That Thing Animals Do
Learn about core character traits by making silly animal comics
I’ve been commissioned by the Sydney Opera House to create and run a workshop that will coincide with the Dog Man Musical this April. The idea is, after kids go and see the show, they can come to this workshop and make their own comics with me. And I’m so psyched for it!
This exercise was inspired by Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man comics, which I genuinely think are brilliant.
That Thing Animals Do
What you need:
Post-It Notes
Paper
Pen or pencil
A love for animals because you are not a monster
Instructions:
Brainstorm a few different animals:
Three animals you love.
Three animals you dislike (or maybe just… don’t love as much).
Three animals you know well.Design a few characters that are part person and part animal. You can combine them however you want, but an easy way to do it is simply use a human body and add the head of your chosen animal.
Pick one or two of the more successful characters and write down the animal’s core traits, habits, and behaviors.
For example, if your animal is a bird, you might write that they sleep in a nest, eat bugs, lay eggs, fly, perch on telephone wires, fly into windows, etc…Now, try to think of some mundane, human situations you could put your animal character in where their core traits and behaviors would seem odd or get them in trouble.
For example, if you have a bird character, perhaps they are chatting to a friend and walk into a glass wall, or maybe their friend sees a spider and freaks out but their reaction is to eat it, or perhaps they lay an egg in the staff room, or they chew up food and spit it into their baby’s mouth at their mother’s group, or… you get the idea.
Tip: Try to set up your fairly “normal” situation before you let their animal qualities make things weird! If you want to end up somewhere in a story, it’s best to start in the opposite place.
Example 3
Example 4
Thoughts:
Do you remember those scenes in Wes Anderson’s film, Fantastic Mr Fox, where the animals would be sitting around a table chatting or giving a toast like civilized people and then, as soon as it was time to eat, they devoured their food like wild animals?
Well, I do.
And it was THE BEST!
That contrast in behavior is so fun and funny and satisfying! Dog Man does that a lot, and I love that as well.
I’ll be running the workshops at the Opera House with Marieka Walsh, Evie Hilliar and Remi-Rose Evans, all of whom are amazing. If you are in Sydney and interested in signing up (or signing up your kids) you can do that here.
Love you all.
And if you end up doing this exercise, I’d love it if you would share the results! I’m keen to see what people make.
xo
f
Very useful tip. 😊
love these!