how to make a comic strip for a book report

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How to Make a Comic Strip: Comprehensive Guide with Templates

Creating a comic strip is an exciting way to express your creativity, tell engaging stories, and connect with readers. Whether you’re inspired by classics like “Peanuts” or modern hits like “Calvin and Hobbes,” making your own comic strip can be a rewarding experience. In this guide we will look at how to make a comic strip along with handy templates to help you get started.

What is a Comic Strip?

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that work together to tell a story, often accompanied by text such as dialogue or narration. Each strip consists of a series of panels, with each panel representing a single scene or moment in the story. These stories are usually brief, fitting into just a few panels, and are designed to be both entertaining and visually engaging.

Comic strips are known for their ability to capture readers' attention quickly. The visual format makes them accessible and appealing, while the brevity of each story makes them easy to read in a short amount of time. This format is particularly effective for humor, as the setup and punchline can be delivered swiftly and effectively within the limited space of a few panels. However, comic strips can also explore a wide range of genres, including drama, adventure, fantasy, and social commentary, making them a versatile medium for storytelling.

• Ready to use
• Fully customizable template
• Get Started in seconds

Basic Elements of a Comic Strip

• Panels : Comic strips are divided into individual panels, each representing a different scene or moment in the story. Panels are typically arranged in a horizontal sequence.
• Characters : The characters in a comic strip are the main focus. They can be human, animal, or even fantastical creatures, each with their own unique personality and design.
• Dialogue and narration : Text is used to convey the characters' dialogue through speech bubbles and the story’s context or additional details through narration boxes.
• Humor and themes : Many comic strips are humorous, using jokes and visual gags to entertain readers. However, they can also explore a wide range of themes, from adventure and drama to social commentary and satire.
• Art style : The art style of comic strips can vary widely, from simple and cartoony to detailed and realistic. The style often reflects the tone and content of the strip.

Brief History of Comic Strips

The origin of comic strips dates back to the early 19th century when European artists used sequential art to narrate stories. Pioneers like Rodolphe Töpffer are credited with creating some of the first comic strips. In the early 20th century, comic strips gained massive popularity with classics like ‘The Katzenjammer Kids’ and ‘Little Nemo’. Over decades, comic strips have evolved, influencing not only popular culture but also becoming educational tools and marketing media.

How to Make a Comic Strip

​ ​Creating a comic strip is a fun and creative process that involves combining storytelling with visual art. Here’s how to make a comic strip from scratch.

Step 1: Plan your comic strip

Brainstorm ideas.

Start by thinking about the story you want to tell. What’s the theme or message? Is it humorous, adventurous, dramatic, or something else? Jot down your ideas and think about how they can fit into a short, sequential format.

Create characters

Develop characters that will appear in your comic strip. Give them distinct personalities, appearances, and backstories. Strong, relatable characters are crucial for engaging your audience.

Outline the plot

Sketch a rough outline of your story. Determine the beginning, middle, and end. Think about how the events will unfold across the panels. Keep the story simple and focused due to the limited space.

Learn more about plot diagrams with our guide Plot Diagrams: What They Are and How to Use Them for Storytelling .

Step 2: Write the script

Dialogue and narration.

Write the dialogue for your characters and any narration that will help tell the story. Keep the text concise and to the point. Remember, the visuals will also convey a lot of information.

Pacing and timing

Ensure your story flows well from one panel to the next. Pacing is crucial in delivering jokes, dramatic moments, or action sequences effectively.

Step 3: Draw your comic strip

Choose your tools.

Decide whether to draw by hand or use digital tools. Traditional drawing materials include pencils, pens, and paper, while you can use a comic strip maker like Createlt to create it digitally. Creately offers various tools for drawing online. Choose from their templates and customize them to fit your story.

Sketch the panels

Start with rough sketches of each panel. Plan the layout, keeping in mind the composition and how each panel will transition to the next.

Creately tip: You can use Creately’s panel layout templates to get started quickly.

Draw the comic strip characters and scenes

Draw your characters and backgrounds in more detail. Focus on consistency in character design and expressions to maintain a cohesive look throughout the strip.

Creately tip: Use Creately’s freehand drawing feature to draw your characters. Or you can import and embed your drawings or use built-in Google image search to browse and add design elements.

Step 4: Ink and color

Go over your pencil sketches with ink to make the lines clean and bold. Inking adds depth and clarity to your drawings.

Add color to your comic strip. Choose a color palette that suits the mood of your story. You can color by hand using markers or colored pencils, or use digital coloring tools.

Creately tip: Creately offers preset color themes for various styles. Select colors and fill your panels to bring your comic to life.

​​5. Add text and speech bubbles

Design speech bubbles.

Draw speech bubbles for your dialogue and caption boxes for narration. Make sure they are placed where they don’t cover important parts of the drawings.

Creately tip: Use Creately’s speech bubble shapes and text tools to add dialogue and narration.

Write the dialogue and narration within the bubbles and boxes. Use clear, legible fonts for handwriting. The text should be easy to read and not overcrowded.

Creately tip: Creately provides a variety of fonts and text placement options to ensure readability.

Step 6: Final touches

Review and edit.

Look over your comic strip for any mistakes or areas that need improvement. Make any necessary adjustments to the drawings, text, or layout.

Finalize your comic strip

Add any final details and make sure that everything looks polished. Check for consistency in the artwork and readability of the text.

Step 7: Share your comic strip

Prepare for sharing.

Format your comic strip for sharing online or in print. Ensure it’s in a suitable resolution and file format for your chosen platform.

Creately tip: Creately offers multiple export options in various formats and resolutions for easy sharing.

Publish or Share

Share your comic strip on social media, your own website, or print it to distribute. Engage with your audience and get feedback to improve your future work.

Creately tip: You can easily use a Creately embed link to embed your comic strip in any site or intranet. You can also share a workspace link with view or edit access and share the comic strip with anyone. Capture feedback easily via contextual comments.

Developing a Comic Strip Storyline

Creating an engaging comic strip starts with a compelling storyline. From brainstorming comic character ideas to plotting and storyboarding, every step is crucial. Let’s explore each aspect in detail to make your comic strip creation process smoother.

Comic character ideas

Your characters are the heart and soul of your comic strip. Begin by brainstorming unique and relatable comic strip characters. Consider their backstory, personality traits, and physical features. Ask yourself questions such as:

• What motivates your characters?
• How do they interact with others?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Plot development techniques

A strong plot is essential for keeping your audience hooked. Your plot should typically have a clear beginning, conflict, climax, and resolution. Here are some plot development techniques:

• Start by laying down the premise. What is the central theme or message you want to convey?
• Introduce the conflict early. It could be an internal struggle in one of the characters or an external challenge they must face.
• Build up to the climax. This is the most exciting part of your story.
• Conclude with a resolution. Ensure that the storyline ties up neatly but leaves room for future developments if needed.

Storyboarding your comic strip

Once you have your plot, visualizing it through a storyboard is the next step. Storyboarding involves sketching out each scene or panel of your comic strip in a sequential manner. This helps in planning the layout, pacing, and overall flow of the story. Tools like Creately can significantly aid this process with their intuitive storyboarding templates and storyboarding tools .

• Start with rough sketches to outline the major scenes.
• Detail out each panel by adding dialogues, backgrounds, and character actions.
• Ensure a consistent theme and tone throughout the storyboard.

Best Practices for Comic Strip Panel Layout

Panel size and shape.

