Can you draw a comic page without any story?

[Puck]

Just out of interest, would that be possible for you?
I did that a couple of times and it is a fun experience and was way easier
for me then thinking of a story before.
I´m making one right now with quick sketches I did today and then
I put them together like a puzzle and create a story.
This is an example page that I did without a story

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Do you mean without any story or without any dialog? There seems to be a story happening here even with blank text bubbles. It’s an interesting exercise though. There are a few really great silent comics on tapas that only drive the plot forward with images and zero text. Here is a great example of a beautiful comic where something happens in every update. But no one ever talks.

The Crossing | Tapas

[Puck]

I first drew panel 6, then 5 and so on to panel 1 and I didn´t have anything in mind when I had the first 2 panels.
Sometimes I start with only a very basic idea but something else developes out of it because of the pictures that
I randomly draw. Yes, it´s meant as a fun excersice. Another good excersice is to start with one random picture
and base the whole page on it. I also do that because I´m not able to write stories and have no writer to work
together with

[Caro]

Yes this is actually something I do almost daily as a sorta warmup. I don’t really puzzle it in together though but thats a really lovely idea. I just start drawing figures in spaces doing things and then it comes together in the end.

Also I really really love your page!!

[Phantomlight]

Oh, you mean kind of a challenge for oneself, like fill in the blank sort of? It's an interesting exercise. I think there are similar threads about ideas similar in nature to this idea. There was someone who was having trouble making less diverse looking characters and they'd just create random shapes and fill out a character design like that. I love these kinds of challenges/exercises, but I haven't gotten around to making something...

[Puck]

That´s great to hear that you are doing this too. I think it´s a good way to be productive without wasting time thinking, looking for references etc and then
not draw anything.
I will do that more too because I really want to work on my composition skills, inking, coloring and the ability to finish a page.
That´s a really nice compliment, thanks a lot, this made my day <3

[Puck]

I do it a lot with faces, that´s also a faster excercise and the most fun, I love everything that has to do with creativity and imagination

[Puck]

By the way, I think that many Marvel/DC people kind of draw pages without a story or a very basic story. I read some books
with superheroes and villains fighting and flying over several pages, I read it multiple times and nothing was explained and
I don´t think there was any reason except the artist wanted to draw muscular men flying around in front of backgrounds
in perspective

[Phantomlight]

To be honest, I think I've made episodes of my comic in two different ways:

First dialogue then create drawings that would suit that dialogue. And then my other method because sometimes I just like to draw first. I draw panels while the dialogue kind of develops either while drawing or after drawing...I think the second method is kind of similar to this that you're describing but my comic has an overall story so it doesn't fit the bill completely. I don't think I've ever just made or found a random blank panel/page (that doesn't connect to anything) and just challenged myself to make-up a story about it. It's interesting though, so like I said, I kind of want to try ^^

Both methods work for me, actually, it's kind of fun to create the comic with different methods. I think I've also seen a creator do this for their fans, offer a panel that has bubbles of dialogue to their fans and see what dialogue they come up with. It's usually funny but it can be a bit dangerous considering how the internet is xD

[Puck]

I love to hear different approaches of creation.
I think I let my brother come up with some dialogues for my next page

[alextsarace]

Did random out of story page once for contest. It's an interesting thing, especially when you're in your art block and can't come up with ideas. Also cool for warm ups.

[Puck]

I suffer from overthinking everything so this really helps me

[Puck]

I did this with today´s urban sketching, I try to do everything with a time limit so this took me two
hours so far, I try to finish the page tomorrow morning

[edicoesgorilase]

Oh, I do believe that a good comic should work with word ballons and without them. It is a practice that I try to do in my work. And its fun because I think first on the visuals and only after that, the text,.

SWEET WIND

[rajillustration]

I did this once where it's a theme and not a story. Just a comic page because I like how it looks.

[ble]

You clearly have not seen those "comics" a couple of years ago in webtoons, that were just drawing/photos of food.

[Puck]

A few years ago I didn´t know that there is something like a webtoon

[Puck]

This came out in the end.
4 hours including every step, sketching, pencils, inks, coloring.
Not happy with the page but I´m more than happy that I finished it in the time limit
and I think that´s a good way to get better and I already know what I´ll do different
next week

[skippyjoeskilling]

I've done this in art classes - everyone in the class draws a fe panels and then you shuffle them around and make a whole new random page. Really funny to see how your brain will kinda create a coherent storyline out of nonsense.

Also you should check out Five Card Nancy. Kind of plays with those same ideas.
http://www.scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/nancy/index.html

[Puck]

Thanks for that, I´m reading that right now