Transcripts
1. Introduction to Comic Books: Hey there! Have ever wondered how comic books are being made? What goes into making a comic book? What is a Script? What is a Line Art? How is comic being colored, or lettered? And what to do with it when you finish it? If you ever wondered about all those questions, you came to the right place In this course, we're going to learn about all those things. I'm Vlad. I'm PhD of Arts student,
and a professional comic book illustrator with over three hundred of international publications and over ten years of experience. And in this course, I will teach you what comic books are, how they are being made, and what to do with them after you finish them. So let's have some fun, and let's make some comic books. Thank you.
2. About the Course : About this course, I have designed introduction to comic books to actually be a mini series of four parts. Part one is about a script. Part two is about the line art. Part three is about coloring and lettering. Part four is about publishing. So let's look into more details about part one which is the lecture that we are talking about right now. I've designed lecture one the script into a few sections. The first section, I'll teach you about some of the most basic storytelling tools there are, which you can use not just to tell a comic book story, but to tell any kind of story that you want. Then, in the next section, I will tell you about what kind of comic books there are actually. And we will have a homework section where I will give you the homework for you to apply these tools and knowledge and create something cool. In this course we'll have the backup documents where you will have these lectures in document, there'll be a homework in a document, and some templates. So let's move on to the first lecture.
3. Comic Book Script: Common books script. In this section, we will analyze what is a comic book script. If you look at an example of a comic book script today, we will see that it's quite similar to the movie screenplay. But in order to fully understand the difference between the two, we should first have to understand what the movie script and the screenplay actually is. The quote, Syd Field on his definition "Screenplay is a story told with the pictures in dialogue and description and placed within the context of a dramatic structure." So, what does that mean, this definition? This means that both movies and comic books are stories told in pictures, and they both use dialogue and description that has some form of dramatic structure. And because of that, comic book script is actually similar to a movie screenplay. To put it in other words, a comic book is writer's guide to navigate the artists, colorists, designers, editors, and everybody else who is involved in making the story. Comic book script is document that is telling the story how it is happening on a page, panel by panel for everybody else. In essence, it is an instruction guide for navigating the storage for a comic book.
4. Story struckture: Comic books script story structure. What is a story structure? A story structure is the backbone of the story. It is something that every story has, and it is the most common thing for all of storytelling. So, what is the most basic story structure that one could use? The most basic story structure consists of three things. The beginning, the middle, and the end. These three components are the heart and soul of every story that was ever told. And to be honest, this is all you need in order to create your story. Now that we've covered the basics of what a story structure is, let's see how we can apply that to a comic book story. If you take a look at the standard comic book, we will see that the most common length of a comic book story today is a story of eighty-eight pages long. That is the whole story with its own beginning, middle, and an end. Now let's break that story into a monthly issues. An eighty-eight pages long story can be broken up into a four monthly issues, each of twenty-two pages long per issue. What does this mean? It means that every issue has its own beginning, middle, and the end. So, we have four issues that have their own beginning, middle, and end. And those four issues create a complete story that also has a beginning, middle, and the end. Now let's dive into even more details about it. Each page of those twenty-two pages per issue also has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Now if we narrow that even more, we can see that each panel on each page has a beginning, a middle, and an end. So now that we analyzed from up to down how comic book story can be structured we see that every part of the story works as a part of a bigger and more coherent system. To summarize, we have panel that consists of a story, we have a page that is a story, we have a monthly issue of twenty-two pages that is a story, we have a complete story of four monthly issues that makes one system. And that is how comic book story structure is being made, from one element to everything else.
