I know this is such a confusing question, for more details I'm trying to make a meeting between 2 characters feel more natural since the timing is too perfect. Maybe I'll figure it out by myself, but I don't know if there are any tips on these cases

Does anyone run their script on chat GPT to see if it advises improving?

I heard that some people do it and I was wondering if it is common or if you see it as something ok or something you should avoid because it's not artistically acceptable or unethical.

Im starting to write a script for my comic. I can see the storry in my head and I am thinking how to best put it on paper. What would be the best way to start on a totally new storry from scratch? My current way is to write the storry in a regular format(not like a script), describe characters, their histories, the world, rules etc. Then describe the progression of the storry with key points and then write it in script format.

Is this a good way to do it?

I have recently finished my first script based on my short story. It turned out to be 47 pages. Knowing it's best if the first one-shot is around 12 pages and a single issue at 22 pages, I might have put subconscious pressure on myself to pack it all in and strive for less pages, not more.

Herein lies the issue. I just showed the script to my revered comic professor and researcher whose class I took a while ago. She endorsed the narrative but alluded that my script might be too dense and need more air and pauses. My gut agrees with her.

In prose that would mean adding more descriptions and fillers to pace things out, meandering and flashbacks could also do. I'm somewhat stumped about the comic means though. These are things I could think of. Have I missed anything?

• Obviously, spacing things out (literally fewer panels per page)
• Extra wide empty location shots
• Milieu shots (e.g. if I have the group drinking tea, I could zoom on a cup, or a pillow embroidery or something)
• Emotional shots with flowers and foliage etc.
• Sequential shots with characters dilly-dallying

I took nearly 4 months for only 2 chapters, because of the detailed art style and I'm doing everything by myself. Despite being a comfortable schedule (I'm also in uni), I'm concerned if this is too slow. Like 1 chapter for the fastest of 1.5 month is just... I don't know if any of my reader even remembers the plot at that point...

I'm a college student who wants to make making comics into a full-time job. I have a comic I've been working on for a while now, but it's pretty early in development for now. I've been thinking about what to do when I get out of college to be able to pursue making this comic, so I'd like to know if any of you have any experience with maybe being an intern working for a comic artist, or with self-publishing, or whether I should post my stuff on WEBTOON before going to a publisher to get a better deal.

How do I approach this? How many pages of comic do I need to show to a publisher before they take me on? Should I publish in a country with a better comic market (the one here sucks)? How (the hell) could I eventually get this thing to become an animated series? Should I hire an artist to speed things along? Do I need a line cleaner and a lettering specialist?

Hi all! I’m a full-time writer mostly of books, but I’ve done quite a few licensed comics here in the UK (The Beano, Power Rangers, Adventure Time, Minecraft, etc) and ran a successful Kickstarter for an original comic (single issue) a couple of years ago. My first horror movie, which I co-wrote, just wrapped shooting in Serbia a couple of months back, too.

So, my question. I have ideas for two or three single issue horror comics. Not connected in any way. I’m trying to work out the best publishing strategy for these. I have artists lined up and working on them now, as I really want to tell these stories, but I have no idea how to sell standalone 22-30 page horror comics. Just bung them on Kindle? Do another Kickstarter? Try and find a publisher?

Any advice very welcome.

Question One: How much does it cost to make a comic?

Answer: It takes five people eighteen man-hours to produce a full color comic page if we exclude the lettering. We need a writer, illustrator, ink, flats and shading. The good news about this expense is it is a one-time cost. You can sell the comic forever.

To determine the rate, ask yourself this question: if you short your writer and artists, why should a reader pay full price? You want the highest quality you can get. Divide the page rate by 18. That's what you're offering per hour of work.

To calculate the cost of a cover, multiply the page rate by three (minimum). The cover is the most important page because that's the one readers get for free, and it's also the one that will get them to buy the book.

Question Two: Why shouldn't I write and illustrate the book myself?

Answer: A good artist and writer team is always better than one person doing both jobs. This is just my personal opinion, but having worked on nearly 100 comic projects over the last fifteen years, having one person who specializes in art working with one person who specializes in writing makes a more dynamic and interesting story.

