So you’re thinking about making a comic?

Through working on the webcomic project assigned in class, I began thinking about the different order in which comics are written/drawn and whether working with a group or individually would be a better creative process.

• Writing first then drawing: This is what my group has decided on doing for the next few weeks while we create our webcomic, and it definitely has it’s advantages. We can identify a solid story-line, and with the dialogue written before hand, know how much or how little space to leave in each panel for the speech bubbles in order for the comic to not look crowded. As artists Naz and I are able to have creative liberty on how we want each of the characters to look and express their dialogue (whether we want them to look concerned, surprised, excited and so forth). The only catch with this creative process is that as a group we have to be careful that everyone is on the same page, which we have been able to accomplish with weekly meetings. However, if the group was not connected this process would not work as well and probably disappoint at least one person in the group if the artists representation did not fit the writers idea.
• Drawing first then drawing: With this creative process, especially if the group were to meet frequently, everyone would know what to expect visually each week. By using this method though the writer is chained to the artists interpretation, which is simply a reversal of the previous method. So long as the artists and group had a distinct idea of where the story was going, and was not reliant solely on the artists creative whimsy, this creative process would work just as well as the previous I believe.

Do you think that one is better than the other? Has your group experience influenced your opinion?

The second thing that I was considering is if it would be better to work individually, and I came to the conclusion that working in the group is the best approach to this project. While the writers of comics that work individually have sole control over content and appearance, usually resulting in a very distinct and recognizable style (here’s looking at you Neil Gaiman) working in a group means that there is different creative critique from people that might not think in the same way. Working in a group allows for us to address the common ground between each of us, and therefore reach a wider audience.