In an article for Writer’s Digest, cartoonist Will McPhail shares seven tips for writing an impactful cartoon. “Sitting down to create a great cartoon can be a daunting prospect,” he says. “Luckily, I have gathered several tricks of the trade over the years which I believe make the whole experience much more manageable.”
Here’s the best of the lot: Honor your own interests. “All you can really do is wallow in your own humor and hope other people like it,” McPhail says. “I heard Phoebe Bridgers once talking about musicians who cynically write songs because they want a hit rather than because they love the song itself. If it isn’t a hit then they just wasted their time, and if it is a hit, it means they have to spend the rest of their careers playing this song that they fucking hate. I feel exactly the same way about cartoons. If I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing this then I better at least make stuff that I find funny.”
