What story do you want to tell?

If you want to create comics, I think Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is required reading. “But Jim! I’ve read enough comics to understand them! I don’t need to read this!” Well, if you’ll allow me a sports metaphor… Watching Michael Jordan or Lebron James play hundreds games isn’t gonna make you a great basketball player, nor is watching every NFL game on Sunday gonna make you a great coach. In short, there’s a lot of doing the work and studying the craft involved in mastering the craft, so if you want to create comics, you should do more than just read lots of comics, you should immerse yourself in information about the craft.

But, getting off my soap box (“He said, while writing am advice-centric blog post.”), I’m writing this post about two pages from Understanding Comics that I think are a great lesson for newcomers and a fantastic refresher for old pros alike. Continue Reading “What story do you want to tell?”

Share

Never stop improving

Last night, I was watching MasterChef with my fiancé and I realized that, over the two seasons I’ve watched, there are always a few contestants who seem certain they know better than the judges. Gordon Ramsay will come around, ask them what they’re cooking, taste it, and often offer some sort of “Are you sure about this? Did you think this through?” criticism. The contestants who often do the best, take that cue and work toward applying the criticism to their cooking. The contestants who are often eliminated early on in the competition are the ones who shake their heads at the criticism and seem convinced that they know better than the judges. Continue Reading “Never stop improving”

Share

Find a crucible for your story

In David Mamet’s On Directing Film, he explains that a director’s job is to make a film by putting together a series of uninflected shots. Using straightforward images alone, you tell the story. He suggests that if you try to make a silent film, you should be able to make a great film because you’ll be forced to make sure each image you use means something, each shot furthers the scene.

Think about that. It’s a great guide for the visual storyteller—Comics very much included in that. Make sure every scene/image works toward telling your story. Continue Reading “Find a crucible for your story”

Share

Learning my medium by doing

I’m not a writer.

I can write. I’ve been paid to write. But I know writers. Real writers. Sit down and type for hours because they have to writers, agonizing over every word writers, write or go crazy writers… And I’m not one of them.

Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a story to tell. Continue Reading “Learning my medium by doing”

Share