Reveals
It’s not just drawing funny actions and characters that makes for amusing pictures, it’s also how you deliver them. When illustrating a picture book the most versatile reveal is the page turn. Turning a page provides a pause that builds suspense. Then, overleaf, you can reveal something that undermines or contradicts what the reader has already seen for comic effect. There’s an excellent example of a bathetic page turn reveal in The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith during The Tale of the Really Ugly Duckling which I’d urge you to go and enjoy.
As it’s hard to show a page turn without pages I’ve chosen to demonstrate another kind of reveal, called a Pan Out. Here the viewpoint zooms out to reveal new information that expands on the original image. For example here’s Chicken who’s having relationship troubles:
Pictures, words and counterpoint
In illustrated books, especially picture books, there is an intrinsic relationship between word and image. It wouldn’t be right to ignore this relationship when talking about funny pictures because it’s so often used as a comic device.
You can add an element of irony to your words and images. For example here’s Graham who is so very pleased with himself:
Of course there are more than these three ways of being funny through pictures. I’m constantly surprised and delighted by new ways other illustrators make me snort with laughter. I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen and can forgive me for all the toilet humour. I blame Pants Monkey, he’s a bad influence.
The text depicts Graham’s thoughts and suggests what he’s left for his owners is a positive and generous thing. This is contradicted by the images where we see Graham has actually left an implausibly large turd. It is this discrepancy between these two sources of information that could be seen as funny, if you like poo jokes that is.
This phenomena is knows as Counterpoint. This is when ‘words and images provide alternative information or contradict each other in some way’ (Nikoolajeva and Scott 2006 p17). If you want to see a masterful example of counterpoint read Jon Klassen’s This is Not My Hat.
References: Klassen, J., 2014 This Is Not My Hat. London: Walker Books. Nikolajeva, M., & Scott, C. 2001 How Picturebooks Work. Oxon: Routledge. Maurois, A. & Wegner, F., 1968 Fattypuffs and Thinifers New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
McGraw, P. & Warner, J. 2014 The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny. New York: Simon & Schuster Scieszka, J. & Smith, L., 1993 The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. New York: Puffin.
White, E. B. & White. K. S., 1941 The Preaching Humorist. The Saturday Review of Literature 18th Oct. p.16a,
Elys Dolan was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2014 and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, as well as being nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal 2014. Her books include Steven Seagull Action Hero, which follows renegade former cop (and seagull) Steven on a quest to find the mysterious sand thief at Beach City and her new book, Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory is a riotous romp behind the scenes of a chocolate factory.
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