I say “We’re gonna make some mini-comics and zines today!”

One kiddo says smartly “I already know how to do that!”

“Oh, but friend, what if I show you this tiny comic book made from ONE SHEET OF PAPER?!” I had their attention again as I dramatically held up a tiny folded book shape.

There’s a lot of different ways to make mini-comics and zines. But I discovered over several weeks of teaching summer art camps that certain minis work better for kids than others.

My ranking system consists of:

• Supplies needed

• Fun to make (especially repeatedly)

• Can make on their own with little/no help from grown-up

• Delightful format for storytelling

Based on teaching experience, here’s my 2026 ranking for elementary kiddos making minis, along with instructions for the two winning folds!

Winning Folds

Fold in Half & Staple It Up

A true classic, most kids gravitated to this version of making mini-comics. It brings the familiarity of a book shape, provides the most room to draw and they can have as many pages as they’d like (so long as the stapler can go through it!)

Steps

1. Grab several sheets of paper, based on story need and stapler ability.

   • Got a heavier weight paper like card stock? Make sure to use 1 sheet of that for your cover!

   • Get a long-reach stapler and you could use up to 25 sheets!

2. Fold pages in half. Each half is one page of the comic once the mini is done.

   • It’s best to fold only a few in half at a time to keep the folds crisp!

3. Carefully tuck the folded pages into each other.

   • If using card stock, put the other sheets inside of that.

4. Staple on the spine of your mini-comic to make sure it opens like a book. (I like three staples for even coverage.)

The Foldie

I didn’t know what to call this until I read Drawing Comics Lab, which used this term. We bought some minis at SLICE from a talented cartoonist named Erin Roseberry in this neat format. It uses both sides of one sheet of paper, gradually revealing more of the story as you unfold.

Steps

1. Take a sheet of paper (any size!)

2. Fold it in half from top to bottom

3. Fold it in half over from left to right

4. Repeat until it’s as small as you’d like

Kids experimented with this one a lot since it’s pretty interactive. The act of having to unfold to read the story gave some interesting results. Kiddos also really dug that they didn’t have to cut carefully or use staplers (also great, cuz some kiddos couldn’t keep their stapler privileges unfortunately).

Middle o’ the Road Folds

The 16 Page Teeny Comic

I discovered this one in “Let’s Make Comics!” and used it in several classes/workshops. It’s the tiny size I referenced in the intro and involves one sheet of paper, scissors, and a pencil.

Kids loved this size and sometimes glued them to larger sketchbooks. More than one kiddo compared it to origami. But, having to make cuts means there’s a higher chance a step could get missed and require starting over. The younger the kiddo, the most likely they wanted help or have it made for them.

Four Folds + Cut & Staple

This one is featured The Cartoonists Club! Some kids were hesitant with the steps because they knew they were folding the paper…so how could it open like a book? The scissors take care of this part, but it caused some students to stumble without help. The format is much more square, but has fewer pages than the larger fold-in-half mini.

Tricky Folds

The 1/8th Fold

This format probably has a better name. It’s shared a lot! Most comics-reading kids are familiar with it. My mistake was this: I printed a comic I drew, before class, for kids to practice folding. I didn’t realize the sheets had printed with the wrong size, messing up the margins and image placement, until it was too late. The combination of specific folding directions and specific cutting can overly frustrate some kiddos. (They love finished comics in this size though!)

The Long Accordion

I found this from Andy Hirsch’s swell The Zinemaking Guide to Making Zines kit. The format is so unique and fun to me! However, there’s some stumbling blocks for younger kids with this one: it’s got cutting, folding, and gluing. While some younger kids with lots of focus can latch onto this one, it maybe be best for kids closer to 10, to avoid frustrations.

Will this same ranking system hold true over other workshops and camps that I teach? Only time will tell! Till then, go make some mini-comics with your kids!

STILL TO BE CONTINUED(!?!)….

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: Inside the Princess Pups castle, Fluff Pup and TeaCup Pup are shocked and worried at the sudden development of their friend Scruffy Pup having a frog head after she drank their science experiment liquid! Scruffy Pup, her tongue sticking out, has one paw on her head, feeling where a froggy eye now exists, with a word balloon that says “??”

Comic Panel 2: Dramatic shot of TeaCup Pup as she leaps into the air, throwing off her labcoat and using her magic wand! She’s got a word balloon with Scruffy Pup’s normal face in it as she magics her friend! All we see of Scruffy Pup is her confused eyes and her tongue sticking out.

Comic Panel 3: Full-body shot of Scruffy Pup with her Scruffy Pup head! She looks happy and somewhat silly back as her puppy-headed self. TeaCup Pup lands dramatically in the background as Fluff Pup claps excitedly.

Comic Panel 4: Zooming in on Scruffy Pup, there’s a sudden, large, blocky “BOOF!” sound effect, as Scruffy Pup’s right eye boofs its way back into being a frog eye! The rest of Scruffy Pup is the same, and she’s still happily smiling with her tongue lollin’ out. Fluff Pup and TeaCup Pup are aghast!

