There is, of course, a lot to be said about the art and theory of making comics – indeed, some people have written whole books on the subject – but on the other hand, there isn’t. If you’re working with kids who are just starting out, there are a couple of incredibly simple tips that will do a lot to help make their comics clear and readable. And these are:
This is the big one! It’s worth restating over and over again, at the start of every session if needs be.
To go a step further, it’s good to encourage the kids to think about what the characters are going to be saying as they plan the panels, to ensure there’ll be plenty of room and to make sure that reading order flows nicely, and avoids the following kinds of confusion:
Also:
While we’re on lettering: you don’t want to be too prescriptive necessarily, but I find it can be helpful to think about HOW the lettering’s going to look – the joined-up cursive script that kids are dutifully practising in other lessons may not be the best fit for making readable comics. Or in other words:
AND FINALLY: all panel layouts and ways of combining images as a sequential narrative are of course valid: but again, just when you’re starting out it may be helpful to reinforce the message to stick to clearly defined panel borders with, crucially, a gap between them.
That’s it! Once more, the first one’s the biggie: if you want to pick one thing to focus on, let that be it.
(These strips feature Professor Panels of How To Make Awesome Comics, appearing here by courtesy of The Phoenix.)
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