Aug 2020
1 / 12
Aug 2020
Aug 2020
Darth_Biomech
Aug '20

In my comic there comes a period in the story where scenes that are written in the script aren't really seamlessly joined together, there's undetermined amount of time passing between them, from a day to weeks. I've decided to do it that way to hasten the pace while letting a breathing room for stuff to be able to still unfold at a realistic speed (Instead of like in the action movies where EVERYTHING happens on the span of a few hours, no matter how epic or global the events are) and remove the necessity to write fillers.
Is there a good way for showing that besides using the blunt way of captions like "x days later"? I feel like such short skips are impossible to convey through scenery (Like how you could've easily convey than a few months passed by for example, by changing the tree leaves color)
My comic have several locations where action takes place, so I've could switch them around to break up the flow of story, but several scenes are sort of short to put anything in-between, and I also feel that captions telling that time had passed will become too tiresome too quickly.

  • created

    Aug '20

  • last reply

    Aug '20
  • 11

    replies

  • 3.7k

    views

  • 10

    users

  • 10

    likes

  • 1

    link

VibrantFoxRegular
Aug '20

You could always try some form of transition panel? I know different webtoons/comics use them differently but I've seen a few solid color panels lined up in a small space, a transition in time of day, or even a shot of a clock or calendar or someplace displaying a time/date. I can't think of exact references to pull up but I'm aware of those as pretty common indicators of a passage of time

allenT
Aug '20
1

Maybe you can put up entire page for montage panels with narrative boxes (storytelling style narration "...And so, they went... and months passed...they...") to describe the action and passage of time. This can be done so within a page or two.

MorganaMevil
Aug '20

Yeah. One technique I like is when you show the passage of time through change of a trivial object. Like have a series of panels that show an apple rot beside a trash can. Or a pile of newspapers pile up outside of someone’s house. Idk if something like that would work with your style, but I love those. It’s just a satisfying little detail in my opinion because it brings the background intro he foreground (and shows that not everything is about the MC). It can even be used for foreshadowing or world building if done right.

Lucca_Vendramel
Aug '20

I usually put a caption on the top left with three dots to show a tiny passage of time.

Darth_Biomech
Aug '20
allenT

But that's a violation of the "show don't tell" law, though?

Legendofgenii
Aug '20

Haha! I'm so lazy - I'll have a thin panel at the top.. moon - night time BOOM Lol! :sweat_smile:

The below is the next morning.

gen 84 top.jpg851x361 208 KB

Seriously though I do wonder how to show this in an interesting way. Right now my adventurers are traveling through a forest and there are only so many tree scenes I can sit and paint - so they are chatting about their tragic backstories as they go. :+1:

gen 76.jpg680x1156 749 KB

elyss
Aug '20
Darth_Biomech

You can violate that rule every now and then. The problem is of you do it allllll the time. Comics have put things like "three months later" for ever and people don't stop reading them when it happens.

Mallory
Aug '20

You can also make a reference to a future event - say, have someone slip something in like "we can't do X, we're going to see the courthouse in three weeks!" in the dialogue (preferably, close to the end of the chapter/wherever that time segment ends), and then show them at the court house as part of a tour group (a completely random scenario, but you know what I mean). If your reason to skip time is to move between important plot points, it should be possible when your characters know that something is going to happen ahead of time. Other times, as someone else suggested, you can use montages or the change in a trivial object. You don't always have to use the same technique if it's something that makes intrinsic sense.

allenT
Aug '20
1

Yes. @Darth_Biomech you can even use montages without the narrations, and let the characters indirectly mention the passage of time afterwards.

awinbell
Aug '20

A short montage of the character aging or the seasons passing

gmaximin
Aug '20

One of the best example I ever saw was on that Disney movie (Up i think it was), with the repetition of the wife knotting the husband's tie again and again as their hair turn grey. So it combined both the passing of time and reinforce the narrative (their strong relationship). This approach can be replicated with a sequence of panels depicting a routine action of your characters.

I tried that once, a while ago, and it was to reinforce 'routine' so actions were just a copy & paste with 7 panels to make a week, but the logic to show the passing of time while reinforcing a narrative remains:

Stand(H)ard page065.jpg1980x1139 720 KB

(Stand(H)ard p.692)