Battle scenes in comics

[Daknight]

In my current comic I reach the battle segment of my comic and though it be a nice topic to see how others do battle scene in their comics. I think is one of the hardest to do cause of the various poses one has to do to make it feel fluid and interesting. On top of that you need to understand motion lines to make it feel like movement is happening!!

If you have scene from your comic where battle happens feel free to show them. Let's give battle scene some love. I'll start by showing my OLD battle scene (from the first version of my comic) and how I am currently doing them!

Old Version:

New version:

You can find my comic at:

BRA - Big Rumble Academy | Tapas

Feel free to share your comic as well!

[Rhonder]

The first update of my comic is my only extended battle scene it's not the greatest since it was the very start of the comic though lmao

TreasureHUNT!! :: P1-7 | Tapas

Otherwise the only other one that lasts more than like 3 panels (pages 20-21) hasn't been drawn yet, but soooooon xD looking forward to it, it's my favorite part of the comic >u>

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Here's some with no text or speech bubbles.

[unknown_user]

August 2018 :

Novermber 2018, a bit better:

Actually, they look better only because I've used sketches of more experienced artist as a references:

Random swings

P.S. I have firstly found this picture at pinterest without signature, so I had no idea who is the author. But after all these threads about copyright, I've decided to find out the author and thought on question - should I mention that I've used sketches of him in comments to my issue, even despite my results differs from these sketches a lot?..

[RiidDisBuk]

Battle scenes are hard to write in novels. I wish I was good at drawing battle scenes.

[Daknight]

@Rhonder Your improvement from the first page to now is really good! I see you incorporate more light effect for magic (always been tricky). Looking forward to that battle scene too!

@dragonsparking Love the pixel like art! Great expression and one can feel the intensity as the fight progress! Any link to your comic?

@tired_programmer If it was just reference, I don't think a mention is necessary. Otherwise the end page of comics would be around 10 pages of artist mentioning there reference, etc, etc xP

@RiidDisBuk Oh yes, writing them is just as hard. Heck that is why there are fight coordinator in movies who write down how the fight will happen.

[RiidDisBuk]

Yes. It's mainly because some don't care how the fight goes while many do.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

@Daknight oh yeah...forgot to put that there xD
I consider my series as a Battle Shonen so battle scenes are heavily featured.

Dragon Sparking | Tapas

[Shanny8]

A few battle pages from my webcomic's 1st chapter...

Ray Thunder | Tapas

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Nice! That punch was sick.

[Strontium]

Battles are among the hardest things to draw in my own experience. That, and hugging.

Here's one I want to compare
From Chapter 3

and from Chapter 7, a few years later

[Daknight]

Nice!! Love the lettering for the sound effects too, really makes the action more alive!

[Strontium]

Thank you! I often struggle with sound effect placement but this one came out very well!

[inkycharland]

It is certainly a challenge. I have lots of combat in my comic, so I feel like I'm getting better. I always try to visualize beforehand as much as possible and thumbnail the page out.

This page has the fight just starting.

Here's some others:

[Daknight]

Yeah, I read your comic and you have some amazing battles!

[Shanny8]

Thanks! I really try to sell the battle stuff with simple concepts like body-action dynamics(how the figure should look/flow when executing), the physics behind the action, and the catastrophic/destructive results.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Something I started trying to do in my later scenes is utilizing the environment too. I was reading one of Frank Miller's early runs on Daredevil, and there was a scene that stood out so much, in its simplicity, but the use of objects in the environment made all the difference in the visceral nature of the scene.
Unfortunately my best scenes are still to come, hidden away in my buffer xD

[rmdooley]

I use body-kuns A LOT for fight scenes. It really helps with foreshortening and flow

The references:

The fight scene:

[baasinsimple]

I should buy some Body-kun. Where did you get them?

[JeanGuillet]

I've done a battle! I really had fun with it. Did some experimental panel transitions and things. I still really like this sequence of strips even though it was a year and a half ago

Chateau Grief :: CG131 | Tapas