Comic Panel 5: Zooming in closer on Scruffy Pup’s face, her other eye has also migrated upwards and transformed into a frog eye with another blocky “BOOF!”. The froggy green from the eyes is slowly edging to Scruffy Pup’s face.

Comic Panel 6: Extra close shot of Scruffy Pup’s face, where a much smaller “BOOF!” erupts as her nose disappears and her entire face turns into frog green once again!

Comic Panel 7: A medium shot of all three pups: Scruffy Pup, with a froggy head (but scruffy ears remaining) once more, waves to the others with her tongue sticking out as she smiles. TeaCup Pup looks haggard and defeated that her magic didn’t work out as Fluff Pup pats her on the head to help her feel better.

Miss Part One? Check it out below!

The list included:

• Chilkat Cove: Draw a Ninja, Get a Mini-Cone

• Amalga Distillery: Draw Your Drink

• Harbor Tea and Spice Co.: Draw a Tea-Rex, Get a Tea Treat

• Kindred Post: Design a Post-It Stamp, Send a Postcard

• Alaska Robotics Gallery Make a Button, Take a Button

• Chilkat River Trading: Draw Earl the Bear and Get a Sticker.

• Juneau Woolies: Tell a Yarn, Get a Charm.

• Alaska Fudge Co.: Sketch the Store Front, Get a Goodie.

• Bustin’ Out Boutique: Sketch a Juneau Themed Bra Design, Get $15 Off

There’s only so many images I can shovel into a post and still have it email, so I’ll highlight my top five. The most important thing for you to know is that I completed the scavenger hunt, which was something I absolutely had to do once I started it.

Cute as a Button Pup

One of my earliest camp card events was making a button because I was already at the comic shop! I met a sweet doggo named Willow. She was super fluffy and cute and it meant I had to draw her as my button design. I left the button with Willow’s owner…but not before I nabbed this SUPER CUTE PIC.

Ice Cream via Ninja Dogs

As I wandered around with a gaggle of fellow cartoonists, we decided to hit up the ice cream place. When we arrived, the super friendly owner declared he would keep giving us ice cream so long as we made awesome drawings. (This is risky business mentality: cartoonists can pack away a lot of ice cream). We discovered two impossibly cute dogs were visiting the shop and it was agreed: We had to draw them as Ninja Puppies. (Bonus points: This was my third dog event of the day!)

A Tart Drink

Right next door to the comics shop was Amalga Distillery, whose tradition of “Draw your Drink” to pay for it goes back a few years (so I’m told). I picked out a lovely 0 Proof Tart Pom Mule which tasted fantastic! Not as lovely as the sassy mule that I included in my drawing that I left behind in exchange, but still! Extra fun: Drink Drawings from camps past were taped up on a column inside the shop!

Post-It Postage, Please

Visiting Kindred Post, the local post office / boutique, gave me a chance to draw a sweet Alaska-themed stamp. Since I kept saying “YAY! Mountains!”, I made that my stamp design. The extra bonus here was that I got to pick out a postcard to mail for free, so I sent my kiddo a super-rad Bear Postcard. It arrived a few days after I got home (cuz St. Louis is pretty far from Juneau)

A (Stuffed) Bear

Earl the Bear is apparently a frequent object for tourists to ask about, including if he’s for sale (he’s not) and if he’s real (he was at one point and came with the store?…). When drawing Earl, I decided to give him a different backstory. He’s stuffed, but with pizza. Exchanging my Earl Drawing got me a rad sticker for my growing Juneau trip collection.

The folks in Juneau were SO NICE to all us cartoonists that piled into their town. There was a super rad vibe and wonderful community feels through the whole scavenger hunt. Finding neat places and exchanging drawings for goods and services is a SUPER fun way to explore a new place!

Most importantly, remember: I completed the list. Hooray!

TO BE CONTINUED(!?!)….

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: Inside the Princess Pups castle, Fluff Pup and TeaCup Pup are wearing safety goggles and lab coats. Fluff Pup is in the middle of carefully adding one liquid to another in science lab beakers. TeaCup Pup is using her magic wand to keep a Science-Ish book floating up where Fluff Pup can read it.

Comic Panel 2: Closer image of Fluff Pup and TeaCup Pup; they’ve moved their science stuff onto a countertop.The glass beaker of liquid has some purple colored swirls coming out of it and floating above it. It's bubbling a lot! Fluff Pup is concentrating as she writes notes on a clipboard. TeaCup Pup sits on the other side with a pencil and open book, watching the liquid closely.

Comic Panel 3: The swirl cloud disappears and the large bubbles stop, as the liquid settles itself into a lime green color. Fluff Pup and TeaCup Pup celebrate and have a word balloon showing a strong checkmark and happy faces to showcase that their science was a success! Right behind TeaCup Pup, Scruffy Pup is peeping her head up on the table with her tongue flopping out. She looks at the liquid with a soda can and a question-mark image above her head.

