How much do you consider/forget to consider your word bubble coverage?

[AnnaLandin]

I always include speechbubbles in the thumbnailing stage! It's really super important to remember that you need space for words and stuff when planning layouts, as it saves you a lot of tears and extra work down the line. It's not a perfect method, since I thumbnail at a very small size and I don't always judge accurately how much space certain pieces of dialogue will take up, but at least it does leave me some space to play around with. Also, when I move to making full-size digital pages, I do the bubbles and the text right alongside my stick-figure rough sketches, so that I know for SURE how much space the text takes up.

I also edit my dialogue a bunch as I go, so sometimes I have to tweak and re-arrange the bubbles, but I'm usually able to pull it off without covering up important pieces of the artwork. I still need to polish my process up a bit - I still occasionally screw up and place bubbles in weird places - but I've still saved myself a lot of headaches.

... And yes, even though I include the speechbubbles right from the start, I always draw all the stuff that goes beneath them as well - I tend to want dialogue-free panels I can crop and use for promo-art.

[Kura]

I put down the text and word bubbles before I draw.

For parts of the picture that I know will be under the word bubble I still draw it anyway, because 1. text bubble sizes tend to change in translations to other languages. 2. When converting it to scrolling format there are occasionally more optimal places for the bubble to be moved, which also results in revealing anything that it might have been covering.

[Ringarune]

when I 1st started my comic, I really didn't care about speech bubble placement, but I quickly learned that would come to bite me. Now whenever I thumbnail I always place in speech bubbles and also make my final speech bubbles before I finish all my art in the comic.

[NickRowler]

This is what I do.

I plan out where the bubble will be in the thumbnail. I then sketch them out during the sketching phase. Before I start lining, I type in the dialogue. Then I re-adjust my placement of the text and sketch image in order to have a better layout.

I try to avoid covering people but in some situations it is a bit hard to avoid.

[sorrelma]

ALWAYS i always forget to factor in enough space for word bubbles. my comic gets by with very little dialogue so it's not a huge problem(i doubt i'll have any pages with as much text as the example) but it's still very unattractive from a graphic design angle when i don't plan out where the bubbles should go

[phoenixrenaissance]

I always include word bubble placement in my thumbnails. Helps me to plan out the flow of them so I can try to lead the reader easily through the page. It doesn't always work out perfectly but it's better than if I don't do it.
I also draw everything that goes under my word bubbles as well, and sometimes I regret having to cover something up with that word bubble.

[ConradComics]

What keeps fooling me is the difference in the size and shape of my handwritten lettering and balloons in thumbs compared to the Clip Studio Paint auto balloons and fonts in production (ie CSP takes up more space).

I suppose I could digitally hand letter and hand balloon my conversations to have full control, but that's a lot more work and I'm a lazy person.

[Iaikaa]

I've always kinda felt that the speech bubbles are part of the comic art in a way...? I always start each panel with the words I'm gonna have and place the character art accordingly. This has gotten even easier since I started lettering the pages by hand so my dialogue sketch is actually an accurate estimate of the space I need for the text.

Of course the size doesn't always match perfectly and sometimes the bubbles get a little too crowded or too empty but I have never accidentally hidden any art under the bubbles since I don't even draw the art that would be hidden by the bubbles.

I kinda dislike it when the word bubbles are really obviously added in after the art, like when each and every bubble goes over the panels, I dunno, personal preference but it feels a little disconnected to me.

[KSlinger]

Ugh, I forget all the time. I think it's because my brain is geared towards film/tv , so I expect dialogue to be heard but not necessarily read.

Most of the time I spot the problem in the line art stage, but sometimes I totally forget to ration space and end up doing the same as you, cramming them anywhere appropriate. For example, here's the page I'm working on now and where I hope the bubbles will fit. Fingers crossed it'll all work out, huh?

[JessJackdaw]

Aww jeez, yeah. Word bubbles are so important and it's so easy to get wrong and forget about them. I always make a point to plan from the beginning, because you learn fast that you'll pay for it in the end.

Another few things to consider about word bubbles though. Some of these are just my opinion but I love when I see it in other comics.

• Bubble Flow. Do your bubbles flow correctly on the page in a way the
  reader can easily read them? For left to right comics this usually
  means making a backwards "S" shape on the page, or as it's called in
  graphic design "Z-Readout." I'll use a scrapped page from my
  in-progress comic as an example:

  

The bubbles sort of guide the reader across the page and help direct
what panel the viewer should go to next.

