Someplace or Another

Of course. One of my biggest influences is the cartoonist B.Kliban. While best known for his distinctive cat drawings, most of his cartooning output was single-panel work.

Much of it is easily understandable language or visual puns, but many of his funny works are just unusual situations, with no obvious meaning:

(I think that "Household Hint" could be considered a spiritual forerunner of Tiktok ragebait food videos.)

In his 1975 collection titled "Cat," among many funny cat comics, there are several pages which are just drawings of his beloved cats.

I feel a strong connection to Kliban's approach: Direct contour-line drawing, mostly anonymous characters in novel situations, and few traditional long-term narrative stories. And yet, there are recurring visual trends. (Have you noticed that he only draws one kind of cat?)

It is said that we train our audiences, in form or content. Over time, the reader knows what to expect from an author.

I think that a lesson can be derived from this graphic design manual.

(from Notes on Graphic Design And Visual Communication by Gregg Berryman, 1979.)

I believe we can draw a correlation between broadly-defined "art" (comics, painting, drawing, sculpture, video, etc.) and logo design:

With low "abstraction" (depending upon references that many people will get, explaining things in extremely explicit terms), material will be readily understood, but it is hard to separate this material from other stuff out there. It's harder to have your individual voice known.

With high "abstraction" (sharing weird comics, but consistently over a long period of time with many people,) an artist can have their message understood- or at least received enthusiastically- even if they're weird.

I drew this yesterday. It is probably understandable as both a humorous criticism of gamer-centric marketing and also as a visual-verbal pun to most English speakers under 40. I'm not sure if "Gamer Butter" would be accepted readily without people being familiar with other drawings I've made which lampoon consumerism and gadget culture.

lying (overshooting): feel old yet? the first episode of spongebob aired 36 years ago

lying (undershooting): feel old yet? the first episode of spongebob aired 7 years ago

lying by a ridiculous amount (overshooting): feel old yet? the first episode of spongebob aired 900 years ago

lying by a ridiculous amount (undershooting): feel old yet? the first episode of spongebob aired 15 minutes ago

real date of event no one reading was alive for: feel old yet? the great san francisco earthquake happened 118 years ago

real date of event no one reading was alive for or cares about: feel old yet? prince frederick henry died 395 years ago

event no one reading was alive for and also lying: feel old yet? the great san francisco earthquake happened 4 years ago

event that did not happen: feel old yet? brian mulroney was assassinated 48 years ago

event that did not happen and even if it did this would be a lie: feel old yet? brian mulroney was assassinated 197 years ago

real date of event on a cosmological scale: feel old yet? the sun was formed 4,600,000,000 years ago

lying on a cosmological scale (undershooting): feel old yet? the sun was formed 12 years ago

lying on a cosmological scale (overshooting): feel old yet? the first episode of spongebob aired 12,000,000,000 years ago

real date of a personal anecdote that only you know or card about: feel old yet? i made a really good stir fry 5 years ago

reversal: feel young yet? frozen 3 is coming out in 3 years

reversal on a cosmological scale: feel young yet? the sun will collapse in 8,000,000,000 years

reversal (lying about event): feel young yet? the first episode of spongebob will air in 3 years

reversal (lying about time, overshooting): feel young yet? frozen 3 is coming out in 8,000,000,000 years

reversal (lying about time, undershooting): feel young yet? the sun will collapse in 3 years

reversal (lying about time, really undershooting): feel young yet? the sun will collapse in 12 minutes

real date of a recurring event that wasn't very long ago: feel old yet? halloween was 13 days ago

lying about recurring event: feel old yet? halloween was 10,000 years ago

reversal of recurring event: feel young yet? thursday is tomorrow

reversal of personal anecdote: feel young yet? my laundry is done in 52 minutes

real(?) date of a nonspecific event: feel old yet? something happened 2 years ago

lying about the reader (undershooting): feel old yet? you were born 5 years ago

lying about the reader (overshooting): feel old yet? you were born 650 years ago

making a reasonable guess about the reader: feel old yet? you were born 22 years ago

technically telling the truth about the reader: feel old yet? you were born between 0 and 120 years ago

threatening the reader: feel young yet? you will die in 7 days

non sequitur: feel old yet? half of all chameleon species on earth live in madagascar

non sequitur (lying): feel old yet? chameleons are immune to fire

lying on several levels: feel old yet? chameleons were invented 36 years ago

self-reference: feel old yet? i started writing this post 40 minutes ago

giving up: feel old yyet?th e emmenkr,tn dbw a 8 gn m hk\

i can't finish the joke someone else come up with a punchline: feel old yet?

declarative statement: you feel old.

subversive declarative statement: time isn't even real.

reference another meme: feel old yet? yeah. this is the beach that makes you old.