Making Comics—Week 10

Reflections on Week Ten of working through Lynda Barry's Making Comics

"The past is in constant motion. Some say a memory changes each time we remember it—giving the impression that a memory degrades over time—but what exactly is degrading? ‘What really happened’ is never a fixed state. The significance of any element changes depending on when we’re recalling it, why we are recalling it, and who we are recounting it to. The past is in constant motion." (Lynda Barry, Making Comics)

(Note: This post is part of a 2025 read-along of Making Comics for those interested in drawing comics, loosening up their drawing, building creative habit, and working through this book by Lynda Barry. Illustrated Life has a mix of illustrated journaling, bookish things, and weekly “Sunday posts.” You are probably here for those. If you stumbled here, I would start there. Thanks!)

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Reflections on Week Ten

Wow! It feels like it has been a long time since we’ve checked in! The chat has been pretty quiet. I get the sense that as we’ve reached this part of the book, nearing the end, most people have dropped off and out.

It’s okay. I know it’s hard to keep up the momentum. Maybe I could have done something better? I’m not sure.

I appreciate those of you who have been sharing your exercises, and I know I’ve seen at least one fairy tale in progress, which is fantastic. I know some of you really want sequential art, comics in some form, to be a part of your daily creative habit and a part of your storytelling.

I’m with you. Yes to both.

Even if that isn’t your ultimate goal, I hope that you have found yourself loosening up as you’ve explored making comics over the last few months with Making Comics as a framework.

Fairy Tale and Daily Diary

The fairy tale retelling was the longest thing we’ve done so far. I did Little Red Riding Hood, which is related to some other (non-comics) work I’ve been doing, so it was a nice story to focus on.

It was also a challenge!

I didn’t plot the panels the way I probably should have, and I ended up not fitting the whole story in twelve, but that’s okay. I was more interested in trying to both carry the narrative and shift the angle and perspective along the way. There’s obviously a lot more I could have done if I wanted to really do a finished comic art version of this story!

I hope you enjoyed working with a fairy tale, too.

I enjoyed being tasked with copying someone’s work to get a feel for their line. This can be such good practice, and I think I typically shy away from doing this because I don’t want to imitate someone’s style. I found it a good exercise and one I think we should do with a range of comic artists we enjoy to get a really wide feel for how lines and bodies work. I encourage you to do it again and again as you explore, especially if you find you are having trouble with bodies or even elements of the scene, like interiors or perspective. Look at how others do it and try drawing recreating some of their panels as a way of better understanding how things fit. Just be sure to note who you are modeling the work after so that it’s always clear.

For me, the practice of capturing panels each day and just settling into doing that and exploring how I do that (even if it means drawing the same thing each day) is really important right now. I am continuing to make that a priority. That wouldn’t have happened without this read-along group, so thank you. My sense of responsibility to “show up” each week with my notes and examples has been a motivating factor. It might also not have happened had I not gotten sick along the way and shifted to digital, which is the right fit for me right now.

(Depending on where you are in your art journey, you may have “feelings” about digital work. You may find your perspective changes somewhere along the way, or not. Just note that working on paper or digital is a choice everyone can make, and you can go back and forth throughout your journey with comics. Nothing is set in stone.)

Week 11 Schedule

For next week:

1. Exercise: Basic X-Page (p 144). You’ve used this structure already, but this is a “neighbors” example that she frequently has students do. (See the video below.) There is no “drawing” part to this exercise.

2. Exercise: Drawing a Life (p 152). We did a version of this earlier in the book with monsters. You can decide if you want to do it again. This exercise returns to the Character Jam exercise to choose a character to draw at the points in life indicated.

3. Exercise: The Walk (p 156). This is the biggest exercise for this week. You’ll do an X-page to gather details and then document a walk with a series of drawings. The examples are visually exciting. Follow the directions and have fun with it!

A note on the final weeks: The remainder of the book contains longish exercises. This section is, overall, a bit more disjointed than the rest of the book, but these exercises offer techniques, structures, and tools you can try. I’ve mapped out the assignments for weeks 11-13 to finish the book. That means there will be two more weekly schedules after this one to wrap up the book.

Given that many of these are exercises I expect people will choose not to do, I won’t be extending the timelines. I’ll just post each weekly schedule, and people are welcome to share what they do from each week.

If you started the book, I encourage you to at least read the rest of the book. I hope you might be drawing a panel or two during the week that you weren’t drawing before, too.

I might read through a Scott McCloud after this. I have at least one on my shelf that I have flipped through before but never read start-to-finish.

To Watch

From the Week(s)

A few examples of diary comics from recent weeks. This is just me being accountable to my own reading of the book and practice.

Assorted diary comic pages from the last two weeks. A. Cowen 2025

How did the week go for you?

If you would like to share any of your work from the last two weeks, head to the chat!

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General info for anyone finding this read-along for the first time:

Read-Along Format

All posts can be found here.

This is casual read-along, but some structure will keep us all moving forward together.

Each week we will have a set of pages to read and exercises from those pages to do. At the end of the week, I will post some form of reflection here on the week because that is how I will best work through this book. We can then discuss the week in the comments and share exercises/work in the chat (because the comments don’t allow attachments). I’m running the weeks as Wednesday-Thursday, hoping to post my reflections late Wednesday and have our discussion/chat start on Thursday. So every Thursday starts a new week of reading/exercises.

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This read-along is part of Illustrated Life. Thank you for reading. Writers need readers, and I am grateful for every reader!

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Quoted sections are by Lynda Barry from Making Comics unless otherwise noted.

Unless otherwise noted, all images in this post are ©️ A. Cowen. All rights reserved.

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