Diary Comic

Days Four and Five

Creating diary comics is such an interesting switch in writing strips. Normally I do a weekly strip, featuring silly but lovable (hopefully) characters with a main character (me, as a “witness”) who takes it all in. In doing diary comics, however, I got a lot more personal, and experimented with the first person voice-over narration.

It changed the strategy, tone, and pacing of each strip. As a result, to create a joke or a gag, I had to take a slightly different approach, and make sure that the text and image were being presented to the reader in the right order, and that my “voice-over” wasn’t being to0 explicit or giving away the joke too early. Additionally, some of the strips weren’t trying to be funny at all; rather, they were meant to be a little reflective, a little meditative. Which was entirely new, but very exciting. But I still managed to get some goofiness in.

I did seven days’ worth, then I drew an eighth for my own website (pictured below) that possessed the diary comic feel, because I had become so enamored of the style. It’s so worthwhile, as is anything that might get me thinking about comics, and my own comic strip, in a different light. Any new tool is a good tool. And I’ll take whatever help I can get!

link to website: northeastlynx.com