Remember that when you create a comic strip, choosing the right panel size and shape is very important. Larger panels can be used to show important moments, while smaller panels can be used for quick actions or dialogue. It’s important to find a balance and use a mix of panel sizes to create a good pace and guide the reader through the story.

Whitespace and gutters

The empty spaces around and between panels in your comic strip, known as gutters, are important for making your comic easy to read. They prevent your comic from looking crowded and help your artwork and dialogue stand out. Gutters also help separate different parts of the story and make it clear when the scene changes.

Arrangement of visual elements

Remember to carefully arrange the visual elements in your panels as it can significantly affect how your story is perceived. Make sure that your backgrounds, character positions, and dialogue bubbles are laid out in a way that enhances the storytelling. Place your main characters and action points strategically to keep readers engaged. Creately’s freehand drawing tools and built-in shape and icon libraries can greatly help achieve a polished and visually appealing design.

Wrapping up

Creating a comic strip is a blend of creativity, storytelling, and artistic skills. From brainstorming ideas and developing unique characters to outlining the plot and finalizing the visual layout, each step is essential in bringing your story to life. Using tools like templates and online comic strip makers such as Creately can streamline the process, allowing you to focus on the creative aspects.

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced artist, the joy of crafting a comic strip lies in the endless possibilities and the ability to share your unique vision with an audience. Remember to keep your characters relatable, your plot engaging, and your visuals compelling. Most importantly, have fun with the process and let your imagination shine.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

Comic Strip Book Report Template

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Comic Strip Book Report Template for Kids and Teens

Most kids love superheroes! And many kids also love comic books. Even kids and teens who don’t usually love reading or writing often enjoy reading comic books and writing (and drawing) their own comic strips. To capitalize on your kids’ love of superheroes and comic books, try these comic strip book report templates and have them do comic strip book reports!

How to Use These Comic Strip Book Reports

For younger kids .

These comic strip book reports are great for encouraging kids who don’t particularly enjoy reading and writing (or book reports, for that matter!), but they’re also great for kids of all ages who don’t yet have strong reading and writing skills. Why? Because these comic strip templates allow those children a way to “write” book reports mostly by drawing !

With these kids, you may decide to have them create their comic strip book reports based on books you’ve read aloud to them or audiobooks they’ve listened to. This is a great way to help them think more deeply about what they’ve read (or heard) in a way that is fun and doesn’t seem like a test.

For Older Kids and Teens

If you have older kids or teens (or even younger kids who are good readers and have strong writing skills), you can have them include more writing in their book reports. You may also want to have them create their reports based on books they’ve read independently rather than books you’ve read aloud to them or audiobooks they’ve heard.

But of course, it’s ultimately up to you how much independent reading, writing, or drawing you want to have your children do. One of the best things about homeschooling is having the ability to adjust assignments and requirements to fit the needs of each child!

Things to Include in the Book Report (for Kids and Teens)

It’s a good idea to discuss with your children what a book report is and what should be included in one. For example, you’ll want to be sure to have them include the basics such as:

• title of the book
• author of the book
• plot (This can be done on the chapter summary pages.)
• what your child liked and/or didn’t like about the book (for younger kids)
• personal opinion/endorsement (similar to likes/dislikes but more in-depth for older kids or teens)

For younger children , it might be helpful to discuss these things and make a plan for using the available boxes wisely in order to have enough boxes to include all of the necessary information. (A wonderful lesson in planning!) Or you may simply want to print extra copies of the book report template pages so they can use as many boxes as they like!

Older students should be able to plan independently for how to use the boxes. It’s still a good idea, though, to give them a reminder ahead of time to think about it or to let them know that you can print extra pages if needed.

Additional Information You May Choose to Include

There are some other things you might want to help them (or remind them) to consider such as:

• What is the climax of the story?
• How many boxes will the climax occupy?
• What is the conclusion of the story?
• How many boxes will the conclusion occupy?
• Is there anything else you want to include in your report?

You’ll probably find that, as you discuss these details with your children, they will gain a deeper understanding of what they’ve read even before they begin working on their book reports! This conversation will also help you better determine your children’s level of understanding of the story, the characters, and the plot. And if your children have misunderstood anything in the story, you’ll be better able to determine why and help correct the misunderstandings.

What’s Included

This pack includes four different layouts with two versions. There’s one for book reports and one for chapter summaries – which is useful for older children reading longer books. There are eight pages included in total.

I hope you find that your children enjoy using these comic strip book report templates to create their own book reports – comic strip style! Click the link below to go to the store to download yours.

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Create a Comic Strip

with Ted Bergeron

A one hour class on making comic strips

We’ll cover how to make a comic strip in three steps.

What is your favorite comic strip?

Parts of a Comic Strip

Word balloons, step 1: story.

Before you begin work on the art, you need the story.

Theme and Genre

Theme of your comic strip

Pick a setting and characters

Genre: Comedy, SciFi…​

Writing Daily Comic Strip

For example, let’s focus on a funny comic strip.

Gag comic is most popular

Typically 3-4 panels

Get to the punchline

Example Hoot 'N' Whoo

Story start.

Use two characters to talk to each other.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

What could you do to make this funny?

To get away from the taco stand.

Check Yourself

Is it funny?

Try exaggerating

we see a chicken crossing the road

Dog says: Why did the chicken cross the road?

we see a taco stand

Armadillo says: Duh! and points to the sign

sign says: Special Chicken Tacos

Step 2: Art

Character Design: What do your characters look like?

Sketch characters

What does the scene look like?

Scout locations.

Storyboards

Make some quick thumbnail sketches of your story.

Choosing the moment

Close up, medium shot…​

Action shot. Best if characters are doing something.

Funny reaction pose

Typically artists work at twice the printed size on Bristol board.

13" x 4" for original art

4 panels each 3-1/4" wide

3 panels each 26 picas wide

1/4" gutter size

Layout Paper

We will work at 1-1/2 times the printed size on copy paper.

Create the container for the comic strip; draw lightly.

9-3/4" wide (leave about 3/4" on each side)

Start with Words

The top 1/3 is for your words

The bottom 2/3 is for your art.

Typically the character that speaks first is on the left.

Make your letters 1/8" high

Leave 1/16" leading

Pencil in the words first, very lightly

Too many words? Go back to the writer

Words should fit nicely inside the balloons. Balloon tail points towards the character’s mouth

Refer to the thumbnails. Draw with a light touch. Get the foundation right, before adding details

Drawing Characters

Expressions

Poses: have your characters doing something.

Make it darker. Permanent marker, brush or pen

Caution About Permanent Ink

Use a clipboard or cardboard under your paper.

Water Colors, Markers: Copic, Colored Pencils

Step 3: Sharing

Sharing is the 21st century way to publish

Social Media

What app do you use to share with friends and family?

(early turn of the century sites)

Snap or Scan

Just use your phone to take a picture and

share it on Facebook or Twitter

Newspaper Syndication

King Features is one of the world’s largest syndicates.

Cover letter with your contact info.

24 daily comic strips

Put 3 or 4 strips per page

A character sheet

Physically mail them to NY, wait 8 - 12 weeks .

info: KingFeatures.com submission guidelines

Come up with a schedule: M - W - F

Keep 6 weeks ahead

Be faithful to post a comic on schedule

Make Comics

You can do it!

I’ll be around for a while, please stick around and feel free to ask questions. - Ted Bergeron

• How-To Guides

How to Create a Comic Strip in 6 Steps

Everyone loves a good comic, whether you’re a comic book geek or just the casual reader of a comic in your local newspaper – Comic Strips are great! While some comic strips just take a few minutes or less to read, don’t underestimate the difficulty of creating one! And because May 5 th is comic book day, we decided to give you some step-by-step instructions for creating your first ever comic strip. Follow these instructions and you’ll be creating awesome comic strips in no time! Here is how to create a comic strip in 6 simple steps.

