The Comic Making Toolkit

For the most recent module of the one-year Post Grad course I have been doing with NCAD and Creative Spark in Dundalk I was able to design and create a comic-making tool kit for use in children’s workshops.

The goal of the kit/toolbox is to enable kids to create comics featuring the Seagulls, regardless of their confidence level and ability.

I was fortunate enough to test various elements of this over the summer across 14 comic-making workshops with Meath Libraries. The workshops were for 6 to 11-year-olds who were the focus when designing this.

I did not want to be too prescriptive with the toolbox. There are many different ways to create comics and write stories. The toolbox was designed to nudge and support the child, not tell them how to do it. And just as importantly, not do it for them, which would take all the joy and learning from it.

Let’s dive into the different tools and the considerations for each.

01. A page for the comic.

A simple three-panel structure.

The three-act structure is used so much in stories and jokes, so it seemed like an ideal place to start.

In stories, the three-act structure is often some variation of the following:

The Setup
The Confrontation
Climax and resolution.

In Picturebooks it is often:

Something happens
Things get worse and worse until
Climax and resolution.

Joel Morris, in his book “Be Funny or Die” outlines the structure of comedy as:

Construct
Confirm
Counfound

So we start with a simple page of three panels.
Ideally, on a non white page to be a little less intimidating.

02. Pencils and colours.

That completes the most basic tools needed. Paper and pencils. Technically, that is all you need to make comics.

But what if you are a little stuck for a story?

03. Story dice.

You want to draw a joke about Seagulls? We have a page of ‘Terrible seagull jokes’ to pick from.

Or if you want story inspiration, roll a 20-sided game dice and pick from the following page for Character, Setting, and Action.

Eg, In a police station, A cranky Seagull, Finds a mysterious _______.
Again, I have tried to leave room for the kids’ imagination and fun, and the kids have loved this so far.

I should probably redesign the dice roll and enclose it in its own clear box. The kids have been very enthusiastic with their rolls, and I have already lost a few dice.

Kids also love listening in to each other’s story rolls to see how each plot develops.

Part of the initial inspiration for these dice was the Rory Story Cubes, which you can find in shops. But when designing them, I found that reducing the story or character suggestion to a basic icon to fit on the side of a dice was just a little too abstract for the kids. It was easier for the kids to read out a sentence for the number they rolled, and easier for me as a facilitator to change and adapt the story options over time just by updating the printout.

Kids’ rating of drawing tools.

When it came to drawing the comic, I wanted to cover the full range of drawing abilities and interests. Some kids love drawing from imagination with pens and pencils and others prefer a more tactile experience, constructing in 3d. I surveyed the kids across various workshops on what they would like. The results were:

Pencils/markers 👍
3d reference prints 👍
Stencils 👍
Ink prints/stamps 👍
Clay 🤩
Collage (Scissors/paper) 👎

I didn’t get to the bottom of why, but in the groups I surveyed, they were not very interested in Collage.

04. 3d Reference Model.

I’ll be honest, this is as much for me as them. It is extremely helpful to have a 3D model of a seagull, allowing you to draw it from all the necessary angles.

For example, if I need to draw looking up at a seagull on a lampost, I can angle the 3d model and draw what I see.

This is version one that I designed and 3D printed. Still a little rough in places. Future modifications of this bring more articulation to the model, such as the ability to turn the head. This was designed in Zbrush and Fusion 360.

05. Character stamps.

I created a range of basic Seagull body shapes to cover the range of positions and angles they might need to tell a story.

I was very worried at this stage about being too prescriptive. I didn’t want to do it for them and it was important to leave room for their own creativity.

So kids can use ink and a stamp for basic body shapes. Just enough to cover two characters talking to each other and coming in and out of a scene.

They can then adjust which way they are facing, what they look like, standing or sitting. And what action they are doing.

06. Character stencils.

For the kids who do not want to use stamps, the same shapes are available in plastic stencils.

I have two different types of stencils. No idea yet which will be most successful.

Notes:
It’s important to note that the character stamps and stencils were all carefully sized to fit within the three panels on an A4 page.

07. Kid-friendly, non-toxic ink.

College did a brilliant module on how to make our own natural inks of different colours. Exactly as they did when making the inks used in the Book of Kells.

I realised I had little patience for making my own inks. So this one is off the shelf! I should probably test how washable this ink is as it will get everywhere.

08. Character design sheet.

Kids get to customise and design their character however they want.

They can then apply that character design to their comic.

09. Survey.

Not needed for the toolbox but needed for college, was a survey to measure how kids’ attitudes to seagulls changed from the start of the workshop to the end of the workshop.

My pitch for this module was that it is hard to hate something when you can tell its story. So, for college, the toolbox was developed to enable kids to tell the stories of seagulls.

The survey was done with a simple barometer measuring likes and dislikes.

10. A ‘How to make comics’ guide.

This is a work in progress.

I am using the tools from the toolkit to make a comic guide on how to make a simple comic, using the tools from the kit. It’s like the movie Inception, but with rubber stamps!

No clay or collage?

Unfortunately, I ran out of time on this module. I would love to try clay and could 3d print some molds for the clay or build some cookie-cutter shapes to cut out the clay.

I do, however, have A LOT of these plastic shapes cut out from the stencils above. I wonder what I could do with them….