Comic Panel 4: Scruffy Pup has swooped up between Fluff Pup and TeaCup Pup to quickly grab the science liquid and starts to drink it! She has a word balloon with a soda can and heart above her head as she’s convinced this is soda! Fluff Pup cringes and looks startled as TeaCup Pup furiously waves her arms back and forth with an exclamatory word balloon with a crossed out image of a soda can, trying to warn her friend it’s NOT soda!

Comic Panel 5: A large, blocky BOOF! sound effect takes up much of the space as the same purple swirls from earlier in the comic descend around Scruffy Pup. She now has a frog head, but still has her fluffy-floppy dog ears. Her tongue sticks out of her frog mouth with a bit of the green liquid on it and she has a puzzled look on her now-frog face.

It’s taken a bit more time than usual for me on this comic because most of my summer has been…teaching others about comics! Don’t worry, Scruffy Pup won’t be stuck with a frog’s head for too long. The pups will be able to figure this out, possibly with more science?!

He didn’t make it into that competition’s printed community zine, but Kevin was around the right size for an 8 page, single-sheet-folded mini-comic. And I had a Mini-Con in Alaska coming up, so I laid out the panels of the Kevin comic into a solid wee zine. I thought about drawing a cover, until my super-smart husband pointed out it could simply be titled “KEVIN!” by using the first panel as the title!

Since the single page comic is seven panels though, I needed something for the back cover…putting the best photo of Real Life Kevin made the most sense here.

After comics camp was over, several campers sent out reminders for submitting to the Ignatz Awards, an award meant for things like wee comics and zines, given out at the Small Press Expo. I’d never submitted to it before. I thought about submitting Princess Pups for it because the comics I’ve made over the last year have been pretty solid. However…I don’t make zines that much and there was a submission category JUST for zines. And Kevin is a pretty solid zine.

So I submitted “KEVIN!” for the Ignatz. It’s up to someone else to decide if his zine is Ignatz worthy, but I made sure to take good photos of the zines for it, along with a size comparison that included Kevin.

All in all, this is a pretty good example of “make art once, reuse it where you can”. If you make something you really like, you can end up using it in multiple places. Like how last week, my Kevin comic was an example zine for kids in my summer comics camp to practice their zine folding. And the first panel of Kevin chewing on the bag that says “Cat Fuds”? I still have a mental To Do of making a sticker of that because soooo many folks said it was their favorite image.

That, and it would be an excellent sticker to put on the cat food container in our house.

I did a rough sketch in my sketchbook for my overall layout of this coloring page, which you can see below. Since I’d doodled Fluff Pup in blue-line pencil and had the settings up high, she’s not visible in the scanned sketch. I had to add her rough sketch in digitally during the layout part of the work.

In this month’s timelapse, you might spot where I dropped in my initial sketchbook scan right at the start! I had a lot of fun giving the pups different camping gear. I might have gotten extra absorbed in drawing piles of the woods behind them too!

Frequent readers might notice there’s just one coloring page this month. I’m adjusting my goals to one coloring page a month instead of two. I’m intending to dedicate more of that time to the comic and for a coloring page that can have a bit more detail. Based on the “Work Time” Clip Studio records for me though, I might have gone a bit longer on this on than I planned. Whoops! It’s probably because I kept staring at the wonderful reference photos I took of the Alaska rainforest where I spent time during comics camp.

Don’t worry if you need stuff to color though, because there’s still a metric TON of Princess Pups coloring pages over in the Coloring Pages section of the site!

Share Shorty's Shorts

While I could ramble for literal hours about the experience, I’m condensing to 5 Super Neat Things from my trip to Alaska for Comics Camp. Full disclosure: Some Neat Things happened before the actual campgrounds; they still count.

Talkin’ Comics at TWO Schools!

Oh man, for the first time ever, I got to talk to a set of kindergarten and 1^st graders about comics. The energy was off the charts! They kept me on my toes, all 70+ of them…and one was so happy they gave me a hug (I was given a head’s up from the teachers that might happen). It gave me excellent experience on pivoting when a workshop calls for it. I adapted mid-talk to focus on how using simple shapes and lines can change character emotions. They loved it!

Super Neat: Before my trip, I shipped ahead a set of books for school library bundles the camp organizers made. My Princess Pups book had already been checked out and enjoyed before I even got to Alaska!

The second school talk was for 5^th graders. They had awesome questions and curiosity about comics history and storytelling! There was a squeal of delight when I told them Calvin and Hobbes was my first comic (extra cool kids!). Also, their librarian had comics available that helped illustrate different formats during my talk. This was super helpful since I didn’t fly in with many examples. (I only had so much luggage space!)

Museum-wrapped Mini-Con

There was a giant tree just hanging out in there and tons of folks excited for comics! The mini-con stayed active pretty much the entire day. Lots of campers not tabling helped by volunteering, providing a welcome break to snag delicious burrito lunch. I did sticker trades with other attendees to slap on my “You’re Going to Camp Sketchbook”.

This was also the first con I flew into. I learned that I took too much! But I also still know how to improvise with the space I have (a trial table setup at home the week before helped). We left for camp RIGHT after the mini-con!

Limited Decision Making: I Super Needed That

I get decision fatigued sometimes. Like, just, completely out of ability to make choices. While at camp, we had a fabulous cook who planned and cooked all the meals (with camper help for prep/cleanup!). It meant One Less Thing for my mind to think about. Just show up and eat delicious food? Yes, please.

Piles of workshops and talks were hosted by campers and local folks. But only a few very specific “all campers on deck” events were required. So if you wanted to just curl up at take a nap cuz you Karaoke-yelled a lot the night before and then got up early to help with breakfast? TOTALLY FINE, a delight (and yes, that was me).

Rainforest surroundings will change your perspective

Being in the woods with limited access to usual life things like Internet or (for a few days) running water gives you different perspectives. Sometimes I would just stop and stare around me. And yell “Look at these giant towering trees older than me!” Or: “Whoa, there’s stairs to nowhere from a building long gone!” I was more than slightly obsessed with moss and its abundance.

Importantly: MOUNTAINS. FOR. DAYS.

A bit of a walk led to Eagle Beach, where I contacted my family to let them know things were fine. Campers would know there was service because our phones would suddenly start yelling notifications. Thankfully, that went away when walking back to camp.

Creativity absorption from just floating around stacks of super nice creative people

Camp had a giant spectrum of creative individuals: people that had published piles of books, folks that only had self published, ones who were super new and fresh from art school, musicians, puppeteers….But we were all jazzed to be around other creative types and learn on the fly from each other. Sometimes via a formalized workshop; sometimes from peepin’ over someone’s shoulder when they worked with their tool of choice.

Some learning wasn’t even art related: there were plenty of hikes and nature exploring, along with the casual “how do you adult this” discussion or two. Most importantly, everyone was so stinkin’ nice. Seriously, I would dive in front of a charging moose for all of my camp folks. At the end of camp, folks dropped various merch, zines, stickers and more on a Trade Table to adjust their luggage load.

Having been home for a full week now and recovered from jet lag and brain overstimulation (the good kind!), I’ve had time to think more. My feelings on Comics Camp are still the same: I would gladly go again in a heartbeat if I’m able. And I’ll be recommending it to a pile of my other creative pals!

The first coloring page features Corgi Pup and Pug Pup stacking their pile of pancakes with lots of toppings! There’s tons of toppings to color here: strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, whipped cream, cherries…and of course, syrup! It’s surprising that Pug Pup hasn’t managed to splatter the syrup about while pouring it on the stack of pancakes near Corgi Pup’s paw. (It might still happen, honestly)

In this month’s second coloring page, the rest of the pups are preparing waffles. (Don’t worry, they’re not just square pancakes!) TeaCup Pup is gracefully using her magic wand to lift freshly-made waffles up into the air onto Fluff Pup’s awaiting plate. However, it looks like Scruffy Pup has skipped over using a plate and is content to lean on the cupboard chewin’ on a waffle by itself!

For this month’s timelapse video, you can see waffles go from sketch to float! Hopefully you don’t spot when I slightly obsessed over if the waffles should have three or four square indents in them per row…Remember that you can find these and other coloring pages on the Coloring Pages section of the site!

Share Shorty's Shorts

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: Outside on a sunny day, a sneaky Commando Cat wearing a cap is watching birds from a branch up high in a tree. He has a large, toothy, mischievous grin on his face. Several birds are pecking at the ground after seeds and don’t realize they’re being watched.

Comic Panel 2: The Commando Cat pounces off of his tree branch, claws out, grinning wickedly as he leaps toward the birds!

Comic Panel 3: A dramatic shot behind one of the birds, which is leaning down with a birdy-butt sticking up in the air, facing away from the leaping Commando Cat.

Comic Panel 4: A close up of the Commando Cat as he continues to leap down to land on the hapless bird, still with his big evil grin!

Comic Panel 5: The bird has suddenly turned around to face the Commando Cat and….it’s actually Pug Pup, dressed in a silly bird costume, with a big dopey grin on her face. She has a big ol’ cone nose for a beak and is zipped up into a full body costume to cover her front legs with bird wings and her back legs with birdlike feet. She looks quite silly!

Comic Panel 6: A close up again of the Commando Cat during the last of his pounce with a large question mark and exclamation mark over his head, unable to stop his freefall despite his confusion.

Comic Panel 7: An annoyed Commando Cat is trapped in a fiercely happy hug from the bird-costumed Pug Pup. She squeezes him happily with a small heart emanating from her head and a big smile! In the background nearby, several of the birds that the Commando Cat intended to eat are watching with wee question marks above their heads.