• Bubble Ratio. This can vary by comic, but usually I prefer for there
  to be more art than bubbles and text. If a lot of dialogue is
  necessary try breaking down that huge speech bubble into smaller
  chunks and have each line read with a different character emotion.
  Sometimes gestures can take the place of dialogue a lot of times , so
  don't be afraid to experiment!
• Spacious or Claustrophobic Bubbles: How's your leading, kerning, and
  font size holding up in your speech bubble? Does it feel cramped or
  way too small? Sometimes these can be used to great effect to show a
  character speaking quickly or being afraid, but it's always good to
  find a comfortable size for your speech bubbles. As a good rule to
  keep in mind, always zoom out your canvas and make sure you can still
  read it clearly. Most Tapastic users read webcomics using the mobile
  app, so you'll always want them to be as big and legible as possible
  (within reason).

I've got a lot to learn myself of course, but I'm doing my best to improve.

Edit:

I kinda dislike it when the word bubbles are really obviously added in after the art, like when each and every bubble goes over the panels, I dunno, personal preference but it feels a little disconnected to me.

Oh wow, I did know people might see it that way. XD I actually like doing it and plan for it.

[eicue]

I have learned that when I have trouble placing my balloons is because the page has too much text. Sometimes it is better to exchange dialogues for action or shorten the phrases. If you have no limitation on the number of pages you can print, you'd better distribute the content so that the panels are not saturated. Said that, I save the space for balloons since I'm sketching.

[alaingrey]

I'm going to be alone saying this but if there's one thing I love it's considered yet awful lettering. Windsor McKay's Little Nemo comics have crazy lettering, crammed into panels and sometimes wrapping around edges and over margins and I love it. I love zines where the writing is stream of consciousness and goes all over a page. If there's anything I really dislike, it's probably vector balloons and generic comic typefaces.

My own comic relies a lot on my handwriting to give it a desperate adolescent kind of feel. I draw the balloons as part of the traditional inking stage, so I'm stuck with what I've got at the end. As a result my "font" size is all over the place. I'm sure it makes a lot of people leave my comic but I love how it looks. I think the important thing to consider is always flow and legibility no matter how clean or crazy you allow the text to get- in the end it has to serve its purpose.

[Vikiro_Hop]

I only know what the dialogue is going to be in a vague sense when I make my comics. It is literally the last thing that gets hammered out so I rarely have any idea how much text there is going to be so I don't consider it very much at all. Given that I make a simple gag comic it doesn't interfere with much, it does lead to a lot of me just trying to get things to fit right retroactively.

[dracomarl]

Dude this is awesomely helpful! I agree with you about the whole wanting a comic to be more art than text. I feel like if the bubble is too large, the comic overall feels crowded and in a way, unwelcoming because you have to struggle to see the art. I personally try to limit the number of words I write so that I can manage the bubble crowding issue as well as being sure that mobile users can properly read the text.

[TheVoidchildProject]

Jeebus, I forget this all the time. I've started using my storyboards to put in bubbles approx to what I'm going to use to make sure I don't forget.

But forgetting is only half of the problem. I've learned since Reading "Understanding Comics" how important placement is. For instance the flow of time and how if you place speech bubbles further apart, more time will appear to have passed while tightly packed speech makes dialogue seem more rapid.

I can't recommend Undetstanding Comics by Scott McCloud enough:

[eleoza]

Personally I add the bubbles + speech right after the sketch. I also don't like too many speech bubbles on a page. If there's too much text to read it's not very appealing to read in my opinion.
I think this is handy, because if a bubble happens to be bigger or smaller than I thought I can adjust the sketch to it.

Then after I just add the lineart/color/screentones

[Sho_Shonojo]

I plan out where my word bubbles are going to when I'm in the thumbnailing stage. Once I get to the point of laying out the page, I draw the panels and word bubbles at the same and get that all inked, along with the text, before I start drawing. Sometimes this can be a problem when I decide to change what's being drawn in a panel at the last minute, but otherwise it works okay. At least I know in advance how much space I have for the art.

[JessJackdaw]

Nice! Yeah, I feel like if you want to have a comic with heavy amounts of text, perhaps a comic isn't the best way to tell your story. An illustrated novel or comic prose are much better formats than tryiing to cram it all onto a tradtional comic page.

If there's anything I really dislike, it's probably vector balloons and generic comic typefaces.

...Yeah, for whatever reason thick vectory fonts mashed into a bubble really hurt my eyes. Several lines of a bold font in a perfect circle just turn me off to reading a comic.

I guess if I had a preference it would be wide bubbles with horizontal text placement. It seems more natural to read that way. That's just my honest opinion though. XD

[dracomarl]

@JessJackdaw Yeah, I feel like after a couple of sentences, you're obligated to draw another panel. Or even better, explain some of what you would otherwise write in visuals rather than text. A little bit of symbolism is always nice, so is showing what the speaker is feeling or thinking of as the monologue or whatever progresses. Just as long as the text is large and the bubble doesn't take up too much of the panel.

[CaptainUfo]

I used to have that same issue when I used good old pencils and paper. The issue wasn't much that I forgot about them, rather that I was really bad at judging how much space that amount of text actually required.
Since I started to work 100% digitally, the very first thing I do when I start a new page is to put the dialogues in.