Constrained comics

Constrained comics are comics on which restrictions are intentionally placed.

A similar idea is constrained writing, a style of writing that also features restrictions that are intentionally placed. Using that idea, writers have attempted to do things such as write novels that are palindromes or do not feature the letter "e". Some of these ideas are sorted into their own genres of poetry, such as haiku or sonnet.

Examples

Some notable examples of constrained comics are listed here:

• Gustave Verbeek's The Upside Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo, a comic strip with six panels in each comic strip in which the first half of the story is right-side-up, then the second half of the story is told when the story is turned up-side-down, for a total of twelve panels.
• The Angriest Dog in the World, a comic strip with six panels in each comic strip by David Lynch. The only difference between each comic strip is what the dog says in the first three panels.
• Dinosaur Comics, which uses the same artwork in each comic strip, and only what the characters say to each other changes.
• Watchmen is created with various restrictions, especially the fifth issue, which is called "Fearful Symmetry", which is a palindrome.
• Partially Clips, a comic strip with three panels in each comic strip that uses three identical panels based on clipart.
• The many comics created by the group Oubapo.
• Matt Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story.
• Garfield Minus Garfield, which features Jon Arbuckle without his pet cat Garfield, who is the main character of the original comic strip.

Related pages

• Infinite canvas, a style of comics that, in a way, is the opposite of constrained comics.

Further reading

• Baetens, Jan. Comic Strips and Constrained Writing Archived 2018-04-13 at the Wayback Machine. Image & Narrative. Issue 7. October 2003. Retrieved on 2008-09-24.

Other websites

• Article about constraint on ComixTalk