No book could hope to teach everything about the creation of comics and cartoons...

especially not one as short as this! But thats not what this book is all about. This books purpose is
to encourage you to start making comics and learn as you go. Sure, you need to do your research,
and later on Ill recommend some books thatll help you with that research. But whats most
important to the craft of making comics and cartoons is practice. Practice, practice, practice. Did
I mention practice?
I have identified five essential principles the novice cartoonist must understand to experiment
successfully with the medium: Expression, Design, Gesture, Dialogue, and Transition. This is not a
definitive method; there are lots of ways to discuss these concepts, and lots of ways to teach them.
This, however, is a great way to get started!
2014, C. Michael Hall. Distributed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Written and illustrated
(except where noted) by C. Michael Hall. www.cmichaelhall.com

If youve never done it before, drawing comics and cartoons might seem
hard...but its not. Sure, theres a lot to learn, and doing it well takes
practice (years, if you want to be a professional) but the basics are
very simple.
Making comics is just combining pictures and words to tell stories.

Billys mother yelled

across the yard; his lunch
was ready. Oh, boy!
Billy exclaimed, smiling
as he ran home.

Pictures

Words

Comics

Comics are not about a specific style of drawing. Dont worry that you
cant draw a particular way. Look at these examples of comic and cartoon
art...theyre totally different from one another! Comics arent limited to a
single style.

Hal Foster

Matsuri Hino

Style doesnt matter...what

matters is storytelling. If
your art tells a story--if
your characters express
themselves and the reader
can make sense of whats
going
on--youve
made
a successful comic or
cartoon. Lets use the
simplest drawing possible
to prove this point. Meet
Mr. Face.

R. Crumb

Jack Kirby

Mr. Face is about as simple as can be, but the reader can tell hes a face.
Thats a successful cartoon!

But how can we make Mr. Face express more emotions? Thats easy. Look
at the range of emotions he can express, just by changing or adding lines
and shapes!

We can add
other details
and combine
them with
expressions to
create all new
characters...

...and we can make

our characters
more distinctive by
basing our faces on
different shapes.

This might surprise you, but mastering

these simple concepts is probably the
heart of cartooning. Some cartoonists
work is drawn using only these basic
principles.

Art by Matt Feazell

Creating recognizable, expressive characters is what cartooning is all
about. No matter what style a cartoonist uses, its the principles of
EXPRESSION (the broad strokes that convey emotion) and DESIGN (the
details that define identity) that make his or her characters effective.
These two
characters
have the same
Expression and
similar
Design elements.
They differ only
in the amount
of Design detail.

EXPRESSION and DESIGN. Look at that...you just learned the first two
essential principles of comics and cartooning!

Lets talk about another technical term: GESTURE. Gesture is the body
language your drawings capture. Think of it as a form of Expression that
involves the whole body. You can convey a strong sense of Gesture with
very simple characters. Just look at these glorified stick figures!

A good sense of Gesture injects

life even into characters who
arent shaped like people! By
giving them a sense of motion,
we give them a sense of
emotion. Theres some deep
artistic philosophy for you!
Figure drawing is a wonderful part of
the cartoonists art, and everyone should
study it. There are plenty of great books
on the subject.

But dont wait to draw comics until youve mastered figure drawing! The
best way to develop a good sense of Gesture is to make comics!

Our next essential principle is DIALOGUE...what your characters say.* You

know, the stuff in these balloons:

Writing snappy dialogue is an art, same as cartooning is an art. Just as

there are styles of art, there are lots of ways to write dialogue. What
your characters say is up to you, and depends on the kind of story youre
trying to tell. Dont make all your characters sound the same, though. Give
each character a unique voice, one that fits his or her Expression, Design,
and Gesture.
And remember, in comics, words and pictures work together. Lets look
at this image again:

Billys mother yelled

across the yard; his lunch
was ready. Oh, boy!
Billy exclaimed, smiling
as he ran home.

See how we altered the text when we combined art and text into a cartoon?
We let the art tell part of the story (Billy smiling and running across the
grass) and we let the text tell part of the story (the characters dialogue,
and the identities of the speakers). Together, the words and pictures
create a narrative thats every bit as complete as the original piece of
text. The same information is delivered to the reader; weve just changed
how its delivered!
This is a pretty advanced concept, but finding the perfect balance between
words and pictures should always be your goal. That balance is often the
difference between a good comic and a great one. Great comics tell stories
through effective combinations of words and pictures. The art and Dialogue
are of equal importance, and each contributes to the creation of the visual
narrative.
(To learn more about this topic, read Scott McClouds Making Comics.)
*Technically, this concept includes stuff that isnt strictly
dialogue, like third-person narration and captions like the one
youre reading right now, but lets not be nitpicky, shall we?

Our last basic principle is TRANSITION. Look at the comic strip below: it
tells a pretty simple (and silly) story. Each image (or panel) depicts a
key moment in the narrative. As long as we choose the right moments to
depict, the readers mind fills in what happens between panels. If weve
done our job, these static images tell a dynamic story. This is the principle
of Transition: the narrative relationship between comics panels.

There are lots of subtleties to master when it comes to Transition: focusing

on different aspects of the action to create drama and emphasis, changing
locations without losing the reader, and so forth. The only real rule is
that you must make sure the relationships between panels are obvious.
Look what happens if we remove some of the panels from our example...

Weve shortened the narrative too much! Were no longer telling the same
story. The reader will assume the kite got the little girl to the moon, not
the combination of kite and rocket, because we never see the interaction of
kite and rocket. Our Transitions here are poorly chosen.

There you have it: five essential principles of comics and cartooning.
Expression: The broad strokes that convey a characters
emotion.

Design: The details that define a characters unique identity.

Gesture: The body language your drawings capture.

Dialogue: The words used to convey characters speech and

other text narratives.
Transition: The narrative relationship between comics panels.
Here are some books you can read to further develop your skills. These
books will employ different terminology than this one, and theyll sort
information differently. Dont let this confuse you! Like I said in the
introduction, there are lots of ways of discussing these things, and lots of
ways to teach the arts of comics and cartooning. All studied approaches
are worthwhile approaches.
Understanding Comics and Making Comics by Scott McCloud
Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden
Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative,
and Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative by Will Eisner
How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis ONeil
The DC Comics Guide to Penciling Comics by Klaus Janson
The DC Comics Guide to Inking Comics by Klaus Janson
The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics by Mark
Chiarello and Todd Klein
Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth