The basic.

Looking back at the workshops we did this year, I realized how much potential comic book artists we have if we can just push the right buttons.

If you look at the pictures above, taken from our last workshop in Brasilia, you'll notice how basic are the drawings. This is the kind of class we like to give, stripping the craft to the bare bones of the creation of comics: how do we tell a story mixing images and words? How do we lead the reader's eye through the panel, through the page and into the next? How do you write your dialogues, your narration and your thought balloons (these poor forgotten tools) and how you lay them on the page to help the flow of the story?

Creating a comic book is not about how well you draw, it's how well you tell the story. And all you need to tell the story is the right understanding of the tools you have.

The best aspect to this "back to the basic" workshops is how they help both the aspiring writers and the aspiring writers. You have to think about the pictures to write, and you have to think about the words to draw.