An experiment in Improvisation

Discuss Scott McCloud's current online comic project. Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi.html">the latest improv</a>!

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Fulgore

An experiment in Improvisation

Post by Fulgore »

After reading some of the suggestions in my previous thread, I ventured off to the house of a good friend. Needless to say, comics seemed to be on my mind a lot today. My friend, also being of the comic-creating ilk listened to what I had to say and after trying a few attempts at capturing improvisation, we came up with a rather fun diversion.

Basically, You take a single peice of paper, and draw a single panel on it, then swap with someone else. This is sort of similar to a jam comic except that the scope of group participation never extends beyond the initial panel. This first panel, when done well, can usually provide a setting and maybe a character or two. Then you fill out the comic as long as it can gracefully go.

I highly recommend this method since it is (a) simple (b) can eb done quickly and (c) half the time produces at least somewhat good comics.

Anyone want to give it a try / report their results?

-- Fulgore
Renaissance Man
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Cooperative comics

Post by Renaissance Man »

That's an awesome suggestion. It seems like it can be especially helpful during those awful times when you want to draw a comic and don't know what to draw or when you have an idea for a comic but you don't know how to start it.

My friend and I do something similar that we like to call "Madcap Scenes." Instead of being a comic, it's just a huge piece of paper filled up with drawings.

The process is like so: first we trade off drawing an elf (the "Madcap Elf")... I draw the eyes, he draws the nose, I draw the mouth, etc. Once the Madcap Elf is completed, we then take turns drawing one to three people. (Sometimes we'll clip something out of a magazine, just for a little variation. I think we have one Madcap Scene of a party hosted by Will Smith.) We continue until we fill the page.

We've been doing Madcap Scenes for about six years now and the procedures have evolved into what they are now. (I can't remember when we came up with the "Madcap Elf," though.) Most of the time, the Scenes end up with a major theme, like an office Madcap or a party Madcap or a concert Madcap. Sometimes we invite other friends to join us.

Wait... so why did I sit here and type up this monstrosity of a post? Oh yeah... cooperative and informal drawings/comics like this are great ways to experiment with different styles while at the same time creating something somewhat structured and cohesive.

(Maybe we'll give the cooperative comic a try.)
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glych
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Actually...

Post by glych »

Last year at Comic Con a lot of us Keener did something very similar but called it a "panel jam"...

Our rules were similar:

A panel is drawn and handed to the next person, who in turn draws a panel and hands it to the next person and so on and so forth...But! But, you could only see the panel immediately before your own and no peeking...

The trick was to create a coherent story without any other "clues"...

It actually turned out quite well, and if you want to see what we created, you can find it here:
http://braven.keenspace.com/paneljam/panel01.html

-glych (oh, and by the by: Scott Said he appreciated the cameo ;) )
---
"I may not be able to move that rock, but -man- can I make that rock think it's been moved"-Corran Horn, Star Wars

Glych's Experiment
S. Murphy
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Collaborative Comics

Post by S. Murphy »

The panal jam comic is basically a version of the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse.

A method my sister and I came up with when we were little has some similarities with the above postings. We would each divide a sheet of paper into six panals, then we'd do an unfinished drawing in the first panal of our sheet, and then trade and finish the other's drawing. What we ended up with weren't comic strips, each panal was stand alone, but I imagine this method could be used to do a comic. The best thing about this method was that the other person always finishes your drawing in ways you'd never imagine.
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