Flare

They say the true art of humour is in timing. And you'll see it used to its utmost in two different professions, standup and comic strips.

Normally, comics artists play with timing by adding and taking away frames, adding beat panels, or doing pull-out-and-reveals. Read about the many techniques that can be used in Scott McCloud's seminal Understanding Comics.

Here's a new one. There are two different sets of timing at work here. I don't want people to realise that the last two panels are degrading until the reader gets to them. Hence the big wodges of text in the first two frames, setting up the gag and slowing the reader down. By the time the reader reaches frame three, the picture and text in frame four should be unreadable, and frame three should be just legible. Then the wait, until frame four becomes clear again. I spent a lot of time adjusting the timing on this one. I hope I've got it right...

Glitterbomb

To get the full animated effect click on today's post and then click on the strip.

999

Todays subject is Law Enforcement and Cops.

Dialing 999 is the UK equivalent of dialing 911. The theory was that, in the days of phones with rotary dials, it would be easy to select the right numbers to dial in darkness or a smoke filled room. The theory was quite good, but surelly dialing 000 would have been easier, and dialling 111 nine times faster?

This is my first experiment with animated gifs. I won't be using them often, but they'll crop up now and again when I think they are appropriate and add to the strip.