How do I start a comic?

@darthmongoose Kate Holden
Tue, 20 Oct 2020 11:30:13 +0000

@darthmongoose wrote:

My secret technique: Bulletpoints!

I bulletpoint out all the things the reader needs to know to understand what's happening. Stuff like:

These characters are knights in a modern setting.

Urien is in charge. He's kind of a dick. His Squires are called Rekki and Sarin.

Rekki is not very talented, but she's gutsy. Sarin is smart and good at magic, but hesitant.

Rekki and Sarin are BFFs!

They are in a haunted ruin.

When you go through the first pages of my comic, you can see me deliberately putting in scenes or conversations that tick off these bulletpoints. We see Rekki being bad at magic, Urien being a dick about it, Sarin being good at magic and a supportive friend, and them noting that the ruin is "super haunted". So when you get to the thing that kicks off the plot, ten pages in, which is them stumbling across Excalibur, because those bulletpoints are all ticked, you know who's there and what they're about.

Then, as I just hinted there, a big thing happens that changes the protagonist's life! In my case it's "they find Excalibur, a magic sword that gives everyone cool magic but also unleashes demons in the world!" but it could be "Your people-hating protagonist gets a weird new room mate!" or "Your protagonist gets their dream job... but the CEO is an evil robot!?" or "Protagonist is just a poor servant boy... but then he finds a magic lamp and gets three wishes!" It can be big and fantastical or gritty and realistic, but it should ideally shake up the protagonist's life in some way.