5. Story elements : Story elements. Now that we covered what the story structure of a comic book is let's dive in and explain what are the key story elements that make that very same story. The four most common elements that every story has, are next, the characters, the setting, the problem, and the theme. So, let's now explain what each of these means. The characters are the most important parts of the story. Without a character, there won't be any story. So, let's see how they fit into a bigger picture. The characters are divided into two categories. The main characters and the secondary characters. The main characters are the ones that are most important to us, the ones that are telling the story. Main characters can also be divided into two types of characters, the protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist is the main hero, the character to follow. The antagonist is the one who is opposing the protagonist, and also, important one because he is the other side of our story. Without these two characters, there is no story at all. So, let's now look the second element of the story, the setting. The setting is a place where story is happening. The setting is timing, it’s location, and it's everything else that is connected to the main character, and also every other location every other thing that is happening in the story. Third, we have a problem. The problem is the wants and the needs of the story. This is something that our main character is going to struggle through the whole story. This is something that he wants, this is something that he needs, he cannot obtain it. Maybe he has a problem from the antagonist. There's a different setting that he needs to go, to get it, but he can't. So, there you have it, a problem. And this is important. This problem is important because it creates conflict. And conflict creates a dramatic narrative, which is the actual engine of every story that drives readers to read. And the last and not the least element is a theme. Theme of a story is a place where we stated what the story is actually about, why do we create it, and why do we even care about it? And what do we want to tell with this story? So now that we figured out what are the key elements of the story, to narrow it down and summarize, characters, setting, problem, and theme, we have a material to work on and create our story.
6. Struckture and elements : Combining story structure and elements. We know what the story structure is. We know what story elements is. Let's now see how these two can interact together in creating the experience that we want our readers to experience. In a combination we start at the beginning. In the beginning of the story, we introduce main characters, we showcase the setting. We explain what the problem is and what the theme is to our readers. Next, in the middle of a story, we introduce conflict and we showcase the confrontation between characters, settings, and problems. And we further extend the story to readers, with the details. Here's the place where we showcase all different settings, where we showcase secondary characters, where we showcase how main character is handling the problems. What antagonist wants and stuff that is happening in the story. In other words, fun and games and action or drama, or whatever the story is going to be. And in the third part, the end, we explain how the story is going to end, where we give a solution to all the problems, to all the conflicts, to all the confrontations between characters and setting and everything. And we create a satisfying ending for the readers. So, in combining story structure and elements where we can see that they came through out really well, and each part of story structure there is a specific part each element fits in and how they're developing, how they're evolving, how they're evolving, and how both of these tools are giving us a nice form of a story for readers to explore, to experience, and to enjoy.
7. Short story: Now that we defined how to create a story, let us explore and see what's types of stories we can actually create. Now when we think about the coming books, and especially if you never made a comic book before in your life, the best possible way for making it for the first time is a short story format. Short story format allows you a lot of freedom and a lot of experimentation with the story, especially if it's your first time making it. So how does the short story format works? The short story format works next it's the form that is anywhere between one and ten pages long, and this is really great because it does not require a lot of time or effort, and it allows you a lot of freedom when you make your first comic. Like I said before, if you've never made a comic book before, I suggest that you start with the one-page story. You make a story on one page and then you can see how you feel about it, if you enjoy the process, if you loved it, if you had any ideas, or if you saw that you cannot tell your story on one page, and expand it. Then, you can see if you can expand your story to make it to be a four pages long story. See how you feel about it. See how much you can put of your story, themes, Problems, conflicts, characters, settings, everything, on those four pages. And then, you can try again with a bigger story where it will be of eight or ten pages long. So, these three types of short stories, a one-page story, four-page story, eight or ten pages stories are a great ways to exercise, to polish your own storytelling talents to see how something works, how genres work, how anything you want to tell works, and to just have fun. And if you're satisfied, you can submit it to a magazine, or anthology, or online. Most of the times ten pages stories are a default number of pages for a magazine or anthology that many creators are creating. And also, what is important is that ten pages story is just enough for any editor out there to see your storytelling sensitivities and abilities. And to see ten pages of consecutive artwork and storytelling that you possess.
8. One shot: Next, we have a one-shot story. One shot story is a type of story that you tell on a twenty-two pages in a single monthly issue. That is a complete story that can stand on its own. No sequels, no prequels, no nothing. Just a complete stand-alone story from page one to page twenty-two. These stories are great for experimenting or for showcasing the potential bigger story, or for introducing characters for a promotional product presentation or for educational purposes. Or just if you have a story that can fit in twenty-two pages long and you want to tell it that format. That's why one-shot stand-alone stories are great because they're longer. They're not short story but they are not also, mini-series or some other form. And it's great if you have some story that you want to tell and you don't want to expand or come back. And that's it.
