Write an 8-12 page script for a graphic narrative based on a fairy tale of your choice. Use the character color wheel technique explored in class to create characters for your version of the fairy tale that will have sufficient depth and complexity. Feel free to stretch your fairy tale to fit the situation you imagine. Unexpected twists are encouraged. Post your script or a link to it on your blogspace before next class. There are a number of fairy tale resources on the resource page if you need inspiration.
A good example of an adaption of this sort is Bill Willingham's Fables. You might also consider watching the movies Red Riding Hood (2011) and Sydney White (2007) as examples of adaptation of fairy tales.
So far it seems that the word template from the comics script archives works well. It creates a word document which can be posted on blogger. You can try posting it as a .doc or as a .rtf in order to preserve the formatting.
For your first major challenge of the semester I would like you to adapt one of the short stories linked on the syllabus or on the course resources page to an comic of less than 20 pages. For this you need to learn comic script form, which isn't hard but takes some practice. A very brief explanation of comic script form is at this site: How to Format a Comic Book Script
Post your script Blog for this class.
If you would like some examples look at some by various professional authors of comics at the comic script archives. There is also a good Word template that you can download from this site. The link is here and in the course links:
Some students prefer to use a software program that pre-formats the script for comics. Celtx is the one I usually recommend because it is free and has a comic script format included.
You can export your work as html or a pdf file and link it to your portfolio blog. Please adapt one of the stories available on the Course Resource page, all of these are in public domain and can be adapted as freely as you would like. You are welcome to change anything about the text you need to, place it in a different setting, condense the setting, or whatever, to try to get the best script for comics you can. Please post the script on your blog before coming to class. This is probably the most work intense assignment of the semester. If you have any questions you can ask them by email.
We will begin this week with a number of in-class writing exercises and an opportunity to go over the requirements of the class and set some personal goals for what you would like to get from this semester. Please bring your notebook computer to class along with something with which to write and draw. The course will focus on writing comics for digital media because this is the most important form of independent publishing today. Because of this, direct digital input is the recommended approach to drawing/writing comics in class. So if you use a drawing tablet for input bring it with you. Please create a blog for this class where you can post the scripts, scenarios and comics you make this semester. Send me the url for your blog, indicating that you are in the Writing for Comics class, so I can link the course blog to your blog. I have a reading assignment I am asking you to do before we meet which consists of reading several adaptions of short stories into 50 page graphic novels. These are posted on the course resource page in both cbr and pdf formats. If you want to read the cbr (comic book reader) format, you need to download a program or app that can read that format. There are several available and many are free. I am not so much interested in what the stories I am asking you to read are about, but rather how they are telling the stories they tell. There are seven of them and each takes a different approach in style, narrative breakdown, paneling, etc. to tell the story. Read enough of each story so that you get an idea of how it is being told. Post notes, even single words, on your blog that describe each story you read. We will compare these notes in class. I am in the process of recoding my website to make it more accessible to smart phones and ipads. So it will look rough and will change frequently for the first few weeks as I break-in my new site. You can visit the beginnings of the new site design here http://www.ringling.edu/~dsteilin The links will take you through to the Writing for Comics course. The new syllabus will be mounted next week, after I have a chance to meet with you as a group. You can use the link above or to the left to navigate to the old syllabus from the last time the course was taught. You can go directly to the course resource page by using the link in the course links box.
Born in Rapid City, SD, raised in Wyoming, California and Idaho. I graduated from Skyline High School in Idaho Falls in 1967. BA in English from Carleton College, 1971. MA in Creative Writing and Literature from Boston University, 1974. Ph.D. from the University of South Florida, 2006. Through the 1970s I was a poet-in-residence for a number of communities in the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Kentucky. In the first half of the 1980s I was a new vaudevillian working as a clown, juggler, magician and male stripper. From 1984 to 1989 I was a journalist working for magazines and newspapers. I began teaching in higher education in 1986 and started at the Ringling College of Art and Design in 1988. I am currently a member of the full-time faculty and Curriculum Advisor for the Literature Area of the Liberal Arts Program. My academic specialities are in the areas of comics, speculative fiction and media studies. My current academic interests are in issues involving narrative, world-building and emerging virtual realities.
