Draw Out the Story: Ten Secrets to Creating Your Own Comics
I BELIEVE WHAT YOU TELL ME BUT MAYBE YOU SHOULD SHOW ME THAT THIS BIGFOOT NORMALLY GUY EXISTS 8
COMICS let you SH OW TELL SECRETone Comics use pictures and words together in a way that makes them different from anything else Have you ever been telling people about some amazing place you went except you can’t really put your experience into words If only you had a photograph to help explain what you saw right Or have you shown people a photograph of a hilarious moment from your vacation but still had to explain why it was so funny That waiter was so weird He kept offering us the soap of the day You see sometimes pictures and words just can’t do the job on their own Comics marry pictures and words to let you tell more of the story than either can on its own They let you both show with pictures and tell with words What does that mean Let’s use the example of Robin Hood to examine how pictures and words work 9
Pictures give you details and let you imagine the story What can pictures do Pictures are really good at showing you a moment in time Imagine a fine art painting of Robin and his Merry Men like this or even larger They say a picture is worth a thousand words and you could spend a million describing the exact details captured in this one image But what happened before and after the moment shown in the picture To know that you’d need more pictures (cid:75) (cid:75) or words 10
Words give you the story and let you imagine details What can words do The novels you find on most library shelves are really good at showing a span of time in other words a lot longer than just one moment For example most Robin Hood adventures follow the same basic pattern Robin Hood assembles a group of fellow outlaws He is outbattled by Little John and outwitted by Friar Tuck and then gains the admiration of the youthful Will Scarlet They work together to steal from the rich and give to the poor This upsets the greedy Sheriff of Nottingham who offers a reward for Robin’s capture In disguise Robin enters an archery contest during May Day to win the heart of the May Queen Maid Marian Robin rescues Marian from the Sheriff and escapes into Sherwood Forest with the help of his loyal Merry Men You could make a hundred paintings and still not capture all the emotions actions and reactions that words describe in this story But what exactly does Sherwood Forest look like For that you’d need more words (cid:75) (cid:75) or pictures Pictures words So comics combine pictures and words A picture in a Robin Hood comic could show you that Robin wore a green hat with a feather in it The words will tell you other details like He kept a secret skeleton key in his boot But there is a third way of communicating with readers that makes comics unique a group of elements that includes word balloons panels sound effects and more I like to call these elements comics grammar These elements act a lot like periods commas and semicolons do in writing they help guide the reader That’s why a children’s Robin Hood picture book can use pictures and words and yet still not be a comic It’s not using comics grammar 11
