Comic development questions

Well for snapping a clip into a rifle there is several sounds to use such as "clak, ch-chik" as to explosions I would go with "ka-boom, ba-doom" just to name a few. It really depends on the scene and how big of an explosion it is.

As to panel layouts buy and study some comics. As to script to panel, as you write the story break the scenes into panels for a base line idea. Try to picture the scene in your head as a panel.

Also to remember most comics either on the first or second page is whats called a splash page. Basically one page as a whole panel.

There isn't really a guide to sound effects that I know of-- just read a lot of comics and take note of what they use and when they use it. Some scenes are better "silent" without any sfx.

Depending on who you ultimately publish with, many people hire separate letterers to do all balloons and sound effects. If you're doing a webcomic, though, you may not be able to afford someone else.

For panel layouts-- read comics, see what is successful. For an exercise, copy the frame layout onto another piece of paper and try to tell your own story within those frames. Try making the same page of script in 5 different comic page layouts and see which you think is strongest.
Read Scott McCloud's books for a lot of good information on making and laying out comics.

The storyboard idea will help lind of do a rough page layout to see if everything fits together right.

I can't second elae's recommend of McCloud's Understanding Comics (and others) hard enough. It's invaluable if you want to write or draw comics...or just understand them.

Or...you could read...

Nah. Never mind.

I was actually going to suggest you read this:



But I stopped myself because I've been promoting it for a while...as well as teaching graphic novel creation workshops and classes at various conferences.

It's easy to find and easy to read...full of examples of everything anybody needs and wants to know about creating comics, the graphic novel and the "graphic narrative" in general.

As far as I can see, other than Colleen Doran, I'm the only professional comics creator who contributes to this board...Anyhow I figure it's time to promote something else.

Like...

http://justicemachine.com/

Sound effects, in my opinion, involve some subjectivity -- is that breaking glass be a "ping" or "tink"? -- so may find yourself making up an original onomatopoeia to suit the situation. One of my favorites is "gashunk", the noise a shark makes when kicking down a door.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/gashunk shark/Kahr/gashunk.jpg