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As promised last week, today’s strip was partially drawn by my 7-year-old daughter. Last year my son helped with an entire strip , and I promised that I’d give her the same opportunity. So here are the results.

My 9-year-old draws comics all the time. I find Ben and Winslow (and a character named Lawrence that he came up with who wears a red shirt) on the back of his schoolwork and tests. My 7-year-old is the more well-rounded artist. She draws comics, too, but she also draws everything else (and paints, and sculpts, etc.). It’s been fun to watch their artistic styles develop over time.

A lot more planning goes into something like this than any of the strips I do on my own. First, and most importantly: my kids are in on the joke. They know exactly what’s going on in each comic, and they know that the punchline revolves around the fact that a kid drew part of it. For this strip, I drew Ben in each panel (minus a face) and wrote all the dialogue. Then I gave it to my daughter and asked her to draw Winslow in the spaces provided. I didn’t give her any guidance beyond “make sure Winslow has arms by panel three” and “make sure he has an axe at the end.” All of the facial expressions and arm gestures were decided by my daughter based on her interpretation of the dialogue–she even decided to draw that little skull and crossbones above Winslow’s head in the first panel. Once she was done, I added Ben’s face to each panel, matching his expressions to follow along with what my daughter drew. And then we colored!

My kids really enjoy doing these joint comics, but I have to remind them that if we did this all the time, the joke wouldn’t be as funny.

Part 1:

Related:

Reblog on Tumblr here: ak-is-harmless.tumblr.com/post…

This first appeared on Defenestration www.defenestrationmag.net on Friday, January 26th.

Become a fan of Ben & Winslow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Ben-Win…

I'm open for sketch commissions! Check here for more info .

Description

As promised last week, today’s strip was partially drawn by my 7-year-old daughter. Last year my son helped with an entire strip , and I promised that I’d give her the same opportunity. So here are the results.

My 9-year-old draws comics all the time. I find Ben and Winslow (and a character named Lawrence that he came up with who wears a red shirt) on the back of his schoolwork and tests. My 7-year-old is the more well-rounded artist. She draws comics, too, but she also draws everything else (and paints, and sculpts, etc.). It’s been fun to watch their artistic styles develop over time.

A lot more planning goes into something like this than any of the strips I do on my own. First, and most importantly: my kids are in on the joke. They know exactly what’s going on in each comic, and they know that the punchline revolves around the fact that a kid drew part of it. For this strip, I drew Ben in each panel (minus a face) and wrote all the dialogue. Then I gave it to my daughter and asked her to draw Winslow in the spaces provided. I didn’t give her any guidance beyond “make sure Winslow has arms by panel three” and “make sure he has an axe at the end.” All of the facial expressions and arm gestures were decided by my daughter based on her interpretation of the dialogue–she even decided to draw that little skull and crossbones above Winslow’s head in the first panel. Once she was done, I added Ben’s face to each panel, matching his expressions to follow along with what my daughter drew. And then we colored!

My kids really enjoy doing these joint comics, but I have to remind them that if we did this all the time, the joke wouldn’t be as funny.

Part 1:

Related:

Reblog on Tumblr here: ak-is-harmless.tumblr.com/post…

This first appeared on Defenestration www.defenestrationmag.net on Friday, January 26th.

Become a fan of Ben & Winslow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Ben-Win…

I'm open for sketch commissions! Check here for more info .