A game of 5-card Nancy from Y2K Denver

At the start of the millennium, I hosted comic jam sessions at my friend’s comic book store. Among the activities we offered was the game 5-card Nancy, the rules of which can still be found at scottmccloud.com.

The guiding idea is explained by montage theory: if you juxtapose 2 movie shots or comic panels, the reader/viewer naturally presumes a narrative to connect them. This involves the audience in the creation of the story. Putting comic panels on index cards is a great way to play around with narrative possibilities.

For whatever reason, back then it was difficult getting ahold of suitable Ernie Bushmiller Nancy strips to work from. We ended up making a deck from Ivan Brunetti’s Nancy tryout strips that were published in an issue of the zine Rocktober (breaking one of McCloud's cardinal rules).

An important innovation we discovered as we played McCloud’s game is that once a strip concludes, the players should confer to agree on a title. It pulls the whole together.

I sent Mr.Brunetti a copy of the printed comic that included our use (abuse?) of his work. He was characteristically gracious. I recall him responding that his favorite was “the castrator’s apprentice.”


The ways comic panels change meaning in different contexts is something we’ll explore from multiple angles in my upcoming online course, Comics Inventions, enrolling now.

"Draw Two Panels" spinoff: The Deckless Wonder

 Here's an experiment that's been languishing in my files. I've written already of my work with Isaac Cates on his Draw Two Panels game. It inspired me to test an idea for this spinoff:

I drew two cards that pose a simple question: is our heroine dressing or undressing? Where the cards are placed in the four-panel sequence would direct the answer.

After completing the first strip, I toss a coin twice, choosing one of the original cards and one of the new cards. Then I make a new strip, placing the cards wherever they can be made to make sense. 

I'm struggling to recall the exact rules. In each new round, I toss a coin to choose one old and one new card. There should always be four cards available for each new round, from which two are chosen.

Here's an alternate game, placing the first two cards in a different order:

This procedure can go on indefinitely, though I wonder whether the story can ever go anywhere,... 

...small wonder that I stopped after three rounds. On the other hand, a story stuck in time is interesting in its own way.

This general idea of drawing comic panels on index cards and moving them around is something we'll explore in my upcoming online course, Comics Inventions, enrolling now.

Summer Classes are Enrolling Now!

 

This summer, study Short Form Comics, Thinking in Ink, Figure Drawing for Cartoonists Online and Live in Manhattan, Cartooning Basics Online and Live.   And there’ll be another free Daredoodling event on May 12.

Pandemic or no, online courses are a rare opportunity for artists all over the world to learn from SVA instructors. The School of Visual Arts has been ground-zero for cartooning instruction since its founding in the 1940s. I’ve taught hundreds of New Yorkers and visitors over the years, but now I can help you, too, wherever you are.

That said, it will be nice to be back in the classroom for Figure Drawing and Cartooning Basics. The live experience offers more one-on-one instruction opportunities and in the Figure class, we have live models every second week.

Let’s make comics!

I have a new book out!

 

From the back cover:

Poem: A Mashup

What makes poetry effective? How does a poem work? What are its goals and aims? 

Taking his cue from the musical form of mashup, in POEM M. D. Usher has composed what is known as a cento, stitching together snippets from famous poems in such a way that the words of the text illustrate the aspect of poetry being described. A lively introduction and short, irreverent biographies of the featured poets add to the fun. 

In T. Motley’s artwork, Word literally becomes Flesh, as letters emerge like epiphanies from the drawings. 

POEM is a unique achievement that stands in relation to canonical poetry as Disney’s film, Fantasia, stands to classical music—first of its kind, something for all ages, and well worth experiencing again and again. 

Order it here, PLEASE.

Cartooning is for Everybody!

I must confess that, as devoted as I am to the comics medium, the comics industry doesn't interest me. To me, the point of comics is that anybody can make them and effectively use them to publish their thoughts.

I'll walk you through the basics of character construction,...

That said, comics are so rich and varied, there's no limit to how deeply one can delve into a project and how far one can pursue the craft.

