Foldy Comics
Make a dynamic five-page zine with a single sheet of paper and no staples!
My collection of constrained comics, Six Treasures of the Spiral: Comics Formed Under Pressure, is now officially in stores!!
Publishers Weekly just gave it a starred review, calling it “an instant classic.” (Read the whole review here.)
The Foldy Comic
Here’s a simple and novel approach to making a minicomic or zine that I recently introduced to a group of design students at Drexel University, where I’m a Rankin Scholar this fall as part of the Philly Comics Now show at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery.
“The Five-Page Folded Minicomic” was first developed and promoted by cartoonist Kenan Rubenstein in the late 20th Century. Jessica and I incorporated it into our teaching at the School of Visual Arts back in the 00s.
The “foldy comic,” as I like to call it, is a one-person affair that teaches you a lot about the book form as a storytelling tool because it incorporates folding and changing size and orientation (portrait v. landscape) as well as straightforward cartooning (or graphic design, or poetry, or whatever you want to use it for.
The idea is that you fold a single sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” copy paper four times so that you end up with a little booklet of 2 1/8″ x 2 3/4″:
That smallest size is your cover.
When you open it, it doubles in size and you can draw two panels or a wide splash panel.
Open it again and you get a tall page (classic minicomic size, for those of you who think that way).
Open once again and you get a landscape, half-page canvas to work with.
Then you open up the sheet all the way to reveal the complete second side of the sheet, which could be anything from a splash-page to a dense, Chris Ware-inspired diagram.
Note that when it is folded up, there is one “extra” page, the back cover. This is a perfect space to put your name and any info you want to share to help people find you if they like your work.
As an artist, you need to reckon with the various constraints of this form and make them work in your favor to tell a story. Often, the unusual format will in part inform the content: what kinds of stories are prompted by the act of unfolding and/or the phenomena of doubling in size and teetering between vertical and horizontal?
Incidentally, this is also a good assignment to teach scanning and layout skills since you need to be able to straighten the images and make two files (in Photoshop, InDesign, or other programs) that can be printed double-sided so that the folds line up with the art.
Here’s one by a former student of mine, Sean Newman (SVA ’13), formatted for viewing on line. Note that he tweaked the format going into this by having his book start with a horizontal layout (easily understood by the orientation of the title):
Give It a Try!
The Foldy Comic is a fun activity that requires minimal materials to get started:
8 1/2” x 11” copy paper
pencils
erasers
bone folder (optional)
To make a finished and printed foldy you will need more tools, depending on your set-up:
drawing paper
pen and ink
tablet with drawing program
scanner or photocopier
printer that can print two-sided
Download my two-sided flyer here — feel free to share or use for your own classroom or comics workshop.
The basic steps are these:
practice folding a blank sheet of paper following the diagram
lightly pencil in the numbers of the pages, then unfold your sheet of paper: this is your dummy
think about stories or situations that might involve something growing or moving through space or time
pencil in your story on your dummy (don’t use pen at this point), paying attention to the orientation of the different pages
put a title on the front cover and put your name and some kind of contact on the back
test-read your foldy a few times. If you’re in a group, show them around and ask for feedback
When you’re happy with your story, make your final art. This might mean:
inking directly on the dummy (though be careful of ink bleeding through)
copying your art on to two separate sheets of copy paper or drawing paper, then take your time polishing the pencils before inking (or using a darker pencil line or whatever you like)
remember to leave a margin around the edges of the sheet and also where the main folds are—you don’t want your art getting cropped off or accidentally wrapping around a fold
scan or photograph your dummy and import it into a drawing program of your choice
Make a test print, either on a photocopier or by printing out a scan or a digital file.
making a 2-page pdf of your art is a good way to make it easy for printers to understand
you may need to switch the orientation of the second page, either in your pdf of in the printer settings
fold your comic and give it a test read
If everything checks out, print enough to share with your friends and collaborators!
As always, I’d love to see your work if you make one of these.
And remember that with a paid subscription you can share it with me in my Chat or in one of my periodic group Zooms (planning one this Saturday the 23rd!)
Thanks for reading. If you’re not already using the Substack site or app, I recommend it:
Paid subscribers will be hearing from me soon about our next Zoom meet-up.
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll share this post if you enjoyed it and feel free to comment about our interview or any of my “Three Things.” See you soon.
Love (un)foldy comics!