What is a comic strip?

Step 1:  write your ideas for your comic, step 2: draw the three-frames, step 3: use basic shapes to draw, step 4: add in the speech and lettering, step 5: add detail to your cartoon, step 6:  go over your comic in pen, how to make a comic book, how to draw comic strip characters, comic strip ideas, comic strip examples, are you ready to create a comic strip.

A comic strip is a sequence of images with a small amount of text in each box. This text is normally inside balloons or written as captions. Comic strips (or comic books) are a form of story-telling, which uses drawings or cartoon characters to tell a story. Most comic strips are created for humour, while some can be serious.

Comic strips are most likely to be seen in newspapers or magazines. While entire comic books or graphic novels can be found at your local library or bookstore. Superman is one of the best-selling comic books of all time. You might know of other examples of comic strips or books that you’ve seen or read.

In the professional world, comic strips or comic books are created by cartoonists or professional graphic artists. But today we’ll show you how to create your own comic strip at home with no experience needed!

How to create a comic strip

As this is your first-ever comic strip we will focus on creating a three-frame comic. But when you become a master at creating short comic strips, you can make yours much longer and filled with way more characters.

A comic strip is no different from writing a short story . It still needs a beginning, middle and ending. Because this is a three-frame comic strip, break your story down into 3 parts. Write down your ideas for the characters, settings, expressions and even speech. Make sure each part has some action and that your ending is powerful with an awesome punchline.

On a new piece of plain paper, draw your three frames using a pencil and a  ruler. Make sure each frame is equal size. You can even put small light marks on the paper to mark out where the speech bubbles will go. As a bonus tip, you might want to make your frames twice as big as you want them to be, so you don’t run out of space.

Don’t want to draw your own comic strip frames? Check out this highly-rated blank comic book for kids on Amazon (Amazon Affiliate link):

This is a whole book filled with blank comic strip grids. All your kids need to do is draw in their comics and they’ll have a complete comic book in no time!

One of the hardest parts of creating a comic strip is drawing out your characters. We recommend you use basic shapes to draw out your characters. As this is your first comic strip you might even want to use stick figures to keeps things easy. Also, sketch in the speech bubbles and any starbursts for sound effects. Oh and don’t forget, please use a pencil at this stage, so you can erase any mistakes.

Now add in the lettering for your speech into your speech bubbles and don’t forget to double-check your spelling. Remember the size of your lettering could show whether a character is shouting or whispering. For example, lettering in full capitals shows that your character is shouting.

Now go back to your characters and add any extra details, such as facial expressions, movement lines, and shadowing on the floor. And also draw in the background for each frame.

Now, you can finally use a felt-tip pen to go over your pencil drawings and rub out any pencil lines. Your first-ever comic strip is now complete – well done! You can leave it as it is or even add some colour.

A comic book is like a super long comic strip that requires more than one page. The process of creating a comic book is almost similar to creating a comic strip. However, there are a couple of extra steps you need to take to make a comic book. 

If you’re looking for a readily made comic book or blank comic book templates, see this amazing blank comic book template for kids (Amazon Affiliate Link):

Here is a super quick step-by-step tutorial on how to make a comic book out of paper:

• Pile together at least 3 A4 pages. This will give you 12 pages for your comic book. Then fold all of them in half:

• Staple the folded papers together. This should give an A5 sized booklet. Then fold the area with staples in slightly like in the image below:

• Fold another A4 paper in half. This paper will be for your comic’s cover. We used an A4 piece of card to give our comic book a sturdy cover:

Then apply glue on the tiny folded over part of your booklet – On the side where you can see the staples. Next, stick the cover and booklet together to form your comic book.

• Sketch out your cover using a pencil. And now the fun part: Outline your pencil drawing with a pen and then colour it in like a colouring book:

• Plan on your comic on a separate paper. You should ideally plan out each frame. Think about what the characters will say, what the scene might look like and any other small details. For inspiration, take a look at this post on how to come up with good ideas . 

Once the planning is done, sketch out your frames and cover over them in black pen. 

• Draw in your frames using a pencil. Remember to include speech bubbles, special effects and facial expressions on your characters. Once happy outline the drawing with a black pen and colour it in using your favourite colours:

Carry on doing the same with the other pages in your comic book until complete. 

Hooray! Your comic book is now complete. Now that you have done your first comic – Don’t stop now! Create your own comic book collection and amaze your friends with your bedazzling story-telling skills! You could even be the next Stan Lee!

Making a comic book is a great school project which can be applied to any lesson, whether it’s art, science or English. Comic books are a great way to encourage creativity in kids and build on their story-telling skills. You can even ask students to create comic books to test their understanding of a complex subject or topic. 

One of the hardest parts of creating a comic strip is drawing out the characters. As a beginner to the world of creating comic books, try not to worry too much about your drawing skills. For now, even a simple stick figure will do – In fact, there are many famous comics on the internet drawn entirely using stick figures!

If you want more than just stick figures, you can try out the simple steps below on how to draw your own comic strip characters. For this method, you’ll start off using a light pencil to sketch your character and then you’ll add in the colour:

• Start with a simple circle.
• Draw two circles for the eye and a mouth. And don’t forget a tiny curved dot for the nose!
• Sketch any rough hairstyle. Add in the eyebrows over the hair.
• Draw a triangular-looking rectangle for the body.
• Roughing sketch in the legs and tiny shoes.
• Add in your character’s arms.
• Draw in the smaller details. Don’t forget to add the tiny hands.
• Go over your sketch with a black pen.
• Colour in your character
• Your comic strip character is complete!

Here is a little cheat sheet of all the steps involved in drawing your own comic strip character:

By following these simple instructions, you’ll be drawing cool comic strip characters in no time! If you need more help drawing characters for your comic strips, then we recommend this book on how to draw cartoon character for kids (Amazon Affiliate Link):

Now you know how to create your own comic strip the next step is to start creating more! Here are some fun comic strip ideas to try out:

•   School Day: Create a comic about your best/worst day at school.
• Travel Comic: Create a travel comic about a recent trip or holiday you went on.
• Friendship: Write a comic about your best friend or a friend and give it to them as a gift .
• Fairy Tales: Recreate your favourite fairytale as a comic strip.
• Superhero: Design your own superhero and write a comic strip about their adventures. You can check out these superhero writing prompts for inspiration.
• Family: Write a comic strip about a family member and give it to them as a present.
• Music: Write a comic strip based on your favourite song, singer or band.
• The Future: Create a comic strip based on how you will be like in 10 years time.
• Anti-bullying: Write a comic about bullying to help anyone who is being bullied .
• Endangered Species: Raise awareness of an endangered species through creating a comic strip.

These comic strip ideas are great for school and at home. Why not challenge yourself and create a comic strip for all 10 of the comic strip ideas above! For more inspiration take a look at our post on coming up with story ideas .

We all need a little inspiration now and then. To inspire your comic strip creation, here are some simple and fun comic stripe examples:

Why not continue the comic strips in these examples or create your own using these characters?

Creating comic strips is so much fun. And it’s easy too! Just make sure to sketch out your ideas before creating your comic strip and make sure you keep your characters simple (as you may have to draw them many times in different positions.) Now sharpen your pencil and get creating!

