Anonymous asked:
Today’s comic is a SUPER SPECIAL GUEST STRIP, with art by the great Josh Bauman of Caffeinated Toothpaste! Stay tuned later on to check out my guest strip for him!
[Update] The comic I drew for Josh is up!
Anonymous asked:
This is an awesome question, so I’m going to try to give you an awesome answer.
First, MercWorks started almost completely by accident. I was just making funny drawings to make my friends laugh and people liked them. Eventually I started a regular update schedule and that’s pretty much how MercWorks was born.
Writing is hard. Serious business.
You can’t wait for inspiration, because inspiration is infrequent and that can become an excuse to not do anything. It’s important to force yourself to make something (an update schedule that you really commit to makes a big difference here), even if you don’t think it’s your best work - because not everything can be! Have fun with it, and don’t treat it as a chore.
The most important thing as far as writing goes is to write down EVERYTHING that you find interesting/funny/whatever. I keep a notebook on me at absolutely all times, and if I hear or see something that gives me a chuckle inside I’ll just write it down or do a quick sketch. If I don’t have a notebook handy, I’ll record the idea in my phone. I’ve learned NEVER to think, “I’ll remember that later,” because it’s very, very rare that I actually do.
Some ideas are just awesome, and you can write down the script and it’s perfect out the gate. Some other ideas I’ve had written down in a huge text file just waiting - some for almost a year now. I know there’s SOMETHING there, but I just haven’t figured it out yet. I’ll peruse the ideas file every so often and see if anything sticks out to me. A lot of times seeing a good concept with a fresh perspective can bring it home in a big way. (A good example is today’s comic, in fact!)
Last, but certainly not least, read comics that you find funny. All of them. Keep up with the update schedules, immerse yourself in the culture of it. I’ve got a pretty large list myself, and there’s enough variety out there that you can narrow down the type of humor you really enjoy. Having inspiration from other artists makes a huge difference and can really broaden your own range.
So the TL;DR is: love what you do, never lose an idea, and find inspiration in everything.