FUNNY PAGES - Create your own Comic!

**Lesson is currently incomplete. I am working each day to transfer the lesson description from my notebook to the blog. Email me with any questions you have. Sorry for the delay.**

Lesson ONE: THINK IT!
Goals:
Know the steps of the comic building model.
Create your character, settings, props and story.
Complete a character dossier for each person in the story.
Complete style sheets for each main character and all major equipment sets and props.

Comic Building Steps:
1. THINK IT!
2. CREATE IT!
3. WRITE IT!
4. DRAW IT!
5. PRODUCE IT!
6. PUBLISH IT!

Comic Building Descriptions:
1. THINK IT!
This is the idea stage. Start out with a handful of blank pages and start making notes. You want to cover all of the major elements of the comic. Each element should have a description and a drawing associated with it.
Major elements to cover:
- Main characters
Create a sheet for each character. Write down all of the relevant information about this character. The more information you can nail down about your characters the easier it will be to write about them. This is where you want to get to know who your main characters are.
People are very diverse and have special things that make them stand out from others. Take notice of the people around you, try to see them as comic characters. Ask yourself questions about your characters as if they existed in your daily life. Does this person drink coffee? Is she an angry person? Would she help a stranger out? What does she do to relax? Do she live in an apartment or a house? Does she like to wear dresses? Does she need anything to feel normal? The more questions you answer about your characters the more real and well rounded they become.
After you have written at least a full page about your main characters, get a new blank piece of paper and draw them out. A person's personality is reflected in their appearance. Happy bouncy people look very different from serious and sad people. Use one piece of paper for each main character. Draw out your main character in different positions and expressions. Keep drawing your character over and over again. This will help you get to know how to draw this person and you will become familiar with their personality as you try to reflect that persona in their appearance.
Try to draw as best you can but do not judge yourself. Draw things that interest you and make sure to have fun with your characters. Make each character unique and obviously different from each other. This will help the reader tell the difference between the characters. The more you draw the better you will be at it. The point is to create comics. Everyone's first comic is vastly different from each following comic. As you write and produce the art will evolve with everything else. Don't focus on making a Marvel level comic your first time out. Even if you can draw as well as those artists, you still need the practice. The most talented artists in the world will tell you they still have things to learn. Making comics is a long process so don't get bogged down with your art. Remember you can always make another comic!

- Sets and Settings
A set is place the character goes to, a setting is a feeling the reader gets from that place. All of this is achieved through lighting, shadows and writing and art. Try to make all of these elements come together in the same setting. The characters and backgrounds should work together to tell the story. Think about this when designing your sets.
This section is all about backgrounds. This is all of the stuff behind your characters. Where does your comic take place? Do you have more than one place in mind? For the sake of instruction, let's say you want your comic to take place in New York City. Get out a blank page and start describing your setting. The descriptions should be short and sweet. Tall buildings, lots of people and shops, bustling cityscapes. Make sure to note any unique structures on your set. Like the Statue of Liberty or a Subway Train or the Hudson River. These are places that your characters will hang out and do their stuff. Write out descriptions of your characters houses and work places. Where do they go everyday? What do they do there?
Your sets will work in tandem with your characters, story and art to create feel for your comic. This is the really creative part of the process.
It is hard to nail down a style in the early stages of the comic but this is when you should start making that overall feel come to life. If you want a dark sinister feel, like Sin City, make your sets in dark sinister places. Most things happen in dark alleys and dirty bars in the Sin City comic. These dark seedy places add to the heavy feel of the Sin City series. If you took a Frank Miller character to Disneyland he would look and feel out of place. Because Disneyland is for characters like Cinderella and Mickey Mouse. Those characters and settings have a different feel.
After you have written everything you can think of about your sets and settings, get out a new blank piece of paper and draw them up. Use a separate page for each set. Make sure to include all of the places that character goes each day. If they live on a space station, draw the space station. Draw the outside of the space station from different angles and distances. Draw the inside areas of the space station. Where does the character sleep? eat? talk to friends? Draw all of the rooms that the character goes to. Does this room have a window or a table? Are there pipes hanging from the ceiling? Is the floor metal or wood? Are there paintings on the wall? Is the light coming from a lamp in the corner or a ceiling light? Does the lamp in the corner sit on a table or is a floor lamp? Think about all of the elements of your set and draw it all out. Then look at your drawings. Do your sets reflect the feel of your comic. If you want the feel to be lonely and quiet, use sets with lots of empty space and simple details. If you want the set to feel dark and closed in, do just that. Make the room dark, without windows or exits, small cramped messy rooms feel closed in. Is your set happy and bright? Make your light sources large and open. Use your art to reflect these feelings. Try to tell a story with your background. A comic uses pictures to tell stories so all of your pictures should convey an element of the storytelling.

- Props and equipment

- Story and plot ideas

2. CREATE IT!
3. WRITE IT!
4. DRAW IT!
5. PRODUCE IT!
6. PUBLISH IT!