Create Your Own Comic Book
A comic book is a story told mostly in pictures, split into panels, with the words squeezed in around them. Here is how to plan one, draw it, and put it together.
- Paper (lots of it)
- Pencils and erasers
- Markers or colored pencils
- A ruler (optional)
- A stapler (optional)
Make your comic
- Plan your story. Who is in it? What happens (the plot)? Where does it happen (the setting)?
- Divide the pages. Fold your paper in half to make a booklet, and decide how many pages your comic will have.
- Draw the panels. Draw boxes on each page. These are your panels, and each one shows a different moment of the story.
- Draw the pictures. Fill in each panel. Check that the pictures match what is happening in your story.
- Write the words. Add speech bubbles and captions. Leave yourself enough room — words squeezed into a corner are hard to read.
- Color it in. Bright and bold works well in comics.
- Staple it together. Ask a grown-up to help with the stapler if you want it to be a real book.
Comic book tips
- Start simple. Six panels finished beats sixty panels abandoned.
- Use action words. "POW!" and "ZOOM!" are drawings as much as they are words.
- Practice drawing. The more you draw, the better you get. That is the only trick there is.
- Read comics. Look at how other people split a moment across panels.
If you get stuck
My drawing isn't good enough. Everyone starts somewhere, and comics are forgiving — a character made of simple shapes can still be funny, scary or brave. Keep going.
I don't know what to write. Start small. A funny thing that happened at lunch. A dream you had. A single "what if?" question.
Six finished panels are a comic. Sixty abandoned ones are not — so finish the small one, then show it to someone.