I chose a simple narrative for my comic; Fred the Fish spending his hours in the vast ocean searching for shining relics to collect. The two comics are drastically different apart from the basic character design, as the introduction of color in the digital version brings out the story in a more descriptive manner. It’s much easier for myself to create digital art as I have more experience with programming and Photoshop than I do with pen and paper. I made better use of the spatial aspect in my digital comic and obviously put more effort into the details. I wanted to keep it simplistic but descriptive with only having 4 panels. In the end, I decided to change a few smaller aspects in the digital version such as not including the ‘backpack’ that is present in the final frame of the drawn version. It didn’t fit the narrative without personifying Fred the Fish.

Hand Drawn Comic – Fred the Fish

I decided to avoid text in my comic. I not only wanted to avoid personifying Fred but also wanted the reader to decide what the fish’s motives were. It would be boring if I had narrated the scenes and told the reader exactly what was going on. Text is an integral aspect of comics and while it is not present in these two adaptations of my comic, future works will definitely include text and many other aspects as my knowledge of comics grows throughout my semester in DTC 201.

Digital Comic Adaptation – Fred the Fish

The first chapter of Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” may not have directly influenced my piece, but what he talks about is present in my pre-set understanding of what a comic is. It has a directional flow, distinct panels, is meant to read left to right and a style of art that is true to me. Scott’s definition of what is a comic is broad and allows the artist to have freedom with their works, as any art form should be. While I may have started the semester with a dislike towards comics, I hope this class and my time creating them may change my perspective.