Making a Family Comic BookBy Carla Brown & Gloria Brown, July 2013

Russell Andrew – named after Gloria’s grandfather Andrew

First book – Text and Photos

Christmas gift – a few comics

Materials for Family Comic Book Making

• Photos of the people and where they lived• Pencils• White eraser• White cardstock & paper• Ruler• Thin and wide black Sharpie markers• Scanner and computer• Photoshop

How we made our comic strips

1. Choose / find a story2. Divide story into 3-8 moments3. Draw comic book panels on card stock4. Sketch story lightly5. Make the dialogue authentic (historically,

culturally)6. On a fresh paper, draw story in pencil7. Trace with Sharpie, except text8. Scan comic9. Colorize and add text in Photoshop10.Make a book and get it printed at Lulu.com!

Choose / Find Your Story

• Who - Hero – 2 at the most

• What - Change of Direction – something happened and now you did something you couldn’t have predicted

• When - Short time - one minute, hour or at most one day

• Where - Vivid Details - you can experience with 5 senses

• Why - Emotion

Change of Direction

One Moment in Time

Work with a partner

Identify at least one story from your life or your family history that has the five elements

1. Hero or two

2. Change of Direction (something unexpected)

3. Vivid Details (5 senses)

4. Emotion

5. Short period of time

Divide the story into 3-8 moments

Draw comic book panels on card stock

Why card stock?

The thicker paper is less likely to rip if you need to erase and re-draw a few times.

Explanation at the TopWe put a short explanation on our comics.

This is optional, but we found it helpful because we felt the grandchildren would not be able to relate the the reality of their great-great grandparents at first glance.

Draw the story in pencil• Draw the

minimum to tell the story

• Circle for the head, basic facial features

• Can start with stick figures and give them thickness

Drawing the Human Figure• Keep it

simple

• Upper Body = rectangle or square

• Female Dress= Triangle

• Legs = 2 lines, Arms = 1 line

• Hands & feet = ovals

Make the dialogue authentic

• Culturally• Historically• Sayings• Jargon• Pronunciation• Emphasis

Ask people from where your family members lived to check your work.

Dialogue can impact the drawings

You may find that you adjust the drawings to make the dialogue flow.

When you draw each frame, leave space for the dialogue.

ContinuityKeep clothing details and color the same on each person from one panel to the other

If the kitchen walls are yellow, they must stay yellow throughout, but you can make it slightly darker or lighter for visual interest.

When Russell saw the first draft of this comic, he told his Nana there was a “continuity” problem – the girl was missing her buttons in one of the panels. He was five years old.

Prepare for Scanning

• Trace with Sharpie, except text

• Scan black and white high contrast – you want the Sharpie lines to appear in your scan, but no forgotten pencil lines

• Spend time erasing before you scan - it will save you time later.

Every Space Must Be Fully Closed

Note the tiny gap

Here’s what happens when you use the paint can tool in Photoshop due to the gap

Gap corrected

Photoshop now puts the color only on the hat

Colorize & Add Text in Photoshop

Even if you are careful to close every space, you might need to touch up in Photoshop. The scanner is not perfect.

Our font is only in Inkscape – Movi – but use whatever

Color palettes – will your series have a color palette?

Foreground colors must contrast from background

Colorize

Most of the time, you use flat color.

But consider a gradient like in this example.

You could also consider just doing some color, not every nook and cranny.

Pencil Crayon Colorization1) Use pencils

on the sides of their leads

2) Think “Shade to Fade” – Press harder in the darker areas, lifting pressure as you move farther away.

3) Do not color the whole area.

Even kids can do this