I Created a Comic!
—and a Peek into Panel-to-Panel Transitions in Comics
I just finished creating a comic! And here it is!! And I’m obviously excited because I keep using exclamation points!!!
Why am I so excited? Because almost all the comics I’ve created have been panel art* and this one is sequential art**—a rare beast for me. What’s the difference? I’m glad you asked! 😁
*Panel Art (Aspect-to-Aspect Comics)
In my previous posts (such as Seasonal Produce & Seasonal Baking...and the Origin Story of my Panel Art) I’ve shared my panel art, in which I combine various aspects of a specific time and/or place into one piece of art, drawing each aspect or subject in a separate panel. As a refresher, panels are single subjects or scenes with frames (often squares or rectangles) with black borders.
In Scott McCloud’s book Understanding Comics, he describes what I call panel art as a comic that uses an “aspect-to-aspect” transition from panel-to-panel. In these, each panel shows one aspect of an overall scene. For example, each of the 8 panels in my Rose Canyon panel art shows a different aspect of what I enjoyed during a visit to Rose Canyon: pine trees, pine cones & needles, insects, birdsong, wildflowers, lichen, fungi and ferns.
**Sequential Art (Moment-to-Moment or Action-to-Action Comics)
McCloud describes other types of panel transitions in comics including “moment-to-moment” and “action-to-action” transitions. In these types of comics, the panels are placed in a specific order so that each panel shows a subsequent moment in time or action—like my November 2024 comic above. This type of comic is also called sequential art, because it shows a sequence of events.
I looked in my archives 😊 for examples of sequential comics and can count on one hand (not even using all my fingers!) the number of pieces of sequential art I found.
The earliest example I found is this sketchnote from 2018 in which I described a day flying from Tucson to Washington, D.C.
In 2019 I created another travel-related sketchnote:
Also in 2019, I created my Watercolor I Class comic, in which I employed both aspect-to-aspect and moment-to-moment transitions—wowza! 😉
Earlier today I attended a webinar at which Terry Tempest Williams spoke, and I was reminded once again of what an awe-inspiring writer, speaker, conservationist, and activist she is. Here’s a quote from her that resonates with me:
"I think we have to stand up against what is unacceptable, and to push the boundaries and reclaim a more humane way of being in the world, so that we can extend our compassionate intelligence and begin to work with a strengthened will and imagination that can take us into the future."
- Terry Tempest Williams
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This was lots of fun! Love the eyes in the night cartoon panel and the thoughtful information about cartooning itself. Also, following the links to find more panels you’ve made and especially seeing again your little character on Diving into the world of Watercolor! So simple, so amusing like the eyes in the night. Thanks for the Off the Mark link, too!