"The approach to characterization in comic books has evolved, like everything else in this retarded bastard medium, at a painfully slow pace over the last 30 or 40 years" (Moore 23).

This week I read Alan Moore's Writing for Comics and the first part of Scott McCloud's Making Comics.

Making Comics

The first half of Making Comics is mostly full of tips and some standard rules for comic making. The introduction ends with "In short, there are no rules" at the end of the page, which is followed by a small panel (surrounded by white space) on the next page that says "And here they are."

He starts out the book by talking about the importance of clarity, persuasion, and intensity -- and about the constant choices that need to be made regarding imagery, pacing, dialogue, composition, gesture, etc. He breaks these down into five different types of choices and also refers back to the scene change choices he discussed in Understanding Comics.

The five choices are of movement, frame, image, word, and flow. McCloud talks extensively on the importance of how you establish your opening scenes to create a sense of place for your reader -- and to keep in mind how they will perceive things. There are so many things to consider when making a comic and a lot of details to keep in mind. You also have to keep in mind what you can actually do and then execute it in a quick, clear, and compelling way.

The most important question (or the first, as McCloud says) is will readers get the message? He points out that a style that may be more crude or simple can still win more fans than the best drawn comics out there if it is communicating effectively.

When he mentioned this I thought about the webcomics I follow regularly and about the art that each contains. Xkcd is an excellent example of what McCloud was talking about.


The art for xkcd is very simple. The artist doesn't stray from using stick figures in every comic but there is no meaning lost because of this. The comic has a huge fan following (as well it should!) and you can even buy xkcd merchandise if you want. The point is... this is a very simple style of art... but because of the ideas and humor it successfully gets across to its readers it is effective without needing to be fancy.

McCloud also points out the importance of pictures and words working seamlessly so that readers don't notice a switch. He also mentions this in relation to other aspects with the clear message being to not take your reader out of the story (needlessly).

The bottom line of this part of Making Comics was to remember that your readers are all human beings and therefore at least somewhat predictable. There are a lot of choices to be considered and made when creating comics and a lot of balancing to be done. I think McCloud seemed to most emphasize the importance of making things work for the reader and I agree. Moore also talks about this (and adds in some lovely snark).

Writing for Comics

"You can produce a comic about bright and interesting new characters, have a computer draw it, publish it in a lavish Baxter package and color it with the most sophisticated laser scan techniques available, and the chances are that it will still be tepid, barely readable shit" (2-3).

Moore says a lot about the pitfalls of comics like the fact that they really aren't comparable to any other medium (despite the attempts to do so). He talks about how a lot of lingo is similar to movie making as far as how it will look, but in the end movies are doing something that comics can't and comics are doing something that movies can't. The pacing of comics and other mediums are different and that should absolutely be taken into account.

Some other pitfalls that he gets into involve the style and voice of the author -- he advocates going out and meeting some real people and seeing how they act to develop your story, rather than looking at how other comics writers and artists portrayed their characters. He also talks a lot about self reflection and looking deeply into yourself to pull out every piece to examine. As McCloud also touched on... we're all human and it's very likely that a human is going to be reading your work. Moore also connects this to the readers experience and the importance of the reader (like McCloud).

He got on the topic of self reflection and humanity because, as he points out, there are some comic book publishing companies who think that keeping a tight leash on comics is important so as not to offend any person (ever). This essay was written in the 80s and I feel like this is less the case now than it was then because companies realized readers wanted something more real that they could connect to (something with real emotion, if not necessarily a story about something realistic). The comics of old definitely fit this bill -- and comics had to contend with the comics code authority breathing down its neck for a long time too.

This is obviously not the case as far as women in comics go. Publishing companies like DC and Marvel (especially Marvel) offend women pretty frequently. Most recently Marvel published a series called Marvel Divas where several Marvel girls starred in the series and were essentially copies of the gals from Sex and the City. Now, I like SatC... but I don't want superheroines starring in a comic where they essentially play out SatC and neglect the fact that this is a comic book with superheroes. That's not what I'm buying comics for. On the other side of the fence is Gotham City Sirens by DC, a series where Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn have teamed up. I have read every issue so far and while I will admit that there hasn't been much of a plot (except for in the more recent issue) yet... at least my comic book girls are still acting like comic book girls and having campy fun while kicking ass. And they've also successfully inserted humorous domestic stuff that doesn't make me feel like I'm no longer reading a comic book (not that this is a rarity in comics, what I'm getting at is they have balanced what Divas failed to).

I won't go into any more examples of how DC and Marvel have offended women recently. I am especially not going to talk about any "that's not how anatomy works" moments.

Anyway, I will say that comics have progressed even more from the things Moore was talking about. My favorite example being Catwoman's progression in comics (because I love her and she and Batman got me into comics in the first place). When looking at the picture as a whole Catwoman has come a long way -- she started out as a sort-of villain for Batman... She was a cat burglar and fell in love with Batman... which meant that eventually her character boiled down to "Batman's sometimes love interest who secretly just wants to marry him and settle down but is going to sort of be a villain for fun for now." Puke! Keep in mind that this was in the 40s though.

Catwoman today is an anti-hero.

I could go on and on about what a strong character she is (and she is!) but the most important thing I want to note is that characterization has come a long way -- even since Moore wrote this.

He talks about the fact that the thought used to be "If a character can't be summed up in 15 words then it may not sell to small children, who we assume are of limited intelligence and possess brief attention spans" (24). I definitely agree with this... and the characterization of Catwoman in the 40s that I summed up fits this. I think in a lot of cases certain people still think this is how it is with comic books. But we are definitely seeing a shift.

Moore also talks about the constant change in comics, just as McCloud did in Understanding Comics. The last essay of the book states this again (it was written in 2003 by Moore) after Moore warns us that he was young and stupid when he wrote the original essays. And he challenges the reader again -- examine yourself and your experiences. And more importantly, don't let your creativity stagnate in the familiar. Constantly push yourself off that next cliff and do things you think aren't possible. If people come to expect you to create comics that are deep and morose then make your next project one that is funny and frivolous.

All of this is good advice -- challenging yourself is important. Though I would say to take this into account once you're already established. Or to do it if creating comics isn't your day job.

So What?

Again I was left thinking of the limitless possibilities comics present and the invisible work that goes into them. Careful planning and good instincts were again touched upon and I wonder how my own instincts would work if I tried to apply them to making comics rather than reading them.

I'm still curious as to the role others play in the creation of comics (besides the author and the artist).

I also checked out Scott McCloud's twitter and was a bit geeked to find out he not only follows a lot of cool comic book artists and authors (of course he does) but he also has a couple of webcomic artists listed as well (like Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content).