How Should a Comic Look?

I often try to start writing and drawing a comic. It’s proving rather difficult How does one start? I guess there isn’t really a right way, but it’s seems like a good idea to have a basic idea, maybe some characters and a plot? I have those. But I don’t have an opening frame, and my abilities at drawing backgrounds are terrible.

Guess that shouldn’t matter much. I can live with a lack of backgrounds if the characters are well written. Hell, art that just IS shouldn’t bother anybody, Persepolis and The Rabbi’s Cat proved that.

Thinking about what a story is, I like to consider it like a piece of life and life is like a neverending monologue. So I have to pull out a part of this monologue. A part that feels good to start at and a fitting ending. Which means there is always before and after my story. So beginning at the beginning is not really possibly. Logically, it should be easier to make a story like this:

“There was bear. It was happy. But one day it got sad. And then it died”.

But that isn’t exciting or fun to make. But if I start later:

“—- It was happy. But one day it got sad. Why did the bear get sad? Then it died”.

That sorta changes a lot. The reader is left bewildered in the beginning. What was happy? Why isn’t it anymore?

This is getting my head spinning, so I’ll just post some sketches that kinda show which direction I’m taking or trying to take my comic…

They are quick pencil sketches, shaded with watercolours, then edited in the Gimp very quickly as well.

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