Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 1. Story is your GOD

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

R. Crumb's depiction of God

1. Story is your God

• Everything serves the story. Your choices, the tone, all decisions, structure, formal aspects, the drawing, all words, page layout, panel composition, every narrative event, everything must serve the story. It rules over everything.

• Art—or in this case, making comic books—must be your religion.

• Deliver the narrative information clearly above all else to serve the story. In the introduction to "Elements of Style" White quotes Strunk. Strunk says the reader is drowning in confusion and it's the writer's responsibility to save them with clarity.


• Anything not needed to advance the narrative should be cut.

No comments: