How do you write a good comic/novel hybrid?

[aqua03]

I was recently thinking about what would be the best way to tell my story and I was thinking of doing an illustrated novel/comic might be the best way to go about things due to less time focusing on the artwork and what artwork I do have to do I can polish more as opposed to full on comic pages on a weekly basis.

Has anyone else done this? I've tried it in the past with a very early version of the Dragoons, but I didn't get very far due to a lack of knowledge in how to do so. What parts should I use for the prose with illustrations, and what parts should be full comic pages? Are there any general tips

Are there any good existing examples I could at as well? Especially in the Tapastic/Webcomic space of things?

Also, if there are any good resources for just making those types of stories as well, I'd be very thankful as well. Thank you.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I don't know about a good one, but I have tried a kind of static visual novel dealio before, which may or may not be what you're talking about, but it does have the advantage of being visual without requiring as many pictures as a full-on comic.

What parts should I use for the prose with illustrations, and what parts should be full comic pages? Are there any general tips

Depends on how picturey you want to make it. If you're on more of the illustrated novel side with an emphasis on prose, only draw a picture when there's something especially awesome/poignant to show. For me, I struggled with prose so my writing was basically all dialogue/monologue and used pictures for everything else. It still cut down on the volume of drawings because a lot of the pictures are reused assets, like you'd find in a video game or visual novel. Also for dialogue-heavy scenes, you don't have to draw enough panels to avoid a wall of text like in comics

Are there any good existing examples I could at as well? Especially in the Tapastic/Webcomic space of things?

Also, if there are any good resources for just making those types of stories as well, I'd be very thankful as well. Thank you.

My attempt, at least, was inspired by this text-based Let's Play of Trails in the Sky. I just really liked the format, and maybe it might work for you as well? XD

Idk if that helps :'D

[alliascompany]

I've thought of doing something this in the past, mostly for the magical scenes and dream sequences.Thought about maybe doing a gradient that would bleed from the text to the illustrations and vice versa

Haven't really seen any webtoon try this.
Best examples that I know of are Brian Selznick books like the Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wander Struck. Though they use whole pages for single illustrations rather breaking them up into panels which might be different than what you're looking for.

Feel like there might be some webnovels with some good examples, but can't think of any specific ones at the moment.

[fermy]

To be honest, I'm actually writing a Graphic Novel (or bande dessineé) for a contest. My lore and universe building is too extensive for a simple comic. So I'm taking my time and years of my life ahead to make this possible.
I think you should definitely think about all the aspects and posibilities for your own story and take advantage of the medium!
good luck

[aqua03]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I was debating on going with "Illustrated prose and then full comic pages for certain action sequences and big moments" if that makes sense. The biggest problem I've found with the novel part is that I'm more of a visual story teller than I am a writer, so I tend to think of things more in the panels/animated side of things if that makes sense as well. So deciding when to have the text and when to have the art do the talking is the difficult part for me it seems.

[redfish]

omg I'm planning to do the exact same thing aha
I did the first chapter all in comic form just to make it easier to get into, but going to split into writing and comics from chapter 2 onwards

[mcarrowolga]

Some examples of comic/novel hybrids with various text to images ratios:

Cold Obsidian
Blood is mine
In tune someday
The Hobbit
Romantically Apocalyptic

Maybe something here will inspire you.

[cell11]

I use random topic tool, it gives me challenges and new ideas.
This may help you as well : Random topic generator

[powerplantanimations]

I'm thinking about doing that with my webcomic since College is kicking my ass. Thinking about doing pages like Diary of a Wimpy Kid since my comic already took inspiration tone wise. Hopefully my audience will like it. I have a sick idea of doing it instead of just making it seem like I'm being derivative. I'll start doing it after Episode #15.

JUST TO BE CLEAR WE'RE STILL DOING COMIC BOOK PAGES. We're just doing some Diary of a Wimpy Kid Pages when we need breaks. Especially when things are gonna get ambitious later on.

That Stick Figure Isekai | Tapas

[system]

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