Comic Tutorial: How to Create a Comic Strip

Learn the dos and don’ts of this deceptively simple art, with cartoonist Jimmy Craig

Comic strips: those little, visual stories that make you laugh, cry, or reel back in horror. They often stick around in your mind long after you first see them, and their short, visual nature makes them ideally suited to the shareable world of social media with many making it to viral status.

You may have even seen a few comic strip memes created by cartoonist Jimmy Craig (@jimmycraig). His simple yet highly effective and laugh-out-loud comic strips have amassed over a million followers across his social media channels. His comic about animals, They Can Talk, was so popular it led to a published book, opportunities with leading animation studios, and a successful greeting card line.

Join Jimmy in this tutorial as he shares with you the dos and don’ts of creating your own comic strip.

How to Create a Comic Strip

Do: Fill your sketchbook with ideas

Scribble down anything and everything that comes to mind. Think of the pages in your book as scrap paper and don’t be afraid to fill it with seemingly random and unimportant thoughts.

Do: Use your sketchbook for inspiration

Look at the scribbles, doodles and comments you’ve made. Your sketchbook is ripe with inspiration for your comic strips, and undoubtedly some of your doodles may form into a more coherent idea.

Do: Remember the rule of three

The first step is to set your scene or exposition. You next want to begin creating a sense of expectation in your reader, and finally finish with a punchline.

Do: Aim to achieve a reaction in your reader

Your punchline is your opportunity to get a reaction from your reader. And a punchline doesn’t necessarily have to be funny: its purpose is to trigger an emotional response.

Do: Make sure your setup is clear

If your beginning isn’t clear to your reader, the rest of your comic strip won’t make sense. For Jimmy, it’s more important for the reader to understand the joke than to find it funny, so avoid overcomplicating your exposition with unnecessary detail.

Don’t: Work ideas out in your head

Your sketchbook is there as an aid: use it to work out ideas for your comic strip, as you may miss creative opportunities if you try and work ideas out in your head.

Don’t: Lose perspective

It’s easy to lose perspective by getting too deep into your comic strip idea, so make sure to take a break every once in a while and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Did you enjoy this tutorial? If you’d like to learn how to develop your own comic strips from start to finish, check out Jimmy Craig’s online course Comic Strip Creation: Illustrating Unique Stories.

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