Feb 24, 2012... ABC's

OK, here is a bit of a 2-fer.

First off, this is the rough layout for pages one and two.  Andi and Ms. Pennyworth and class are touring the museum.  More layouts coming soon.

And now, the ABC's.

I will totally admit this up front, what I am about to tell you I did not read myself.  A good friend of mine, who's a whole lot smarter than me when it comes to these matters, read about it and then told me about it.  Probably in a "How-to" book on storytelling by Will Eisner or someone like that...

From what he told me, the ABC's of storytelling are a principle, or a rule or something like that for storytelling.  In panel to panel storytelling, one of the best ways to tell a story is to move the flow of the images in a ABC pattern.  These two pages are a good example of that.

"A" is the dino splash page one.  In the next panel the "A" dino is part of the background and Ms. Pennyworth is the "B".  In panel 2, we see Ms. Pennyworth "B" and Andi "C" and then in panel 3, a closeup of Andi "C".  The story flows from A to C, from the dino to Andi.

People may not even see it but next time you are reading a comic, a good comic story, name the elements A, B C and so forth and see if the story teller followed this principle... or rule... or whatever it is called.

-Drew

PS thanks Todd... you are the smarter one here... I said it... now shut up!