SKETCHING TO SUCCESS
Multi-talented cartoonist Tanis Jearsavaswattana spoke with Life about finding inspiration and how to create content for your audience and advertisers
Life can be frustrating during a pandemic and economic downturn. However, reading great comics is one way to lift your spirits during the downtime.
To find laughter amid Covid-19, which is still wreaking havoc on many parts of the world, the Facebook page Nutped (facebook.com/nutped) is one such option. With 1.4 million followers, the page stands out for its clean, simple and adorable characters with hilarious gags through both comic strips as well as short comedy videos.
In addition to the strips, the co-founder and cartoonist of Nutped, Tanis “Nut” Jearsavaswattana, released a book titled Super Pro Duck Thep to encourage multi-talented people. Duck or ped in the Thai language figuratively means people who are capable of accomplishing various tasks but are not experts at any of one those things. This comparison is about the duck, which can fly, swim and walk, however, it isn’t as good at any of them as a bird, fish or rabbit.
Nutped was established four years ago by Tanis and his former co-worker Boss Ittisak when they worked at an advertising agency. They decided to set up the page because they enjoyed playing with words and making jokes together. The page, which makes witty jokes and has attractive cartoon characters, was initially shared with friends, however, it soon drew other followers as well. Due to their achievement, Tanis quit his job at the agency to focus on developing the page.
Life spoke to Tanis about his jokes, his success and his recent book.
Have you been funny since you were young?
I realised that I was interested in making jokes at a very young age. After school, I used to go to a convenience store to buy comic books such as Kaihuaror or
Mahasanook. These three-panel comic strips fascinated me and made me enjoy making jokes. Most of my jokes at first were flat but I later understood what kind of joke each friend liked, so I could serve him or her the right one.
How do you come up with jokes?
Jokes come from anything around me. I look at routine things differently from others. I try to play with words in any situation. For example, when I ordered two dishes of beef, I thought I could call them nuea khu, or soulmate. Then, I played a joke that a person should order two dishes of beef so he or she can also have a soulmate.
How do you overcome writer’s block?
Having a good mood is important for creativity. If I’m in a bad mood, my creative ideas for jokes decrease. I have noticed that I usually come up with jokes after I interact with people. The more I meet people, the more new ideas and inspiration I have. During the outbreak, I used online tools to speak or chat with friends who I hadn’t spoken to for a long time. Moreover, I also have video calls with my girlfriend. All of this is better than staying at home and feeling lonely.
Which one is more difficult to create, three-panel comic strips or comedy videos?
They both are difficult. To create a funny story for a three-panel comic strip is difficult because we have to be succinct. Most readers read comics on mobile phones, so dialogue must be precise and easy to understand. We can’t have too much text. Meanwhile for comedy videos, timing is important. After editing, we have to let other people look at it to see if the timing is right.
How have you been able to get a lot of advertisers on Nutped?
We often present products on Nutped before a company offers us advertising. For example, we previously created comic strips about bread. Then, Farmhouse contacted us to produce content with their product. What we do then is figure out how we can tie in their product with our content and our page.
Have your followers ever commented negatively to advertising?
No. They understand Nutped is our job. If we don’t generate income from the page, we have to find another routine job. However, we have to figure out how to create content that suits our cartoon characters as well as the products from advertisers. If we can’t create funny content to fit with a product, we don’t run it.
Is it true that there was a time when you had too much tie-in content?
Yes. At one point, I noticed there were fewer comments from followers when I created too much tie-in content with advertisers. Though the jokes in the advertising tie-in were still funny, our normal columns are more hilarious. At that time, we had lost a balance between our regular content and that of advertisers. I think some followers went to other pages which could better manage this balance better than us, so we made improvements and things eventually returned to normal. We must not dedicate our time only to tie-in content and lower our own content standard.
Why did you decide to release the book Super Pro Duck Thep?
The editor at Bunlue Books thinks I am multi-talented. However, I think that even though I can do a lot of things, I’m still an average person. This is like the duck’s skills. It can swim, fly and run, but isn’t as good at any of them as other animals. The editor wanted me to tell readers more about people with the duck’s skills who have become more in demand at SMEs and start-up companies. In the past, people worked in large organisations and employees specialised in their fields. However, at SMEs or start-up companies, they need staff who are capable of handling many different tasks.
How did you develop your skills?
I put two and two together. At one point, I thought my ability to draw cartoons had reached a limit and I couldn’t offer anything else to my followers. However, I later figured out that I had other abilities as well besides drawing. I could write TV scripts, draw storyboards and direct videos. After this, Nutped didn’t have only cartoons but also comedy videos as well. And one more thing, many people think creative ideas come with you at birth but in fact, you can practise developing creative ideas as I did by playing with words.
What is the best thing about running Nutped?
The page emanates positive energy for anyone. News and information on social media can easily turn your good mood into stress but I would like Nutped to be a page that brings smiles, laughter and positive energy.
What is your advice for people who want to have a successful page like Nutped?
Some people focus on making money because they want a source of income but everyone should start by doing what they like the most. Your content must be something that inspires you to wake up and work every day, so you can do it consistently. People think it is difficult to have lots of followers on Facebook after they began to limit the newsfeed. This may cause many content creators to give up on updating their pages but if you have great content and keep doing it, you will make it.