Writing and drawing/inking your own comic

Just curious as to what people's thoughts are on this. How feasible is doing all the work yourself, given this age of artist/writer collaborations? Is it worth it, and how long would something like that take for, say, an eight, nine, ten page short story?

Cheers

Candra

Lots of good stuff in here. Thanks for commenting everyone. Looks like its not so unusual for people to create their own work without splitting the writing and artwork. Cool.

I understand about the time and patience needed. Its what made me ask the questions initially. Being a slow worker myself, and pretty much completely traditional in the execution, I was wary whether the work involved might be beyond me. I like a challenge though.

Interesting comment by Bicyclefish about needing all the skills before attempting to create my own short comic. Thats something I don't have, yet. I write stories and draw, working as an occasional illustrator and creating my own stuff when I get the time. But I have no experience with sequential art and have never written a script. I do have an idea for a series I'd like to someday produce online and maybe eventually turn it into a graphic novel. Got the main character and the world figured out, and a rough plot for a pilot episode but thats about it.

What I'd love to do is bring my art and writing skills together but I'm very aware of how much I need to learn about comics in general. Thats why I'm here. To pick your various brains about all this visual storytelling stuff. Which reminds me...

Wolvel, you mentioned writing and drawing the story as you go. I tried writing a script out beforehand but couldnt get it to work for me so I went ahead and started working on page layouts which seem to run better. I'm wondering then, if I'm going down the route of doing all the work myself, do I need to be religious about writing a script for it?

P.S. Thanks for taking the time to check out my art, Freelancer. I appreciate that.

Ah. Cool. Reading some of the links in the script sticky in here. Looks like comic scripts are as varied as the comics so maybe I've been thinking myself into a box about that.

Bicyclefish said:

Since you've no experience with sequential art and scripts, one thing I strongly suggest is to start small. Don't begin with an epic graphic novel or series spanning hundreds of pages as there's a very good chance you'll get discouraged, bored, or burn out. Try a short (no more than 20 pages) self contained comic; it could be part of your bigger idea, but make it stand alone. You'll get the practice you need and have the satisfaction of completing a project.

Also, if this series idea you have is your baby you'll probably want to tackle it once your skills have improved so it'll be of publishable (with a print publisher versus posted online) quality.

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Thats a good idea, Bicyclefish. I should have thought of it myself. If I'm honest, the thought of the work involved in a big project is pretty daunting right now, given my lack of experience. I'll definitely be giving a stand alone short a go. Thanks for the suggestion.

RemusShepherd said:

Everyone works differently. You may find yourself going faster with one method than with another.

What I do is write out a general outline. I have an outline for the entire story before I begin any work on that story.

I break that outline into pages. I usually have the page breaks done 3-4 weeks before each part of the story is due. On my current comic, I'm fiddling with the page breaks I'll be using at the end of September.

A week before a page is due, I figure out the dialog for that page. Then I start drawing. I'm slow, so I take about a week to draw one comic page. While I'm drawing it I often make adjustments to dialog and sometimes change up the specific plot points a little.

But that's just me. You might start with the art and put dialog on later, and string pages one after another with no outline to direct them. That's cool too. Whatever works for you.

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Thanks. Its what I do in my general writing and artwork. Figure what works for me and go with that. But for some reason, this comic/graphic story thing has me all jittery and unsure. So much of it goes over my head.

I'm curious about how you work out your page breaks. Do you treat them like chapters in a book? i.e. go for a cliffhanger at the end of a page or look to keep the flow going from page to page?

Wolvel said:

Sequencial art is not that hard its all about the flow. Just remember not all of your panels will be dialogue panels. Sometimes you have to use action panels to tie in the dialogue panels. Also keep a sense of perspective to keep the panels flowing as well. What I mean is if you have say character A looking to his left in the top left panel and say in panel number two top right you want to show what they are looking at you can draw the side of your character looking in that direction to tie the panels together.

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Thats something else I'm not used to thinking in - flow of visuals. I can create a single image that tells a story, or write a story, but when it comes to making a series of pictures tell a story...

Ech, the more I learn about it all, the more I realise just how much I don't know and how much work is involved in creating a comic. Its a whole new world of storytelling.

