Developing the comic is an intricate process. There are challenges presented by the print media format. The pages have a size limitation, and the comic is just a small booklet so it’s best to have only a few different panels on each page. The fewer divisions there are in the page, the larger each panel can be, making more room for art and dialog. The page count will also be constrained by time and budget. The complexity of the story has to be balanced with these restrictions. You’ve really got to pay attention to what you want to say and keep it simple.
Our process starts with a whiteboard. We have some idea of what we want the comic to convey, and how many pages we have to do that. So we draw a very rough indication of the action and dialog for each page on the whiteboard. We block out the panels we think we will need, including symbols showing where each of the characters appear in the panel and an outline of the dialog. We also write down notes on important timeline aspects of the story.
Once we’re done with our whiteboard sketch, we use it to draft the script. The script includes written descriptions of the story and full dialog for each character. We associate each of the story and dialog elements with one of the comic panels that we drew on the whiteboard.
After creating the script, it’s necessary to reviewed it against our page count. We also have to make sure the dialog is clear and concise; this is a balancing act. Dialog balloons in a comic can’t be too big, or they will cover up the action. But our comics still need to be technically accurate and the story needs to be complete. After iterating a couple times on our script, we send it to our artist.
We don’t always start out with the most realistic idea of what can be accomplished in a given set of panels. So the next part of our process is critical. The artist takes the script and creates rough sketches of each page called storyboards. These storyboards are rough sketches that include: panel layout, character positioning, dialog placement, and new characters (such as the Virtual Sprawl Monster). We use the storyboard to get feedback from reviewers and to make sure the comic is going to really convey what we want people to know. Many times, the dialog will not fit as well as we expected, or the story panels might not flow very well. For example: In our first project, we found that we had too many panels and too many story elements. We condensed the story and made better use of space and the comic became more enjoyable.
Figure 2 – Virtual Sprawl storyboard, page 2
After we synthesize all of our feedback, we submit change requests to the artist, and the artist will soon return an updated storyboard. At this point, we examine the changes and see if the comic is ready for final art. It’s crucial to make sure everything is in place before giving the go-ahead on the final art production; so we’ll iterate on the storyboards as needed.
When storyboarding is complete, our artist will draft the final version of the comic. We don’t consider it signed-off until we can review the final draft andfix any last-minute issues we can find. Then we’re good to go - it’s off to the press! We've got a cool comic that people will really be able to enjoy.
Figure 3 – Virtual Sprawl page 2, final
Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/comics/b/weblog/archive/2011/03/04/development-cycle.aspx
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