It’s time to kick off this new week with a big dose of good, yet slightly dark humor. This is brought to you by Daniel Scully and his hilarious comic series ‘The Mealstorm’. It’s a great escape for those whose occupation demands formality and prohibits the slipping of any silly jokes while dealing with day-to-day tasks. Good news for you folks: just take a break, relax, and enjoy this funny ride as we dive into the strips we've selected for you today.
The cartoonist shared with us the background of him becoming a professional comic artist: “Woah. 'Professionally' is a strong word. I have always loved to draw and make people laugh. So I always thought that writing comic strips was a great marriage of the two. I have always loved reading comics. When I was a kid, I would pore over books of Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Far Side that I would get from the library down the street from me. I would study their drawing techniques and their joke structures over and over again. My grandpa used to save stacks of the funny pages from the Sunday newspaper and bring them over for me to read and I would read every single comic on every single page even if I didn't like them.”
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The creator of The Mealstorm added: “About 10 years ago, I decided I should just give it a shot and started making comics to put online. I gained a pretty good following over time and really honed my skills.
But, lately I have been working on my career as a graphic designer and sadly have not had much time to devote to comics. I still love them and read them all the time and I'll occasionally jot down an idea and try to carve out some time to turn it into a four-panel. And I still kind of hold on to the hope that I will have enough time to pick it up again in the future…”
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We also asked Daniel to share a bit more about his artistic background. He said: “Like I mentioned earlier, I have been drawing ever since I can remember. I also enjoy sculpting and mixed media. I try to keep creating things and show it off as much as I can. Whether that is entering into an art exhibit, or simply throwing a sketch I did up on to social media. Other than high school art classes and a couple college courses, I don't have much classical training. But I am always trying to improve by reading books on art and design, learning from other people, and practice practice practice!”
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Next, we were wondering who influenced the artist’s unique style in creating comics. Scully told us: “I grew up trying to emulate the effortless and yet complex styles of Jim Davis from Garfield and Bill Watterson from Calvin and Hobbes. Over time, I've been influenced by other comic artists that I admire and by a lot of thought about how I want my sense of humor to come through. I have tried a lot of things and failed at them but learned a ton.”
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Daniel also shared with us more about the process of creating his new comics and where his ideas come from: “I try to remember to write down every idea I come up with. Even if it's a bad one, there are so many bad ideas that turned into great ideas with a little bit of work. After running out of all of the ideas I came up with before I started writing comics, I realized I had to come up with a good method for coming up with ideas when I am uninspired. So eventually I came up with this method where I write five ideas every day. Even if they are bad ideas, I just get five ideas down on paper every single day. So many good comics have come out of this method. There have been times where I go back through my notebook and I think to myself ‘Oh boy that was a terrible idea. But, if I did it like this, it might not be that bad. Or, I could combine it with this other idea, and it would be great!’”
He also added: “Coming up with something out of nothing is intimidating and hard. But if you give yourself the freedom to come up with something bad, you'll find that you can come up with a lot.”
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Finally, the cartoonist was kind enough to share some advice for the aspiring comic artists looking to break into the industry: “Put together a small collection of work and just put it out there. And then keep putting it out there. You will get a lot of unsolicited advice, criticism, and a lot of praise. Use that all to make better stuff!
Don't be afraid to copy other people's style. Just be sure to copy a lot of people's style! Eventually that will lead to new ideas and new styles and one day you'll have your own style.
And lastly, make sure you're doing it for yourself. I didn't make it big as a comic artist or even make a living out of it. But, I am so glad that I made my collection of comics. I learned so much from it and I'm so proud of it.”
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