Lemme back up: I listen to the ComicsLab podcast frequently for all sorts of rad comics news, advice, and good vibes from cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett. Dave has frequently brought up on the show the joys, learning, and magical restful resets he’s gotten from attending Comics Camp in Juneau, Alaska. Since Dave spoke so highly of it, I applied for the camp back in October. And I got in, neat!

Cool, so uh, what’s a comics camp?

At Comics Camp, a pile of cartoonists hang out in the southeast Alaska rainforest over four days to learn, explore, relax and reset their creative brains. I’m a newbie and am going off of what their site talks about and Dave’s recommendations. Pretty soon, I’ll learn just how much of balance between “rustic and civilized” the camp grounds are. (So long as I don’t get eaten by bears, I will be okay, I think).

The community has been super welcoming and awesome within their Discord server and emails as I’ve asked my pile of newbie questions. I’m also arriving a few days before camp starts to participate in other activities in Alaska leading up to camp!

Talk comics at schools…in Alaska!

One of the extra options the camp folks offer is participating in school visits so kids can learn more about the comics medium. I’ve done comics talks to kids a few times now and have some upcoming in the summer as well, but it’s just been within the St. Louis area.

I’ve signed up for two school visits. I’ll get to teach comics to two different grade groups. This means I can add Alaska into my bucket list for “Teach comics in all 50 states”, huzzah!

Tabling at Alaska Robotics Mini-Con

The Alaska Robotic’s Mini-Con happens on May 9^th from 10am - 5pm at the Alaska State Museum (which I also haven’t been to because…I’ve never been to Alaska!). It is also free to the public, so you can walk right on in. It’s hosted by Alaska Robotics, who also organize the camp and school visits! I’ll be tabling with my comics, coloring books, and a few other smaller things that can fly with me to Alaska. If you live in or around Juneau, come on by! You can check out the full list of everyone exhibiting over here.

Since I have limited suitcase space, I wanted to create new items that would travel easy. Stickers are just the thing! I’ll have these new kiss-cut stickers at my table at the Mini-Con. One of them is from a recent Princess Pups comic where TeaCup pup cozies into a stack of warm pancakes as blankets! And the other is letting everyone know that if you love dinosaurs, you are in fact a Cool Kid.

I still have some Camping List items that I have to rummage up before the trip. Overall, I’m super stoked! If you’re in Alaska, I hope to see you around Juneau!

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: In the kitchen at the castle of the Princess Pups. Fluff Pup is happily flipping a pancake over by the stove next to a finished stack. Nearby, Pug Pup brings the maple syrup as Corgi Pup and Scruffy Pup eagerly watch from the kitchen table, plates ready.

Comic Panel 2: A closer shot of Corgi Pup and Scruffy Pup at the table with their pancakes as Corgi Pup dumps syrup on her stack of pancakes. The table has various breakfast items on it like orange juice and a stick of butter. Corgi Pup has a word balloon with TeaCup Pup’s face and a question mark. Scruffy Pup is messily holding a pancake in her paws and curiously wondering about their friend’s location too.

Comic Panel 3: There’s a large stack of pancakes in the foreground that have a large, overwhelming word balloon above them with a giant set of snoring Z’s! At the far end of the table away from the stack, Corgi Pup, Scruffy Pup, Fluff Pup and Pug Pup gawk at the apparently snoring stack of pancakes. Pug Pup is accidentally dripping syrup on Fluff Pup’s paw. None of the pups seem to see the tiny tail sticking out of the stack of pancakes.

Comic Panel 4: The supposedly-snoring stack of pancakes is revealed to have the tiny TeaCup Pup nestled in between the warm and toasty pancakes! With the warm pat of butter on top and syrup dripping down, TeaCup Pup smiles as she snoozes away with a happy Z in a word balloon with wee hearts around it!

In this month’s first coloring page, Scruffy Pup shares her umbrella with an un-coated Commando Cat, who wandered off without any rainy day gear! What a pal! It seems that Pug Pup is much too busy hugging the other Commando Cat to shift the umbrella over to cover him…he’s just too cuddly!

This month’s second rainy day themed coloring page has Fluff Pup, TeaCup Pup, and Corgi Pup exploring rain puddles in their rain boots! While Fluff Pup and TeaCup pup happily tap their boots into puddles, Corgi Pup finds herself in a weird situation…Somehow, she doesn’t have any boots at all, except for one very large one stuck to her booty?!

This month’s timelapse is the Pups and Commando Cats scene! I did some adjustments from my original sketches using the Clip Studio Pro perspective rulers (which conveniently don’t appear in the video) to adjust the umbrella shapes. You might also spot how the frog was a sudden addition! Remember you can find these and other coloring pages on the Coloring Page section of the Princess Pups website!

Share Shorty's Shorts

I love to talk comics, especially for kids eager to learn and draw more of them! I recently started doing author visits to teach the wonderful creative process of storytelling through comics. It’s been an utter joy to share my years of comics learning and experiences with so many! I’d be honored to be a guest speaker for your school, library, scouts group or other events in the St. Louis area!

