Comic Art Storytelling - Understanding & Creating Comics

A 2-day workshop Note: this workshop is not the same as the UCLA Extension course taught in Spring 2006.

Workshop Outline

INTRODUCTION

1. Intro to the workshop
2. Definition: What is comic art?
3. Quick survey of the history of comics and current trends
4. Comics relative to other arts: interdisciplinary perspectives
5. What skills must the comic artist learn and master?

THE PANEL

1. The Panel (as frame) - Container (shape, border, etc.)
2. The Panel (as image) - Contents (shots/angles, points-of-views, perspective and "lenses," staging & acting, silhouettes, spotting blacks, colors, etc.)
3. Single panel composition: open vs. closed, dynamic vs. static, sparse vs. dense

PANEL TO PANEL

1. Multipanel compositions: motifs, repetition, variety, contrast, order vs. disorder, dominance vs. equality, rhythm
2. Panel to panel progressions: what happens in the gutter?
3. Editing styles in comics: film editing styles as they relate to comic art, McCloud's panel-to-panel categories

TEXT IN COMICS

1. Sounds and Balloons: speech, thought, noises, onomatopeias, positioning, looks, etc.
2. Text-Image interactions: multiple channels of communication, similarity vs. contrast, multiple voices (1st person, 2nd person, etc.)
3. Writing scripts for comics: various industry practices and forms

THE STRIP, THE PAGE, THE STORY, & THE SERIES

1. The strip
2. The Page:
   1. Shape & size
   2. Panel mapping and reading logic (and devices to help or confuse the flow)
   3. Relationship of form to content (page layout styles by Peeters and Groensteen)
      Difference and repetition (repeating images and variations on a theme)
3. The Story
4. The Series

THE BUSINESS OF COMICS, MISC. TOPICS, AND CONCLUSION

During the last half day, the format of the course is more open. After a presentation on "the business of comics," time is set for review and elaboration of topics presented earlier, based on the requests of students. Likewise, the instructor may pick topics deserving further emphasis. In addition, possible topics include (in no specific order): designing characters, timing, physical formats of comic books and albums around the world, printing, distribution, marketing, webcomics, the social responsibility of the comics artist, tips on breaking into the business, etc..