This is always such a fun moment during my author visit presentations. I spend the first part of my talk explaining how comics work, and then move onto a section about the importance of distinct character design. All cartoonists are different, but for me, a comics-maker who is looking to tell stories featuring large casts of characters, I feel it’s vital that my readers can always immediately tell who is who.
I show the steps I took to create the look of my protagonist, Lori Block, as well as her family members, her coaches and teammates, and importantly her group of close friends. Even though I draw in a very clean, uncluttered style, none of my characters look the same. A fun trick I explain to the kids is called, “The Silhouette Test”, which is as it sounds, can you still identify a character when you can only see them in black outline. It’s not a rule by any means, but it’s a fun trick to try.
You can see my conclusion to this portion of the presentation above. It is a really fun way to close out that part of the talk, and a test for me to see how long it takes me to calm everyone back down before I move on to the topic of finding inspiration and ways in which authors generate ideas.
Read Across America Week
I was fortunate enough to get to visit quite a few schools to talk comics with the kids this week. I had some really excellent events, with some very enthusiastic audiences. It was particularly rewarding to me to get to visit River Plaza in Middletown, New Jersey, the elementary school I graduated from allllll the way back in 1987. It was such a wonderful visit, and it meant so much to me to see my name up on the sign outdoors like that.
If you are an educator or school librarian who thinks your students might enjoy a funny, colorful, and informative author talk about cartooning and making graphic novels, please get in touch. I’d love to set something up!
The Silhouette Test