What do you think of our step-by-step instructions on how to create a comic strip? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. In the meantime, why not take a look at our monster flip book activity or learn how to write your first-ever Haiku ?

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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How to Make a Comic Strip with Storyboard That!

What is a Comic Strip?

A comic is a visual story told through images. It is a sequence of drawings, usually arranged horizontally, that are designed to be read as a story or a chronological sequence of events. Comic strips are often humorous and are usually found in newspapers and magazines. Digital comics or web comics are also found on many websites and blogs. Words are often used in a combination of onomatopoeia, narration, and speech bubbles. The images are single scenes, and changes in action or location happen by using multiple cells. Comics get their name from the word meaning “funny”, however, not all comics are humorous, some are dramatic, adventurous or deal with serious topics.

The idea of telling a story or relating a message through images is nothing new; visual storytelling is tens of thousands years old: cave paintings, Egyptian tombs, friezes on Greek temples, Chinese screens, triptychs, the Bayeux Tapestry, stained glass windows and sculpture on cathedrals, instructional images... I think you get it. For a very long time, the majority of the populace was illiterate, so they could only learn through pictures.

The medium of comics is unique because of its primary use of still images and their combination with text in a narrative fashion. Over time, technological advances have enabled author-artists to greatly expand comic creation and dissemination. Comics come in many formats, most commonly in a horizontal strip, left-right top-down grid, or a single cell. Comics are also versatile and can be read online and printed out, and can greatly aid reading comprehension for readers of any level.

Why Make Comic Strips?

Comics are excellent visual tools..

As a kid, I remember when my parents got the Sunday newspaper I would grab the "Funny Pages" immediately. They were hilarious and entertaining, but also sometimes political, educational, and informative. With the comic creator on Storyboard That, students get to let their imagination run wild making their own comic strips, while also practicing writing skills and computer skills!

Comics are especially useful for students with emerging language or reading abilities. Resistant and struggling readers are often more engaged with graphic novels because the visuals allow them to access the content more easily. Use reading and creating comics to encourage reading habits, develop decoding and comprehension, explain a process or concept, or however else you want.

Not sure how to start? Keep on reading! Our step-by-step tutorial includes simple instructions, screenshots, and examples to help you and your students become a comic strip experts in no time!

How To Make a Comic Strip

Click on any "Create a Storyboard" button to get into the Storyboard Creator .

Give your comic a name!

Click on the “Layout” button at the top of the right hand menu. This is where you will customize how many rows and columns you would like, and add a title and/or description if you would like. Click “Okay!” when you are happy with the preview.

Find the perfect scenes for the setting and background of your comic; all of our scenes are customizable! Simply drag into the cell, and edit as you wish. Look for the "Edit Scene" button on the menu! Also, check out comic layout ideas if you're feeling stuck!

Find and customize characters. Remember, characters in comic strips don’t have to make sense or be realistic, so have fun with it!

Think about your characters’ personality quirks, looks, how they speak, and what makes them unique.

Storyboard That has hundreds of people, animals, monsters, and mythical creatures to choose from, so you may want to use our “Filters” button to help narrow your search.

Drag and drop your characters into the cell and click the “Edit Pose” button to customize. You can change your characters’ expressions, hair, skin, and so much more!

Once you have edited your each character, you can resize them and place them where you want them to be in the scene.

Choose items that you would like to include in the scene; we have tons of art to choose from, and you don't have to draw a thing! You may choose from the many located in the “Items” category, or you may use the search bar to find something specific. Once you have found what you are looking for, drag it into the scene and resize as necessary.

Many of our items have image options!

Let’s add some dialogue! Click on the “Speech Bubbles” category and choose from our many speech and thought bubbles to enhance your storyline. Drag into the scene, write your dialogue, and resize as necessary.

Want to make your dialogue pop? Try using one of our sound effects, located in the “Action” category under “Speech Bubbles”!

If you have chosen to add titles and/or descriptions, this is the time to input your text!

Quick Tip: If you are copying or moving entire cells, the title and descriptions will be copied or moved as well.

Review your comic and make any changes that you see fit!

Now that your comic strip is complete, you can print it, add it to a blog, make it an animated gif, download it, or even share it as a slide presentation in the classroom! Storyboard That makes it super easy to be silly, have fun, and get creative!

Frequently Asked Questions about Comic Strips

Can i make a comic strip for free.

Yes, you can create comic strips! The best way to make your own comic strip using our comic strip template for free is to sign up for a 2 week free trial . You will have premium access to all or our pictures, examples, and layouts!

Can I use the comic generator to make a comic book?

You sure can! There are many ways to do this, but we suggest using the book maker layout while you are creating your comic book. You will love this amazing feature!

How do comic strips enhance learning?

The rise of graphic novels has created a surge in comic book and comic strip popularity in the recent years. The good news for teachers is that students don't even realize they are comprehending and learning as they read. Text, in any form, is being understood, and that's what's important.

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• Making Comics

How to Make a Comic Book

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Lydia Stevens and by wikiHow staff writer, Eric McClure . Lydia Stevens is the author of the Hellfire Series and the Ginger Davenport Escapades. She is a Developmental Editor and Writing Coach through her company "Creative Content Critiquing and Consulting." She also co-hosts a writing podcast on the craft of writing called "The REDink Writers." With over ten years of experience, she specializes in writing fantasy fiction, paranormal fiction, memoirs, and inspirational novels. Lydia holds a BA and MA in Creative Writing and English from Southern New Hampshire University. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 25 testimonials and 81% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,291,542 times.

Making a comic book entirely from scratch can be a time-consuming process, but it’s also incredibly rewarding and creatively fulfilling. To make a comic from scratch, start by creating some characters and a plot for your story. Then, compose a script and sketch out a storyboard to make it easy to figure out what you want your comic to look like. Decide whether you want to make your comic by hand or digitally for a more polished look. To put it all together, sketch out your individual panels and add color and texture over time. There are no hard-set rules, so have fun and create something true to yourself!

Developing Your Idea

• Characters can be animals, historical figures, or entirely invented from thin air.
• Make your personality traits as specific as possible will make it easier to jump-start an idea for a plot if you don’t have one. “Willing to do anything to help their family” is better than “loyal,” for example.
• You can certainly start with the plot first and develop your characters later. The characters and plot are equally important, so the order isn’t necessarily important. Just start with your best idea and work from there.
• To write compelling descriptions of people or their characters, watch people.
• There are several ways to observe people, how they interact, and note their manners and habits. These little elements make for great character descriptions.
• You can sit at a park or a public place like a cafe and observe people. Or watch TV and see how characters are depicted on the screen.

• The setting can be real or imaginary. If it doesn’t matter to you and you want to focus on the characters, make it something that will be easy to draw, like the desert.
• If you’re making a really simple comic, you can simply leave your background blank and have no clearly-defined setting for your story. This is a particularly acceptable choice for comedic comics, emphasizing the writing.

• Conflict refers to the 2 people or ideas that are fighting against one another in your story. This can be as simple as superhero vs. villain or as abstract as freedom vs. order. Comedic comics don’t necessarily require conflict, but they sure help anchor the story in something concrete!
• Your comic doesn’t have to have a resolution if you want to turn your comic into a series.

• Speech bubbles in comics are pretty small. Try to keep most of your dialogue as short as possible. A single speech or line of dialogue may require multiple panels if it’s really long.
• Make notes about what your illustrations might look like on the side of each page as you’re proofreading. This will make it easier to figure out what you want to draw.
• Share your script with a friend, parent, or teacher to see if they have any suggestions on how to improve your writing.
• Most comic book scripts are written like movie scripts. Simply put the characters name at the beginning of a line and write their dialogue out. Give each piece of dialogue a separate line to make it easy to read. Make notes about setting, tone, or theme in between your dialogue.

