On Making Comics

Scott McCloud's book, Making Comics, proved to be an informational read for me. I am not much of a comic person, so this book gave me plenty of information about them broken down into simple, understandable definitions. For instance, on page 15, there are six definitions of panel to panel transitions. I found these definitions to be easy to understand, and helpful. I also think that the pictures helped to provide even better help. For instance on page 232, McCloud describes four different "tribes" of comic artists. When describing these artists, McCloud not only used words, but he used pictures as well. For someone that is a visual learner, I think that the pictures helped to explain a lot about comics.

I really enjoyed the format of this book. I think the fact that it was written like a comic made a much greater impact. If it had been written strictly as a book with no pictures, I think the whole purpose would have been destroyed. The book was written to teach others about how to make effective comics. What better way than to learn through an extended comic. And again, I think that the pictures helped to clarify topics that were foreign to me. For example, on page 192 McCloud talks about various pens as they pertain to precision in comic drawing. I think that if I had strictly read about this I would have been completely lost. The fact that he included pictures helped to clarify this section. There were actual examples of how each pen worked and what they looked like.

Next semester I am teaching the play The Diary of Anne Frank. Before even reading this book I was planning on having students complete some type of comic book activity. I think that this book taught me so much valuable information. I plan to take this information and incorporate it into my activity next semester. I especially think that the chapter on "The Power of Words" was exceptional. Personally, I never knew so much went into including just the right words or into word/picture combinations. Page 130 gave me a nice list of seven different combinations. Throughout chapter three these combinations were explored more in-depth. I plan to utilize a lot of info from this chapter into my activity. I want students to think about how they want to portray the characters and what types of words they want to use. Chapter three taught me that words make an important impact on comics and I want my students to consider this when completing their assignment.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I learned a ton about how to make an effective comic. I plan to take this information and use it next semester.

On another note, I have been reading a little bit. I recently started reading The Diary of Anne Frank. I have begun to devise some lesson ideas and once break hits I will spend more time finalizing them. I have also been looking at various novels to teach next semester. My cooperating teacher has let me choose any novel that I want. Hyre has a lot of options! So far I am thinking either Night, The Outsiders, The Pigman, or The Chocolate War. I still have a month before I have to finalize anything, so I will be probably re-read some of these novels and then arrive at a decision.