Alex Norris

0:06[Applause]

0:13hello everyone I'm Alex Norris for those of you don't know I make the web comic called web comic name.

0:20And so with this web comic it's a bad web comic and the punchline is always the same it's always Oh No so just to kind of get you introduced to that I'm going to show you some some examples so this is quite a nearly one look how awful this drawing is it's so bad even worse than it is now again the punchline is the same very popular with teen girls that one it's fun just waiting for the laughter this is nice this one's really really mean this is like a theme in my comics is being really mean to my characters because they're not real but you feel emotions for them. And sometimes so they're I make make relatable they're kind like a parody of relatable comics sometimes I like to be it you know with relatability you know all of us you know I do that.

1:24That's really wholesome sometimes like to be a bit a bit mean I thought for this environment this might you know be a bit close to the bone for kind of creative people.

1:31And then this one was really popular around brexit and Trump everyone it was like a huge boost in what I was doing I said that's a summary of the comics I make so we're quite name is like a really when I started I could really crystallized kind of idea it was the second web quake series that I've done and the the first one I did was called Doris my comics I just finished University and I was like I want to be a writer may as well do web comics because not many people make them but a lot of people read them.

2:20So it's really good format for writing but I wanted to be really clever. And I was read a lot about people thinking that I was really good making comics so a lot of the first ones were a bit more like this one this is an example of a Doris with Comics comic so it's a bit there's a lot more going on there it's still got that kind of like accessible I can read a bonus but as you can see it was also playing with the format a lot of comics so in this one a character puts the hand outside of the panel and then the panel's change line and so their hand gets cut off.

2:54And then later on they drop their hand and then it falls down and lands on the adults head and that's the punch line I love a punch line so another example it takes it to the extreme I always show this at talks because no one understands this. And I barely understand why this is funny but it does make sense and I just love the idea of explaining why a joke is funny to those people.

3:18So this one okay because here's the explanation of the joke this character once the punchline to be in the one the punchlines come quicker so they pull the punchline into their panel which means that by the time you get to the punchline you're in the comic again which means you end up with a recursive narrative which means the comic never ends and they're never a punchline clever but every time I do this I have to really remind myself why this makes sense so this is the kind of thing I was doing it was very like trying to be really really clever really difficult comics in a way.

3:53And then it got a bit more kind of you see kind of blobby kind of finally characters but I still I love but it's like a weird version of stand-up where I don't do the jokes I've written them down there you go I kind of love like body horror and make people feel weird I kind of enjoyed that. So that and you can see it as sort of an Ono punch slide in there already I kind of really like that.

4:22But I used to labor over these comics I still spend ages making them. And I would update sporadically it might be you know one a week I would hope so it's really it was really difficult around this time.

4:36So this is about 2015 relatable kind of comics I was doing kind of weird gag comics which were kind of bigger before 2015 and then suddenly all these like relatable comics were well you know coming into the internet became really popular and all of us other web comic artists were like they're really really popular but I have too much integrity to to do like what we see we know what people saw as like kind of observational humor you know that was very popular so on April Fool's 2015 did a joke where.

5:12I did eight eight comics in one day all of them relatable humor and I kind of thought relatable humor is just pointing at something in saying that happens and it's not really a joke it's just the simulation of humor which is what I did and that's what the oh no is it's a it's a simulation of a joke this is the first one I did internet themes procrastination there's millions of comics procrastination.

5:39This is by far the most popular comic I do stories for comics which I found hilarious then.

5:44I did introverts of them you know em astronomer introverts and as you can see a is the purple background I later change to blue because it made a bit more lighthearted but Doris for comics is always purple because it's dark and vibrant that's a good design tip yeah and then this cats another internet theme.

6:06So there's eight of these but there's much spiders and it was all these internet things.

6:13So then. I found that for about a over a year I didn't do anything with it I was current as Reitsma comics but I kept thinking about how fun that was it wants to make it was very silly it took me hardly any time. But I really enjoyed writing them. And then.

6:28I started thinking about like what I could say with it.

6:32So the next I'm going to show you might be made up of juxtaposition is a poem by William Blake and so this is all the things that I was thinking about.

6:42So this is I studied English Literature at University I don't have like a illustration or design background I have writer's background like I went I read books and so this is the tiger so the Tiger Tiger burning bright to that poem this poem is basically about someone looking at web Lakes looking at tiger and going this is amazing who made this you know what a mortal hand or eye could frame this like who can make this the illustration because you waited was poem this.

7:16Basically made scenes all hand handmade books that's the only way that he ever made poems his illustration I don't know if you can see very clearly is is it's very sad-looking tiger it's not a guitar guy it's kind of scared of itself and I think this is a gag this is a gag he's saying the some sort of God figure made me Tigers look at my tiger it's awful I he's one of the best artists like one of the greatest British artists he's ever lived I have never seen another Tiger drawing by William Blake I'm pretty sure he drew a really good tiger but I love that gag a similar one kind of weirdly similar okay this is last - so I went to the while I was thinking about web my name I went to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona the last room of that museum has loads of Picasso's versions of this painting he's kind of obsessively going through it and doing his own versions of it he his bassist messing around and he kind of like I feel like you're messing with me so look at the dog okay look at look how beautiful that dog is and then.

8:26This is Picasso's version of our dog it's beautiful I had a moment with this.

8:32This is probably the most profound moment I've had in front of a work of art I was like that dog is everything I want from art it's beautiful so I kind of did my own version of it but later on.

8:44That's how and so you can take it a little bit further.

8:52This is how I draw cats that's another running gag in what I do is drawing cats in this way this isn't a version of one you saw earlier where I'd redrawn it for webcomic named hope you see I kind of like tie it up a little bit it's still very silly got a little gag in there where the post on the Internet is surfing the web little joke so yeah but basically when when I was making Doris my comics I was trying to make something really good the best I could make but what I once I was twice to that every day I was always no failing because it's never going to be this incredible like groundbreaking thing instead what I did was lower everyone's expectations of me by making the worst comic that I can make and then if it says anything more then it's a bonus and you're like oh that's great the the issue with that is started out as a parody of relatable web comics and it's gone on for quite a long time.

9:57Now the joke is kind of on a bit thin which is far I find funny my plan was to make of it a popular web comic and then because I knew what was doing but you know after doing the respitory Sonny was doing with Rob point named make a poppy webcomic and I was like okay it's gonna be it's gonna have a catchphrase look the same every time we recognizable straight away you know small there's an idea on the internet called the seven second rule where if you don't get something in Internet now it's all feeds rather than you go to someone's website to see things on a feed you need to get something in seven seconds otherwise you don't you don't care so this is like the ultimate of that like I wants to make so it's the same joke every time so you already know the joke and it's always it's already got a punchline ready-made and you get it in seven seconds so now at this point where I don't know if I'm a parody or not and I am the thing I am the you know the monster I was trying to destroy but I like to think that I've kind of some of my audience they you know like I do like the comic like relatable comics just for their own sake oh that's nice that's what a funny silly comic and then some people go ah but you you've all been tricked because he's a he's parodying that so you liking it is funny and I can like it but feel like I'm above you.

11:24And I get to do both those things I get to be both a silly relatable webcomic and think pretend I'm better than that. And sort of have seem like I have some integrity and that's the end [Applause]