Bored Panda contacted James to discuss his comic. First, we asked the artist to tell us more about the process of developing characters that fit the tone of his series. We found out: “Since my comics started off as just a series of one-shot gags, almost all of my characters started off that way as well - they just needed to serve the purpose of communicating a joke or humorous situation I came up with. If I want to add a smidgen more of depth to that character, I just ask myself, ‘What kind of person would they have to be to perform this role in the gag? Who would sound natural speaking these words?’”
The cartoonist continued, sharing even more insights about the characters featured in his strips: “Beary is a bear who gets into innocuous situations only to be scared off every time someone raises their hands above their heads. This happens to him every time and he never sees it coming, so he's got to be a little naive and open to new situations (so I can have this same gag happen to him in different contexts). His best friend Jessica, or any of the other people he hangs out with, are not trying to scare him on purpose, so they 're probably on friendly terms with Beary, meaning Beary's gotta be pretty friendly and agreeable as well. Boom, characterization.
Another example: Feitr Sordsmann was first created to mock the trope of the ‘good guy’ who always solves every problem with violence. But he also has friends and a reputation as ‘the Champion of Justice’ to society at large, so he can't just be a murderous sociopath at all times. Not only does that make me come up with different characteristics for Feitr, but it also leads to me fleshing out the society he lives in and attempting to build a world that makes sense to have violent adventurers running around being called ‘heroes’ by most people . Now that I've got a basic character and an idea of the universe he lives in, it's just a matter of figuring out how he interacts with that environment and how it shapes him.”
When asked which specific elements are most effective in creating humor in his comics, James explained: “I mean, I guess a good set-up and punchline, but that's just describing what a joke is. I'm actually not sure how to isolate the most effective elements in my humor, not all my comics employ the same structure. There are some comics that I try to make short and snappy, others that go on for longer than usual, and I don't know if I can say they work with the same elements.
When it comes to ‘most effective,’ I can only determine that after I've shared my work and seen how many people like it. And even then, I'm still baffled as to why certain comics are more ‘effective’ than others - if I knew how to identify what's effective, I feel like I'd be a lot more popular than I am.”
The artist then shared more about the evolution of his style over time: “For one, I've started to standardize my style in recent years. When I first started, I intended to try out multiple art styles tailored to the subject or theme of the gag I was writing. But honestly, I'm neither good enough of an artist nor patient enough to keep on changing my art style with every comic, so I've kinda just settled on a couple of styles that's easy for me to do reliably.
I was unemployed for the first two-and-a-bit years of doing this comic, so I had a lot of time to experiment with my art and try a lot of different things. Since then, I got a new job, moved homes, and done other things in my personal life which has really taken me away from my comic, so I just can't dedicate the same time and effort I used to.”
“At the same time, I feel like the comics I do make nowadays are a bit more refined than before. Neater lines, more consistent details - now that I'm not worried about making sure I've got two updates a week, I can take things slower. But I don't know, maybe if I reread my output from the past couple of years, things won't seem as different as I think they are. Or maybe they'll be more different than I think they are? My perspective on the passage of time has gotten wonky these days; I don't know how my development looks on the broad scale anymore.”
Our final question for James was about the concept of a good comic. We were curious to know, in the artist’s opinion, what makes a successful strip and what mistakes should be avoided to create a great comic. The author of “But a Jape” shared with us: “I have no idea what a ‘good comic’ even means - this feels like a subset of the question of what ‘good art’ is and I've never been able to come to a conclusion on that. I know there are certain comics I like and certain comics I don't - some of the comics I like are completely ignored by most people, some of the ones I don't are constantly shared and loved. If I don't think a comic is good, but everyone on the internet seems to love it, what's it matter that I don't think it's good?
I guess one way to interpret this question is, ‘did my audience understand the message I was trying to deliver?’ Like, if I make a comic intended to mock Person A, but all the comments seem to think I'm praising them, I guess that would be a bad comic I made, whether or not people think it's funny. So I'm often trying to construct my comics in a way that I'm communicating my intention clearly. But on the other hand, I also don't want to make things heavy handed, and subtle or clever writing often carries the risk of misinterpretation. I'm sorry, I've convinced myself to not answer the question again.”
“But if there's any ‘mistake’ I would advise artists to avoid, it's the idea that you can't make or share your art until you're ‘good enough.’ Yes, it would be great if you only ever made ‘good comics’ and never shared your ‘bad comics,’ but you kinda never know which one's which until they're observed by others. And even then, a lot of people will disagree on which ones are good or bad. You'll probably disagree with people on what's good or bad. But if you really want to be an artist, you have to make art, and even if you're doing nothing but crap in the beginning, you can only improve by doing more.
And never mind anything about the ‘sharing art’ part - if you don't get from sharing your art with an audience, you don't need to. If it's not the source of your livelihood, you don't have to show anyone anything you make. If you really don't care about other people's opinions and just have a desire to make stuff, just make it. Or share it and just don't care what people say. Or share it and just pay attention to the compliments? I dunno, I think I just convinced myself not to answer the question again.”
