I. How to Make a Comic Strip?

A comic strip is a series of images with limited text in each box. This text is usually in a speech bubble. It is a story-telling that uses cartoon images or drawings to tell a story.

• Where Do You See Comic Strips?

Comic strips are primarily seen in magazines or newspapers. There are even comic books which you can get in any bookstore or library.

• Examples of Well-Known Comics for Children

Earlier, Amar Chitra Katha, Chacha Chaudhary, and Tinkle were popular comics. Other popular comics include Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield and superhero comics like Batman, Spiderman, etc.

• How to Create a Comic Strip?

Since this is your first-ever comic strip creation, let us focus on four frame comics.

• Create the Main Idea of a Story
• • • A comic strip is the same as writing a short story. It needs a beginning, a middle and an end. Since it is a four-frame comic strip, you can break your story into four parts.
    • Jot down your ideas for the settings, characters, expressions and dialogues also. Ensure each part has an action and the ending has a good punchline.
    • Plan each frame. Write down text for each frame. You need to know what is happening, where, the characters to be included, etc. Keep it simple. Avoid unnecessary descriptions.
• Characters

Create characters as they will drive the story and create a storyline. Don’t make them perfect; instead, make them realistic traits. For instance, they can be talkative, greedy, rude, selfish, etc. If you want, you can give a back story about the character and some hobbies. This makes them relatable.

• Dialouges

Now add dialogues into the speech bubbles. Remember, the size of your letters could mean whether a character is shouting, whispering, or talking. For instance, capitals indicate that your character is shouting. Avoid lengthy dialogues in a comic.

Use these speech bubbles to fill in the dialogues.

• Thought balloons or Speech Bubble

You can also give thought bubbles to show the character’s inner dialogue. They are usually rounded or cloud-shaped outlines, which contain words that are thoughts of a character in a cartoon.

• Drawings

Take drawings or use cut-outs from magazines and make a comic strip on a fresh page. If you don’t have images, you can draw stick figures for your comic strip.

• Comic Strip Example

Let us take a look at a sample comic strip for a better understanding.