Chapter 42: COMICS COVER

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Chapter 41: STORYBOARDS: COMICS IN MOTION

Before I move on to the more serious fundamentals of comics, let me touch briefly on storyboard. What really is a storyboard?

A storyboard is an illustrated story on illustration board; it is also a comic in motion. And comic in motion is a cinematic film in non-motion. Though storyboard is artistic like in comics, it is generally cinematically technical; essentially, it has something to do with series of illustrations utilizing the principles of cinematography, motion and non-motion of characters, foregrounds and backgrounds, lighting, and others through the eye of a camera.

In application, a storyboard is the guide for making a motion picture by a film director who is given the credit of the film after it is done. And the poor storyboard artist ends up with his eyes and mouth wide open as he marvels at the “genius” of the film director who takes the credit of the results of his creative storyboard works. Bluntly, the storyboard artist is the off-scene director that is directing the film director; in other words, the storyboard artist is the real film maker and the unseen “puppet master” of the film director, hehehe.

The following is the storyboard of the song “The Wings of a Dream” from the animated movie “Scarecrow,” start from the above three first panels.