• More than 6-8 panels on a single page is going to be too much for most readers to process.
• More than 3 speech bubbles in a single panel is going to be too much dialogue to fit in one illustration.
• An individual page usually has 1-3 key actions take place. These actions could be a piece of important dialogue, a character going from one location to another, or a character interacting with another character. Avoid overloading your pages with too many events to give your readers time to process what’s happening.
• You can always revise the order of your panels or number of pages. Don’t worry about it if you change your mind when you’re proofreading!

Tip: You must have an even number of pages unless you want to put a credits page at the end. You can also put a page filled with publication information at the front. If you have an odd number of pages, you’ll end up with a blank page that may confuse your reader.

• You can find pre-generated templates with different panel configurations online at sites. You can also choose to draw the panels out yourself or sketch where you’ll put them in your digital program.
• Use a variety of layouts so that your individual pages don’t get repetitive. For example, if every page has 9 panels that are arranged in the same way, your reader is going to get bored.
• Try to make the last panel on each page a unique, interesting, or powerful moment right as tension or conflict is rising. This is called the “cliffhanger” method and will keep your reader hooked on finding out what happens on the next page.

Creating Your Panels

• For example, you can draw the character’s face close up in one panel, filling the entire panel. In the next panel, you can draw them standing on the left side of the panel, leaving plenty of room for background information. Don’t draw your characters floating in the middle of every panel to keep things fresh.
• Pay attention to how characters are framed differently in movie shots. You’ll notice that characters aren’t always filmed right in the middle of the screen. Comics take a lot of visual cues from movies, so use film shots as inspiration for your images.
• In order to focus on composition first, draw your rough sketches out before you start inking or adding details.
• You can use a simple style and make your characters basic if you want to emphasize the story and can’t draw well! There’s no rule that says comic books have to be extremely detailed.

• Use a separate establishing shot for each new location. It’s normal for a single comic to take place in 4-5 different locations.
• A common technique is to “zoom in” on the action. For example, you might start by drawing a city’s skyline in the first panel. The second panel could depict the street where the story takes place. The third panel might show a single window where we see the character sitting down at a desk. This is a good way to establish where your character is without using written words.

Tip: You may notice that comics usually start with 1-2 bigger panels showing the environment. This is a good way to hook your reader and give them a clear first impression of the setting’s attitude, style, and look.

• Add detail to all of your panels in chronological order if you want a consistent drawing style. If you aren’t worried about it though, you can certainly ink and color your panels individually.

• If you’re working digitally, watercolor brushes can make abstract backgrounds pop and keep the focus on the action.
• If you’re hand-drawing your comics, use cross-hatching, which is a variety of perpendicular lines, to create cool abstract backgrounds.
• Once you’ve given the reader an establishing shot to indicate where the action is taking place, your readers will assume the characters are still in that location in the subsequent panels. You don’t need to keep reminding them with detailed backgrounds.
• Hand-drawn comics can be made with markers, colored pencils, or a combination of the two. It’s really up to you!

• If you’re going for a simple comic, there’s nothing wrong with emphasizing the story over the images. Feel free to stop when you’re happy with each panel.

• Common comic book fonts include Komika, Adam Warren’s pro font, and Badaboom. These are universally-recognizable fonts that people will immediately be familiar with. Using a non-traditional font can make your comics feel unprofessional.
• Download free comic book fonts online at https://www.dafont.com/ .
• If you’re hand drawing your letters, make sure that you space your letters out equally and keep your style uniform to avoid an inconsistent look.
• If a character yells or you want to add a sound effect, like “Boom!” or “Ugh!” feel free to put it outside of a speech bubble in a different font.

Choosing a Medium

• If you make an original comic on paper, you can photocopy it to reproduce it. You can even get it bound into a book at the printer.
• If you’re using paper that folds in half, each single sheet will have 2 separate pages on it. For example, if your comic is 32 pages, your first page will have page 1 on the left side and page 32 on the right. The next sheet will have page 2 on the left, and page 31 on the right. This is why the thumbnails are so important! Each sheet will be 4 pages if you’re using the front and back of the paper. When you bind the book, you’ll place your sheets on top of one another and staple them in the center so the pages are in sequential order.

• You can find a ton of free templates online at http://comicbookpaper.com/ .

Tip: You can buy blank comic books that are already bound, but if you screw something up you’ll have to start over from the beginning. These books are also near-impossible to reproduce without distorting the images near the spine of the book. It’s a great choice if you’re making a comic for a school project or something like that though!

• Make Beliefs is an easy-to-use site that can be found at https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ . It also uses pre-rendered characters though, and you can only have a total of 18 panels.
• You can import images and draw your own characters in Strip Generator, but the customization options can be kind of tough to make the most out of if you aren’t great at digital illustration.

• If you’re interested in self-publishing, you can import your templates into Blurb and pay to get your comics printed professionally. Visit Blurb at https://www.blurb.com/comic-books .
• Most professional illustrators use a drawing pad that plugs into your computer. These look like big screens that you draw on with a stylus. This is the most efficient way to draw digitally.

Community Q&A

Reader Videos

• Don't get discouraged if the story or drawings aren't perfect. With practice, it will get better and easier to create your projects. Nobody’s an expert from day one! Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• If you're struggling to make a full comic, try making small, short comics ("mini-comics"). This will give you practice for later comics, and a well-earned sense of achievement when you finish a mini-comic! Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• If you are struggling to come up with an original character try retelling a story from history or from a book until you get an idea. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• Vary your panel layouts and compositions on each page. Always framing your characters in the dead center of panels can get repetitive fast. Play around with different angles and shots.
• Consider making a simple comic digitally if you're new to illustration. Online comic creators with pre-made assets help you skip learning to draw well. You can focus just on writing.
• Start by sketching your main characters first. You can always develop the story after you've designed appealing, interesting protagonists. Memorable characters are the foundation.
• Draw in pencil first so you can erase mistakes. Diving right into pen and ink is risky for beginners. Use pencil to loosely sketch out your panels before finalizing details.
• Add establishing shots at the start of scenes to reveal settings. Give readers a few wide images showing where the action takes place before zooming in on the characters.
• When writing dialogue, keep it short and punchy. Most speech bubbles are small, so you don't have room for lengthy speeches. Focus on impactful one-liners.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022207/Plot-Is-Dumb-Character-Is
• ↑ http://makingcomics.spiltink.org/flow-the-eyelines/
• ↑ https://youtu.be/n0BrCv2Kz2Q?t=23
• ↑ https://youtu.be/n0BrCv2Kz2Q?t=43
• ↑ https://youtu.be/n0BrCv2Kz2Q?t=145
• ↑ https://conceptartempire.com/how-to-draw-comics-tutorials/
• ↑ https://medium.com/@chazhutton/how-to-draw-comics-when-you-cant-actually-draw-dd0b8b684562
• ↑ https://jasonthibault.com/comic-book-fonts/
• ↑ https://youtu.be/TQXpqErnXSA?t=88
• ↑ http://comicbookpaper.com/

About This Article

The best way to create your very own comic book is to dream up and draw 2 or 3 main characters. Sketch rough thumbnails of your storyline to get your creativity flowing, then start your final draft by outlining panel borders and dialogue bubbles. Finally, sketch in your drawings and go over the pages in ink to complete your masterpiece. To learn more about drawing poses and choosing how to make your comic panels, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students examine graphic novels and comic books and discuss  the important components of the genre, such as captions, dialogue, and images. They then use an online tool to create a six-panel comic highlighting six key scenes in a book they have read. By creating comic strips or cartoon squares featuring characters in books, students are encouraged to think analytically about the characters, events, and themes they've explored in ways that expand their critical thinking by focusing on crystallizing the significant points of the book in a few short scenes.

