The End

Well, it's over. I'm really happy with how the book turned out and very pleased with the work all the students did. I'm already almost out of books so I may go print more next week. If anyone wants to purchase one I'll have them for $3 with the proceeds going to the UVA Art Museum, contact me at wcraghead - at - gmail - dot - com.

Thanks to the Museum and especially Aimee Hunt for having the class. The biggest thanks ever to the students for all your hard work - you did a great job and made your teacher (and yourselves) proud.

The Tell-Tale Mark book

Here are some excerpts from the book:

















I think we did a great job.

There are a few available for purchase - contact me if you want one.

free little books from Warren

ok, I'll finally post some of my stuff. You can download and make little books for mme (for free!) here and here(an origami book!) and here and here and here and here (originally published in C-VILLE) and here (this one was made for my brother's wedding. Whew.

more more making minicomics

Here's a guide for making comics all kinds of ways. It's a PDF so beware - I think there's bad words in there too.

Can you tell by all these posts that I want you to keep making little books?!

more mini-comics making info

Size Matters

The site isn't active anymore but Size Matters has its archives up and it's a great place to find lots of good minicomics things.

The Comics Journal is a great magazine that covers bot the weird stuff I try to make you look at and the more normal things you probably like more. Their blog Journalista is also really good.

Understanding Mini-Comics

Here's an article about what we're making - a minicomic.

The Moon Fell On Me

The Moon Fell On Me is a great series of web comics by painter Franklin Einspruch. They're basically small poems with paintings, but he uses lots of little comics tricks to make them work - they are comics! Look at them - and here's a review I wrote a bit ago.

Drawn!

Drawn! is a great blog of comics and illustration. Lots to look at and steal from.

Check out the inking in the image above by Rafael Grampá. We'll be inking in next week's class.

Here's another great web-comic. Drawn simply but great.

Abstract comics

There's a great book out full of abstract comics and it has a great great blog. (and I have a piece in the book!)

Thumbs and pencils

Here's another page that gives a great tutorial about making a comics page. Jessica Abel is the co-author of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures and is a great great cartoonist.

Penciling

Here's a good little look at someone doing what you're supposed to be doing - thumbnailing and penciling your story.

Translations

Thanks for the great class last night. I'm really looking forward to seeing the pencils of your translations when we meet again in two weeks. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have...

Here's a discussion of pictureless comics and the writer references David Lasky's translations of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" - an image from the piece is above.



and here's R. Crumb's recently published illustrated Bible.

Two translations into comics that might be interesting to you hard workers.

Oubapo, The Workshop for Potential Comics

In the spirit of the jam comics we did in class, here's a link to Oubapo, The Workshop for Potential Comics. It's hosted by the great cartoonist Tom Hart, and is a place to find more of the "restriced" comics projects that we did a bit of in class. There's some fun and challenging projects in there if you're interested.

Strip template

Here's a PDF you can download with 3-up strips.

Strips to look at

from The Perry Bible Fellowship

Thanks for the great class last night - I'll be sure to post the jam comics once I get them scanned so you can share them with all your adoring fans.

I thought I'd post some links to some really good online strips - "webcomics" - since you'll be doing strips over the next week. Remember that the first part of your homework is to do one 3 or 4 panel strip a day about something that happened to you.

These strips aren't "slice-of-life" like yours will be, but you can see how they use the strip format to tell some compelling stories.

The image at the top of this post os from The Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch. Crazy and funny and beautifully drawn.

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Achewood by Chris Onstad - one of the most popular webcomics around.

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Hark, A Vagrant by K. Beaton - historical and hilarious.

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Get Your War On and some other strips by Davis Rees

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I should add a disclaimer that some of these strips are adult in content and use adult words and situations. You might get offended - I know I have by some of them - so go look with a thick skin.

Hello!

Hello. Comics are crazy and fun.

I'll be posting a lot to this blog over the course of the class. First here's the syllabus, both as a PDF you can download, and as the body of the rest of this post.

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THE TELL-TALE MARK
4-week class, UVa Art Museum

Warren Craghead
w@craghead.com

This short class will focus on introducing and examining the language, materials and tactics of comics and sequential art. Our goal as a class will be to create and publish short finished pieces with an emphasis on translation of other works into the comics form. Students will be expected to compete homework assignments, draw daily in a small sketchbook and participate in a class blog at http://telltalemark.blogspot.com

Materials list:

Graphite pencils (HB or #2) and any other drawing materials you like

Erasers (ex: Magic Rub, Pink Pearl)

12” ruler, metal w/cork backing

Felt-tip pens (Sharpies – Fine & Ultra-Fine, Flair, Razor Point, etc.)

Microns (range from thin 01 to thick 06) or PITT/Faber-Castell artist pen set

Misc. Ball-point pens – black ink
Dip-pens w/large and crow-quill nibs (ex: Hunt 108, Gillotte 170)

Brushes (#0 or #1 rounds, synthetic blends) ex: Winsor-Newton series 7 (#2 or #3)

Waterproof black India ink
(ex: Higgins Black Magic,
Speedball Superblack)

9x12 sketchpad (drawing paper)

Bristol Board pad, 8x10” or 9x12” and 11x14” (smooth or vellum)
Pad of Post-It notes

Optional - T-square

Optional - Fountain pen
(ex: Rotring Art Pen, Rapidograph)

Optional - “Understanding
Comics” and “Making Comics”
by Scott Mccloud

Optional - “Drawing words and Writing Pictures” by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden


CLASS 1 - 9/22
Introductions, discussion of comics as a form, jam comics, cartoon drawing, comics “language”, introduction of closure and friction, comic strips.

Homework - Comic strips, choose piece to translate

CLASS 2 - 9/29
Visit art show, discuss methods and strategies for translation, critique of homework strips, introduction of page layout and “post-it” method, begin work on final pieces.

Homework - Pencil pages.

----- Off Week ------

CLASS 3 - 10/13
Critique layouts, talk about pencils work, introduction of inking and other finishing techniques.
Finalize anthology piece.

Homework - Finish final piece, prepare it for publication

CLASS 4 - 10/20
Critique of final pieces, introduction of publishing methods, impositions and book making techniques.
Discussion of minicomics and DIY methods of publishing. Aggregation and final printing of class anthology. End of class book-launch party.