Comic Books and Graphic Novels

Today’s Creative Warm Up (10 mins)Design a character using only one of these shapes.

Concepts

Aims:• All of you will be able to come up with an

idea.

• Most of you will be able to discuss roles of working on a graphic narrative

• Some of you will be able to draw on examples to discuss ideas

The Assignment- Concept Art portfolio and Pre-production documentation

• Proposal with technical specs• Concept art for characters• Movement drawings• Sprite drawings• Ideas generation (mind maps, mood boards, written ideas)• Pre-production documents (script breakdown)• Typography• Documented experimentation• Story worksheets• Panel plans• Collage plans• Photographs

Grading

Job Roles in Graphic Narrative• Writers Pencillers Inkers Colourists

role of writers• Produce the storyline for the graphic novel or

comic book

• Produce the dialogue, narration and sound effects for the graphic narrative.

• It is the writer’s job to set things up like characters, plot, setting, dialog, and other elements like pacing, action, emotion, and closure.

• The writer is the visionary of the team, creating the basic world, who lives in it, and what they do.

What skills do you need to be a comic book writer?

What skills do you need to be a comic book writer? • Good Vocabulary•Good at spelling and grammar•Good at editing words•Imagination•Good communication skills

Frank Miller• Frank Miller burst onto the comic book scene with his work

on Daredevil, for Marvel comics.

• Frank Miller, along with Alan Moore, is credited with helping the birth of the dark and gritty comic book with the graphic novel.

• The Dark Knight Returns, which he wrote and drew. It has been hailed as one of the greatest Batman tales of all time.

• His gritty, dark, and ultimately realistic portrayal of the Batman character paved the way for comic books that would be geared toward adults with a mature theme.

Role of pencillers/ artist/ illustrator• The pencillers take the script and turn it into

images.

• It is the pencillers job to take words and give them life in a way that makes sense, moves the story along, and with a consistent quality.

• Pencillers tell the story through the emotions of the character, frame/shot choices and the content of the image.

What skills do you think you need to be a penciller?

What skills do you think you need to be a penciller?

• Create What Your Mind Sees • Flexibility to change work quickly• Work to a tight deadline• Team working and collaboration• Consistency in your drawings

Jack Kirby• Jack Kirby is considered to be one of the great comic

book artists.

• His style has been adopted and emulated by countless artists since.

• The speed at which Kirby worked was amazing. During his career, he has drawn around 25,000 pages of comic book art.

• His was a great influence on both Marvel and DC comics.

Role of inkers• The Inker takes an artists pencils and goes over

them in ink, taking the image and turning it into a finished piece of work.

• The dark ink lines makes the art jump off the page as well as helping to add depth and dimension.

• At one time, inking was mostly used to prepare the comic page for printing, as the printer would pick up the light pencils, but today, the inker is a vital part of the comic creation process.

Skills needed to be an inker• Artistic skills• Understanding about light• Ability to work fast• Ability to make improvements and

be flexible

Role of colourists: • Simply put, the colourists job is to apply colour

to a comic book.

• The job is broken up into two parts, flatting and colouring.

• In the flatting process, the basic areas of colour are blocked out so the colourist knows what spaces to colour what.

• In the colouring stage, the colourist applies not only the colour, but adds lighting and shading to help give the three dimensional feel that comic books are known for.

Skills needed to be a colourist• An understanding of

colour• Artistic mindset• Ability to work fast• Technological skills

TASK 1- Pinterest Board (20 mins)

• Set up a pinterest account if you don’t have one

• Find images for inspiration for your comic book world

• Look for images that set the scene of your comic use the following for ideas:

- The time zone- The planet- The country- The city/ village/ town- The culture- Rituals, behaviours and rules

- Save your pinterest board (go to print) in a folder for your portfolio on your hard drive.

TASK 2: Research graphic novels and comicsUse research to come up with ideas about your comic book world and begin writing a story using the story template.

• Use the template under the lesson resource folder called “Building a dramatic storyline”

• Complete the first section about your comic book world

• Work your way through the worksheet

• Save to your portfolio folder

TASK 3- Questioning your world• What are the problems in your world?• If they live on a planet other than earth how do they

manage to live there?• What is the purpose of people living in your world?• How long have people been there?• What are the political situations/ difficulties in your world?• What is the economy/ society like? Are people poor/ rich

or are there extremes?• How are families set up in your world?• What do people dress like?• What’s the housing situation?