Comic Strip Part 2

In this step, we’ll talk about developing your characters to keep your comics visually engaging.

We’ll also take a look at some examples of how comics have been used in education, then we’ll start thinking about how you can apply what you’ve learned to your own curriculum.

Developing Your Characters

Created by Jasper Jaron Martijn Stan.

It’s not always the case, but the majority of stories include one or more key characters who the audience can follow through the narrative.

In a comic, your audience’s first impressions of a character will be almost entirely visual. For this reason, it’s important to spend some time thinking about the personality of your character, and what elements of it you can bring across in their design.

It’s also important to make your characters look distinctive so that they stand out from each other, and from the other people around them.

Have a think about your favourite cartoon characters; consider the ways in which the artist brings across their personalities and makes them memorable.

Take a look at this brilliant blog post about the importance of good character design in comics and graphic novels, created by Sebroach: http://graphicnovel.umwblogs.org/2015/11/15/the-importance-of-character-design/

Remember, you don’t have to make your characters completely over the top to make them distinctive!

Ideas for Using Comics in Your Classroom

Now we’d like you to start thinking about how you might apply what you’ve learned to your classroom.

What stories and concepts do you teach all the time that would benefit from simple visual aids? Remember, these are the type of resources that can be endlessly reused once you’ve made them!

Below, you’ll find some great examples of comics that have been created with education in mind:

History

The University of Dundee published a comic about a former Chair of Biology at the University College, Dundee, D’Arcy Thompson, who built a museum of zoology at the University in the late 19th century:

Perhaps you could create a comic strip about a historical person of note from your local area?

English Literature

These comics contain several stories inspired by the works of authors from the past. Several different writers and artists made comic strips inspired by the stories of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) and H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds).

Perhaps your class has been learning about a particular author or playwright, and could create their own comic strips inspired by their stories?

English

Summarising a story can be a challenging task. A series of comic strips exist which seek to explain the stories of Shakespeare’s plays in only 3 comic panels. Perhaps you could use the same technique in summarising a book or play that your class has been reading.

Optional Further Reading

Now that you’ve read some more about character design and comics in education, feel free to click the button at the bottom of the page and move on to Step 3, where we’ll see our next lecture and outline the assignment for this week.

However, if you’d like to read a bit more about comic terminology or see a few more examples of comics in education, take a look at the information below:

Further Terminology

In traditional comic creation, a Penciller creates the artwork based on the script. Typically this is done with a pencil, so the artwork can be erased and changed easily. Once the pencil work is done, the Inker (sometimes a different artist) inks the lines and draws in the shadows using an ink pen or brush. This can be tricky work, and mistakes can be resolved with whiteout pens or paint. A Colourist (often another artist) colours the finished artwork before handing it over to the Letterer, who creates all the captions and speech bubbles.

These roles still exist in this digital age, but more and more artists are doing both the Pencilling and Inking. One job that has come about due to digital technology is that of the Flatter, an artist who fills shapes in the drawings with flat colour, before passing it over to the Colourist who adds the shading and highlights. Splitting the colouring work this way can be more efficient.

Created by Jasper Jaron Martijn Stan.

TASK Part 2

Complete a short cartoon sequence of three panels or more, including some speech bubbles and captions. Use the character you designed in Class 1.

You can use Adobe Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or both.

Once you’re done, add it to your Spark page and share it!