Well, as my idea is to apply what I'm learning into a very long long comic proyect I'm writing, I considered first to pick a long long comic that I like, and make the analysis over its first chapter.
Note: I'm not a native english speaker so forgive my limited vocabulary XD

1-What is the point of view, and who is the storyteller?

There's a narrator's voice mainly at the beginning and at the end of the chapter. We follow different chapters and are we're allowed to read what they're thinking at any moment. For example, there's a time when Bulma tells a lie to Goku about the dragon ball and we see what's her real plan with the dragon balls because we see what she thinks.

2-How are the characters introduced? How many? How important are they, and why are they introduced at the beginning?

We're introduced two important characters: Goku (the protagonist) and Bulma.

We get quite a good idea about Goku's personality: we see he has an incredible stregth and agility, but he's naive and ignorant of the world. He doesn't know evil.

In the other hand, we have Bulma, who is a teenage girl, kinda selfish, and contrary to Goku she handles many technologic stuff, and doesn't have a problem with take an advantage of Goku's naiveness.

The main story plot is introduced by Bulma's arriving at Goku's house, and at the same time we get a good characterization of both characters by seeing how different they are.

3-What is the plot of the first chapter? Is there a mini-plot that has a resolution? How does the first-chapter plot foreshadow or lead into the main story?

The chapter developes a mini-plot in which Goku rescues Bulma from a giant pterodactyl that wants to eat her. Basically, the structure of the chapter would be:

Unaltered setting: Goku is getting his food when...
...Bulma appears and hits his food by her car.
THE MAIN PLOT IS SET: Bulma sees that Goku has a 4 stars ball and tells him she's searching for the 7 dragon balls so thus Shen Long would concede her a wish. She ask Goku to follow her so she could use the 4th ball.
A pterodactyl abducts Bulma when she goes to pee.
Goku saves Bulma.

The second chapter begins right when Goku and Bulma leave to find the left balls.

4-How does the chapter build suspense? What kinds of suspense?

The more significant element of suspense is the fact that Bulma doesn't tell Goku that he'll loose his 4 stars ball after Shen Long appears. We're told how important is that ball to Goku, being the only thing he keeps from his dead grandpa.

The story makes us wonder WHAT is Goku, why does he have a monkey tail and what happened to his grandpa.

After those important questions we want answered, the fact that Bulma comes with advanced technology -unknown for Goku- makes us wonder what they could find in that world.

5-How is the setting introduced? How much detail and why does the author focus on what he/she does?

We're introduced to Goku's solitary life in a wild enviroment full with animals and dinosaur-like monsters that can think and/or speak like humans (the tone is quite humorous, by the way). This unaltered state of things occupies roughly 1/3 of the chapter, until Bulma meets him. As we see for the aesthetics that this fantasy world is kind of China-like, when Bulma arrives we know there's technology and civilization out there.

6-How does the chapter start?

The chapter starts with Goku cutting wood with kung-fu kicks, so it goes directly into his characterization.

7-How does it end and lead into the rest of the novel?

The chapter ends with Bulma in an awkward situation after Goku defeats the pterodactyl. The next chapter just continues with the main plot, but we could say that all the mini-plot serves to the purpose of setting the tone of the story.

In resume, the first chapter we have a very clear idea of the personality of the main character and another fundamental character. The plot of the whole series is set. We know we'll be reading an adventure story with much humor and action, and we know that all will develop in a fantasy world with dinosaurs and Chinese-like enviroment. Our main espectations is knowing more about Goku and what will happen in his journey to get the 7 balls.

Macarena Lastra (McKaren)

Comic writer & artist / Animator

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