Hi! And itās no problem; I love talking about comics and the process of making them ^u^
Generally, I donāt work with a tight script. For longer and more structured comics (for me that means usually something 30 pages or more) I will write out some simple outlines so I have a general idea of what happens in the story, and outlines can include some dialogue and specific descriptions of scenes. HOWEVER, 99% of the actual work of putting together a comic starts with thumbnails, which can range from very messy to ā¦.less messy.
(This is a rare example of working directly from a script, in this case adapting a scene from a playāI wanted to show I CAN adapt script-to-page if needed, heh. As you can see the final panel changed in the end. Also this is one of my NEATER thumbnail examples, as youāll see later on loool) Thumbnails are helpful because it helps you plan what a comic will look like in the visual format, under the dimensional constraints of the page. It helps you test out how panels will look before you commit to all the work of drawing the whole thing. A lot can be communicated visually in a few panels that would take a lot of text to explain. Iāve often started out scripting dialogue and narration, only to end up cutting it from my comics because it made more sense to show it visually using the rhythm of the panels or character interactions than just with pure text.
As for ādeciding the paneling,ā thatās one of the most important processes in making comics to me. Iāve been very influenced by manga in that I kind of prefer a ābrickā layout approach to panels (this isnāt an official term, just how I think of it) rather than a standard grid, since it allows for flexibility of the size of the panels while also keeping the reading order clear. (an interesting post about this kind of layout in manga can be read here!) I usually intend for my comics to be printed in half-sheet sized zines, so I try to keep the panels and text fairly large and readable. To me, visual clarity is the most important thing in comics and I do my best to try and make sure to make the sequence of panels is clear.
The shape and types of panels are also a great way to convey mood and tone of the story! For example, I go through a LOT of different panel types in my recent comic, āThe Holy Cephalaphore.ā.
The first few pages are very dense with dialogue and information, with fairly standard panel borders and a lot of text.
But after Richard gets shot and the mood changes, I remove the borders and bubbles and other visual noise completely to kind of create a more āsilentā sequence.
It returns to more standard rectangular panels for a short time as Richard, and the audience, are regaining our bearings and moving the story along.
When the Demoness appears the panel borders take on the shape of the flames, creating a more blurred and dreamlike effect, as if the pages themselves are melting.
Later in the epilogue, the panels return to a more standard rectangular shape to show how the story is back to a āregularā setting.
When Philip has his flashback over narration, the panels are once again different, with round shapes that visually distinguish the pages and are meant to show how the scenes depicted are like separate āvignettesā from his life.
The last page also returns to the more swirly and fiery motifs from earlier, and once again the distinction between the flame patterns and panel borders is eliminatedāthe text itself is also no longer in boxes or bubbles.
For funsies, you can see my messy thumbnails I did here while planning this all out. This comic was a bit unusual for me in that I did it all traditionally and there wasnāt necessarily as much planning as some of my previous comics, but still for certain sequences I had to ādraftā it in a notebook first, sometimes several times, in order to get close to what I wanted it to look like. Here you can see how rough it can get:
I will note that this messy process works for me because I make all my comics by myself, and I donāt need to communicate with collaborators the way one might need to in a more professional setting that splits work between a writer, illustrator, letterer, colorist, etc. The main issue is making sure my thumbnails are intelligible to ME so I donāt look back and get confused at what Iām saying (this still happens a lot though.) If you want to see an example of me making thumbnails for other people, I did a writeup of a comic layout commission I did earlier this year talking about my choices adapting from someoneās script. (Also if anyone would like to commission me for thisā¦hit me up! please! I love this sort of thing!)
Iāve made a lot of comics over the years so I would say I have a pretty good feel for it, and comic panel page composition comes a lot more naturally to me than other expressive mediums. Putting panels together is very much like a puzzleāyou want to make sure all the parts are there and arranged in a way that makes sense. And like a puzzle, itās easy to get stuck and frustrated at times, and I still struggle with making stuff flow well too even now.
Still, Iāve found that the best thing to do is:
1) Read a lot of comics, of different types! Seeing how other cartoonists, even those with different styles than you, do their panels, can help unlock a lot of possibilities for how to express something. 2) Donāt Overthink it! Feels contradictory to #1 maybe, but itās true. Oftentimes simple is better.
In general, itās also good to justā¦play around. In the end itās all boxes and bubbles on a page. I like planning things out and having it look really neat but i also like winging it. i want to become both looser and more precise and the only way to do it is to keep making thingsā¦Will I ever be able to make something actually novel-length like this???? I donāt know! But i do know i love making comics <3 more than almost anything in the world ā¦.
(From Voids and Visions )
