Hello Comics

A dozen years ago, my friend Steven Weissman invited me to take over his comics class at the Art Center College of Design. He welcomed me to use or discard any portion of his lesson plans. The students who attended his workshops were passionate artists. As their teacher, all I had to do was give them a challenge and wait for them to complete it. I toured the room with enthusiasm. Students accepted my suggestions hungrily. If I was lucky, they asked me a question or two. As a fan of art and comics, it was a fun class to facilitate. As a teacher, it was actually kind of boring. What could I bring from these advanced classes to my own K–8 students?

Introductory Comic Strip
I began those workshops with an introduction. Each student was challenged to draw a comic strip that communicates their name and at least three things they want us to know about them. These introductory comics were a perfect way for us to get to know each other. Students used words and pictures to show us who they are. They saw how I introduced new ideas, how I moved around the room, how I met with each student in turn, and how I assessed their work. They completed a piece of art during our first class. Each student’s introductory comic gave me a quick impression of their skills, their interests, their potential areas for growth, and even their sense of humor. It was a perfect way to start a workshop.

It was also, I learned, a perfect project to start a school year. I tried it with my elementary and middle-school students. With some experimentation, I found that every grade enjoyed drawing comics. Kindergartners and first-graders needed me to transcribe for them. I clarified their drawings with captions. Second-graders drew inconsistently and moved erratically through the panels. Third-graders were excited to complete their comics independently, but they struggled to use the space. Their text was often an afterthought, so cramped as to be illegible. Fourth-graders knocked the project out of the park. Every older grade added story, style, and personality.

Hello Comics
Our “Hello Comics” project is now a fixture of my fourth-grade curriculum. It is a tried-and-true introductory lesson. It gives all my students a starting point from which to strut their stuff and to see how much more there is to learn. Examples from previous years show that, with comics, every skill level can succeed. Anyone stuck for an idea can begin right there: “My name is . I don’t know what to draw.” And the outcome is still pretty funny!

I give them a crash course in making comics. With visual examples, I show students why it is helpful to pencil in their text and sketch their drawings first, to add talk balloons last, and then to ink over all their pencil lines to make their work more legible and easier to reproduce. I project examples of an illegible comic, a comic that works, and strips that knock my socks off.

Two Truths and a Lie
Over the years, we’ve played games with our comics. My favorite was Two Truths and a Lie. Students each used four panels to illustrate two truths and one lie about themselves. Their classmates had to guess which was which. The comics and the guessing game were a great icebreaker for the beginning of a new school year, but it works any time. However, the straightforward “Hello Comics” offer students more freedom.

At my new school, I scan and print students’ comics and bind them into zines for every fourth-grader to take home. “The Fourth Grade Comics” give every student, their families, and me an introduction to the young artists we will get to know that year.