In the case of Dilbert, I literally read through the books trying to figure out how you pace a three panel strip because Pearls originally was only three panels and three panels is different than four panels. It’s all very – I could bore you all day on this topic. Well you have to because if a three panel strip. I don’t have any time to waste.
So Schulz could waste time. Schulz could have a pause in the third panel. He could set it up in the second panel. If you do a three panel strip, the premise has to be there in the first panel whether that means like wow, you just dropped me right into that, you know, you just — it all has to come out in the first panel because the joke is usually in the second, so it’s really quick.
And the third is a comment on the joke more or less. It doesn’t always work that way. So Dilbert does that. Dilbert’s always three panels, the dailies. So I went through it and I figured out how to do it and then I went through – I’ve got to be the only person to do this. I went through the complete Far Side. I have these two big volumes with a little piece of paper and I wrote down what made each one funny.
And I came up at the end with these six areas that were usually involved in the strips. So like anthropomorphizing, deanthropomorphizing. So an example of the latter being the woman who’s cleaning the couch that’s taking the cushions off and finds her husband stuck in there with the change, you know? Making a human like an object, you know? So I figured that out and then I applied that.