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The article focuses the designing of characters in comics from the perspective of Art Education. Selected examples help to understand fundamental aspects of drawing, reading and understanding comics, where character design oscillates between simplification and differentiation. The tension and the range of possibilities between simplification and differentiation influences the interplay of form and content and the narrative qualities. How characters are embedded in a comic narrative can be seen as both a specific potential and challenge of working with comics as a medium. The article shows examples of comic character design inspired by personal experiences with students in school and higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to determine narrative moments in comics, both from an analytical and a didactic perspective, the main focus is usually on its sequentiality. In doing so, it is easy to overlook the fact that the comic page itself is structured by its layout like a coherent picture. In this coherent pictoral unit the panels are designed and composed in a distinct way. This article delivers a poietic perspective on conventionalized ways of page design as well as the compositional knowledge and skills that go along with it. From this point of view further conclusions are drawn with regard to comics as a subject in art classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]