In my earlier posts I have often mentioned that it is important to engage the readers. To get them involved in the journey. Once there is skin in the game, the cartooning experience would be far more enjoyable for the readers, as well as the cartoonist.
The quality of the journey is therefore critical. It has to be believable. If the tone and ambience of the drawing is too ‘light’, it keeps the readers from connecting with the sequence. Hence, for it to work, we have to build up the imaginery dimension in a such a fashion that the readers could draw relevance to. In the above piece, the physical design of the library has to be close to the real thing. Similarly, the dynamism of the ‘search’ action and the angle of the cinematic lens have to be realistic as well.
Once there is buy in on the readers side, then the close is not too difficult. It can be a simple twist and still yield a big impact. The trick is really in the set up, and in this case, the journey. When they are in the journey with you, more than half the battle is won.
So, do put in effort in designing the journey for the readers.
JunMing
Sam Lay 