To find out even more about his funny comic series, we reached out to its author once again. Knowing that the 4-panel format often relies on precise timing to land a punchline, we asked Cameron how he approaches the rhythm of his strip to ensure it flows well. The artist responded: “I actually love working within the four-panel structure. I find it forces you to be concise. You have just enough time to set an expectation and then break it. Those constraints themselves ensure the rhythm of the joke!”
Next, we wanted to know if there are any jokes or visual cues that Spires enjoys revisiting in his comics. We were also curious how the cartoonist reinvents them to avoid repetition. We learned that: “Great question. It’s got to be the pun. It’s one thing, but it sounds like another thing. These days, I won’t avoid them exactly, but I have a bit of a rule that the pun can’t be the only joke. There’s got to be some kind of extra gag or funny button on the pun. For example, I have one comic where a ‘bath bomb’ is a literal bomb, but the real joke is that the character is aware he’s in a comic, so he knows it’s going to be a literal bomb.”
Many artists follow creative routines to stay consistent with producing new work. We were curious if Cameron has a similar approach. He told us: “I wish I had time for that! I’ve got a couple of kids and a full-time career in advertising, so I do comics when I can find a spare minute. One thing that helps is to do a little bit at a time so I don’t have to commit [to] sitting down for an hour. I just tinker on one comic a few minutes at a time over a couple of days.”
Lastly, we were wondering if there were any particular comics or characters that became popular with readers in ways Spires didn’t expect. The artist shared with us: “By far ‘James’ in my ‘Did you eat s**t in the driveway’ comic became way more popular than I expected. People message me all the time that it’s their favorite comic. Something about his face seems to delight people.”
