Last Sunday I posted a special tactless comic for July 4th. Now, I draw these strips really quickly (30 minutes or less, if possible) and post them. But I was thinking about this one and realized I totally blew it.

Now normally, I’d just chalk it up to a learning experience and try to not do it again. Or, if I was feeling sneaky, I’d just redo the comic and pretend like the other version never existed. But this time I thought I’d show the original strip, and my updated one, then explain where I went wrong so we could have a shared learning experience.

Here’s how I posted it on Sunday:

Nothing fancy, it’s a simple reverse in visual form. A reverse has a very simple structure: You set it up so that one thing is expected and then at the very last you reverse it and do the opposite. Comedy is chock full of examples (the Muppets used ‘em to death – and I loved it, of course).

The problem with the strip posted on Sunday is the reverse, the boy exploding, isn’t the last thing you see. To really sell the joke, it needed to flow better. You need to see the rocket, see it sputter out, and then see the kid pop.

Here’s the updated version:

Ah, much better.

So hopefully you’ve learned two things. One: Always keep in mind the reader’s flow, it WILL affect the punchline. Two: Never explain jokes. Seriously.