Extra Credit Project

 Due on December 1st, after Thanksgiving break (giving you the CHANCE to avoid your family during Thanksgiving break by saying you are working on a school project!), your extra credit optional assignment asks you to draw your own comic of approximately one to two pages, inspired by the work we've read this semester.  You might write something autobiographical, like Spiegelman's Maus or Bechdel's Fun Home, or entirely made-up, like Gene Yang's American Born Chinese.  You can use black and white or color images.  I only ask that you submit one copy to my mailbox at McMicken and upload one copy to the blog (we can make sure those entries are private), so we can discuss your work with the class.  I also ask that you include a 1 page write-up, explaining your work/ experience making the comic.

 I know some of you are better artists than others.  The assignment is more about seeing the ways in which the work you've read have influenced your use of panels, space, and narrative structure, rather than your artistry.  If you can only do stick figures, do stick figures.  If you want to use digital tools to make your images, that is okay, too (see example). The author of Hyperbole and a Half uses Paintbrush.

There's a lot of information online about creating comics.

Look at:

rules for drawing comics

making a comic

this youtube video on making a comics page.

how to draw comics 

this WikiHow on making comics

how to make a comic book

online comics tool