I'm reminded of Bill Watterson's description of how he would come up with Calvin & Hobbes strips: > People always ask how cartoonists come up with ideas, and t

I'm reminded of Bill Watterson's description of how he would come up with Calvin & Hobbes strips: > People always ask how cartoonists come up with ideas, and the answer is so boring that we’re usually tempted to make up something sarcastic. The truth is, we hold a blank sheet of paper, stare into space, and let our minds wander. (To the layman, this looks remarkably like goofing off.) When something interests us, we play around with it. Sometimes this yields a funny observation; sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s about all there is to it. Once in a while the cartoonist will find himself in a beam of light and angels will appear with a great idea, but not often.