The Creator's Guide to Comics Devices is OPEN!!!
comicsdevices.com
An online library of visual-narrative devices that are used in the medium of comics and other sequential art.
Happy Halloween! I'm really excited to be finally launching* what is maybe one of my most ambitious, largest work yet.
This online library is the next phase of a research project that began in May 2020, when I first mused on how comics as a field doesn't have a resource that catalogues devices used in the medium. Like, theatre has devices, so does literature, and film! So why shouldn't comics?
I always had an interest in comics studies and analysis. I love reading, making and thinking comics. However most of my knowledge was intuitive - I learned comics from osmosis and experience. This is true for many of my peers. Speaking about comics as a creator is hard, because we don't have a robust system of language. When we had to speak, many of us tend to reach for the language developed for film by film practitioners. If there is language specific to comics, it's either scattered in multiple blogs or hidden away in academic journals.
The Comics Devices library is meant to aggregate everything and everybody into a single hub! After exploring some multiple resources, alongside some original, independent research, here is the first edition!
Note: The Comics Devices project is still a work-in-progress! It's not final, nor will it ever be. This is why I am seeking contributors to help build this library. Translations, comics examples, etc. There is a lot of work to do! If you are interested, reply to this post or submit an expression of interest on this page.
Have fun everyone!!
oh my god, i might cry
i've spent so much time trying to teach myself comic-making, cobbling together bits and pieces of info i found online and in books, studying others' comics for interesting panel layouts and the like. as a teen i signed up for a summer course on comic-making at the local college, only for it to be cancelled due to lack of interest...and my own university once offered a similar class, met with a similar fate before i ever had a chance to attend. it was never easy, comics as a storytelling medium are treated as niche.
having a website, a library of knowledge like this, though? this feels like a game-changer; for newer comic artists, and for experienced ones like myself!