Visits include:

• Learn the process of making a comic

• Explore the storytelling elements used in comics

• Fun activities for stirring creativity

• Q & A with an experienced cartoonist

A Sampling of Talks and Workshops

My talks and workshops can run between 45 to 90 minutes, depending on the age range of the participants. I can adjust for longer events if needed. (Truthfully, if you get me in a room to talk comics, we can be there ALL DAY. ) I adapt my talk’s content and suggested reading/resources based on grade level as well!

The Craft of Comics (Grades K - 5)

Learn about the storytelling & craft of comics! In this overview course, we’ll cover the different types of comics, tools used in comic creation, comic planning from start to finish, and the unique elements that make up a comic like iconography, word balloons, panels and more! Finally, get your comics questions answered by a professional who has drawn traditionally, digitally, and collaboratively! Includes take-home sheet of additional reading and resources. This is a great option for school visits that have students curious about the craft of comics!

Comics with Pre-K, Yay!

A hands-on comics workshop geared toward younger readers and their caregivers! This 45 minute workshop explores storytelling via comics and can include a variety of activities such as pre-drawn panels/characters, comic panel mix-up, photo-flip storytelling and more! This workshop is great for building visual literacy, creative thinking, collaboration and storytelling.

Ready to learn comics?

If you’re interested in booking a visit, please contact me for rates and scheduling! Be sure to check out my Author Visits page for more updates and information as I continue this rad new journey of comics teaching!

Disclaimer: Please be aware that I don’t do the comics talks while wearing a hooded dinosaur onesie. I just haven’t found a good tailor to make one for me yet!

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: It's an outdoor winter scene during the daytime. The Commando Cats, two sneaky cats with hats, have rolled a giant snowball to a hilltop and are waiting for two of the Princess Pups, Corgi Pup and TeaCup Pup, to approach. They’re going to roll this giant snowball on top of the pups! The tall Commando Cat has a word balloon with an iconographic image of the two pups trapped under the snowball as the short Commando Cat rubs his paws together mischievously.

Comic Panel 2: TeaCup Pup and Corgi Pup have gotten closer to the hill. Both Commando Cats are leaning on the giant snowball and pushing it with all their might, grinning as it starts to move forward. The pups haven’t noticed any of this.

Comic Panel 3: The giant snowball has gotten to the edge of the hill…and does not fall. It’s suspended on the edge and should be falling, but won’t. The Commando Cats stare in utter confusion with iconography question and exclamation marks above them. TeaCup Pup and Corgi Pup are exactly in the place where the giant snowball should be falling on them!

Comic Panel 4: Corgi Pup and TeaCup Pup have gone a little past the hill and noticed the Commando Cats. The pup happily wave at them like good neighbors, unaware of the still-suspended giant snowball meant to land on them. The Commando Cats awkwardly wave back, still confused about the stuck snowball.

Comic Panel 5: Corgi Pup and TeaCup Pup continue their walk, moving closer in the comic frame and out of harm’s way of the giant snowball. The tall Commando Cat is scratching his head, unsure why his plan didn’t work. The giant snowball has suddenly tipped and is rolling in reverse right at the two cats. The shorter Commando Cat has noticed this and is frantically waving his arms up and down to get the attention of his comrade.

Comic Panel 6: The giant snowball has full tipped back over and splatted onto the two Commando Cats, who are now stuck! They are very startled and bug-eyed! Corgi Pup and TeCup Pup are now even farther away, towards the very foreground of the panel, with happy music notes coming from them as they cheerfully go about their walk, unaware of what happened.

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: Grumpy Goose, a white goose with gray-tipped wing and tail feathers, sits outside in his nest between two trees. He is GRUMPY with a big frown and giant, furrowed, angry eyebrows!

Comic Panel 2: Grumpy Goose’s eyes have shifted slightly to the left as a pink, heart-shaped card has started drifting down from above. The card reads “I HEART U” (with a heart-shape for the word “heart”)

Comic Panel 3: With angry eyebrows still furrowed and frown still there, Grumpy Goose looks down as the card continues to slowly float toward the ground.

Comic Panel 4: The card lands with a slight flourish right in front of Grumpy Goose, whose eyebrows are less grumpy and frown has started to ease. Two more Valentine-style cards are floating down from above.

Comic Panel 5: Grumpy Goose’s eyebrows are lifting up in a softened expression as his eyes shine and his mouth drifts towards a smile. He likes this sweet card! Even more heart-shaped and decorated, pastel cards are floating down from above.

Comic Panel 6: The camera pans out to reveal that TeaCup Pup and Pug Pup are in the tree branches above Grumpy Goose. Each pup has a bucket they are shaking, causing as cascade of Valentine cards and notes to float down to Grumpy Goose, who is now covered in little notes of love. One heart-shaped card has landed on Grumpy Goose’s head and he has a gentle smile and eased-up eyebrows now. A small word balloon appears from Grumpy Goose with a happy heart inside!