Question Three: Why should I invest so much in the writing?

Answer: You can solve story problems in the script for a dollar. Solving story problems in the art will cost a hundred dollars. You should polish a script until you can see your own reflection in it. Once it is the absolute best it can be, that's when you bring in an artist. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, either. Readers are almost always willing to overlook flaws in a work if it is entertaining.

Also, do not concern yourself with critics. I've been called the worst writer in history by many people who have a lot to say about my work. I also have readers in sixteen countries and a top ten comic title. Listen politely, shed the obligatory single tear and then get to work on the sequel.

If you have other questions about comic writing and publishing, happy to help if I can. Good luck!

So, I've been super interested in making a comic universe lately. I've finally decided that I will start it very soon. However, I need to know if my idea is good. So basically, it starts by following a guy named Jason Ember who lives a normal life. Meanwhile, the Greek Titan Prometheus wants to escape his torture. He talks to Zeus about giving a person fire powers to prove that humans can use fire for good. Zeus agrees and gives Jason Ember fire powers and tells him to be a hero. Jason Ember agrees and starts fighting crime. One day however, he is fighting a criminal in a building when suddenly he accidentally sets it on fire. This angers Zeus, and he send a monster named Elementus to kill Jason. Elementus starts ravaging through the city to find Jason. Some other heroes who also have elemental powers (I haven't set up origins or anything for them yet.) show up to defeat Elementus. All of the heroes' clash with Elementus, but they end up being defeated. A group of heroes known as The Defenders arrive at the scene and almost defeat Elementus, but Zeus calls him back. The group of elemental heroes forge together as a group called The Elementals and promise to defeat the corrupt gods for causing more destruction. Some time passes and The Elementals are much stronger now. They arrive at Mount Olympus and defeat the gods becoming the new gods. They then pass the torch to a new generation of heroes. So, do you think it is a good idea for a comic universe? Edit: I'm looking at the rules of the subreddit and I'm now realizing this post will probably be taken down.

I wanted to write and draw comics for fun, but I want the comics to be more of one shot comics. I am looking for tips as well as some good samples that you know. P.S. I'm just hobbyist.

Hey y'all! So, I wrote a short screenplay a few years back which is kind of infeasible to turn into an actual film without considerably more money than I currently have, so I'm working with an artist friend to turn it into a comic! I'm really working hard to make it make good use of the medium with page turns etc, so it's not just a drawn out storyboard, but I'm running into a minor problem when it comes to characters talking who aren't on the page.

Basically there's a sequence where one character is trapped in an observation room, having a conversation with two other characters who are the other side of a two-way mirror. It's kind of crucial for the immersion and some of the mystery that we don't see those characters, or hear the things that they're saying to eachother until later on in the story, but it's also important for the drama that we can differentiate the characters from eachother.

So... How would you differentiate the two characters without showing them on screen? I was thinking about different typefaces for each character, but I worry that that's too stylised. Maybe bubble outlines, but I worry that that would come across too much like shouting. Can you think of any more creative examples?

I have an early idea for a rather over-the-top erotica comic, that does absolutely not restrict itself to story-relevant encounters but goes out of its way to create ridiculous scenarios and has lots of almost absurdist humor and over-the-top running gags. However, this is set in an established universe that is quite serious in a way - not without humor, but its appeal lies in the emotional investment in its characters who deal with loss and trauma and have some major personal developments.

AVNs for example often manage to be quite humorous and pornographic while still allowing emotional investment, but usually their NSFW scenes are at least somewhat reasonable, if exaggerated, within the context of the story. My idea would essentially require the same character to deal with lost childhood and actual war trauma, and have several serious scenes that explore this in both dialogue and actions; while also being shoehorned into absolutely deranged sex scenes that very clearly serve the sole purpose of viewer arousal and amusement and do not help their development at all. I'm planning to add 4th-wall-humor to make the characters comment on that dichotomy, but I'm just not sure - does it work at all? Can the reader still form the level of emotional attachment (that is the reason why I want to write about these characters in the first place) while they occasionally have to drop out of character for a quick orgy?