Featured Resources

Comic Creator : This online tool allows students to easily create and print comic strips.

Comic Strip Planning Sheet : Use this worksheet for students to plan their comic strips before using the online tool.

From Theory to Practice

This activity invites the student to think symbolically. The students choose key scenes for their characters and books, find landscapes and props that fit the scenes, and compose related dialogue. These student representations of the books, with their multifaceted texts using symbols, images, texts, and metaphor, succeed in the classroom because they provide a snapshot of the students' comprehension of the ideas in the texts. As Vokoun describes, the alternative to a traditional book report "allows students to create something unique and show their understanding of what they read."

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Graphic novels and comic book versions of well-known books for inspiration and comparison (optional)

• Comic Strip Planning Sheet
• Comic Strip Rubric

Preparation

• Before this lesson, students will read a book independently, in literature circles, or as a whole class.
• Ask students to bring copies of the book that will be the focus of their comic strips to class for reference.
• Make copies or overheads of the planning sheet and the rubric.
• Practice the steps for using the Comic Creator with your computers.
• Visit the Website of Scott McCloud , author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics , for background on the genre, inspirations, and sample comics. Additional information can also be found at  Integrative Art: American Comic Strips from Pennsylvania State University.

Student Objectives

Students will

• identify appropriate landscapes, characters, and props that relate to the events and characters in the books they've read.
• interact with classmates to give and receive feedback.
• explore how audience, purpose, and medium shape their writing.
• Share the example graphic novels and comic books with students and explain the assignment, pointing out each of the parts that are included.
• What are the important characteristics of a caption? What do the words in the captions tell you about the scene depicted?
• What kind of landscape makes sense for the scene?
• What props can you associate with the scene?
• How kind of dialogue bubble makes sense for the interaction?
• What connects one scene to the next in the comic strip?
• Once you're satisfied that students understand the assignment, demonstrate the Comic Creator student interactive and discuss its relationship to the Comic Strip Planning Sheet . Be sure to cycle through the options for characters and dialogue bubbles to show students the range of options available.
• Have students begin work with the Comic Strip Planning Sheet to plan their book reports. Students can work individually or in groups on this project.
• Encourage students to interact with one another, to share and receive feedback on their plans for comic strips. Since these comics will be shared in the class as well as in the library, hearing the feedback and comments of other students helps writers refine their work for their audience.
• Students can continue working on the project for homework if desired.
• Remind students of the goals and elements included in this project. Answer any questions students have.
• For the comic title, name the scene (or scenes) that will be depicted.
• For the comic subtitle, name the book where the scene is found.
• Include your name or the names of the members of your group as the authors of this comic strip.
• Choose the six-frame comic strip. (Alternately, have students choose the one-frame cartoon square and focus their work on an important scene in the book).
• In each of the six frames of the comic strip show a significant event from the book.
• Under each picture or cartoon, write a caption that provides additional detail on the scene.
• Print at least three copies of your finished comic strip.
• While students work, again encourage them to interact with one another, to share and receive feedback on their plans for comic strips.
• After the comic strips are printed out, students can decorate them with markers or other classroom supplies.
• As students finish, ask them to turn in two copies of the comic strip (one for you and one for the librarian-the third copy is for the students to keep).

Student Assessment / Reflections

For more formal assessment, use the Comic Strip Rubric which is tied to the elements included in the planning sheet. On the other hand, nothing is as useful as the feedback that they'll receive by sharing their comic strips with their peers. Informal feedback from students who read the comics and search out the related book are excellent feedback for students.

• Lesson Plans
• Professional Library
• Student Interactives
• Calendar Activities

In this article, Versaci details the many merits of using comics and graphic novels in the classroom, suggests how they can be integrated into historical and social issues units, and recommends several titles.

The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on).

Students create a short, humorous story with at least one action character, and then use online tools to make a flipbook.

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• Kindergarten K

How to Write a Script for Your Comic

March 8, 2014 — Made by Todd Tevlin

Intimidated by the writing process? Having a hard time getting what’s in your head down on paper? (Do you even use paper? If so, does it have “From the desk of…” printed at the top or is it 23 napkins that you snatched from the coffee shop?) In any event, I want to teach you the “quick and dirty” way of making a script for your comic. It’s not as complicated as you might think, and you don’t need any fancy software to do it either!

The Basics of Writing a Script

Before diving into writing a script, you really should write an outline first. Outlines are a way of organizing your thoughts so that you can write your script. List each idea as a bullet point, then revise it to find a logical flow for the story. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to approximate the number of panels needed to pull off each bullet point. This will give you an idea of how much you can do within each issue of your comic.

The principle is the same regardless of whether you’re creating a webcomic or a 22-page comic book. For my comic, Frik’in Hell , I only had to plan out 8-11 panels per episode, so my scripts tended to be half a page at most. If you’re working on a 22-page comic you might have around 132 panels per issue, which is why it’s a good idea to create an outline first so you know where you’re going with the story.

Once you have an idea for the length of time each bullet point represents, use your favorite writing implement (pen and paper, computer, telepathic goat) and write down the action and dialogue, including key elements that need to be in each panel. Let me emphasize that you do not need to buy fancy scriptwriting software for this! An example script could look like:

Notice how the dialogue is separated into its own line? That makes it clearer to read, especially if there’s more than one character talking. Notice how some panels describe shot composition (close-ups, wide shots, down-angles, etc.)? This will help to explain what you’ve pictured in your head, even if the only person that will read this is you. Every detail matters; the more information that you put in the script, the better equipped you will be to visualize this world when you later draw it.

The photo up top is from my notebook for Frik’in Hell (not pictured: legible handwriting). I use a very stripped-down scriptwriting approach since I’m both the writer and artist. I don’t use panel numbers and such — I bracket-off each panel and put the descriptions inside parentheses to separate them from dialogue. As I said, there’s more than one way to do this. If I were tackling a 22-page comic, I would probably not use this technique at all.

Are You Handing the Script Over to an Artist?

If you are the writer and plan to pass the script off to an artist, you will need to be meticulous in the details. Don’t assume that the artist will figure out what you want. Make sure that the script has everything that is important to you so that the artist can include it. The example script (above) may be fine if you’re also the artist, but if not, you will probably need to explain what the hallway looks like, or the furnishings, lighting, and facial expressions, just to name a few.

Also, consider incorporating screenplay terminology in your script. Use keywords like Exterior or Interior, Day or Night, and reference the scene’s location. In the example, I would include in my description: INT. HOUSE HALLWAY – NIGHT. Doing this will help the artist figure out where each shot is located, as there will be times when multiple locations are shown in the same page.

Of course there’s a fine line between “detailed-oriented” and “dictator.” Your artist needs some degree of creative control and should not be treated as a robot to your whims. (“Robot to Your Whims” sounds like a band name… if anyone uses that, I would like credit please.) Your script should tell the story, not micromanage the look of every pen stroke. That’s the artist’s job!

For more information about this process, check out Gene Kelly’s article on Rocketbot called Writing a Comic Script: From Plot to Outline to Final Draft .

Thanks for reading!

