir! This deal is ONLY available in today’s comic strip.

The joke above is another play on words. I love this formula when writing gags. You would think such a formula makes writing these types of jokes easy. Well, it is supposed to BUT….. I have not written a gag in 6 months!!!!!

Wait, what????

Yeah, I was on the road for my day job, sitting in an airport during a flight delay… a LONG flight delay…. and I sat down and wrote 6 months’ worth of weekly comic strips in roughly three hours. This is the first strip I had to write in six months.

I am never taking a break again.

My rhythm was gone. It has always been SO easy to write. The writing was getting easier and easier, as seen six months ago when I went on a holy tear, writing close to 30 strips in one sitting. This strip was a rough outing. It took me about 45 minutes to work out the gag.

That said, I wrote the next 5 gags for October in just over an hour… so I am getting back in the swing. I am heading out on vacation soon and will bring my notepad with me on the plane in hopes of another creative burst.

Formulas aside, I also use the rhythm method. I know that sounds like something else, but it is a real thing for comic strip writers. I do a four-panel strip. As I write, I hear, “Bumpity bumpity bump…. bumpity bumpity bumpity bump…. bippity bippity boo…. wocka wocka wockity” echoing in my head. Maybe I am crazy, but this poetic vibe helps me hear the thoughts more clearly and in a more comedic and rhythmic form. The results are gags in my head playing out more smoothly and reverberating with a more pleasant flow, allowing the gags to play out clearer and with more punch.

That or I am super crazy.

WEBSITE UPDATE

If you have not checked out my website lately. please pop over and look at the sleek, new layout. I still have a few pages which need to be simplified. My art page is clunky. The character page is a disaster and will be completely overhauled in a few months. The rest of the pages look awesome.

I am going to begin pulling old blog posts from 2013 – 2015 because some are just a lot of pointless rambling. I may keep a few for posterity. I need to clean them up in case a syndicate pops over to take a look. I need my best on display. Syndication is near, I can feel it!

In the next few months, I will be working on my digital comic book series. I have been struggling with the cost of printing my second issue. I have performed well at my comic con appearances, but the profits go back to the next show table, hotel, prints, sketch covers, and markers. When all is said and done, I have no funds remaining for a print run. Digital comics may be the only answer as there is no cost at all for me.

MORAL OF THE STORY…

When life hands you rotten lemons, use a LOT of extra sugar.

There is a deep, dark meaning there. I will leave it to you guys all to decipher the meaning.

-Davy