Activities
Plot and Image
In Making Comics, page 12, McCloud explores how simple image can progress the plot, and how a reader can “read” a story with only images and the use of gutters and closure. To illustrate this, and to get students thinking about the role of image when they are used to text-only, I’ll use this activity early on. I’ll borrow 8 panels from Scott McCloud and cut them apart. Each small group will receive a set of these 8 panels. They will have to put them in plot order and write a short “translation” of the plot and why they are sure this is the correct order. As a follow up, students can create short image-only comics for their friends (stick-figures are fine if there are enough details) and have their peers do the same. They have to consider the details that will inform the reader’s sense of closure.
Reading and creating faces
With histories of trauma, many of my students tend to be sensitive and unsure about the actions and reactions, measured by facial expression and body language, of those around them. In pages 80-96 of Making Comics McCloud illustrates dozens of faces depicting a range of emotions, not all of which my students may be familiar with, such as aversion and indignation. We will do a quick read of the faces and discuss the emotions first, then go to page 90 where he begins to look closely at the facial muscles and lines that contribute to specific emotions. Students will be able to draw faces with emotion using McCloud’s techniques. I intend for this to be a fun, unjudged activity as my students learn how much control they have artists of characters themselves. A hopeful byproduct will be greater awareness of facial expressions in the people around them and what they might indicate.
Read-see-wonder
As we read Book I, we will stop reading together on page 78, when Lewis has an epiphany. Skipping pages 79-81, to which we’ll return after this, we’ll begin the activity with page 82. Students will be paired, then separated. One of each pair will be given a copy of Book I, page 82, with all the text removed, but with the bubbles for narrative and dialogue intact. Those students will study the images in the page closely and do their best. At the same time, their partners will be given blank panels on the same black background, with only the text in place. They will study the text and do their best to draw images that support it. After both sides have completed their tasks, they’ll return to their pairs to compare and contrast the actual pages of the text with their own attempts to complete the content. I’ll encourage their discussions to go to seeking why the author made his decisions about text and image for this page.
We’ll do the same for page 90, in the diner where a waitress refuses to serve the nonviolent protestors. Depending on my class size that day, I could also have half of the pairs to page 82 and the other half do page 90, then report back their results to the whole class.
Draw to understand
David Low and others suggest having students draw the use of the terms they’re learning to help them understand both the terms and how those concepts might be used or varied. For example, give students a blank sheet of paper and have them draw three panels with a pencil. Have them settle on a mood for their content. After explaining the term gutter, give them time to make a variety of adjustments to their gutters (space, outline, shape, etc.). After introducing bleeds, have them run an additional panel off of the page. We’ll do this in one of our first class meetings of the unit. Note that David Low offers several valuable strategies and activities in his article Spaces Invested with Content…
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