I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but over the last week, I have been taking part in PNCA’s Graphic Novel Intensive program, seven full days of lectures and workshops about comics. The first three days were dealing with storytelling and scriptwriting and were taught by Trina Robbins. The next two days were on character creation and development, taught by PNCA’s own Daniel Duford. The topper for the week, however, was a two day workshop on narrative and persuasion taught by the man himself, Scott McCloud. I’d like to truly thank Scott for making such a memorable stop (for me at least) on his family’s mad dash through North America. It was very inspiring to be around and learn from someone who obviously cares as much about comics as he does. In a way I am glad the class is over though because now I have the time and extra drive to work on my own comics again, something I had lost during my 16 day trek to the Midwest.

The days were split up between lecture periods and studio time. The exercises that we completed during the studio portion of each class were a lot of on the fly, quick thinking, “how the hell will I ever finish this on time” sort of things. So nothing I finished in class is very “polished” I suppose, but it wasn’t really about that. Here’s a picture of Scott contemplating my final comic (see below). What is Scott feeling while looking at my comic? Skepticism? Fondness? Perhaps a little resentment? ;) (Just kidding, the words above were from a previous exercise in facial and body expressions)

Here’s the comic seen above. We had to take the third letter of our name (I took the G in Bigtime as BT is only two letters) and think of something that starts with that letter. We then had 40 minutes (only?!!) to ideate, write, draw, and ink a one page story that involves whatever the thing is you just thought of. I picked a giraffe, obviously.

The first day of Scott’s class yielded my favorite exercise of the entire class though. Take 16 identically sized panels, pick 16 moments from the entire span of your life, and put them in chronological order so they create a narrative story. I chose to focus on the educational hits and misses of my life. We had about one hour and 15 minutes to complete this. The toughest part is remembering what hairstyle and glasses I had at the time. (Yes, I did have a big, black pompadour for a period of my life) In case you haven’t known me since I was 5, below the comic is a rundown on the panels if any are confusing.

1) First day of kindergarten
2) Age 5: Drawing is fun!
3) Age 7: Math is boring!
4) Age 10: Reading is boring!
5) Age 15: But drawing is still fun!
6) High school graduation, didn’t want to go, but I was happy to be done
7) Went to art school, 8 am art history = sleepy time. Still the only class during which I have fallen asleep
8) I HATE art school!
9) I drop out of art school after three months and a mental breakdown. Drawing is no longer fun… for about three years…
10) I discover Minneapolis Community College, where I learn…
11) Photography
12) Sound recording
13) Web design
14) Graduated with a web design degree but skipped out on the ceremony this time around
15) Moved to Portland, discovered PNCA
16) Drawing is fun again!

Tags :: Comic