Did you know that September 25th is National Comic Book Day? The Day honours the art, artists, and stories of comic books. Fans, collectors, readers, and artists come together to celebrate the day with events across the country!
What is a Comic Book?
A comic book, also called comic magazine or simply comic, is a publication, first popularised in the United States, of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes.
Panels are often accompanied by brief descriptive prose and written narrative, usually dialog contained in word balloons emblematic of the comics art form.
How to celebrate or support World Comic Book Day?
Create your own comic book of course!
Here are a few downloadable images for you to print or copy (see top tips from the Scottish Book Trust below)!
1. Comic Strip - blank template
2. Speech Bubbles
3. Dramatised Speech Bubbles
4. Coloured Comic Strip - blank template
5. Stylised Wording - pop art / bubble writing
6. Comic Book Background Ideas
Top tips:
Taken from the Scottish Book Trust, full link below
1. Give your characters something special
It doesn’t matter whether you have two characters or 100, you need to find a way to make the important people in your comic stand out. And the easiest way to do that is to give them an exciting, noticeable look.
2. Use your colours to change scenes and places
There’s a good chance the action in your comic will take place over a couple of different locations at a few different times. It might start in a queue to see a movie and end in outer space! So how do you show when you’ve moved from one time/place to another?
3. Pick the right spots for speech bubbles
Not all comics have speech bubbles – some comics have no words at all! – but if you’re planning on adding dialogue, narration or interior monologues to your story you need to have a think about where your words will go on the page.
4. Make page turns exciting
One of the best and most unique things about comics is the fact that you can control when people see what’s coming next by putting exciting moments after the turn of a page. This is the perfect moment for changing scene or location and it’s also an excellent time to add in a little cliff hanger – so your reader really wants to see what’s about to happen next.
5. Give yourself space to practice
Drawing a comic is loads and loads of fun but we all know that sometimes that blank page can be a bit frightening. What if you get the costume of your main character wrong? Or their face goes wonky? Or you have an accident with your paints and the whole thing is ruined?
Find out more, visit:
Share your creations!
Of course we would love to see your creations, either email us hello@thewondercompany.co.uk or share with us on our social platforms @thewondercompanyuk