Why This Cartoon Works (I Think) #3

OK, I’ve been blabbing on and on about non-cartoon stuff for a while again, so back to cartoon blogging with another cartoon that works, and why.

Let’s look at this cartoon:

4530

OK. first the art:

Again, a very very simple scene. A sidewalk and a brick wall hinted at. The character, however, really took some attention to detail for the joke to work.

I hunted down every deck of cards in the house to get sort of a consensus king. Well, for the head, anyway; the body isn’t really important.

Often when I do characters like this I’ll do more of a wiggly line in the clothing and sign for a dirtier, more unkempt look, but for some reason I didn’t here.

Although I do have the font of my handwriting, I did hand letter the sign to get a more realistic look.

The joke:

To be honest, I’m not even really sure what the joke is here. Was the king himself lost during a shuffle? Did he lose his status during a shuffle? You could go even a little further afield, but those are probably the best options.

This thing is, it’s a pretty funny cartoon right off the bat. When you think about it any deeper, it’s a little odd, and then sort of confusing. Or maybe that’s just me having overanalyzed it.

Anyway, a good joke, even if I can’t really explain why.

The sale:

Sold and colored for Reader’s Digest:

4530 Rd Color-1

I spent some time in Photoshop getting some texture and color effects, and I like how it turned out.

Often publications will remove my signature in the lower right, so I moved it up a tad and made sure it was placed within the color.

Well that’s it. Anyone have any other theories on the gag?

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Cartoon Twofer in November Reader’s Digest!

Rdnov06

Hey, I’ve got two cartoons in the current Reader’s Digest!

Here’s one, and here’s the other.

As an added bonus, here’s an email I got on the second one:

Can you explain the cartoon with all the turkeys at a party all with nametags that say “Hi I’m Tom”?

Is it the whole male turkeys called Toms thing, and if so, is that funny?

Yes, that’s funny.

(BTW, the person who emailed me? You guessed it: Tom.)

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