Studying Comic Book Craft

Studying Comic Book Craft

Writing every single day is only half the battle for someone looking to create their own story. It doesn't matter if it's a comic, a novel, or a screenplay, the only way to get better at something is to constantly expose yourself to elements of your craft.

Despite being in school for the past umpteen years, I've found ways to learn a little more about creating comic books and the comic book industry nearly every day of the week. They might not be big leaps or bounds, but even the littlest bit of information or exposure keeps me excited about writing and making comics with other creators.

Podcasts

I spend a lot of time in the car, so listening to podcasts that talk about comic book craft helps me feel like I'm less of a road zombie between errands and classes.

Right now one of my favorite podcasts about creating comics is Decompressed by Kieron Gillen (Young Avengers, Phonogram). Gillen talks to other creators about creating and crafting comics, and the guests always provide deep insight and methods for producing great material.

Decompressed Podcast Cover

Books

I try to read a book on comic book craft at least one every week or two weeks, even if it's just a chapter a day or every other day. There are a ton of books that you can get on the subject of making comics. So here are a few that stand out on my shelf:

• Make Comics Like the Pros - by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente
• The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics - by Dennis O'Neil
• The Insider's Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels - by Andy Schmidt
• Making Comics - by Scott McCloud

I'd personally recommend starting with The DC Comics Guide, because O'Neil goes into detail about setting up a plot, character arc, and a resolution to a single-issue comic book script.

The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics - O'Neil

Reading Comics

This is a big one, and it's not always easy to do. I try to read at least a single comic book every day of the week. I'll often read it once for fun, then go back and analyze how panels were paced, where the cliffhangers and page turns were used, and how the story played out over 20-24 pages. Having apps like Marvel Unlimited and Scribd help a lot for this, since it saves me serious money on a daily basis.

You can't really write if you don't read.

Just make sure not to replace all writing with reading - I'm guilty of that sometimes. Haha

Finally

I try to remember that some days I'm not going to find anything new, and that's fine. Even if I do one of these things it feels like I'm making steps in the right direction. I'd suggest adopting any of these habits if you want to keep your motivation up and deepen your knowledge of comic book craft on a daily or even weekly basis.

Writing Comics with Ken Porter - Part 1: The Idea

The first installment of many!

The most dreaded question in any facet of the writing kingdom is “where do you get your ideas from?” For budding writers or creative types, it seems like a valid question. There wouldn’t be content if people didn’t have a means of finding ideas for stories, projects, or other endeavors. The truth is that generally creative people can’t turn it off. It just keeps happening. The best way I can describe how my process works is in two words – what if?

But it isn’t just the two words that contribute to my wondering imagination. I’m also heavily influenced by music. I walk the dog every morning and take lots of other walks just for fun. Each time I hit the pavement or trail I throw my headphones on and pick music that suits my mood. I’ve always been really into visual mediums, so music is also visual for me. What I mean by that is that while I’m listening to any song I default to picturing images to go along with it. Sometimes it’s a fake trailer for a movie. Other times I just let the images pour over me. To be honest, when I’m in a bit of a rut, I’ll listen to theme songs of cartoons and TV shows I liked as a kid (or now) and think about how I would reinterpret them. Aside from divine inspiration, this is how I usually milk the ideas out of my skull.

Once I have an idea for a comic book and have a story locked down I think about how long it should naturally be. Is it a one-shot, an original graphic novel, or a mini-series? It might sound strange to decide how long a story is going to be before you write it, but in comics you’re working in pages and limited space. For example, a lot of the Big Two (Marvel and DC) comics are just about 20 pages long. That means that every story told by writers at those companies have to be told in 20 pages or in parts of that increment. Independent series have a bit more leeway with the page count, but it’s still around 20 or 24 on average.

This doesn’t have to be set in stone. It usually changes after a day or two of outlining, but it’s good to know within a good margin how long a story is going to be before you start it. I guess at least for me it is. One thing about writing comics is that there is no set way to approach or script a story. It’s similar to screenwriting, but doesn’t have all of the rules and regulations. The concept of pacing is really important, so if a story seems like it’s going to be too condensed or too fluffy I’ll trim or expand where necessary.

When the idea is fleshed out I make a one-sheet that has all of the series information. This isn’t for anyone else to see but me. It’s just a guide so that I don’t forget.

Here’s an example.

Title: A Crazy Space Adventure

Genre: Science Fiction/Action/Thriller

Length: 4-Issues (20-Pages Each)

Synopsis:

Captain Space Guy and his crew struggle to solve a murder mystery before the killer can crash their ship into the sun.

Characters:

Captain Space Guy

This is where the description would go. Etc.

And that’s generally what I do first. I need to know what the story is and who the major players are. Then I usually write out a treatment, or complete story in paragraph form, of what happens in each issue below that information. That way I have a guide on how to pace the pages of the story later.

I’ll get more into how I decide to pace out pages in the second installment, but for now I hope this helps with anyone who uses Google to try and find information about comic book writing.

Comment with any questions you might have!