Quick n’ easy guide to comics
I was recently asked to give a small workshop to elementary school kids. I prepared a little quick and easy guide to comics booklet that I gave away. Nice activity to do with kids on the weekend 🙂 Print yourself a copy and try it out too!
Transcript of the image:
Quick n’ easy guide to comics
or
How to cover way to fast a specially complicated topic.
1. What the who?
My name is Emmanuel Filteau aka “Ink Orporate”. I started to publish my strips in my high school newspaper and continued to do so for the duration of my school years. I self-published my first book in 1997 and I also maintained a webcomic, the H.O.T. Team for many years.
Recently I published a story in Zidara9 and I started a new weekly webcomic, Tales from the Interface (bit.ly/readtfti).
Why do I do this?
Because of the liberty that comics give an author. You can, with very little money, create a complete universe. As long as you put in the efforts and the hours.
2. Characters
- Always try to make your characters dynamic. Symetry is your enemy.
- Draw your family and friends in weird poses. (See how silly they can be…)
- Avoid stereotypes. When creating characters, try and stay away from typical heroes.
- Vary body shapes. Don’t draw all your characters like body builders or Barbies.
- A perfect character who is all-powerfull and has nothing to lose is pretty boring. It would be more interesting to learn how he became so. That’s called a character arc.
3. Story structure
- A typical story has a beginning a middle and an ending. Try to make something unexpected happen at the end.
- For a longer story, character arcs become important. Ex : Peter Parker was a weak boy until the day he got bit by a radioactive spider! He then became Spiderman!
- Always have a notebook handy. You never know when you might get inspired.
4. Supplies / My choices
- Cardboard : Strathmore Bristol 300 Series. I like 11×14
- Pencils : Staedler 4H, 2H and HB
- Inking : Pigma Micron. No point buying a kit with all sizes unless it’s cheaper. I use .5 and .3 only. For filling in black space, get a big marker.
- A good white eraser.
5. Distribution
Make your own story! You can print out this book as a template and draw on the opposite side. Try different papers and paper sizes. You can make photocopies and give or sell them to your family and friends. Also feel free to make and give away copies of this guide!
6. The great secrets
- Have fun.
- Don’t give up.
- It shouldn’t be easy. If it is, try to challenge yourself more or you will stop learning.
- Draw every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes.
- Draw objects around you, in real life, not just Google images.
- Don’t worry too much about people’s opinions of your work.
