The Importance of Teaching Comics
(excerpted from The Education of a Comics Artist)
by Ted Stearn
Although the case for understanding and appreciating comics as a viable art form has gained much acceptance in recent years, there can be some confusion about exactly what “comics” are. The popular perception of comics seems to be the focused on the content. In our American culture, “Comics” seems to mean Batman and Spiderman, or Japanese Manga. Even comic strips today, with some notable exceptions, are much more about gags than the drawings. This perception of comics in terms of content and style sets limits on the potential for what comics can be. When teaching comics, I always try to refer to the form over the content. Like its cousin, film, comics must be classified as a medium, not a genre. And as a medium, comics have as much potential and possibility as the author can bring to it.
I will not claim that comics are the most holistic, or all inclusive, or the most challenging of all art forms. I’ve heard that claim about painting, sculpture, film, writing and dance. But each does have its strengths. Dance, for example, requires a special awareness of the body. So it follows that each of these art forms contributes a unique voice of artistic expression. One of the most prominent features of comics is its natural ability to convey a visual narrative. The process of reading and looking simultaneously is unique to comics. This is the case when there is text, but just as much when there is not. By “reading” I don’t necessarily mean deciphering text, but viewing in a deliberate chronological order. The visual narrative created is one with the medium, and cannot be translated to another medium without changing the nature of the work.
Beyond just being a valuable medium of expression, comics can fill a need that is apparent in many art colleges today: to create and develop a visual narrative.* Film and video majors need to; Illustration majors need to; animators need to, and even writing majors need to understand the importance of emphasizing the visual nature of a story or narrative. I know, because students from these areas come to my comics and storyboarding classes for that very reason. There are many college creative writing courses, but I don’t see how they can effectively tackle the problem of creating a story in images, not words. Comics and storyboards are an ideal medium for this purpose. They are the fastest, most convenient way to create a visual narrative.
As in any other art form, there are a number of skills required to create a successful comic. In order to lend some sense of order to the many aspects of comics that are addressed in class, I have come up with what I call “Sequential Art Basics.” They are as follows:
- drawing: describing volumes and space
- design: visual balance and harmony
- pacing: the inferred timing; how many panel are necessary
- staging: the point of view; what we see and do not see.
- acting: what character are thinking and feeling using pose and expression
- writing: creative use of text ; words synthesizing well with images
All these basics are important tools in telling a story better. If the story isn’t compelling enough, however, no amount of beautiful drawing, or strong pacing, is going to save it. I try to get students to focus on the importance of theme. I describe theme as what the comic is really about. Just by asking the student the question “Why are you telling me this?” can get us to the true meaning behind the comic. If they say it’s funny, I ask them “why?” again!
In one recent assignment, I was reviewing thumbnail layouts of story ideas with students. One student was recounting in her comic an incident where she was being tickled in front of a group of friends, and how she got rid of the perpetrator by kicking him in the crotch. On the surface it would seem to be a minor funny anecdote. But as I questioned her, it became clear she hated to be tickled, and she was extremely embarrassed by the tickling, and it felt good to give him that kick. This helped her start focusing on how she felt about the event, rather than the mechanics of the event itself: The horror of being humiliated in front of one’s friends, and the sweet revenge that came with the kick to the crotch. Now she had a theme. Whether she takes a humorous take on it or not is irrelevant- it would still be about the same thing. So I encourage students to find a theme running through the comic, however they decide to tell it.
Figuring out how the narrative can be told as well as possible usually involves utilizing the sequential art basics. For example, I encouraged the previously mentioned student to think of ways to build up the suspense of the tickling before the climax of the kick. More panel of her face could be added (pacing), focusing closer and closer (staging) on her before she explodes with the kick. Focusing on conveying her expression (acting) would also help in getting to the heart of her theme. Obviously, there is frequently overlap in applying these basics, but the compartmentalizing helps us focus on finding strong and weak points to address.
One important aspect of storytelling is how much to tell the reader and when. All writers deal with this, but beginning students in comics usually think more about the art and less about the narrative structure, so this is an important point to go over. I use the figure of a scale to make my point. The scale is a polarity between “clarity” and “complexity.” If there is too much emphasis on being as clear as possible in the story, it will all seem too obvious and thus, boring. If there is too much going on or no enough explanation, so that the reader feels hopelessly lost, the story will be too confusing and will give up. Only when we can balance the scale, when the story is clear enough to follow and the situation, characters and their world that will be rich varied enough to hold my interest, will the comic read successfully. Frequently related to this is the issue of cliche and predictability. I always warn students about avoiding the obvious!
* I prefer this term for two reasons; first, it has a broader application than “visual storytelling;” second, it can be applied to comics and storyboarding, which is an important bridge to film and animation mediums. (back)