Teacher’s Guide

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 15.1 Marathon cartooning As an in-class project, obviously you’d need to take the 3-hour (or 6-hour, if your class is long) option on the marathon cartooning project, but even so, it is well worth taking the class time to do it. Every time we teach the 3-hour comic, there…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 14.1 Producing reproductions If you have a classroom set-up or a nearby computer lab where you can demonstrate scanning using a projector, you’re all set. Otherwise you’ll probably need to assign this as a reading/activity to be done at home or in a computer lab. Consider having students e-mail…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 13.1 The liquid line Supplement reading this section with a demo if possible, as well as more examples of brush art from your own collection. 13.2 Softening the black The point of this section is to underscore that brush (and pen for that matter) are not just used for…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 12.1 Creating a sense of place Right up front, we should say that we’re not advocating filling up every panel with exhaustive detail. We’re simply interested in encouraging students to research and/or think through their settings, and to give the project of creating a sense of place high priority,…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 11.1 Panel design We’ve touched on composition before, but this chapter is our most in-depth and explicit discussion on the subject. There is a lot of material here, and it would be easy for a student to feel overwhelmed, so you might start the discussion by pointing out the…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 10.1 Developing your character You’ll probably want to assign this essay as a homework assignment and use your class time to concentrate on the activity. Review the points of the essay by mentioning different well-known or fictional characters and asking students to decide which kind of character they are:…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 9.1 The narrative arc/9.2 The elements of a narrative arc This is one chapter where you really should ask students to read the essay ahead of time. However, you know how unengaging and dull it can be to simply run over a reading saying “so, did you read X…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions General note: this is a chapter with two essays on related topics: inking with a pen and making corrections on art. 8.1 Inking with a nib pen A demo of different kinds of nibs is the best supplement to this essay. You can have the students do a warm-up…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 7.1 Hand lettering Many students are likely to resist hand lettering at first. It’s a good idea to talk about the reasons for it that we present in this essay to get them on the same page with you. It’s great to open students’ eyes to lettering. It’s usually…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 6.1: Elbow room Bring in some favorite comics pages of yours or have your students bring in pages they think have interesting layouts. Use tracing paper (or a colored pencil in Photoshop) to highlight reading paths, underlying grids, and so on. Reading Order This is a minor point in…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 5.1 Penciling comics This is the first chapter of purely hands-on, technical work. You don’t really need to plan a lecture on penciling, though it can be helpful to do a demo. You can use prepared materials (along the lines of the before-and-after pages we show on pages 53-54),…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 4.1: Reading between the lines You should make sure your students are familiar with Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, and if they’re not, assign them to read at least chapter three in preparation for this class. You may well have your own ideas about the concept of closure between panels…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 3.1: A comic a day One way to handle this discussion would be to make enlarged photocopies of the panels we’ve drawn, and then to follow the various steps we outline using the panels on a board. You might also solicit suggestions from students as to what kind of…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 2.1: Word and image You may want to do a version of this section as a lecture, drawing the apple (or other object of your choice) on a board. This will help you control the pace and development of the argument: that the further the text is pushed from…

Corresponding Student Guide Lectures & discussions 1.1 Defining “comics” This is a good opportunity to solicit ideas from your group on what they think about comics. In some cases, they won’t have thought about their assumptions about comics at all. You might encounter resistance to the idea of even trying to define comics. This can…