9. Mini series: Next, we have a mini-series. A mini-series is a type of story that is four issues long and eighty-eight pages. This is a bigger type of narrative story that can also tell a standalone completed story within across four volumes. These types of stories are best for experimenting with original creator-owned content because they're not too long. They provide just enough information creators to tell everything they want with the story, and they're also a safe spot for publishers to take on a project. Today in American comic books, mini-series are the most common stories that are being produced. They're also very interesting to Hollywood producers and to anybody else who would like to see your intellectual property.
10. Maxi series: Next, we have a maxi series. Maxi series is a type of series that is
twelve to sixteen issues long. This is an even bigger narrative story that is made up of three or four mini-series combining to one bigger picture story, and these tree mini-series can either be a standalone or connected through a huge story arc that is created in this maxi series. These can be like a main character who has three different adventures that are all part of one collected story. These types of stories are most of the time quite challenging to publishers and creators because they're longer and that means they require more time and more budgeting and more production investment and more experience. But, in the end, when and if they are produced, they create a really powerful reading experiences to the readers.
11. Ongoing series: After the maxi series, there comes the biggest one, which we're going to call the ongoing series. Just like the name says, this is the series that is going on and on and on. This is a super long series that is being in production, counted not by months, but by years, and sometimes even decades. The best examples of these ongoing series are the superhero comics from the biggest publishers of Marvel and DC and their types of stories that go on and on by years, like Batman or Superman or Spiderman or Thor or Avengers. An ongoing series is actually a meta series because it combines all those other shorter forms of stories in it. In an ongoing series we even have a maxi series, we have a miniseries, we have one-shots, we have a standalone, we have short stories, anthologies. We actually have everything that somehow correlates to an overall feel of the story. And most of the time, in order to catalogue what would be an ongoing story, the series has to have more than 20 issues to be considered to be an ongoing. So now that we saw how an ongoing series works, Let's move on to next one.
12. Webcomics: Also, another form of ongoing series are syndicated comic book strips. Those are the comic books that look like a strip and have three to four panels maximum. And they are printed on a daily basis in newspapers, or today are published online. Comic books strips were an extremely popular form of comic books in the early 20th century. It is the era between 1900 and 1945 before second World War. And some of the most popular Comic Book Strips of that era are Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, Mandrake, Phantom and some other. Some newer popular comic book strips are for example, Charlie Brown, Hagar the horrible, Calvin and Hobbes, and the like. These comic books strips are today extremely popular in a form of a webcomic. They're easy to make, they can be done quite fast, and looked online for everybody to enjoy. So, a really nice and interesting form of a comic books, but also, a challenging one because they require a daily dosage of inspiration, creativity, and experience in order to be satisfying experience to the readers.
13. Graphic novel: Next, we have a graphic novel. Graphic novel is a standalone story that is different than any of the previous form that we saw. Graphic novel can vary in length, with a number of pages from anywhere of forty to two hundred or even more, depending on the story. It is also quite experimental in narrative and visual department. This means that in a graphic novel you can put even more text than you would in a monthly issue or some other form of comic books, and that you can combine different panel directing, or narrative through line art. In overall, it can be more expressive form than a standard comic book, and therefore it can address all kinds of topics. Now when it comes to graphic novel and the genres, most of the stories had somewhat more serious, more darker tone. Or they are in a way a documentary type of stories, or a memoir type of stories. For example, one of the most popular graphic novels is titled MOUSE by Art Spiegelman. It is a memoir type of story from a survivor of the Second World War. So, as you see, Graphic Novel can be quite different in form and matter of coming books.
14. Manga: Manga. Mangas are the comic books that originated from Japan. These types of comic books are usually printed in black and white, and they deal with all the genres there are. And most of the times they are long between 280 pages in 850 pages, and sometimes even more. Mangas have quite a distinctive visual style and they're instantly recognizable. They are certainly an interesting form of art in a comic book, and they are somewhat challenging for a production because of their length.
