Make a Comic Strip with Circles and Triangles
A classroom warm-up that turned into a new form
5Circle3Triangle: an Abstract Comic Strip Form
I’d like to quickly share with you a comics constraint I came up with on the fly but which I find I keep coming back to.
The concept is very simple: make a comic strip using five circles and three triangles as your only visual material. The number of panels and whether or not they have borders is up to you:
I came up with this a few minutes before teaching a session of my constrained comics class, Build Your Own Labyrinth, at SAW (save the date: new iteration starting April 5!!). I like to start each class with a warm-up comic and I thought this would be a quick way to experiment with abstract comics in the context of rules and constraints.
Here’s what I dashed off that first day:
It went over well as an exercise and has become part of my regular syllabus. Here are a couple of student examples that show how varied the results can be in their degree of abstraction and in the way people play with the rules of comics—though in this case I gave them a 3-panel template to start from:
I have recently decided to make these strips part of my regular practice. They really are great for warming up: quick and just challenging enough not to be rote exercises.
I’ve also been using them as an excuse to draw more on my iPad: the majority of mine are drawn in Procreate, trying out a few different nib styles and making liberal use of the ability to “snap” into geometric shapes. (Part of me feels like I’m cheating while the other acknowledges that this is just the latest evolution in circle templates and French curves.)
I’ve been curious about abstract comics for a long time but I’ve never quite found a way in. This basic constraint has given me the tools to explore this non-narrative, non-figurative aspect of comics (though of course, readers can always find people and stories in shapes).
Once again, I am reminded that challenging yourself even with the most basic building blocks—shapes, lines, the letters of the alphabet—will push you in surprising new directions.
I’ve started to think of “5Circle3Triangle” as a fixed form, like a haiku. I keep finding new things to say with its very modest materials. The strips interact as well, acting as variations on a theme …or maybe exercises in style.
Give It a Try!
A “5Circle3Triangle” comic strip it’s really quite straightforward:
Pencil a rectangle roughly the dimensions of a common daily comic strip. Say 2” x 6”. If you like you can download a pdf of the 3-panel strip I made for my students here.
Without overthinking it, imagine a way these eight shapes might interact over a series of panels: are they moving through a space? Are they simply arrayed in relation to each other? Are they all the same size? Do they overlap?
Decide how many panels you want to use (often 3-4 but it’s up to you) and sketch them in.
Draw in your circles and triangles however you like (digitally, freehand, using a template and ruler) and then draw the final panel borders.
Erase pencils or turn off working layers and you’re done!
alternate version
You don’t have to stick to five circles and three triangles. Come up with your own shapes and numbers. Use collage, use color. But keep the number of elements limited and relatively simple.
If you make an abstract comic strip, please share it with me or tag me in Substack Notes, Instagram (where I am @mmaddencomics), or wherever it is you like to share your work.
A major influence on this series is an Brazilian art book called 12 x 9, a collection of playful, quasi-abstract 9-panel comics drawn by the artist and poet Álvaro de Sá in 1967:
He was part of a short-lived movement called poema/processo that, as I understand it, combined concrete poetry, Fluxus-like happenings, and the anti-dictatorship counterculture of the time.
Another influence is my friend Andrei Molotiu, who edited the seminal (yet out of print) Abstract Comics anthology back in 2009 (anthologies again!). He invited me to participate at the time and though I didn’t manage to come up with anything, he has continued to encourage me (and many others) to explore this domain over the years.
Andrei has come up with his own short, abstract comics form that is a bit more involved than my offering here. I’ve been playing around with it and will talk about it in a future post.
Lastly, a reminder that my collection of constrained comics, Six Treasures of the Spiral: Comics Formed Under Pressure, is now in stores!!
Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and called it “an instant classic.” (Read the whole review here.)
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll share this post if you enjoyed it and feel free to leave a comment. See you soon!
I often compare comics to poetry, and I think its origin might be being in contact with this period of Brazilian concrete poetry back in high school.
Merci, je vais l'essayer avec des élèves qui ne sont pas à l'aise avec l'écriture et le dessin pour débloquer le récit ! donc merci ! j'essayerais aussi de partager leurs travaux si ils sont d'accord ...