Web Activities

ZITS

Page 425

Comic strips are miniature stories, usually about humourous situations that occur in daily life. They have characters and conflicts typical of the situation in which the characters find themselves. Comic strips are often run as serials, that is, they appear on successive days in daily newspapers. So, the characters tend to remain the same, without much development. Like Charlie Brown in "Peanuts," they keep on repeating the same old mistakes in new ways.

1. View other Zits comic strips and click on the links to read the biographies of the cartoonists and their description of their characters. View other popular comics such as Family Circus, Hi and Lois, and Sherman's Lagoon. Read the biographies and character descriptions for these comic strips too.
   
   
2. Draw up a plan for a comic strip that you might produce. Include the following in your plan:
   • a description of your target audience
   • the situation and setting you will use in your comic strip
   • a description of the main characters that would appear daily
   • the types of conflicts that the characters would face
   • the style of drawing you would use