These pages are from the second chapter, when the battlefield clash really heats up. I’m posting three pages from my current project, The World War I Web, in order. Is it clear what they are doing on the cover? What information do you see on this rough draft of the cover for THE WORLD WAR I WEB? Look at how I have struggled to find a word to finish the title – what ideas do you get from the word “Web”? Is there a better word to describe the mess of World War I? This will be the first comic to feature both Chester the Crab and my new character, John Lee Otter. A cover must grab a reader’s attention - but not bog them down with too many details up front. The cover of a book is an important first look at the author’s subject. Classes who make real contributions to this story will get signed copies of the final book! I will take all suggestions into consideration before making my final author’s choices on these pages. Now, for once, the students get to be the editor! I’d love to get feedback from teachers and students via email or via a snail mail return of the pages, marked in red.
□ Teachers can print these pages and give them to students to review and correct. (The first is research! When I pick a topic, I love the hunt for information I will use to tell the story the way I want to tell it.) I hope that inviting students into this second step will help classes across the country build their writing skills as they review mine.
The rough drafts you see here are the second step in my Creative Trail.
And I’m inviting any teacher to let their class EDIT these pages to help me make the book better! Here are rough draft pages for another comic I am drawing for release in 2010: THE WORLD WAR I WEB.