DemonHanzo's Make Your Own Comic Book: A self Journey To Making A Comic Pt.4.1

Make your Own Comic Book: A Quick Note.

This is just a quick note about fleshing out you ideas. If you have a series of questions, break down the questions into related categories and do a free writing session for each category. Set a time limit for each writing session. 

Going back to my pirate story example I could easily ask questions related to The pirate, The pompous jerk, The queen (and the royal family), and the kingdom (the revolts). I could then set up a free writing session for each category and answer all questions I possibly could in the time limit. Here that's four categories, and four writing sessions. Write them and put them on the back burner for a day or two. 

Now I better get back to my own comic before the tree-sloths decide to whack me upside the head.

Demon Hanzo

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DemonHanzo's Make Your Own Comic Book: A self Journey To Making A Comic Pt.4

Make your own comic book: Fleshing Out Your Ideas

OK so you've had time to do a few free writing assignments. Hopefully you have a few ideas that you would like to work with. If not keep doing the free writing assignments until you have an idea you really want to work with. For the purpose of this exercise I will use the pirate example from my previous post.

I had an idea of having a captain of the guard in a royal army who becomes a pirate in the interest of the the royal family (The Queen). He (Our hero) loses his position to another guy ( a pompous jerk). The new captain of the guard does not have the interest of the queen at heart. I wrote he (Our hero) escaped capture to become a pirate and to foil the new captain of the guard.

To flesh out the idea we have to ask ourselves some relevant questions. Lets start out with a few basic questions.

Since he was captain of the guard, what causes him to lose this position? How does the pompous jerk attain his new position? What are the names for our main characters?

 If these questions are hard to answer I suggest doing another free writing exercise designed to answer these questions. Around 10 minutes should be enough to answer all these questions. Again forget spelling and grammar. You can do a clean version later, just keep writing until you have answer to your questions. Also it's O.K. if you don't have any answers to some of these questions you give yourself. If It comes up, sleep on it and do another free writing assignment until your questions are answered.

Here's what my free writing looks like for the above.

Suspision was placed on him. How was he placed in suspisoin well how about the new captain of the gausrd placed it onhim. There may have  been recent uprisings through out the lands that have been lead by the pompous jerk in order to have thecaptain of the gausrd placed in suspicion.

the pompous guy has used it to havethe captain of he gaurd put in a bad place. the captain of the gaurd is a good guy and doesn't open fire on the revolting factions, he takes there concerns to the queen, the pompous jerk uses this to questionthe captain of the gaurds motives calling him a snake and putting the idea that in fact he is the revolting crowds leader. the queen is not sure but the jerk says to her well how come he let them go how come he did not fire on them or at the very least arrest them. and the queen thinks about it anddecideds the jerk is right and asks what should be done. And the jerk replies that the captain should be put to death. The queen says that is impossible as he has served the country well many years. The jerk then suggests his arrest and be locked away forever while he deals with the revolting crowds and finds out the truth. He meets with the rebel leaders andhas a royal squad open fire on them. He leaves no one alive and declares that he will place the blame on the captain of the gaurd. He said he would bring a peaceful solution to the factions but will say that the captain of the gaurd has ordered the rebels to go down fighting. The pompous jerk will say he Had no choice but to open fire and restore  the peace.

It's full of spelling mistakes and incorrect grammar. We can always polish up our idea's later. In fact I suggest resting for a bit before you do so. Give it time to gestate. Let the rough ideas you write work their magic while you do something else. Relax, read a few comic books, read a new book, watch some T.V. anything. Then come back to it with fresh eyes. You may discover better ways of answering your previous questions.

That's all for now.

Demon Hanzo

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DemonHanzo's Make Your Own Comic Book: A self Journey To Making A Comic Pt.3.5

Make Your Own Comic Book: Assignment Example

 

Heres one I did in ten minutes. It's mostly incoherrent drivel. The point is to get down your ideas as quickly as possibly, don't even stop for mistakes.

OK Styr ideas for m comic book tenmin non stop.

Ok jeff monkey blarg I can't do wait monkeys are funky

thy fling poo wh=o about monkeis that fling poo around and mess up peoples dates or persons who are jerks not those that are nice goody guy people butbu bad people  hmmmm

a business exec on a date with another girl a secnond girl cheating on his wife out of know where these primates come out and hmmm I don't know this is kinfo gross

welll let em me see if I can come up withsome other stuff I like batbman hes awesome. Hes a crime frighter andheuses his wits. I like one piece its a pirate adventure withdepth I

batmna onepiece type Idea anything there? maybe lets explore it

a rogue pirate vigialte running the seas on behalf of her majestys interest. hmm.maybe lets see he was captain of her majestys gaurd when all of a suddern something happens. he loses his title to a popuse jerk and he is reall not in the best intrest for the queen. ourhero quickly escapes capture and sets sail out on the seas to foil the newcaptainof the gaurd.

thats ok lets see if we can do better. the increadible hulk and scrawny guy syndrome. its about guys who feel helpless and lets out a monster when they get agry hmm. people might call these guys push overs, so a push over gets in trouble and gets upset and all of  a sudden things get out of control his nature takes over a powerhiddenwithin that unleashes to great harzard and dangers for those around him. hmmm. try flipping it instead of a hero. more like dr. jekyl and hyde type thing. hmmm how ca

Times up

 I wrote this in 10 minutes non stop  Except for these last sentences explaining I wrote this in 10 minutes. I left the Spelling errors in so you can see what it looks like. doesn't have to be good just something of a vague Idea you can build on later. Set a time limit and stop. Don't go on even if you have more to write. Just sit on it for a bit. I'd leave at least one night's sleep to work on it. And that's only if you have ideas you really want to do. Do this daily until you have a few ideas you'd like to explore further.  For those want to know how to make a manga use this same exercise. No excuse not to start to make your own comic book or manga.