19 Responses to “How to Write a Script for Your Comic”

That Rocketbot article link leads to a 404 🙁

Gene Kelly’s article on Rocketbot called Writing a Comic Script: From Plot to Outline to Final Draft still leads to a 404 error, please fix the link. Thanks (May 2017)

Fixed! Thanks for the head’s up.

hi my name is shawn and i want to know more and learn how to write comics.is there a refund? how much does it cost to learn to write comics? plse let know on my email.thanx

Confused… Refund?

Sounds like English is not they’re first language, and that they are actually asking about how much learning to write comic books costs, I believe he was actually asking about some-kind of start-up funding, rather than a refund

I think they were asking about the “How To Make a Comic Book” course on Coursera.

WHICH we now have a new version of at https://hthgse.online/howtomakecomics/

Love your style I’m gonna try it

I really need help making a comic, I’m a thirteen year old artist with huge dreams to be a professional comic artist. I’m trying to make a webcomic but I’m always to stressed and when I do get something down I end up making a bunch of different scripts and seem like they all go to different comics. Please help me!

This was really helpful. I just needed a couple little tips and this was perfect. Thanks!

Great article enjoy it!

[…] Tevlin. (2014). How to Write a Script for Your Comic. Available: https://makingcomics.com/2014/03/08/write-script-comic/ . Last accessed 4th May […]

[…] How to Write a Script for Your Comic by Todd Tevlin on https://www.makingcomics.com […]

[…] Tevlin, T. (2014, March 8). How To Write A Script For Your Comic. Image retrieved from Making Comics: https://makingcomics.com/2014/03/08/write-script-comic/ […]

[…] any particular industry knowledge for this, although it can certainly help, and there is a lot of helpful information online for this […]

[…] HOW TO WRITE A SCRIPT FOR YOUR COMIC […]

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How to Create a Comic Strip With Your Kids in 7 Easy Steps

Does your child love to draw or tell stories?

Do you want to share your kids’ masterpieces with the world (or at least with Grandma)?

In this article, I’ll make you a hero by empowering your kids to  write, draw and publish your very own comic .

It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s lots of fun.

Table of Contents

Why Make a Comic Strip?

All children are artists.

They draw, play and use their incredible imaginations to create fantasy worlds and characters that are funny or powerful or really, really silly.

A comic strip is a new way to  channel their creativity—to capture it in pictures and words .

Does your refrigerator look like mine—covered with your kids’ art?

It’s only as we get older we convince ourselves that our art is “bad.”

When you  teach your kids to make a comic strip , a medium where it’s ok for your art to look silly or imperfect or childish, you’ll  nurture their creativity and imagination  before it gets stamped out.

Creating comics may also  help your children develop a love of reading and improve their handwriting , without them even realizing it.

I’ve simplified the comic-making process into seven kid-friendly steps that you can do together.

You Will Need:

• Standard 8½” x 11″ copy paper
• Regular black pens
• Sharpie Ultra Fine pens (Optional)
• Foam board 20″ x 30″ x 3″
• X-ACTO knife
• Large eraser
• Wite-Out correction fluid
• Scanner or camera phone
• A Blogger account

Preparation Time :

10 minutes to cut out the foam border template

Activity Time :

30 minutes per comic to trace border, pencil, letter, ink and scan

Here are seven steps to your kid’s next comic:

#1: Find Inspiration for Your Comic

The first step is to  choose an overall theme for your comic . Who are the characters? What is the setting?

There are a couple of different ways to find inspiration:

First, find something your child is passionate about .

Do your kids love superheroes? Are they into ponies or fairies or monster trucks?  Choose a subject or character that excites them  and  create a comic about that .

Isabel and Fluffy: A favorite pet could inspire your child’s comic.

Second, you could also borrow the style of an existing work .

That’s okay!

Nearly every cartoonist has a story about their first comic being a knock-off of something that inspired them.

Do some research online to get ideas .  Show your kids a few family-friendly comics  and see if anything sparks their interest.

Here are a few examples:

Z&F brings classic cartoon silliness.

What child wouldn’t want to be classmates with Superman?

A wise-cracking duck and adventurous gecko will draw in any child!

Whether inspired by their reading or their own lives, the important thing is to  choose characters and a topic that interest your kids  and will stimulate their imagination and creativity.

#2: Sketch the Characters

Now that you know what you want your comic to be about, it’s time to  sketch what the characters will look like , in both words and drawings.

Isabel works out how these two characters’ personalities will interact.

The inspiration for our comic was my daughter’s pet.

#3: Write the Story

Think about the overall story  you want to tell with your comic series.  Choose between a storyline or gag-a-day style .

A storyline comic continues the story over several days.

Gag-a-day comics finish the story or joke in one day’s strip.

I recommend that you  begin with gag-a-day . They’re easy and don’t require a long-winded story, just something funny!

Gag-a-day Comic Format :

Most gag-a-days are made up of three panels:

• Introduction

Here’s what my daughter, Isabel, came up with:

• Panel One (Introduction) : Isabel: “Hi there. This is my bearded dragon, Fluffy. But he’s not a real dragon!”
• Panel Two (Build-Up) : Isabel: “Real dragons have wings!” [Behind her Fluffy has grown wings.]
• Panel Three (Punchline) : Isabel: “And they breathe fire.” [Fluffy is melting a chair with fiery breath.]

After you  write out the story , it’s time to  create the comic strip .

#4: Make the Borders

First,  create a border template  so that all of your comics will be the same size and shape.

Use foam core board  from an art store for your template.

Measure a rectangle 10″ X 5″ (25 x 12 cm).

Use an X-ACTO knife to cut it out. [ Caution : An adult should do the cutting.]

Make a frame for your comic panel.

You’ll be left with a 1/2″ (1 cm) wide frame. This is your template.

Next, it’s time to  draw the borders for your comic .

Trace the inside border onto a piece of paper.

#4: Do the Lettering

Lettering is the secret benefit to creating a comic by hand. Do your kids groan when you ask them to work on their handwriting? Can you recall a time when they rushed through their homework, leaving a penmanship mess?

Isabel got some penmanship practice. Fluffy supervised.

Here’s how to get started :

Start at the top of the panel you drew . With a ruler, lightly  trace horizontal lines about a quarter-inch (.5 cm) apart . Be sure to  use a pencil . These will be erased later.

Draw lines lightly. They will be erased later.

Now your son or daughter can begin to  pencil in the words . Refer to the storyline you wrote earlier.

Write words in ellipses so that you can make word balloons around them.

You can have your kids use any type of lettering you want them to practice, but I recommend that you  write in block letters (all caps)  for clarity.

Proofread their words together  and  help them correct any spelling or grammatical errors .

When they’re done,  praise your children on their excellent lettering work .

#5: Penciling

Now let’s see some art!

Anything goes in the pencil stage – have fun!

Encourage them to take chances  and  get crazy with the faces and expressions .

While your children are drawing the pictures for their comic, the dreaded “My art is terrible!” may rear its ugly head. To boost their confidence,  pick one thing you really like about the comic and praise it . “I really like how Snail-Boy is falling backwards in panel three. It makes it a lot funnier!”

Remind them that these are cartoons. They’re supposed to be silly !

Have them draw the ellipse as best they can.

With a ruler  draw two vertical lines separating each panel . The lines should be quarter inch (.5 cm) apart. The space in between them is called a “gutter.”

The key to every comic is clarity. If the reader can understand what’s happening, that’s a successful comic !

Take the border template you made in the beginning  and  line it up over your penciled border .

Use long, sure strokes to keep the pen from “blotting.”

