Ask me your dumb questions

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    1. Patrick McPherson

      I have never ever been told I look like any one celebrity. The closest I've come is I've had several people say I should be a member of the Bee Gees.

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    5. Patrick McPherson

      Yeah it sure would, wouldn't it?

      Unfortunately, I just started college and I'm finding myself busier than ever. In fact my buffer has dwindled down to nothing. I don't even know what I'm going to update with Friday. But I'll find something.

      In the future, I would love to do a comic with a M-W-F update schedule. But that time just hasn't come yet.

    6. Patrick McPherson

      Most things, but if I had to pick just one, I wish I had better rhythm. Then I'd be able to dance and play games like Guitar Hero. I choose not to play Just Dance or Dance Central because I'd like for people to respect me.

    7. Patrick McPherson

      Sure I do. A few catches though.
      I'm not very good at most video games. Fighters, shooters, RPG's. I prefer simpler platformers or arcade style games. In my mind, they're just more fun. Give me Mario Kart over Need for Speed any day.
      Also, since I want to be a cartoonist, I play games less and less. Any free time I have is usually spent drawing. As a kid I was a complete hardcore gamer, but I'm becoming more casual as the days go by. And I don't mind that.

    8. Patrick McPherson

      Probably a ghost from Pacman when you eat a power pellet.
      http://www.pixfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/pacman-blue-ghost.jpg
      I don't know why. It just appeals to me. But I have a low tolerance for pain anyway, so I don't know if I'll ever get a tattoo.

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      My friend Ashley! Because she's awesome and tells me to draw awesome things and then I draw them.

    13. Patrick McPherson

      Oh I see. Well then I don't have any advice, having never used that.
      But when looking for a tablet, take notice of software bundles. When I got my Intuos3, it came with Photoshop Elements. PSE is actually a pretty crap program. It's like photoshop but missing a lot of features. But it was good enough until I got a full version. Once you're working in some Adobe software, you can make proper speech balloons and plenty of other things.
      Best of luck to you. I'll be here if you have anything else to ask.

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    15. Patrick McPherson

      I’m so sorry this answer is so long. Please forgive my rambling, but I LOVE talking comics. I tried to be as constructive as possible.
      One of the first things I noticed was your format. You work in a 4 panel format. But most of the time the first panel is just a title card. This isn’t needed. If the reader is on your site, they know what they’re reading. Later on, I saw more use of that first panel bringing the comic to a start. The title there is just taking up space. Lose the title and replace with more funny.
      Don’t worry too much about your art. All artists improve with practice. It’s not the most elaborate art, but that’s fine. What matters is that the art is EFFECTIVE. As an example, look at Pictures for Sad Children. Yes, it uses stick figures, but its visuals are effective. It conveys all the information needed to understand the comic while still retaining the minimalism that makes it so sophisticated. There’s almost no posing, and a complete lack of expressions, but the comic is filled with emotion. Your art has the power to affect HOW a viewer reads the comic, so make sure your visuals are clear.
      On a more technical note, your speech balloons don’t have tails. This is a must. Having boxes of text close to a character just doesn’t cut it. For example, in the sandwich comic, I had no idea that the sandwich spoke. I thought it was Lucas speaking. You don’t want something little like that to ruin the joke. Use the tails to prevent this kind of confusion in your readers.
      In some of the first comics, I noticed some Talking Head Syndrome. This is where two characters stand next to each other and talk with little to no change in visuals. It gets boring to look at and the art is more of an afterthought. I was glad to see more dynamics the further I read in, so I see that’s becoming less frequent. Good job.
      As far as the writing, I’ll be honest. Most of the time, I didn’t get the jokes. Comics like Happy Birthday, Resizing Issues and Reading seemed to lack punchlines entirely. Comics like Pool Shark and Wrestlers made me chuckle though. Backseat Gamer had potential. It wasn’t so much about back seat gaming as much as it was just losing a game. And that’s not much of a joke. There could’ve been more dialogue between the characters building up the joke. I didn’t laugh at Superheroes either. That’s probably just because I don’t care for humor poking fun of homosexuality. But the joke about the abbreviation for F.A.G. was clever. The problem was it wasn’t in the comic. I didn’t understand that until I read your comment afterwards. Remember that a comic should stand on its own. A good tip I’ll never forget is “if you need to explain the joke, you told it wrong.” If the joke is in the artist’s notes or a blog post, there’s no point in there being a comic.
      In the latest comic, Earth Day, I thought the funniest joke was in the second panel. “Hug or violate at least one tree” made me laugh, but “roll around in mud” didn’t. Clever writing is just what a comic with simple visuals need. A comic is all about the writing. It’s the reason there’s only a few really good stick figure comics out there. If the comic is written well enough, people won’t care about the minimalist art.
      I think I lost track of the question here. I hope this critique will help you with yours comics. And remember my comic’s not perfect and I’m still new as well. I don’t know everything. Everything in the answer is entirely my opinion. What really matters is that you make the comic you want to make.

    16. Patrick McPherson

      Every cartoonist has a different process to creating comics. Some use a buffer; some make the comic the day of the update. Since I update weekly, I use a buffer so I don’t fall behind, and I probably still would even if I did a daily. I create enough comics for a month’s worth of updates, which is easy since that’s only about four or five comics a month right now. For instance, all through April, I worked on enough comics for May. And now that I have enough comics for May, I’m starting on the comics for June. When it comes time to update, I upload it manually the day of. It would probably be wise to use that time release function.
      Honestly, I find it a bit troubling that you come up with ideas and make comics out of them in a short period of time. Now I don’t know your work so I can’t judge, but I know if I created comics as soon as I thought of them, the quality of my comics would decrease dramatically. I need to take some time to work my comics until they’re just right. Maybe you DO write amazing comics every time you sit at your computer, but I can’t. I’m not saying you need to spend a month writing each comic, but just remember that the majority of our ideas are bad ideas.
      Now if your problem is being out of ideas to make comics of in the first place, let me just say you’re never out of ideas. Funny things happen in everyday life all the time. You are always WRITING comics. Do everything in your power to remember all of your ideas. If you find something funny, write it down so you don’t forget it. Trust me, you WILL forget. Then weed through the bad ones. The good ones you’re left will potentially become comics.
      I hope I answered your question somewhere in this novel of a response.

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    20. Patrick McPherson

      How I keep making comics is hard to answer. I just really want to make comics, so I do. And I try write and draw the best comics I can.
      The best advice I have is to not be lazy. I always say I never have time to make comics. But honestly, I have plenty of time. I’m guilty of using excuses like “I’ve had a hard day at school, I finished my homework, I just want to sit down and relax.” But that time I spend watching TV or browsing the internet could be spent making comics. If you really want to make comics, you need to MAKE COMICS. So try to work past any laziness. Loving comics in general has been the best motivation for me.
      I hope I’ve answered your question but if you’d like to elaborate on your issue, I’d love a follow up so I can give you more specific advice.

Patrick McPherson

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I make comics and comic accessories

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