First up we have Scruffy Pup, TeaCup Pup, and Fluff Pup making heart-filled garlands to hang! There’s lots of patterns on the hearts to color in all sorts of ways, but I’m not sure that the string will be able to hang on the wall with TeaCup Pup swinging from it….

In this month’s second coloring page, I’ve got Corgi Pup and Pug Pup crafting Valentine’s cards! While Corgi Pup has been focused on her card, it seems that Pug Pup has gone a bit overboard in the size of the card she made. (Don’t worry, it’s made of light-weight card stock paper, so it won’t hurt if it topples onto them!)

The pups have had a few Valentine adventures in the past. I’ve even made some swell printable cards based on a comic. You can download these printable Princess Pups Valentines below!

Princess Pups Valentine Printables

3.68MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This month’s timelapse video is a glimpse at the garland Valentine craft! It was fun doing different lil’ patterns to go into the hanging hearts, so I hope it adds lots of variety to your coloring! You’ll find this month’s coloring pages plus a ton more (including past Valentine ones!) over here in the Coloring Pages!

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“But Lindsay! What do you do for kids ages 3 to 5 who are interested in comics in that 45-minute timeframe?”

I’m so glad you asked! Here’s the official summary to get you warmed up:

Introduce your little one to the wonderful world of comics! Join sequential artist extraordinaire Lindsay Hornsby as she introduces you and your preschooler to sequential images for storytelling using hands-on activities. Designed for children ages 3 -5 and their parent or caregiver, this playful class will offer an opportunity to make mini comics using a handy template so you and your kiddo can create worlds again and again! Participants will leave with mini comics that they create and recommended reading and instructions to make more mini comics at home!

My husband and I are both cartoonists and love comics, which means we started reading comics to our own kiddo pretty early! We also played fun comics-related games with him and made mini comics together. Even when our kiddo was too young to write, we’d craft minis for him to draw in. Then we’d add text based on his narration! My workshop is geared towards that same caregiver and child interaction of sharing sequential storytelling and hands-on creative activities.

In the workshop, we’ll talk a bit about the unique parts of comics storytelling that makes comics so awesome! And we’ll play different sequential image games to help spark ideas for comics creation (and also because they’re fun!). Here’s a peek at some of those games!

“They Got Mixed Up!”

There’s a stack of printed comic panels…but they’re out of order! Kids arrange individual panels to form a story in front of them. After making their first story, kids can exchange a panel with a different one from the pile and see how the story changes. They can also try removing the first or last panel to see how different it is. This activity experiments with pacing and panel composition in a hands-on way, along with story comprehension.

“What’s in the Gutters?”

Using two stacks of non-related photos, kids take turns flipping over one photo from each stack. The two photos are lined up next to each other like comic panels with spacing for gutters. Everyone takes turns making up a story of what’s happening in these “panels”. Kids can even pick their favorite set and draw a third panel! This activity teaches about how gutter spacing between images causes your brain to fill in events that aren’t visible to create a story!

“What Happens Next?”

Kids are presented with a comic strip of 3 panels with an empty 4th panel. Each kid finishes the comic with their own drawing. Kids can also give suggestions to me as a collaboration while I draw the last panel! This activity encourages creative thinking, storytelling, and working with others!

If you’re in the St. Charles or St. Louis area with a little one eager to learn more about comics, make sure to register early! The workshop runs weekly on Tuesdays in March from 11 to 11:45 am and is $15 a session for caregiver plus child. You can register right now on the Foundry Art Centre’s website over here. I’m excited to share the world of comics with you and your kiddo!

👑🐶❤️ You can also see the comic on the Princess Pups site over here!

Transcript

Comic Panel 1: Inside a beauty salon, Fluff Pup relaxes with her eyes closed as a salon attendee cloud meeple washes the top of Fluff Pup’s head. There’s lots of sudsy bubbles forming. The salon attendee happily goes about their job. Behind Fluff Pup’s chair is a sink for rinsing and a nearby countertop behind the attendee holds more salon products.

Comic Panel 2: Close-up shot as, with a happy music note above their head, the salon attendee spins around to pick up a bottle of shampoo from the counter. They can’t see Fluff Pup at the moment.

Comic Panel 3: Close shot of Fluff Pup as the salon attendee has turned back to face her. There’s a sudden pile of ICE CREAM all topping the bubbles on Fluff Pup’s head! Chocolate, butterscotch, neapolitan, mint, pistachio, a dollop of whipped cream AND a cherry on top! The salon attendee is utterly baffled at the sudden dessert. Fluff Pup hasn’t opened her eyes and is still relaxing, unaware.

Comic Panel 4: The panel reveals a delighted Scruffy Pup sitting next to Fluff Pup’s chair. Scruffy has multiple containers of open ice cream scattered about her. She’s gripping one container and a spoon, furiously wagging her tail and staring up at the pile of ice cream with a smile and her tongue sticking out.