... the special language of comics, such as the motion lines and sound effects in these examples by the great Don Martin, ... 

My Cartooning Basics class, beginning live in Manhattan on June 9 and online starting June 10, takes artists of every level and arms them with the technical means to vent or play or interrogate ideas and feelings as they see fit. Short Form Comics, beginning June 7, takes us a step further as we explore various ways to approach comic short stories.

... authenticating details, as explained in the Famous Cartoonists course, ...

Along the way, we build from simple tricks to advanced concepts. The results are typically spectacular.

... the invisible art of composition, as in this maximally minimal Alex Toth panel, and much besides.

Needless to say, we all have MUCH to vent about nowadays. Getting it down on paper can be a sizable relief.

Time's running out to sign up. Come CARTOON!

New Online Course Enrolling Now!

Short Form Comics is a course I've taught to undergraduates for several years. I'm offering it to the public, online, beginning June 7.

We'll produce rough drafts of comic stories from a variety of departure points, generating a backlog of material for students to complete at their leisure. Weekly assignments concentrate on different kinds of comics and aspects of the medium. One week we'll spin joke strips out of literary classics, another we'll make silent, cinematic metaphors. Another assignment will involve hyperbole and explosive layouts, comics as genre.  And there'll be space for non-fiction, memoir, ranting, and a hefty dose of formal experimentation.

This is a good course for artists who want to be better at writing and for writers who want insight into visual storytelling. There'll be a strong element of blockbusting-- overcoming the blank page and discovering stories lurking at the back of your mind that you didn't necessarily know you wanted to tell.

Short Form Comics runs on Tuesday evenings. My other online courses this semester, Cartooning Basics, Figure Drawing for Cartoonists, and Thinking in Ink, also start the second week of June. Sign up soon!

I'm also teaching Figure Drawing for Cartoonists on Wednesdays, live in Manhattan beginning June 8, and Cartooning Basics live Thursdays beginning June 9.

Let's make comics!

Online CE Student Spotlight

Here's the Kirby-inspired cover to the comic made in Cartooning Basics by long-time student, Howell Murray. Howell's getting very comfortable with the medium and having a great time.

and here's page one!

Let's begin with some ACTION ITEMS. If you're seeing this the day it posts, January 13, 2022, please hop over to the New Media Writing competition and cast a vote for one of my GOAT students, Laura Brown, and her Avon Lady webcomic. You're free to browse the other works, of course, but you'll see that Laura's is the best. It's nice to see a competition like this happening.

And maybe also there's still time to sign up for my newest Daredoodling session.

Another long time student, Kate Brehm, is fundraising for a puppet show, The Eye Which We Do Not Have, which will be awesome.

You'll want this new book by Christy Strauch, the money coach. It's helping me! I coached Christy through the process of making the illustrations.

There was an astonishing amount of wonderful work produced in my SVA classes last fall. I'm confining myself to examples of those students who explicitly gave me permission to share. I'll be happy to show more as I hear back from folks. Anyway, check this out: 

Jenna Del Vigna created this excellent comic strip in Cartooning Basics

The goal of the Figure Drawing for Cartoonists course is to complete one finished page of comics.  Here's a page by Lynn Bernstein. You can read more at her Instagram.

And here's a gorgeous page by Tom Hughes.

this minicomic cover was made by Jenn Robinson in the Thinking In Ink course.

and a number of students have posted their homework on Instagram. here are a few gems by Georgia, Demi, Carmen, Pauline, Paul, Dave, Katharine, Beverley, Jennifer, ...

Spring semester courses are enrolling now and starting soon. I'm offering Cartooning Basics both online and live. Figure Drawing for Cartoonists will be live in Manhattan, with models every second week. It'll be great to do some life drawing again. And I'm offering a new online course, Short Form Comics, where you'll be tasked with writing/sketching a rough draft for a different type of comic every week. You'll end with a backlog of ideas and material to develop at your leisure. Come join us!