Monday, November 9, 2015

Creating Comedic Manga with Chibis

I've done several actual Manga projects, but they take FOREVER. So, more often, more manga comics' heroes are little chibis. Chibis are easier to draw than actual Manga characters, and their extremely expressive. I've used them to tell whole stories, or just one page comedies. Just because their cute and small doesn't mean I won't make a sci-fi novel out of it and create an amazing battle between the space colonists beyond the outer rim and the Astron council's forces! lol.
You've seen my little comic where I was talking about Prismacolor manga pens- oh and if you haven't, you can find it here. This is an example of my one-page comedies; here is another.

 Sorry for not inking it, you can see it better if you enlarge it. For all manga, you need to have a plan in your haead of what you want and how you want to convey it. with only one page, you only have a little space, so you have to be able to convey your story in as few panels as possible.
Here I set it up in the first two, made the change in 3 and 4, and the punchline was five.
Both these boys want to ask this girl out, but they've been arguing over it so long that someone else beat them to it!
Check out Mark Crilley's book 'mastering manga' for more on panels and set ups.
In a one page comic, I usually change their circumstance drastically from page 1 and the end. In the prismacolor-pen comic, the kitty furry is safe in his fortress, at the end, he's running from death-by-snow-ball. when you deliver your punchline or 'reveal' your character's situations have just shifted. So should their expressions.
EXAGGERATION in action, words and expression is the FOUNDATION of comedy.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you think of my art!