How to Make a Stick Fight Comic
Stick fighting comics are a subgenre of the broader stick man comic genre popularized by minimalist strips such as "XKCD". Whereas this strip features detailed plots, developing characters and an emphasis on repartee, stick fight comics have a much more basic goal: depicting stick figures brutally beating one another. Because of their basic visual nature, stick fight comics can be drawn by anyone with an imagination. If you start with a basic three-panel fight, you can work up to epic battles in no time.
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Instructions
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Open "Microsoft Paint" from your computer's Start menu. The program can be found in the "Accessories" folder, within the Start menu's "All Programs" section.
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Drag the small dot in the lower right-hand corner of the white square to resize your image area. You want the image area to be around three times as wide as it is tall.
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Click the "Line" tool, marked by a diagonal line on the "Tools" panel. (In Windows 7, the "Line" tool is within the "Shapes" section.) Divide your image area into three panels of equal size.
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Use the "Line" tool to draw the postures of your fighting stick figures in the panels. Because this is only a three-panel starter comic, keep the action simple.
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Draw heads for your characters using the "Ellipse" tool (marked by an oval icon; in Windows 7, this shape can be found in the "Shapes" menu). If you want the heads to be perfectly round, hold the "Shift" key as you draw these heads.
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Create faces on your figures' heads using the "Brush" tool (marked by a brush spreading paint); give them vivid scowls and expressions of pain.
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Add dialogue, if your fight requires it, with the "Text" tool (marked by an "A" icon). This dialogue can be fit into speech bubbles drawn with the "Ellipse" tool in Windows XP/Vista. (In Windows 7, the "Shapes" section contains "Rounded rectangular callout" and "Oval callout" shapes for this purpose.) Alternatively text can be put in captions at the bottom of the image.
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Open the "File" menu and select "Save as . . ." to save your first stick fight comic. (In Windows 7, click the "Floppy disc" icon at the top left of the screen to save.)
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Tips & Warnings
If you want inspiration or reference images for the fighting positions your stick men will strike, boot up a martial-arts video game like "Tekken" or "Street Fighter". Have characters perform the moves you want to dramatize and then pause the program so you can translate their poses into stick figure form.
Once you have mastered a basic three-panel stick fight comic, move on to four-panel or nine-panel comics, or even draw your own stick fight comic books.
References
- Photo Credit stick man image by marilyn barbone from Fotolia.com
