Storyboard or Just Write?

[writeperch]

For the non-artistic writers of comics out there in the ether, do you storyboard (maybe with stick figures)? Or do you just imagine each page in your head and just get to writing?

[PeeDee]

First, I have to say: you have Rowan Atkinson dressed as a Vulcan for your avatar. I want to marry you. :D

Second, your question:

When I write comics, I have the page put together in my head already. I'm very visual when it comes to comics. I could draw it, were that I could draw... :) I know how the page looks, colored and illustrated. I could give exhaustively detailed descriptions of each panel, down to the smallest detail, you know? Generally, I don't, because I want to see what the artist brings to the project.

The closest I come to storyboarding is, I'll draw on a scrap of paper a rectangle in the shape of the page, and then draw my panels to make sure it looks decent, and to make sure I haven't tried to squash ten panels into a page that doesn't need more than six.

[UrsulaV]

I can't storyboard. If I try, the page becomes already-done in my head, and then getting through it is like a death march. (Bear in mind I'm doing the art, too, so there's a good bit more freedom to skip the storyboarding than if I was working with an artist.)

Generally I write the dialog, and once in a blue moon, a stage direction, like "rolls eyes" or "charges" or "dangling from bridge." Then I pull up the page, read the dialog to see how it breaks down best in my head, and start dropping boxes into my photoshop template until I've got a layout that works for me. (It's been three years since I started doing this webcomic, so this goes pretty fast--I usually have a good idea what I can get away with.)

As an artist, the few times I've worked with other writers, I have never gotten a storyboard from a writer--I just get dialog and stage directions. Most of the time, they have a pretty good idea what they want per panel, and they describe it verbally, rather than trying to draw it.

They frequently also have no idea how much actually fits in a panel, so if you're working with an artist, let me say for the record that you can generally fit about two-thirds of the dialog and maybe half the detail you THINK you can fit. Err on the side of minimalism. Your artist will thank you.

[PeeDee]

What I generally do is, I write the page out on paper, and then type it into the computer. As I'm typing it, I'm paying attention to what's in the panel, versus what I'm talking about.

This si why it helps (me, anyway) to have already seen the page detailed in my head. I can realize ahead of time that while my character may be standing in a really cool pose...if I don't cut three-fourths of this dialogue, then all you're going to see is one booted foot and a bit of grass.

The joy of comics is, when it comes to the writing, minimalism. It's why there are comics like Superman For All Seasons which are fantastic. There aren't a huge amount of words, the art is mood-evoking, and what words there are further evoke the mood.

Huge prose exchanges are best left to...well...prose.

[writeperch]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the large exposition(ary) passages in comics. Marvel tends to do that (at least more than DC, or so it seems to me).

I haven't written a comic script yet (I've written several (unsold) tv/movie scripts, one of which was turned into a VERY low budget independent that turned out just gawdawful and thankfully only had one showing). But I love comics and I'm a writer, so I figured I'd give it a try. I'm brainstorming a plot right now. I'm toying with storyboarding (really, like you said, PeeDee, just doing quickie thumbnails to get the feel of the page and see if the paneling works). I'm thinking that most of it will be in my head and I'll make it up as I go along.

And as UrsulaV alluded to, the artist is going to know how much can fit, etc., so it's probably best to give good directions, but don't expect the artist to follow them verbatim (allow the artist to do their job and add their own "voice" to the project).

But, of course, the format of the writing is secondary to just telling a compelling story.

(Heh. PeeDee, I got the Bean Spock (sans ears) a couple of years ago from a friend. It always cracks me up. Then just a couple of days ago I ran across Spock with his head angled the same way so I stole his ears and slapped them on Bean Spock.)

[PeeDee]

One thing I tried that worked rather well (but which I won't do again, because it's laziness on my part) is to set your dialogue up like this in the comic script.

JIM: Look, I know what the problem is, I know where you're coming from. (But even if there was anything I could do to help you, what makes you think I have any desire to do that? Why should I care?)

It was set up so that the dialogue outside parenthesis was the essential dialogue I needed in that panel, and if it turned out to be space, then the dialogue in partenthesis was stuff I'd also like to see included.

