Freestyle Jam: A traditional comic Jam, where the narrative is started by one artist who draws a panel or page, passing it on to another to continue the narrative by adding the next panel or page, this goes on till the narrative is completed. Controlled or Orchestrated Jam: One person acts as a conductor or editor, as each panel is finished, the conductor decides (based on what the last participant added to the narrative) who should add the next panel. Ideally the conductor would be someone with fairly extensive knowledge of the artists/writers involved and their work, allowing them to anticipate what sort of tone or direction the narrative will be taken and choose accordingly. An Orchestrated jam is a good way to avoid the more scatological tendencies of many Jams if that is your desire. The conductor can set boundaries, limitations and themes that participants must work within, and if a panel fails to follow the guides it's reasonable in an Orchestrated jam to cut the panel to preserve the intent and Integrity of the whole. Also if the conductor is a strong story teller themselves, they can step in at any point a do a panel designed to tie up loose bits, direct the story towards a desired goal, or simply to add their own two cents. Pre Scripted Jam: A comic jam where the artists collectively illustrate a pre-plotted or scripted narrative. This is an ideal way to structure a collective project. For example you will be able to attract a wide verity of collaborators if you choose a well know source material, say like the bible? Around witch you can build your Jam. Exquisite Corpse: A comic Jam where the participants are some how (partly or completely) blinded to the existing narrative completed so far, creating with only the minimum amount of information from the previous panels or pages. Example: the text or contents of the word balloons is revealed but not the art. Or the last panel before theirs is all that is shown to them. The most common form of Exquisite Corpse is a single image, often of a person/creature or scene drawn by folding a sheet of paper in three or more sections, each artist draws their section with the previously drawn ones folded back so all they can see is the ends of the lines drawn by the previous artist. The end results vary but when well executed you get a wildly trippy page of art. The Exquisite Corpse was invented by the surrealists. Multiple Path Jam: After the first and second panels have been drawn the following artist can choose to draw in direct sequential order or can branch off from the current story, allowing another artist to continue the existing narrative. Using an existing element from the first or second panels or from any of the following panels or pages the participant can create secondary (or more!) story lines that other artist can continue. A truly masterful Multie Path Jam will then come to a single ending tying all the branch stories together. This style of jam requires a large area to work on to allow for it's branching structures and is heavily reliant on graphic elements like arrows, tails and 'snakes and ladders' to indicate the narrative flow. At Scottmccloud.com, CHOOSE YOUR OWN CARL is a quintessential example of a Multiple Path Jam, in this case drawn by one artist but written by many participants. But a Multiple Path Jam could be conducted freestyle, controlled, or even done as a Exquisite Corpse. The possibilities are endless! Casted script: A script (written for a Pre Scripted Jam or one artist) divided amongst a team of writers, each assigned the part of either one of the characters, a state of mind (conscious vrs unconsciousness), or emotion, or any other division. Each writer would then write in response to the previous writers solo; or in collaboration when their respective elements need to interact. This could be hung on a Pre existing plot outline or done Freestyle.
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