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A bit of history: Nothing But Clams is my fourth comic strip. Three others, in chronological order, were Wombat, Dry Shave, and Tar Paper Town, which appeared in Vancouver’s Georgia Straight and a smattering of alt-weeklies during the '80s, '90s, and 2000s. (Does anyone remember alt-weeklies?) This is my first online-only comic, making it extra low stakes and just-for-kicks. What? You want your money back?
Since first reading Peanuts as a kid, I’ve always been drawn to the four-panel comic strip. There’s just something I find satisfying about the format, something I connect with. It’s both economical and flexible. The challenge of its restrictions makes it part of the fun. I also admire single-panel comics, but find the regular output of those to be difficult. It’s a separate and unique talent, in my opinion.
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Leonard Cohen was once asked where good songs come from and he replied, “If I knew, I’d go there more often.” It’s a great line about the mysteries of creativity. Without comparing myself to Cohen in the least, I kind of feel the same way about strip ideas. It’s a strange grey area. Some ideas come fully formed, others I fight with to make work. Of course, there’s a lot of real life material in there, but I tend to use the really weird instances that I think are just so effed-up that I need to share. I think most cartoonists are keen observers to some degree.
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I jot stuff down on a pad of paper – often just a phrase or title – and let it percolate until I can shape it into something. I seldom sketch at this point unless a particularly funny image comes to mind. Riffing with fellow cartoonists/artists is always helpful as well. Sometimes just saying an idea out loud helps me see it more clearly. Many times I’ll get an idea that is just so stupid or corny that I can’t resist turning it into a strip. For me, that in itself becomes part of the joke.
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From there I sketch it out, shuffle stuff around, pick what characters I think would work best, then go to final line art and half tone for the greys. (I miss the days of old zipatone screens – sheets of halftone that you had to cut with an exacto knife.) I’m a big fan of black and white and doubt that I’d ever start doing color. I'm all about simplicity and economy. I work digitally, but there are some analog strips in the mix as well. But once you go digital, "Command Z" is like crack.
I won’t even get into the subject of what makes something funny. I wish I knew.
All said, I consider four-panel comic strips to be an art form, albeit an often silly, puerile, and inconsequential art form.
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