Comic Strips Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: W.5-6.3

Core Standard

Comic strips are a series of adjacently drawn images that are arranged in a horizontal orientation. They include a section for accompanying dialogue that allow it to be read as a narrative. The series of panels makes a complete story. Traditionally the stories unfold a humorous narrative, but they have also been known to serve a serious purpose as well. Comic strips engage readers in an immersive form of media because the narrative is being conveyed in writing and visuals. While caricatures of this kind have been used for over 500 years, the concept really gripped American culture in the early 1900s. This series of worksheets will encourage students to write their own comic strips and immerse themselves in telling visual narratives.

Comic Strips Worksheets To Print:

3 to 2 - This narrative begins with 3 characters and then peels off to 2 of them.

Flower Strips - Frame a narrative between the flower and ladybug in a single frame.

Dialogue - This is the perfect setup for 2 characters over the course of a basic strip sequence.

Big Odds - The second panel indicates a sense of problem or at least deep thinking.

Squares - This is as basic as it gets for students to create everything by themselves.

Ladybug Thoughts - Tell the story of the ladybug and her conversation with her pals.

Hidden Meanings - This allows for a outside and inner narrative to be formed. There is clearly what they say to one another, but also what they are thinking as they say this.

Individual and Groups - The characters think on their own for a while and then present their thoughts to the group.

Tweety - Write the dialogue in this scene with a series of birdies at their birdhouse.

Problem to Solution - This is one of common paths used by comic writers.

Calm Thoughts - Everything flows smoothly in this set.

Wild Outbursts - This is a 6-scene strip with the 5th panel presenting a major situation or outburst.

Talking Squares - This is the traditional flow for most narratives.

Chicken Strips - Put words in the chickens mouth to make this visual story make sense.

2 Scenes - This is a general conservation setup between two characters.

What Are Comic Strips?

Comic strips are a series of drawings that narrate a story in chronological order, typically containing dialogues in speech balloons in the old times. You can usually find them as simple horizontal strips in daily newspapers, while Sunday magazines or comic books mostly present them in an interrupted block or a long sequence.


Origin


People have been using pictures to tell stories since prehistoric times. The paintings carved on cave walls and Egyptian hieroglyphics inside the Great Pyramids prove this claim. However, comic strips became a mass medium only after the invention of printing.


Earlier, this types of thoughts were mostly presented in two forms: a single piece of paper with small images printed on it or several sheets of paper with just one image on each. The themes popular in those times revolved around political and private morality.


'The Yellow Kid' by Richard Fenton Outcalt was the first modern comic strip published in The New York World in 1896. It narrated the story of an aged baby wearing a sack-like yellow garment. The words that the character thought or spoke were printed in text balloons on the yellow garment. It worked as a blueprint for the upcoming comic strips.


The stories in the early strips were usually comedic in nature, hence the name. However, they evolved to include different genres, especially science fiction. Numerous science-fiction heroes were born in the 1930s and 40s, with Superman emerging as the first American superhero of comics. From 1940 to 1945, around 400 superheroes came into existence through pop art. The books themselves later took on numerous layouts and forms.

 

Types of Comic Strips - Let's talk about the kinds of visual narratives that are popular today.

 


Humorous


Humorous comic strips contain funny twists and are usually found in a newspaper's entertainment section or a designated for the comic section.


Editorials


Editorial comics cover serious issues and are placed on the editorial or the front page of a newspaper.


Comic Books


When comic strips are published in newspapers, people have to wait for the next newspaper to find out how the story develops. These types of books were created to reduce the waiting time for the readers. They are a collection of comic strips chronologically compiled in book form. Artists may tell a single story or a series of different stories in the types of books.


Web Comics


Webcomics are increasingly becoming popular because most people are now present on the Internet. These form of media are published on mobile apps or websites. Some previouly printed comics are now available on the internet, too, while some webcomics do not exist in print form at all.


Graphic Novels


Have you heard about graphic novels? They are a complete story presented in a comic format. They are completely different from comic books in terms of length and completeness. These books do not contain the full story, while graphic novels narrate a full story from beginning to end.


All these form are really helpful for engaging students in the process of framing and telling a narrative. I often find introducing students to this form of expression will bring a few of them out of their shell and it will translate to a greatly level of engagement through the remainder of the school year.