Sounded chaotic, but it worked. That said, I still don't like it. It's like sending your story to an editor and saying "I left all the adverbs and long wandering paragraphs in, take them out if you don't like them, that's okay."

It may work, but as the writer, your job is not to wander, it's to deliver what needs delivering.

...

A lot of this comic stuff is on my mind, these days. After I finish with the Novel Deathmatch on September 1st (which is too close, agh agh agh!) then I'm starting work on my six-part comic. Right now, I'm just looking for an artist passively.

(Hem hem. Any artists around here feel like working on a comic with me? I would love to hear from you!)

[Inkdaub]

I have never actually tried to write a comic but I would like to. I know next to nothing about it. I did see a Sandman script and it read as though Gaiman gave a lot of leway to his artists. He would go back and forth between heavy and light detail depending I guess on what he was seeing. I think it depends on what you envision. I am attracted by the idea of writing a story and then giving it to an artist to do as they will. I would write it as a comic script of course but the srtist would have freedom to draw the panels as they felt they should.

[UrsulaV]

Right now, I'm just looking for an artist passively.

(Hem hem. Any artists around here feel like working on a comic with me? I would love to hear from you!)

Heh heh heh. Good luck, dude. Not to scare you, but I'd start looking hard as soon as you finish your novel--finding a comic artist these days seems to be about like finding the Holy Grail. Even people with seriously well-known and established comics under their belt often stagger when trying to find a new artist, and if you don't plan on hiring them outright, you may be lookin' at a tough road to hoe.

This isn't meant to be discouraging--obviously new comics get made, so it can be done!--but the ratio between aspiring comic writers and aspiring comic artists is seriously skewed. (I have theories about why this is so, but I won't get into that here.) I'd suggest hitting the forums of the big on-line galleries, as a place artists tend to congregate, as well as the usual comics forums.

You may know this already, of course, but having seen the 'looking for artist' question more times than I can remember, I feel obligated to go into my usual speech. *grin*

Good luck!

[writeperch]

No problem.

PeeDee, just learn to draw...

[C. L. Richardson]

I usually outline the story first, then storyboard using rough drawings or "roughies" as I call them. =P

[PeeDee]

perch, you haven't seen my drawing. Oy, oy, oy. I've tried over the years.

I'm not going blithly into the artist-search, rest assured; I've been hanging around comic forums off and on for a few years now, and I have enough perspective on the world around me to know that an artist is not an easily attainable thing. Actually, I'm a bit mortified by the attitude. Artist teams up with writer, produce something, send it to someone, get published. Seems reasonable to me, in my innocence.

Some comic publishers accept simply script submissions. I can always do that. Barring that, the comic project is sitting complete at six issues, just waiting to have the final script written and be drawn, which means I feel comfortable with letting the project sit on the back burner for a few years if need be. And if nothing else, while I'm sending out quiet e-mails to a few artists (or dropping wild hints around here, hint hint!) I'm getting on with my next project or two. :)

[wordmonkey]

I have a template set up that I print out. 22 pages in spreads (pages 1 & 22 are single). I then go through this and pencil in little thumbnails of how I will lay out the page. Now you can imagine that 22 pages on one sheet of paper means they are gonna be small, and there are times that if I take too much time between thumbnails and script writing I am often scratching my head to work out just exactly what that scribble is.

The reason I do the thumbnails is purely for my own use. It allows me to make sure I don't dupe a page layout and make for a visually boring set of pages. It also helps me flip that and exactly dupe a page layout if I want to for dramatic reasons. Lastly, it allows me to pace the plot, and there have been times where I have been half way through an issue and have jumped ahead to the last page so that I know I won't run long.

My scripts are VERY detailed. I give instructions to the penciler, the colorist and the letterer. I use the pencils to tell the storyjust as much as I use my words, as well as color and lettering to add to the story. That said, I give my penciler free rein to change-up anything and everything. They are the ones who are working the visual side and just as a story changes sometimes as I write, i want to give the penciler every opportunity to follow their instincts.

My 2 cents.