Stay Tuned

Demon Hanzo.

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DemonHanzo's Make Your Own Comic Book: A self Journey To Making A Comic Pt.3

Make Your Own Comic Book: Getting Ideas

O.k. So we understand that making a comic book requires a solid story, The question is how do we come up with a solid story? Let me answer that first by asking what kind of comic books do you like to read? Do you like gritty and grime crime fighters who rely on their wits to accomplish their goals? Does the unconventional stories appeal to you more then the spandexed titans of justice? The first part is to decide what comic books you like to read or would like to see. I hear some of you crying what about manga? Yes that includes manga. Which manga you read, and which stories appeal to you are the big first step in learning how to make a manga.

That's great D-Han, that really is but what does this have to do with making comic books/manga?

Well the point of knowing which comics you like - which type of stories appeal to you as a person in general- is that you can then write in the same genre. Fans of manga know that you can even combine genres to create a more unique and compelling story.

Your assignment if you should choose to accept is to write up your ideas in word pad or notebook. -Hey a scrap piece of paper works just as well. Just jot down your ideas. Don't stop writing for the full time. Write as many ideas as you can and time yourself to about 10-15 minutes tops. Then stop writing. I mean it. Stop! Leave it for a day. Oh and don't edit what you put down, seriously I mean it.  

Still got no ideas?

Write down your favorite comics, stories, mangas and write down why you like them. Write down anything really even that your bored with the assignment and its stupid. Write that the grout in between your titles in your bathroom could use a good scrubbing. Seriously anything that comes to mind. Just write for the full 10-15 minutes then stop.

To find out how we'll use this in your stories, Stay tuned.Same D-han time, Same D-han Blog.

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DemonHanzo's Make Your Own Comic Book: A self Journey To Making A Comic Pt.2

Make Your Own Comic Book: Getting started

A lot of would be Cartoonists fail to produce anything substantial - myself included - and I always wondered why that is. We love to draw, We love comic books, and yet every time we set out to try and make one, we fail. This leaves us asking ourselves, Why is it so hard to make your own comic book? I thought about it and to make a comic book, one first has to understand what comic books are all about. Recently I reread my edition of Scott McCloud's Understanding comics to help my understanding. Basically comics are the pairing of words and images in such away as to tell a story. The images are paired in an order that tells a story sequentially. For a better understanding I suggests reading Scott McCloud's book Understanding comics.

- For those asking How to make a manga the principles should transfer over to your feild as well.

So A comic(book) consists mainly of two parts the story, and the artwork(pictures). Without one the other elements fall apart. Of the two the most important aspect is the story. Without a solid story the comic will flop. This is true even for graphic novels without words. - Gon comes to mind - If story is the most important element how do we make the best possible story?

This is rather like asking ourselves how does one eat an elephant? The answer of course is one bite at a time.To work on making a viable comic one has to take it one step at a time. Sounds simple and it seems that way for some, but for a lot of us - yes myself included - we rush head long into our projects without first fleshing them out properly. So the absolute first part in getting a comic off the ground has to be in developing the story.

I'll be tackling story development in my next few posts. Stay Tuned.

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DemonHanzo's Make Your Own Comic Book: A self Journey To Making A Comic Pt.1

Make Your Own Comic Book: The Beginning

Ever since I picked up my first Comic book I was mesmerized by its contents. I would spend hours absorbed by the contents contained with in. The story never concerned me back then as I couldn't read half of it - Give me a break I was only 6 - I was captivated by the pictures within. Two mountainous forces meeting to do battle to decide the fate of world. I was hooked. Then another thing happened shortly after the thrill of the epic battle wore off. I realized that someone had drawn this. I drew pictures all the time and promised myself I would draw all the time. This comic I held in my hand opened a new universe, one in which I proudly stated "I have to make a comic book of my own."

I believe a lot of would be aspiring cartoonists made similar oaths to their younger selves. The problem was most of us didn't know how to go about making these things. Well its many years later and I still have only a vague inkling on what it takes to actually put one together. Oh I know there are tons of tutorials and how-to's on teaching people to draw superheros, or how to make a manga, but very few of these actually give more than a small notion on what it takes to make a comic. Fewer still go from cover to cover of an issue, and fewer still talk about the process of independently producing your own works.I don't claim to have all the answers to the questions I am looking for. By making this blog I hope to help some others along the way.

This is a chronicle of my journey to make and publish my first comic book.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions.

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