Gutters let each panel be a separate moment in time.

Next, your kids get to show their lettering skills once again when they  carefully ink over the words they penciled earlier .

Note :  Make final corrections before laying down the permanent ink ! Review the dialogue and  edit punctuation and grammar .

If necessary,  change the layout of the sentences to fit into word balloons  (see our example in the middle panel of the photo above).

Turn those pencil sketches into finished art!

Finish inking the entire comic .

I prefer the correction fluid pens for accuracy.

Once everything is dry and complete,  hold firm to one end of the paper and erase the pencil lines  with a large eraser.  Use a single “brush away” motion .

Note :  Never erase toward where you’re holding the paper , you’ll crinkle it or worse, tear it!

Your child has just made a masterpiece!

To color or not to color .

I suggest that you  keep the comic black and white . Children tire quickly of coloring multiple comics by hand.

You can tell great jokes in black and white!

If your kids insist on adding color, give them some crayons or a bulk of markers and some construction paper and  ask them to make a colorful cover for your comic strips  (see below).

#7: Publish Your Comic

Your kids have just made art. You need to  share this masterpiece with grandmothers and Facebook friends !

Create a Digital File of Your Comic

The best option is to  scan the comic as a black-and-white document .

Scanning Tips

• If you intend to print the comic, scan at 300 dpi (dots per inch).
• For web viewing, you only need to scan at 72 dpi for a clear image.
• I generally save my comics at about 800 pixels wide.

If you don’t have a scanner, you can  use a smartphone with a camera to convert your comic from paper to digital .  Take a picture of the comic in a well-lit area  and  crop out everything but the comic itself .

Publish Your Comic to an Online Site

There are dozens of options for publishing your comic online. I use Blogger. It’s free and easy to use.

Setting up a Blogger account just takes a few clicks.

Upload the scan or photo of your comic  to your new blog.

The finished comic is ready to be seen by family and friends.

Create Another Comic  (and another, and another)

Don’t stop at just one comic! Together, you and your kids created the template, developed a storyline, introduced some great characters and established an online site for publishing it.

Everything you need is already in place to  make a whole series of comics , so keep it going.

Make a Comic Book

Isabel wanted an upbeat cover – High-fives with Fluffy!

Stack all the comics for your series in order  and  staple them into the cover . Now your kids can  show their friends the amazing comics they made  with the help of their equally amazing parents!

Some Final Thoughts …

Creating a comic together with your kids is a lot of fun for everyone. It’s a great way to  stimulate kids’ creativity  and to get a peek into what they think about. There are some fantastic educational benefits as well.

Isabel reads for hours on her own – and it all started with comics!

Look for short novels that dovetail with the theme of the comics they’re reading. Did your kids like Zorphbert and Fred? They might enjoy a book about extraterrestrials such as  My Teacher Is an Alien .

Writing is another benefit to making a comic. When they letter their comic by hand, your kids learn to write legibly with the intent to spell words right the first time!

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Readers Are Leaders 2014

An alternate book report: the comic strip report.

Book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) by Sherman Alexie

Targeted Grade Level: 8 th

Comic Strip Report Instructions:

This comic strip report is designed to make you think about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in a new way. By creating a comic strip featuring the characters in the novel, you will think analytically about the characters, events and themes we’ve explored in our reading. You should choose six key scenes, design a graphic that fits each scene and compose or quote related dialogue. You may not copy cartoons from the text, but you may use them as your inspiration and explore the same themes they explore.

To make the comic strip, follow these steps:

2.   Use the six-frame comic strip template provided, or create your own.

3.   Highlight at least six thematically significant scenes from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. That is, each frame should depict a key scene that somehow deals with one of the novel’s themes. You do not, however, need to choose scenes that deal with six different themes. Nor does the theme need to be explicitly stated in the frame, but you should know which theme each frame involves since you will need to describe this during a presentation of your comic.

4.   Choose at least four quotes from the book that you’ll include in your narration or captions.

5.   Make sure that each frame contains the following:

• A thematically significant scene or event that occurs in the novel
• A caption or narration that tells the reader something important about the scene
• Relevant graphics (which do not need to be hand-drawn)
• At least one character from the novel

6.   Make sure that your comic does not reveal the end of the novel. We don’t want to spoil it for future readers!

Rubric for Comic Strip Reports:

Note: The list below reflects the criteria for evaluation, but it does not match the format of the rubric I’ve created. I’ve created a rubric using a table, which shows what 4-, 3-, 2- and 1-point work would look like.

☐ Cover Sheet – The cover sheet includes the book title, author’s name and your name. (2 points)

☐ Choice of Scenes – The comic includes six of the novel’s most thematically significant scenes without revealing the novel’s conclusion. (4 points)

☐ Captions or Narrations – The captions or narrations incorporate at least 4 quotes from the book. They relate to the scenes and the novel’s themes so the connections are easy to understand. (4 points)

☐ Graphics – All graphics are effective in telling the story of the comic. There is clear evidence of whom the characters are and what they are supposed to be doing. (4 points)

☐ Characters – The main characters are clearly identified, and their actions and dialogue are well-matched to their actions and dialogue in the novel. (4 points)

☐ Attractiveness – The comic strip is neat and aesthetically pleasing. The colors and design of the comic are fitting for the style/genre of the book. The reader is drawn in and excited to read. (4 points)

☐ Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar – There are no spelling, punctuation or grammar errors. (4 points)

Relevant Common Core Standards:

RL.8.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

W.8.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Foreseen Challenges:

When presented with this assignment, students may feel apprehensive about the prospect of drawing. For this reason, I will permit the use of pre-drawn or photographic images in comic strip design. I will also provide these types of images.

Limited knowledge of comic book formatting may present another challenge. And so I will introduce sample graphic novels, comic books and a model of the assignment. Also, during the planning period I will enact a mini-lesson about the key elements of comic strips. It will address questions such as:

• What are the important characteristics of a caption? What do the words in the captions tell you about the scene depicted?
• What kind of landscape makes sense for the scene?
• What props can you associate with the scene?
• What kind of dialogue bubble makes sense for the interaction?
• What connects one scene to the next in a comic strip?

Hopefully, this mini-lesson will address the concerns of students with limited knowledge of comic book formatting.

Choosing appropriate scenes from the novel may present another challenge to students. Although I will avoid helping students choose scenes, I will check their choices during the planning period so that teacher feedback may guide their decision-making.

Finally, since some students may have trouble addressing each of the evaluation criteria, I will provide a “Comic Strip Planning Sheet,” which will help students address each aspect of the criteria prior to comic strip work.

Posted by SD

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2 thoughts on “ an alternate book report: the comic strip report ”.

I have done a similar project in conjunction with reading graphic novels, and having students write personal narratives. They have really enjoyed adapting their work in a creative way. -JMV

I really like this alternate book report. I believe it’s a great way of making book reports fun and engaging. It’s cool that students are able to explore their artistic side, while still producing the necessary work needed to meet the common core standards. If students read graphic novels in the classroom, they could use those books as examples for their own comic strip reports. So many people love comic strips, the visuals are captivating and it could help students understand the content of the story more. JA

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ELA Teachers Reading YA Lit

Reading, writing, dreaming

Author: novels Our History in New York, Charting by the Stars, Double Vision. Stories, literary and cultural conversations on paper. Librettist: Rappaccini's Daughter, composed by Michael Cohen. Professor Emerita, The City College of New York: taught in and directed the MFA program. Before that, a long-time member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. Founding Editor: Global City Review and Press. globalcitypress.com.

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