I know you say sequential art isnt as hard as it sounds but I don't know... It looks pretty tough from where I'm sitting. And not only do I need to learn that side of it, about panels and page breaks and flow and everything else, I'm still learning how to draw humans believably. Thats something I also have little experience of and its a huge subject in itself. I've acquired myself a cupboard full of books on figure and comic figure drawing and am constantly skulking on art sites. I live in the wilderness so don't have much access to live models.

But its all good. Thanks all for your thoughtful advice and tips. Its good to be able to see things from the inside, from comic writers and artists points of view. They're all going in and getting stored up for future use. Very much appreciated.

dpaterso said:

I like your art samples linked from your sigline, they all look as if they're taken from bigger ongoing stories.

-Derek

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Thanks for checking out my work, Derek. I'm glad you like it and its good to hear that they work as part of the bigger story they're taken from. Its something I try to do with my illustration work - capture a scene or snippet of the story in one picture rather than try to capture the story's essence in an abstract way. Not that the latter isnt also a good way of illustrating, its just not for me personally.

I took a peek at your webcomics link. I like your style. Only got to look at the first instalment of Crowbar but there's definitely a distinctive sense of humour in there that I like a lot. The five by five comment made me laugh. Aliens? Or am I havering?

CheG said:

Get Scott McLeod' book Understanding Comics it will tell you everything you need to know to make a comic.

P.s. I'm probably spelling his name wrong...

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Thanks for this. I think I've seen that one mentioned in this section before. Sounds like its a good book to have. I'll check it out for definite.

Bicyclefish said:

Everyone starts somewhere, and at least you know there's a difference between single illustrations or pinups and sequentials. Take it a step at a time. Aside from the short self contained story, sketch simple scenes as practice and read a lot of comics.

Will Eisner's books are also often recommended reading: [URL="http://www.amazon.com/Comics-Sequential-Art-Principles-Instructional/dp/0393331261/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3 [/QUOTE"]http://www.amazon.com/Comics-Sequential-Art-Principles-Instructional/dp/0393331261/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3 [/URL]

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Agreed. Once I was as nervous about creating dragons so I get the beginner thing completely. Sketching simple scenes without bogging myself down with a full-on story sounds like what I should be doing. Start small and scribble. And read. Thats another thing I need to do more of - read comics. Only read a few graphic novels and shorts in magazines so far, and a couple of Asterix and 2000AD's way back in the day, so I really need to get my finger out.

I've got a couple of Will Eisner's books, and they've been pretty useful if a bit over my head at times, but don't think I have that one. Thanks for posting the link.

Wolvel said:

Well you just hit the nail on the head. In graphic storytelling the pictures tell the story the words just guide you through it.

A good way to practice that is to just work on one simple page. Keep drawing it until the pictures tell the story without any words used at all. I know it sounds repetitve but in art and learning to draw a comic its all in repetition and practice.

One of the best examples I've seen of pictures telling a story was back in the 1980's in Marvel's G.I. Joe comic series issue #21. All art no words used the entire story.

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A solid tip. Thanks. There was a story I read in a magazine recently that used pictures and no words too. Murky Depths. Cant remember the title or the issue but the art was done by Leonardo Giron. The story came across fine without the words, possibly even better for the lack of them. And I hear you about repetition. Drawing the same subject over again is something I've discovered about graphic artwork. I'll try the picture only thing and see where it takes me. I guess its all in the practice. A person can read and research a thing till they're blue in the face but if they don't get their hands dirty and try the work for themselves, they wont get very far.

No worries, Remus. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

But recognize two things: One, I am not a professional, so I might be doing it wrong. And two, I am drawing webcomics that come out at a rate of one page per week. I need to hook readers and make them come back. A published comic book doesn't need a hook at the end of every page, as they can expect that a reader with the comic book in their hands will probably turn pages as long as the story itself remains interesting.

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Interesting that the end purpose of a comic can change how it's laid out or put together. It makes sense. Kind of like the difference between a short story, novella, or novel. They each have their limitations that, don't dictate maybe but, guide how the writer tells their story.

I think the answers to your questions vary a lot, not just between artists but also between different forms (webcomic/book comic/strip comic/etc). In the end there's nothing better than for you to try it yourself and figure out what works best for you.

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Absolutely. Just got to stop avoiding the issue and get on with doing the work. After talking to everyone in here, I dug out some pages I put together a while back and started mucking about with them again. So thanks to everyone for all the advice and encouragement.

Now all I need to do is post some work for feedback...