For this exercise I was asked to print out the following comic strip: Unfortunately I was only able to print it out in A4 format as I don’t have an A3 printer.

Above the comic consists of 6 panels. 1 at the top of the page, 2,3 and 4 in the middle and 5,6 at the bottom. I will be referring to them in the ‘notes’ section below:

The visual elements in the comic strip are:

• An opening scene
• A conversational interaction between people
• A facial reaction
• An action scene

I was then asked to make written notes about each page in the following ways:

• Dialogue only
• Captions only
• A third person narration
• A combination of all of these three approaches

My notes:

Dialogue only:

Idea 1/3:

• Panel 1: “So, did you manage to get your car paid off?”
• Panel 2: “Yeah sure did! Now I can start thinking about paying off my other depts and getting my life sorted!”
• Panel 3: “Good for you Tod”.
• Panel 4: “What the hell is that?!”.
• Panel 5: “Holy s**t run!”.
• Panel 6: “On no, my car! It’s a right off! Why do these things happen to me!?”.

Idea 2/3:

• Panel 1: “Are you starting to feel anything yet?”
• Panel 2: “No not really… I feel a bit fuzzy but that’s all, how about you?”
• Panel 3: “Yeah, I think I’m starting to feel something”.
• Panel 4: “…OMG Jane are you seeing what I’m seeing?”.
• Panel 5: “Umm… is it just us who can see this?!”.
• Panel 6: “Oh god, I don’t like this at all. I think I’m just going to go home until it wears off”.

Idea 3/3:

• Panel 1: “Have you seen Andrew’s new car? Since he won the lottery he’s become such an arrogant prick”.
• Panel 2: “Yeah, I did see it on facebook actually”.
• Panel 3: “And he got it in RED, what a dickhead! It’s not a Ferrari”.
• Panel 4: “Look there he is now, flash the cash why don’t you, you bastard!”.
• Panel 5: “He can’t even steer it, what an idiot!”.
• Panel 6: “Serves you right Andrew! Have fun with the insurance on that!”.

Captions only:

Idea 1/3:

• Panel 1: It was just another day in the city.
• Panel 2: Tim and Samantha walk to their day job.
• Panel 3: They were about to stop for a coffee, but then…
• Panel 4: Something caught Tim’s eye.
• Panel 5: It was some kind of flying object. Tim and Samantha were shocked.
• Panel 6: Was this the end of the world?

Idea 2/3:

• Panel 1: The day started strangely, there were no birds and the wind had stopped.
• Panel 2: Tim had a funny feeling something bad was going to happen from the time he woke up. He had been having bad dreams for a while.
• Panel 3: The feeling suddenly intensified and Tim felt a shiver run down his back.
• Panel 4: As Tim looked into the sky he saw something strange approaching.
• Panel 5: It was what he had seen in his dreams.
• Panel 6: The distraction of earth has begun.

Idea 3/3:

• Panel 1: The TV had been showing some terrifying reports of UFO’s sightings around New York.
• Panel 2: Tim had always dreamed of seeing a UFO.
• Panel 3: His dream was about to come true, he just didn’t realise it.
• Panel 4: He couldn’t believe his eyes.
• Panel 5: Tim looked in awe as the UFO crashed down to Earth.
• Panel 6: Tim’s dream into a nightmare.

A third person narration:

Idea 1/3:

• Panel 1: “Something’s strange, I don’t like today”.
• Panel 2: “It’s like no-one else can feel it, not even Samantha”.
• Panel 3: “It’s getting closer I can feel it”.
• Panel 4: “Something above the clouds”.
• Panel 5: “This is bad, this is very bad”.
• Panel 6: “I knew I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning”.

Idea 2/3:

• Panel 1: “Another day in crazy-town”.
• Panel 2: “This girl has been following and trying to talk to me for the past 10 minutes”.
• Panel 3: “God I wish she would stop staring at me, this day can’t get any more weird”.
• Panel 4: “…or can it, what is that shooting through the sky?”.
• Panel 5: “Oh god, what is that?!”.
• Panel 6: “This is a disaster… and she’s still following me!”.

Idea 3/3:

• Panel 1: “It’s been three days since the last earth tremor, maybe that’s the last of them”.
• Panel 2: “Everyone I’ve spoken to says I’m crazy, they think it’s earthquakes but I think it’s something more”.
• Panel 3: “I’m sure of it. It could even be something out of this world, something like…”.
• Panel 4: “Aliens!”.
• Panel 5: “I knew I was correct”.
• Panel 6: “This can’t be the only one, I think this is the start of a annihilation”.

A combination of all of the three approaches:

Idea 1:

• Panel 1: “Another day another dollar!” “Yeah or a few cents!”
• Panel 2: “It’s not that bad!”
• Panel 3: Tim and Samantha made their way to work at the laundrette.
• Panel 4: “What’s that?!”
• Panel 5: The day has only just begun…
• Panel 6: …and yet it seems like it’s now the end.

My chosen approach (how I want to add the words to the comic):

• Panel 1: “Have you seen Andrew’s new car? Since he won the lottery he’s become such an arrogant prick”.
• Panel 2: “Yeah, I did see it on facebook actually”.
• Panel 3: “And he got it in RED, what a dickhead! It’s not a Ferrari”.
• Panel 4: “Look there he is now, flash the cash why don’t you!”.
• Panel 5: “He can’t even steer it, what an idiot!”.
• Panel 6: “Serves you right Andrew! Have fun with the insurance on that!”.

My final image with the speech balloons:

Making the speech bubbles:

I decided to try and create the speech balloons using Adobe Illustrator on my iPad. I wanted to make the speech balloons look as if they were part of the original comic image behind them. I started off creating circles and filling them in white, I then added the speech bubble points (tails) to show who is talking. Finally I added my chosen wording in the speech balloons.

Final Image:

Evaluation:

Overall I am happy with how the speech balloons turned out. I really enjoyed thinking up ideas of what the people in the comic might be be thinking of saying. I didn’t want to make what they were saying boring so I tried to think about all the ways I could make it funny or intriguing . I think I got the placement of the speech balloons correct. If I was to change anything it would be to re-write my wording in a much clearer way.