Week 14 Day One 6 Steps to Comic Book Making

This week's Monday lesson was done online rather than F2F because of my trip to Tempe, Arizona for my husband's Ironman event.

The discussion was facilitated by Michelle P. and Ian R. The questions that were posed related to the 6-step process of comic book writing that Scott McCloud (pictured above) wrote about in his book Understanding Comics.

One of the more interesting questions involved how would you design a comic book for a blind person. Amy H. did a great job of answering this question.

"When creating a comic book for the blind I would start off by designing a normal comic but the pictures would be raised so you could feel your way through the story. I would also incorporate smell by having an aroma come from the page that will hit you when you turn the page. I think it would be hard to really get my audience to taste the comic but I would integrate smells of food that smell as though they are in your mouth. And last to really get the comic to stand out I would have sounds that go off with the turn of the page, almost like cards that play music when you open them."

Another question related to transfering the comic book medium to the movie medium. Krista H. did a nice job answering the question below.

Compare and contrast the comic medium with the movie medium after watching this video clip of Watchmen and reviewing the Watchmen comic. What can a comic book do more effectively than a movie and visa versa?

 "Comics and movies are, of course, very different, and their differences are quite obvious. Comics are simply read and viewed at a stand still, while movies are just viewed but have real-life action and sound accompanying it. It takes a lot more work on the brain and thinking process to read a comic than it does to watch a movie, and as usual movies tend leave out certain points and put it ridiculous ones for Hollywood's sake (considering works of literature being made into films). In other words, movies tend to be much more embellished than a comic, possibly because they need to grab the attention of a much larger crowd.


- Comic books can do things that movies cannot, and the same thing applies to film. When reading a comic like the Watchmen, one is getting the true, full story. When it is transformed into a movie, however, things are lost (or as stated above, added with things that may seem pointless). I believe that to read a story within a comic, things can be more easily understood and pondered. Movies, however, move so fast and do not necessarily have the time to give one the background story or time to think about what is happening. There are always more benefits to reading a comic, as well. Reading a comic increases vocabulary and can help someone grow more intellectually than a film. Reading words definitely cannot harm one's eyes like a huge screen up-close. Art and written words merged together are much more original and appreciated than them being re-made on a television screen. Movies, however, tell a story in a way that captures many more people's attention. The story is more enhanced, as well. It is a way for the comic to "come alive" with 'moving' pictures and sounds. In some cases movies, for lack of better words, "dumb down" the initial point of a story so that it can also be more universally understood. Although they both have setbacks, both the comic and movie medium have their own special ways of appreciating and portraying comics."