{"id":17119,"date":"2019-03-03T17:11:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T23:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/?p=17119"},"modified":"2019-03-12T10:29:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:29:03","slug":"and-that-is-how-you-tell-a-joke-to-a-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/?p=17119","title":{"rendered":"And THAT is how you tell a joke to a kid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I drew up this one page Casper comic…it’s a parody, not really aimed at kids, BUT in structure it is a fine example of storytelling for a kid..first the gag, then I’ll explain…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alright, now lemme explain how this is a great joke for kids… IN STRUCTURE. That specific joke, probably not G rated…but the structure is how you capture kid’s imaginations. and that is the job, even if you’re telling a quick joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing about kids is …they laugh a lot.  I saw some \n\t\t\t\tdepressing article once about how often adults laugh during a \n\t\t\t\tday compared to how often kids laugh.  Basically, being an \n\t\t\t\tadult sucks and kids laugh all day long.  The take away \n\t\t\t\tfrom that as far as writing is that laughter is not as precious \n\t\t\t\tto a kid as it is to an adult.  In tandem with \n\t\t\t\tunderstanding that, you wanna understand that they use their \n\t\t\t\timaginations way more than adults. They don’t have a 20-30-40 \n\t\t\t\tyears worth of reference and their minds are still \n\t\t\t\tdiscovering…and so their minds are always looking ahead and \n\t\t\t\ttrying to figure out what might be…how things will pan \n\t\t\t\tout..how things will come together. You can’t just tell them a \n\t\t\t\tjoke to hold their interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “joke” here could have ended after the first two tiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That’s a solid joke there…that is enough to gain the \n\t\t\t\tconfidence of an adult, that other pages will be worth reading. \n\t\t\t\tset up, punchline, the end. Adults may not need more than that, \n\t\t\t\tthey have seen the world for decades and a joke that gets to the \n\t\t\t\tpoint is often what they are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but this second part, while also funny, is there with the \n\t\t\t\tpurposes of capturing the imagination. The joke is told…but \n\t\t\t\tthe page now gives the kid’s imagination a “what’s next” it \n\t\t\t\tkeeps them in the world, gives them more of an understanding of \n\t\t\t\twhat goes on going forward…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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in their imaginations Casper is now in hell…his victim is \n\t\t\t\twatching…he has a taskmaster…and we have a solid \n\t\t\t\tunderstanding that Casper is indeed a prick. That world, that \n\t\t\t\tscenario exists now in the kid’s brain…and that kid is \n\t\t\t\tconfident ( and probably curious) that future pages will give \n\t\t\t\this\/her imagination more looks into that world or more worlds \n\t\t\t\tjust as \n\t\t\t\tinteresting. Get me? If the joke ends with the first part…the \n\t\t\t\tworld is just Casper in a house holding a milk carton…the \n\t\t\t\tsecond ending has all that other stuff going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and young readers, being new at everything including how to \n\t\t\t\tread a comic, benefit if the page layout is simple and flows \n\t\t\t\teasily… I’ve explained some of this before but have a look at \n\t\t\t\tthe breakdown here and I’ll get into why it’s laid out the way I \n\t\t\t\tlaid it out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to keep the visuals moving the readers eye from left \n\t\t\t\tto right, just like they do to read the words, and in this \n\t\t\t\tinstance there is some important visual info we need to make \n\t\t\t\tsure is obvious….for the sake of the joke REAL obvious…so \n\t\t\t\tthe reader is tempted to think ahead and predict an outcome \n\t\t\t\tincorrectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Panel 1- Casper’s forward movement is enough to set the eye in \n\t\t\t\tmotion. The floor lines COULD have also gone in that direction, \n\t\t\t\tbut I preferred to have them go the other way to slow things \n\t\t\t\tjust a bit and let the reader’s eye dwell on the old shabby \n\t\t\t\tscene,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panel 2- Has a lot going on composition wise , again to slow \n\t\t\t\tthe eye. The curve of the spider web ( top left) the curve made \n\t\t\t\tby the window break ( bottom right) and the curve of the web on \n\t\t\t\tthe milk cartoon visually encircle the scene. Casper is looking \n\t\t\t\tat the Carton, he’s talking about the carton, the posture of the \n\t\t\t\tkid on the Carton matches Casper’s Posture…at this point many \n\t\t\t\treaders minds have wrongfully deduced “oh That’s Casper on that \n\t\t\t\tCarton…the joke’s gonna be that he was kidnapped or \n\t\t\t\tsomething). The level of the camera is actually looking up at \n\t\t\t\tthe Carton rather than being eye level with Casper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panel 3- This is where the fake punchline get’s more wound \n\t\t\t\tup. “Missing” is dead center on the panel, Casper himself is \n\t\t\t\tmaking a connection to the picture. In this panel I have the \n\t\t\t\tfloor board lines go in the direction of the next panel, because \n\t\t\t\tit is a visually stagnate scene and want to move past it \n\t\t\t\tquickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Panel 4- this is the spinning seam of the curve-ball catching \n\t\t\t\tthe air…It has a dramatic Camera shot, there is not much \n\t\t\t\taround Casper, the arrangement of the word balloons is dramatic \n\t\t\t\tand slows the timing…and Casper has a startled look for the \n\t\t\t\tfirst time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panel 5- pow! The camera is dropped right to eye level with \n\t\t\t\tCasper for the first time. As far as visual movement , the tail \n\t\t\t\tof the word balloon and Casper’s pointing finger are sending the \n\t\t\t\treaders eye back rather than off the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panel 6- That’s simple enough, Casper is looking to the \n\t\t\t\tright, the action is on the right and the flames almost connect \n\t\t\t\tto the flames in the panel on the right<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Panel 7- Casper and the demon are both reaching into the \n\t\t\t\tdirection of the lower left panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panel 8- This should be obvious …a giant fork and Casper \n\t\t\t\tgoing into the direction of the next panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And…that’s as much as I’m going to get into this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than to say I’m pretty pleased with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original art is up on the\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tonline store<\/a>, if someone wants it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

feel free to look around the rest of the store and use coupon \n\t\t\t\tcode- voodoo – for 20% off if you see something you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are thinking about getting a commission from me, I \n\t\t\t\tsuggest you do that soon…busy times are closing in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

___________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Douglas is not complaining, he and his work can be \n\t\t\t\tfound here<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t\twww.arseniclullabies.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have friends who might like Arsenic Lullaby?\u2026tell \n\t\t\t\tthem to sign up for the Arsenic Lullaby Email\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tHERE<\/a>.  Thanks in advance.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I drew up this one page Casper comic…it’s a parody, not really aimed at kids, BUT in structure it is a fine example of storytelling for a kid..first the gag, then I’ll explain… Alright, now lemme explain how this is a great joke for kids… IN STRUCTURE. That specific joke,\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ee9g-4s7","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17180,"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119\/revisions\/17180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}