Our father gave us the most wonderful gift anyone could have given to us. A gift of life, and yet he is the one guy who is least loved or cared for, may be because he has not been very expressive. On this father’s day, give him the gift of love and gratitude.

Concept

How many times did you tell your father how much you love him; what he means to you, and how much you think about him and about what all he did for you? On this Father’s day, say everything you ever wanted to say through a custom made comic book. This super gift will tell your father what a great father he has been so far!

Storyboard

The process of custom comic book creation begins with writing down the things you want to say to your father. Do not write everything that happened while you were growing up; talk about those situations or incidence when your father played a vital role.

Talk about the walks you took with him as a kid when you visited your grandparents. Tell him how much those walks meant to you, and how those walks and several other chit chats helped you understand your life better. Talk about the birthday gifts he gave you. Talk about the sleepless nights he spent by your bedside when you were ill. Tell him that he was your childhood hero. Tell him how you always imitated him while playing games with friends. Tell him, for you, how important are the time that you spent together? Tell him how much you care for him. Say thank you to your father on this Father’s Day through this personalized gift.

Your comic book can include everything said above, or just one or two incidences that explains how much you care for him, and how much he means to you. This custom gift could be of either 4-6 pages or 12-16 pages, or even more. The thickness of the comic book will essentially depend upon the kind of money you want to spend on this super gift.

Dialogues & Characters

The closer you will get to the end of the previous section, the clearer the storyline will become. Now, it is time to do some dialogue writing. As you know, comics are kind of movie storyboards: a visual storytelling device. Hence, unlike in stories, less and less of narration and more and more interpersonal dialogues are used in a comic book. Before writing dialogues for you and your father, who are in the lead role, you will need to consider the role of minor characters as well, and how many of them will be present in your comic book.

Always remember to keep the dialogue part as natural as you can. The word spoken by the character in your comic book should resemble the actual word spoken in day-to-day life by the people you are personifying in the comic book.

Illustration

Unlike the last two sections, which will be done completely by you, you will need help of professional illustrator to do the next section. You can do the illustration yourself, if you know the art of illustration, and if you are not the illustration type, you can seek help of any professional illustrator. Finding one will not be difficult. Do not forget to check the work experience of the illustrator before giving him the illustration job. Ascertain that he is fluent with illustration software like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, etc. as you will need the illustration in digital format for printing,

You will need to provide your childhood pictures, pictures of your father when you were young as well as the pictures of other characters and of locations in which the story is set to put the comic book in the proper context.

Illustrator will take time to create the comic book. Meanwhile, you can search for the printers. You must see the sample works of different printers before trusting him with the creation of this personalized super gift. You can search the Internet and local business directory for quality printers in your locality. You can also seek help of web-based printing companies to get the comic book printed.

Do the Unexpected

Childhood is the best part of any man’s life. We realize this when we are way out of our childhoods. No gift can be better for an elderly couple than giving him and her opportunity to relive their childhood. The super event I am asking you to plan will present your parents with this kind of opportunity. I am asking you to call all the childhood friends of your mother and father, and arrange a party for them.

Making your parents relive their childhood is the central idea behind the super gift we are going to discuss here.

Preparation for the big night

This will be a surprise party, and by that I mean, your parents should not be aware of the people on the guest list. You can safely tell them about the party you are arranging for them. There are two benefits of this action: one, your parents will not make any other plan, and two, your parents will get ready for the big occasion.

Party planning

Start with making a guest list. This guest list is going to be unlike any other guest list that you ever had for any other party. Only those people who have a relation with your parents’ childhood should be included in this guest list. The idea is to invite as many childhood friends of your parents as you can, and make them relive their childhood. They will always be thankful for this sweet gift, and will always remember this night. The possibility is high that they even rejoin ties with many of the invitees with whom your parents’ ties got snapped due to various reasons.

To prepare one such list, you will need to take leads from your parents. Ask them, and even ask their siblings, their neighbors, or you may sneak through their address book to get information about their friends. Once you have the contact list, start dialing each number, and ask them to join this party. Make clear who all are inviting, and how this could be a memorable event for every participant. Do not forget to request each of them not to tell your parents about your plan.

Walk that extra mile, but make sure, your parents’ friend agrees to attend to the party. Arrange for their commutation, if you can. Seeing their age, you should make all the preparation to make their journey less exerting, and tell them how far you are planning to go to bring them to the super event.

The next step is to create the ambience. The first step in that direction is to talk to your parents’ close friends, and ask them about the kind of environments they used to create in their parties, also ask for your parents’ favorite activities; kind of games, or fun activities they were doing as kids. Mimic them. You can also ask your parents about these things indirectly without disclosing your intention.

Once the plan for the ambience is in place, it’s time to think about food. You should remember that given the age, the guests might have some health-related issues, prepare food accordingly. Ask your parents or their friends about their favorite candies, cookies, or biscuits; include them in the menu as well. The cake should be the one they drooled over when they were kids. If they liked two different cakes then get two different cakes for the occasion. Music should also be from the same era. The party, in its entirety, should be a time machine that will take all the guests back in time to their childhoods.

Time to execute

Once every planning is done, starting making arrangements, stealthily. Get video recorders installed at various places to record this memorable party as well. I am asking you to install video recorders and not to use it because I want to suggest that no one other than their childhood friends should be present in the party, not even you. You should also leave the room once the cake is cut, and your share of cake is given to you. Get out of the venue and let them enjoy!

Pack up time

Once the party is over, collect the video footages from the recorders. Make a good disc from the footage with a good jacket, and dispatch it to everyone on the guest list with a thank you for participate note. This will love it!

Word of Caution: You need to make a balance. The people and the things you arrange for the party, from friends to music to food to ambience to candies, should reflect the childhood memory of both your parents. None of the two should feel that something is missing from their past.