I’m currently making a comic inspired by Chinese and African culture and I know what time period I’m basing it on, but since it has fantasy elements I’m not sure how true to history I should make it. Any advice on how much I should stick to the real life timeline? Should I not focus on it as much since it’s mostly fantasy anyway? How do you decide how true to history you would want it to be?

Generally how much would it cost ? If you have the script and all the cost is for artists.

And usually, each manga only 1 artist involved to keep the style consistent or...we can have more ?

I'm much better at imagining my comic page as a movie more than a comic page (please don't tell me to make movies instead, I want to make comics), so I struggle with coming up with panel layouts or how many panels the page should have while I'm writing the scripts. It's all just boring 9-square grids in my brain. Any way I can get better at this?

For a bit of Context: I've got a little comic book project I've worked on-and-off on as a hobby of mine for the past few years but have only recently considering actually getting serious with it. I've written a Story Outline as well as a 1st comic script prototype already on a Google Doc but for now, I'm mostly concerned about the Former and I've been having the hardest time trying to find people who'd be interested in simply reading the Story Outline I've got and giving feedback between Discord channels I'm in. For the purposes of not breaking any rules (idk if rule 8 applies here), I'm not going to post the story outline here, but what are some good ways to find people willing to just give feedback on a comic book story outline?

Hello there! I want to write comic books, and I've been trying to make a script for one. The only issues is, most comic books have planned out arcs and stories, and don't just make it up as they go along, so that raises a question. For your comic, how much do you plan out? And how big of plans are they? Are they a couple paragraphs, several paragraphs, or just a sentence or two?

Thanks!

I have an idea for a comic series in my head, a fairly concise story, with lots of plot twists, but a clear idea of how those twists are revealed and how they tie into the larger story.

But what I'm seeking, as this will be the first time I've ever attempted writing something like this, is an example of the structure of the process from beginning to end.

Is there a resource that shows the process of writing a comic, from outlining, to scripting, to storyboarding, or any of the other steps I may not be aware of?

I'm making my first volume of manga right now, but I am debating between printing it on printer paper all on my own to save costs as I will make a small amount to sell at a convention held at my college. This is only my first run, so I am trying to keep costs down as much as possible. Thoughts? Thank you very much!

Hey everyone! I'm writing my first comic book and I would love some advice from the veterans. I'm not an artist, and so I will be hiring one once my script is finished. My plan was to write a short comic, as from what I've read from other creators, short comics are the best place to start because you can finish them quickly and finishing projects is the best way to gain experience. I started with an idea and I wanted to tell my story in 12 pages. However, I couldn't get all my ideas into 12 pages, and so 12 pages became 25 pages. I went through 4 drafts and still wasn't happy with the end result as I felt I just couldn't develop my characters in so short a time. I began crafting a back story for them just for myself so they would feel more realistic, and I liked those ideas and ended up wanting to include them too. So I started over. As I flesh out the comic I feel like it's getting better, but I wonder if I'm making the common beginner mistake of overthinking everything and getting stuck in limbo. If I were to try and include my new ideas, the characters would definitely be more refined and the story more complete, but it will take me much more time to finish and likely won't be a short comic in the end (probably 3 or 4 issues at least). My question is, should I just find an artist and make the comic with my short 25 page draft, warts and all, despite the fact that I won't be able to include my new ideas, or should I allow the story to get longer even though it will mean more time and money to finish it. Also, any advice on how to tell a decent story in one issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Howdy there folks, I was hoping to get some dos and don'ts for writing a new comic as me and my girlfriend are planning to make one soon. Which will be a weird western, so like your typical western but with more supernatural/fantastical elements. There's currently 3 protagonists a short jolly prospector, a bounty hunter who always wears a red bandana masknand a native American girl with DID. The unlikely trio are brought together due to a common threat and it'll follow their adventures as they travel across the 1880s West capturing outlaws while trying to discover an unnatural truth. Though that's just the basic gist of it I really wanna write it well as this will be a passion project for us as we both really enjoy the genre and wanna do our own spin on it.