With a title like that, you know you wanna read this post.
Alright, after sufficient time to geek out over Anne Rice coming onto my blog and giving me a major boost in stats (see last post), I got down to reading a volume about a Japanese comic book that I liked. The series, Bakuman, is about two teens who team up to write Japanese comic books together. It’s very unique and lots of fun to read (especially since it’s a look into a very different industry than writing), but occasionally they teach me something about my own work. Like last night, for example:
In the comic book, the main characters were discussing with their editor about how to deliver humor in a serious comic book that isn’t delivered in an annoying or off-putting way. They called it “serious humor”, and during the course of the comic book the creators of Bakuman took many oppurtunities just to illustrate their point. There was one instance when they were discussing a change in the editorial department and how it was a very big change for many characters. Serious, right? But the way they illustrated the characters’ reactions was hilarious, and it didn’t detract from the work at all.
Pretty soon I started noticing this “serious humor” in some other works I read. James Patterson, in his Alex Cross novels, has had points where the characters said something that was dead serious, but it was delivered in such a funny way. Heck, even something Alex does or observes, while serious to him, is delivered in funny ways, and yet the reader is not put-off by it at all! Instead, the work is enhanced in a way.
And then I remembered, in the fifth chapter of my work-in-progress Snake, one of the characters says something and while he’s being serious, I’m cracking up while writing it. It’s funny that I wrote that the same day I read a comic book that explores the subject.
Conclusion: serious humor is not something easily tapped into, and it’s not something you calculate either. I guess you can say that you put it in when the time is right, that it just comes to you and you go with it. At least, that’s how I find it.
All for now. Oh, and I highly recommend Bakuman, it’s very interesting. Available in hard-copy and e-book format.
Rami Ungar The Writer 