Comic Panel 5: Scruffy Pup is running quickly off panel and out of the salon, spoon in mouth, worried expression on her face. The salon attendee is angrily chasing after her with a broom! Behind them in the background, Fluff Pup has finally opened her eyes and looks up at her head with a large question mark at the pile of ice cream balanced on top of her soapy head, somewhat puzzled over this predicament.

“This is the easiest thing to add to your website. It’s so simple. Just put it up there — link to your pals, other websites you’ve made, favorite websites. If you don’t have this, you’re missing a super-easy win.” (Part of the assignment might have included a minimum page requirement…)

Despite that class being over a decade ago, the lesson is still absolutely true today, but for different reasons. First, lemme gush about how amazing links are.

The World Wide Web Appears with Your Friend, the Link

In the 1980s, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee wanted a sensible way to organize and connect piles of data. You can read more about this in the first chapter of Resilient Web Design or by checking out Berners-Lee’s recent book This Is For Everyone. Links, known in HTML as the anchor element, were a piece of this proposal. (I just used our magic friend to offer you several paths!)

A link (full name hyperlink) can point to all sorts of things: a document, an image, another page in a site, a different site living on a different server, all sorts of things! This was unheard of at the time! Originally, Berners-Lee thought people would use links to point to files. Instead, because HTML was easy to learn, people built documents out of HTML and used links to point to that content! Links have been a staple of the internet for decades now.

Some social (media) silly business

Eventually, social media sites appeared on the Internet (“eventually” = “decades later”). These are good, right? Talking to people, promoting your cool creative work, finding events! Build an audience!

Except when those social sites are unsociable to our good friend, the link. Certain social media places decided to limit what could go into the peoples’ posts. This limitation was “No, your links will not link”.

This is problematic because you can’t link directly to:

• Your shop

• Your website

• Any action-oriented event you believe in

At some point, unnamed social media sites were kind enough to provide space in a profiles for…one link. Just one. Folks had to say “See link in bio!” or some awkward abbreviation of the phrase. New sites to store these list of links appeared to fit this purpose. When users on social media are forced into this situation, it feels like a sad plea of someone trapped in a box unable to use a key feature of the Web.

The problem with putting your links on yet another place that you don’t own is that this is also a place where their terms could change, just like on a social media site. Your portal of links to point people to your various shops, art, campaigns, events, could just boof away. And you have another thing to keep up with? Boo!

But…what if you welcomed back your friend, the links page, to your own website?

List your links on your site…again!

We’re back at our friend the Links page that College Me promoted. All those various subsites or socials you have, the ones you decided to keep? Add those to a links page that you own and control on your own site! Magic!

What if we went one step further? What if, instead of jamming piles of social media icons or user handles onto printed materials…what if our curated list of other Web homes were accessible with a QR code?

There’s no URL to type, so character length won’t interfere with layout. And, since you’re keeping that links page, you can edit that list and drop any problematic social sites without having to redo any printed items Various graphic editing softwares include a QR Creation tool where you just add in your URL.

When I redesigned my cards last year, I added my List O’Links page as a small QR code. I’ve edited and added to that list since then without worry about expired social icons or printed links.

Because me and links are Good Pals.

References

Wanna learn more about the Web and our pal the link? Here’s the list of places I…linked to(!) in this post!

• Resilient Web Design has been around for years, yet still provides wonderful foundational understanding of making great websites, along with a critical look at the history of the Web. It’s available to read for free online.

• This is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee is a fantastic read from the inventor of the Web that follows the creation, excitement, and concerns Berners-Lee experienced while still instilling hope for the future.

• MDN Docs: The Anchor Element provides nitty-gritty documentation on attributes, usage, and other important information about implementing the <a> tag into a website to make your pal the link.

I had three ideas that I liked, but I stick with two coloring pages max each month. After getting a bit of advice, I decided to combine the trapeze sketch as the background element of Scruffy Pup as a ringmaster! While I was working on it, I decided pushing the image with a nice big foreground element would make it even more interesting to color…and the best foreground element is usually a goat! This one was a lot of fun to draw, especially with TeaCup Pup being uncertain about how a goat can add to the complexity of doing a trapeze act!

Since goats were scattered in the first coloring page, I decided to add another in the second coloring page. Fluff Pup and Corgi Pup are decked out in clown gear with a lil’ assistant clown goat! I’m not sure Corgi Pup enjoys her clown outfit though. Maybe it’s the large shoes? Or maybe she’s bothered that she can’t juggle with a goat on her back and giant shoes on her feet?…

For this month’s timelapse, here’s a peek at how many times I had to shuffle around the parts of the main event illustration! Using layering is a super-big help with digital drawing, especially when there’s a lot going on. I eventually made the trapeze act larger because it didn’t look like it would be big enough to color at the original size. Originally, I hadn’t planned on the ball-balancing goat having a costume, but they needed a lil’ more flair. Remember that you can always nab these and other coloring pages over on the Coloring Pages section of the site!

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