Hell has frozen over.
Comic Script basics
So I these are pretty similar so I’m going to just answer both at the same time, hope that’s ok. :)
When you write a comic script, you are THE DIRECTOR and your artist is THE ACTOR. You have to tell them everything you want to happen in a script as clearly you possibly cause it’s not like they can read your mind. Here’s an example:
This is the actual script that E had to work off of for Chapter 5 Page 27.
So from this page you get the following pieces of information: Visually what’s going on in every panel, WHO is in every panel, WHAT is said in every panel, and mentally where I’M (the writer) going with these panels EMOTIONALLY. And all of that’s important because aside from the basic things like “WHAT TO DRAW” in each panel, my artist knows how much room to leave available for text balloons, the mental state of each character so that they can portray that correctly, and of course the over all tone of the scene.
This page, in all honesty, is pretty sparse. I have other scripts that I’ve written that are super dense in their panel descriptions because you have to get everything you picture in your head across to your artist so that it’s crystal clear to them. But with E and I, we get each other and the characters so I can loosen up a bit because I trust what she’s going to do with the art and at the same time she trusts my panel set ups so she follows my scripts pretty tightly.
And now that I’ve mentioned that, if you’re a good writer/team player, be sure to keep your artist in mind when you’re writing. Some artists like to do EXACTLY what’s in the script and some like to do loose interpretations of what they get, it all just depends. And I don’t think any comic writer writes their scripts the exact same way for everyone they work with. Comics are a team effort and you gotta be able to figure out how to make it work for both of you.
Anyway, yeah, just remember, if you’re writing, you gotta be able to paint the clearest picture possible of what you want from your artist or they’re not going to be able to give you what you want. It’s all about communication!
This week, I’ll be fielding writing questions. :D Anything you guys wanna know about writing characters, plot, structure, etc. etc.
Lucky for you E takes FOREVER TO GET READY.
Okay so you guys have your website for your comic. But is your opinion about sites like Smackjeeves where you can also upload comics? Would this be a better choice for people just getting into comic making? Is having a domain the better way to go?Having the domain is ALWAYS going to be the “nicer” choice but I’ve been saying for years now that setting up a webcomic on Smackjeeves is totally fine.
Here’s the thing, if you don’t know how to make a website, Smackjeeves can help you for that. If down the road you decide you need your own domain then you can always move the pages over to that. Hell, you can have a smackjeeves site that mirrors your domain, whatever works for you, all that’s really going to matter is the pages. If your comic is good, no one’s going to care whether or not they read it on its own site or on smackjeeves, all they’re going to care about is when the next page is going up. :)
ASK CC!
Hey, guys. We’re about 10 minutes away from jumping in the car for the airport and I decided, what the hell, let’s pull the trigger on this and get it started. So here’s this week’s topic:
SEND ME AN ASK about anything related to starting a webcomic and I’ll pick a few to answer.
I know it’s a pretty general and basic place to start but that’s sort of the point, right? :) I’ll pick a few to answer over the weekend and then next week I’ll give you guys another topic.
-XXOO CC
