Comic Books As A Visual Medium

Series Summary

A comic book is a series of narrations that are used in conjunction with text to tell a story. Some of the earliest comics were simply a collection of previously published comic strips from newspapers bound into a booklet. They then evolved into a singular story that would even span several volumes and develop over long periods of time such as Spider-Man and Superman. These long series of comic books became known as graphic novels but that term is used vaguely. American comics are traditionally associated with super heroes but are still only limited to your imagination.

This is a must see video series for anyone thinking of creating their own comic book. Many of us have dreams whether big or small and sometimes we need a bit of help taking that first step. Especially when we don't even know what that step might be. Our expert, Dan Head, not only suggests several jumping off points but also where to go from there. He gives you tips on to get the word out about your book, how to structure and write your script and even how to self-publish it. Don't let your dreams die with Superman in Volume 75. Let these videos help you get off the ground and soar!

Video Transcript

"Hello! On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Dan Head and today we are going to talk about how to self publish your own comic or graphic novel. Okay, comics are a visual media. So if you want to write comics, the most important thing to understand about comics is that they are inherently visual. It is not like writing pros where you need to get inside the character's head. Comics are partially a literally medium so maybe we can get inside a character's head. They work when they explode off the page. For example something like 300 which is Frank Miller's favorite work as you can see is visual. You get a lot of story telling imagery just in two giant solid images. When comics work they work because you give the artist a chance to blow it off the page and show what he can do. "