18 Amazing Comic Strip Examples to Inspire Your Ideas

Get inspiration for your drawing and storytelling from pro comic book artists, with this diverse collection of graphic narratives

As the name suggests, a comic can make us laugh, but comic strips also tell visual stories that go beyond words to connect with various emotions. Whether you want to share your daily life, or an epic fantasy adventure, simply combine your stories with eye-catching art and Wham! Pow! You’ve got yourself a comic.

If you want to develop your style and grow your awareness of comic book genres, this list of eighteen projects from the portfolios of Domestika teachers is a great starting point. From social media strips with slice-of-life humor, to graphic novels and memoirs, to heroic characters straight out of Marvel and DC—there’s sure to be something to get your ideas flowing.

1. Colorful, expressive manga by Akimaro

Illustrator and designer Adriana De la Torre, also known as Akimaro (@akimaro), has co-authored a popular webcomic and recently worked with book publishers for teen audiences. Her work combines bold, high-contrast color with playful silhouettes and dynamic movement.

In her course, Digital Illustration with Manga Influence, you’ll create an emotion-based illustration as part of a three-image narrative sequence—something like the below work, “Stars guided me to you”. See the full process for this illustration in Akimaro’s projects.

2. Drama and humor through dynamic scenes by Andrea Jen

Manga is known for its larger-than-life emotions, with shorthands like the sweatdrop or popping vein becoming instantly recognizable. The page below belongs to the second installment of Dream Walker by Andrea Jen (@andrea_jen)—note how characters change in size and proportion depending on their feelings. You can read the manga online here.

If you want to create funny and relatable characters of your own, Andrea teaches the course Creation of Manga Characters, taking you from initial idea to a professional technical sheet.

3. Playful cartoons for social media by Raul Salazar

Social media is now a popular platform for sharing comic-style illustrations, especially to take part in trends and challenges. Cartoonist Raul Salazar (@raulsalazar) was inspired by the #WhatTheFluffChallenge viral challenge below, where you hide from your pet under a sheet, and fake a “disappearance” when you drop it.

In his course Graphic Humor for Beginners, the cartoonist of magazine El Jueves shows you how to ace graphic humor. You will learn to create visual jokes about current affairs using just a sharpened pencil and some sarcasm!

4. Minimalist color palettes for visual storytelling by Thomas Rohlfs

Even with simple, clean lines and shapes and a basic color palette, you can create stories that jump off the page. In the comic panel below, text is minimized so our eyes are more drawn to the character, portrayed in simple yet effective blue and red.

Looking through Thomas Rohlfs’ (@thomasrohlfs) work, you’ll find it filled with street style and sports themes, and if you’re inspired by the action poses and excitement of his work you can learn more in his course on Dynamic Character Illustration.

5. Mixed media techniques by Ariel Olivetti

You can use more than just a pen or tablet to draw a comic strip: illustrator and cartoonist Ariel Olivetti (@arielolivetti) uses acrylics, watercolors, inks, and digital combined. For the last 25 years, he has collaborated with Marvel and DC Comics, bringing life to iconic superheroes with mixed media.

If it’s your dream to craft epic comic narratives then you’ll definitely want to explore his course, Illustration for Comics: Anatomy of a Superhero. Focusing on male anatomy, you’ll learn the classic American comic style, learn about proportions of the human figure, the main muscles of the body, and different poses.

6. Procreate comics for social media by Rocío Diestra

Digital comic strips can support both personal storytelling and client work, forming a unique communication strategy for any brand. Rocío Diestra’s (@rociodiestra) clean linework and provocative messages make for engaging social content, and she’s currently developing a graphic novel with Penguin Random House publishers.

In her course, Digital Comic Illustration for Social Media, you will learn everything you need to create comics for social networks, from the idea to storytelling and design. Her webcomic below gives an idea of the visual communication you can achieve, exposing a character’s inner world through drawing.

7. Playful, abstract bodies by Ana Galvañ

Ana Galvañ’s (@ana_galvan) rhythmic comics combine wobbly figures with bright and minimal color schemes. She received the Special Jury Prize at the III Creacómic Contest, and her stories have appeared in Nobrow, Off Life, Ferocious Quarterly, Autsáider comics, Sunk Art Mag, and more.

In her course, Creation of Comics with Manga Studio (Clip Studio Paint), Ana will teach you how to draw in Clip Studio Paint (version 1.4.4), creating a short comic story ready for submission or publication.

8. Monochrome, powerful visual messages by Charles Glaubitz

Charles Glaubitz’s (@mrglaubitz) work reminds us that adding light and shadows in your drawings is crucial for achieving contrast and visual impact, immersing the reader even when the world is very abstract or strange.

The artist and comics creator (Once Upon a Time in Tijuana and Starseeds) explores the possibilities of his ideas in double spreads, playing with the narration and achieving fluidity between each scene. You can study his methods in the course Narrative Techniques for Graphic Novels.

9. Naivete and colorful crayons, by María Luque

Cartoonist María Luque’s (@mariajluque) style is fresh and childlike, for a spontaneous-seeming result that is actually carefully constructed. The strip below comes from her prize-winning graphic novel Transparent House, which moves around Argentina inspired by her time house-sitting.

