Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Create Your Own Comic”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of McCloud’s explanation of comic construction by creating their own comic.

Now that you have read Understanding Comics, you know many of the techniques that are used to convey ideas and emotions in comic art. In this activity, you will create a brief comic of your own, using these techniques.

Part One: Plan Your Comic

• Choose a topic for your comic. Your finished comic will be between eight and 12 panels, so you will need to choose action and ideas that can fit into this brief format.

o You can create something original, choose a scene from a novel or short story, or choose a short poem to use as the basis for your comic. (Do not choose a text that has already been interpreted visually in a film, play, etc.)

o The topic and tone of your comic can be humorous or serious, understated or melodramatic—whatever you wish, as long as it is classroom-appropriate.

• Storyboard your comic. Plan how you will use eight to 12 panels and the gutters in between to communicate what is happening, where it is happening, and why it is happening.

o Consider how time will flow in your comic and how you will use closure and panel characteristics to control this.

o Consider what moments in the action you need your audience to focus on. What techniques will you use to establish the scene, show character emotion, emphasize significant objects and actions, etc.?

o Consider how you will employ comic iconography and artistic style to convey ideas and emotions.

o Consider how you will use text. Will you use text boxes, word balloons, or both? How will you produce the “cumulative effect” of words and images that McCloud talks about in Chapter 5?

Part Two: Create Your Comic

• You may draw your comic freehand, or you may create your comic using an online platform of your choice.
• If you choose to draw your comic on paper rather than in a digital format, you will be responsible for photographing or scanning the work and uploading it in a form that can be easily read by others.

Part Three: Share Your Comic

• Submit your comic digitally in a format that can be read and shared by your instructor.

Teaching Suggestion: If your students do not have reliable access to digital devices or you do not have a class website where their work can be shared, you can alter this assignment to ask for print copies of their work that can be posted in your classroom. After student work is submitted, you might consider asking students to critique the use of comic techniques in the work of a few peers. These critiques can be used as further evidence of understanding or even as part of the evaluation process for the comics.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with visual impairments will not be able to complete this assignment without assistive technology—and even with such technology, the assignment’s focus on visual techniques may make it unreasonably difficult. A reasonable alternative would be to ask for a summary of McCloud’s ideas about closure, panel characteristics, art style, the communication of ideas and emotions through comic iconography, and best practices for using text within comics.

Students with attentional and executive function issues may benefit from filling out a graphic organizer on these topics—either individually or with a partner or small group—before attempting to storyboard their comics. Students with anxiety or other conditions that affect their ability to make choices in a timely fashion may struggle to choose a topic for their comics; if you have students with such conditions, you might prepare ahead of time a few options for them to choose from.