15. Comics Examples: Let's see now some of the examples of those comic books that we talked about. So let's start with the monthly issue. As we see, this is a monthly issue. It is consisted of twenty two pages. Now, this monthly issue is actually a part of a five-part series. So here are other issues. There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 issues. Now these five issues are actually made into a mini series. This is 110 pages long story, and I did coloring on that one. So as we see we have a, this is how monthly issue looks like, this is how mini series look like. Also, this is a format for a one-shot as well. One-shot is 22 pages, so this is how it looks. Next, we have the original graphic novel, which is looking like this. This is something that is called trade paperback. And this is also a combination of... this is actually the collector's edition where those monthly issues are collected into one consecutive volume. So, this is actually a four part series, is collected into small book. Next, we have combination of issues and trades, something that we call the hardcover, trade paperback, aka, which could be said as a graphic novel. This is, actually a graphic novel because it's extended, we have some issues and we have more material like covers, sketches, that kind of stuff. And it's nice. It's nice and printed in hard cover which means it's kind of a collectible and a limited series, and it's a nice addition. This is a bigger project for both the creators and the publishers. And then we have the complete mix which is this. This is an omnibus which is a maxi series graphic novel. This is a bigger, bigger book that has more than 15 issues in it.
I think it's 20 issues. It's actually a combination of monthly issues, trades, graphic novel, collector's edition, limited series, so it's kind of everything you need. So this is the ultimate project. This is definitely not something that publishers are doing that often. So know that we covered this, these are the examples of what you can do. These are all the books that I've worked on in previous ten years for various publishers like Boom Studios, Dark Horse, Vault Comics, Image, etc. So this is everything that you can do. And, that's how it looks.
16. Recommended reads: Recommended reads. I've put up a list here of about a few really cool graphic novels that were really important and really big in the past 30 years. So, I will go quickly over those, which you can check online if you want to see both storytelling, both visual style and how they were made. One of the most popular ones is THE WATCHMEN by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore. It is the one from the eighties. It's about superheroes and it was a really important one when it was made. Then, we have MOUSE. Mouse is a graphic novel about World War Two survival. It's a memoir graphic novel. It has somewhat serious tone and an interesting artwork, and it's really worth a check. THE SANDMAN is a fantasy ongoing series from Vertigo DC from the nineties. And it was written by Neil Gaiman and it was really, really good. I highly recommend that one. THE WALKING DEAD is a series from 2000s by Robert Kirkman and was actually an ongoing as well. It was made up in a TV series, seven + seasons, so worth of check. LUMBERJANES is a very cool, modern graphic novel and ongoing series. SWEET TOOTH was also really cool graphic novel by Jeff Lemire. Then we have CALVIN AND HOBBES which is a comic book strip, four panels weekly/daily humor. I really liked that one. And then we have AKIRA which is actually a manga and also, an eighties one, it was a really cool story. There is even a cartoon about it, so worth checking out. And then I have one of the biggest ones, THE DARK KNIGHT by Frank Miller. And that's one really important from the eighties, there were three movies by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight in the 2000s. So, you can check it. Last, we have SAGA, which is ongoing series from Image Comics made by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan. It's a fantasy space opera, and a really cool one. So, these are some of the recommended reads that you can check out. Of course, you can check anything you like. But these are some of my personal favorites.
17. Homework: Okay, Now that we cover all the important things, the storytelling tools, the types of comics, and everything, let's get to the most fun part, the homework. Now here is what I want you to do with all these lesson that I teached you. I want you to create your own first short story that will be anywhere between one and four pages long. And that won't have more than 25 panels total in the story. What does this mean? This means that you will have somewhere between 5 and 7 panels per page to tell your story, Which is more than enough for a short story. So you can do it, you can create short story of one page, two, pages, three pages, whatever you want. The goal here is to let go, to have some fun, and to create something cool. And I can't wait to see what you're going to come up with. So let's have some fun, let's make some comic book stories. Go!
Vladimir Popov, Artist/Writer/Researcher/Teacher