In her course Creation and Development of Graphic Novels, she will teach you to control the creation and organization aspects that longer comic projects require.

10. The classic funny comic strip, by Liniers

A short comic strip is constructed around a joke with a build-up and a punchline, which commonly appears in the final panel, twisting or mocking the reader’s initial assumptions.

Making the reader laugh through one of his comics is the daily bread of Argentine cartoonist Ricardo Liniers Siri, better known as Liniers (@porliniers). With more than 17 years of experience illustrating daily cartoons, few know this artform better! He shares many secrets to surprise and entertain your reader in his course, Graphic Humor: Give Us our Daily Comic Strip.

11. Comics for young readers by Mariana Ruiz Johnson

Children’s stories call for exciting narration, meaningful messages, and of course an eye-catching illustrative style to engage the imagination. Mariana Ruiz Johnson (@marianitarj) is an expert in the transportive medium of children’s illustration, and teaches the course Illustrated Vignettes: Stories That Go Beyond the Screen, which combines traditional and digital drawing.

Veo Veo is a children’s book featuring a funny rabbit character, told through just blues and oranges, with textured 2D illustration, which you can view more of in Mariana’s projects.

12. Fierce female superheroes by Marcio Takara

Gone are the days when female comic characters only appeared as sidekicks or love interests. Nowadays, a new breed of female characters and superheroes are taking the comic book world by storm. In his course on Female Character Design for Comics, Marvel and DC illustrator Marcio Takara (@marciotakara) teaches how to use action lines, volume, anatomy skills, and more to create expressive female characters.

House of Whispers is a Sandman Universe comic published by DC, with Marcio’s cover below appearing on issue 16. Note how the use of color suggests emotional intensity, and the smoke-like hair giving a sense of enchantment.

13. Personal experiences illustrated by Miguel Gallardo

Everyone here at Domestika was deeply saddened to learn of acclaimed illustrator Miguel Gallardo’s passing away in 2022. The Spanish cartoonist expertly united autobiographical stories with an observational, playful style that stood the test of time. The page below comes from Maria is 20 Years Old, his second graphic novel about his autistic daughter, Maria.

14. Crafting a fantasy world by Gabriel Rodríguez

The dramatic scene below is from graphic novel ONYX by Gabriel Rodríguez (@gr_comics), who has also collaborated with Marvel and DC Comics. In his course, Capturing Stories in Fantasy Comics, you will design the world in which your story unfolds, through a creative and investigative process.

ONYX tells the stories of a cyborg warrior who comes to Earth to battle a virus—but is she really here to save humanity?

15. Inverting stereotypes with Natalia Batista

Manga artist Natalia Batista (@nataliasmanga) has published comics across Europe and the US, and she owns her own publishing company that has received international recognition. Her work is typified by feminist themes that often place women characters in positions or power, or rising to it. In her course, Manga Comics for Beginners: From Concept to Creation, she teaches the manga writing process from initial concept to the finished comic.

The below page comes from the manga comic Runebound, where women train to become Valkyries with the support of a male træl from which they draw power.

16. Depicting chaos and action with Sam Hart

Comic book artist Sam Hart’s (@samhart) passion for creating alternative universes has seen him draw iconic characters including Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Judge Dredd. In his course, Visual Narrative for Comic Books, he shares his expertise in combining the visual with the textual to craft compelling stories filled with emotion.

The double-spread shown below comes from Sam’s personal comic project, 10 Lost Days. Even in black and white, there’s a strong sense of struggle and chaos. You can view more spreads from this story in Sam’s projects.

17. Creating a shared language for projects with Chip Kidd

Although they say “never judge a book by its cover”, a great book cover design has the power to grab our attention from the shelf. With widely recognized cover designs like the iconic Jurassic Park, Chip Kidd (@chip_kidd) has been creating iconic designs for more than three decades, and teaches a course on Comic Book Cover Design here at Domestika.

Below is a great example of Chip’s conceptual thinking: a cover collection with shared visual language. Drawing from key colors and suit design, in these covers for Spiderman, Wolverine, and Spiderwoman even simple shapes do a lot of communication!

18. Exploring reactions via dynamic compositions with Kenny Ruiz

We return to the world of manga one last time with illustrator and author Kenny Ruiz (@kennyruiz). His seemingly endless list of projects includes El Cazador de Rayos and Barcelona with Paquet publishers, and the series Dos Espadas with Norma Comics. In his course, Manga Comics: Narrative, Rhythm, and Composition, Kenny teaches you to plan your first chapter and complete two pages with professional techniques using Clip Studio Paint.

The below montage page from Dos Espadas demonstrates how character reactions and key movements can be set against each other and overlapped in comics, to enhance the pacing and impact of a big moment. Learn more about the project here.

Turn your stories into comics with these resources

Reference material is a great spark for your creativity, opening your mind to new possibilities within the comic genre. Got your sketchbook ready and keen to turn your inspiration into a page-turning comic readers will love? Discover our range of online comic drawing and writing courses taught by professional artists and writers. And for more inspiration, check out these further resources…

1. Study the history of Batman comic book covers with Chip Kidd.

2. Get these top five cartooning books that will help you develop characters.

3. Improve your anatomical knowledge with these ten free tutorials to draw the human body.

English version by @acesarato. Updated by @lauren_duplessis.