Previous page: Comic book panel by Devaughn Testman, Reinaldo Lassalles, Alcides Lopez, Pierre Castillo, Christopher Lopez,
Nathaniel Singleton, grades six through eight, IS 349, New York City, New York.
thinking. The highest-quality outcomes are based on the uniqueness
of the idea, not how well it is drawn.
The fifth-grade girl who created
“dropped ice cream” (go to schoolartsonline.com to see this image) from
her triangle used five lines to execute
the drawing:
one for the
scoop and four
sticky drips.
But the idea
of dropped ice
cream is one
that I never
would have conceived. I can almost
conjure the idea forming in her mind,
flowing into her shoulder, down her
arm, into her hand, through her pencil, and finally onto the paper.
Designing Panels
The next step in the CBP process is
for students to understand the structure of a comic book, which is built
upon sequential rectangular boxes, or
panels. I encourage students to think
of themselves as movie directors;
each panel of
the comic book
is like a camera
shot in a movie.
A movie director has many
elements to
consider in any
given camera shot: movement, lighting, color, weight, balance, perspective, range, angle, and line of action
to name a few. The creator of a comic
book must consider these same elements in the design of a panel. In
The goal is to give students the
opportunity to design original
characters, develop interesting
storylines, and publish and
present their work.
this way, students imbue their comic
books with several layers of detail,
perspective, and imagery. Eighth-grader David Dennis highlights this
nicely in his smoking prevention
comic book where the “camera”
moves closer and closer toward the
characters’ faces until the page concludes with an extreme close-up on
the smoker’s rotting teeth. I have yet
to see a more convincing argument
against smoking.
Writing and Storytelling
Of course, creating a comic book is
not just about creative art and design.
Writing and storytelling are just as
important. For those looking for connections between the arts and core
academic areas, comic books are a
good place to start. But the writing
