Making Exposition fun to read

[chris68]

I can recall several novels in which I really enjoyed the scientific/worldbuilding exposition section (for example Hari Seldon explaining psychohistory at the beginning of Foundation), and I am experimenting with ways to make this enjoyable in my own comic book (link below).

I am trying to spice up this dull section (starting on page 54 for anyone who wants to read) by adding cute fantasy images in between the people who are talking about the "science" (sample attached). I would love to hear examples/suggestions/comments. Thanks!

The Primordial B Plus | Tapas

[TheBryceKrispy]

Exposition tip in general: Have you tried making an action scene that advances the plot with exposition? That way, the focus is on the action scene and not the exposition, while the audience gets exposition in a not-boring-way. Jokes help as well.

Think of that fight scene in "The Pirates of the Caribbean" (The first one), where Jack Sparrow and Will Turner interact for the first time, in a sword fight. In this scene, there is exposition and humor that shows us alot about the characters of Will and Jack, and the story/world. Also that fight scene, advances the story farther. The movie of The Pirates of the Caribbean, has humor and action scenes to show character and exposition.

[shazzbaa]

"Raj postulates access to higher spatial dimensions, but that's his answer to everything" got a chuckle out of me.

I think this bit works pretty well! Though I haven't read the rest of the story, it's obvious that this is information that ties into elements of the story that we would already care about, the lil illustrations are a nice touch, and you've kept the talky bits relatively short so it never feels like an overwhelming dump of text.

My thoughts on this practice in general is that... well, I don't think adding illustrations to a wordy bit is bad, but I do see it as sort of a bandaid rather than a fix. Like, if you have a bunch of words that are dull, then adding pictures can help alleviate the problem, but it would be better if the words weren't dull.

From another thread where exposition stuff came up --

How to pique readers' interest?

Let's say you need to explain in more detail than "it's bad" why crossing the streams of the proton packs is bad, and it won't just fit into a couple of sentences because you really need the audience to understand exactly how it works. You could just have one character explain protonic reversal to another character, then when you realise "Oh no, this is just a page of technobabble talking heads!!" you add some nice illustrations of stream-crossing and protons in the background to make it TECHNICALLY not talking heads. Sometimes this is a good option!

But alternately, you could use this moment to also introduce some contrast between the characters. Perhaps one of them has always seen crossing the streams as a last resort -- yeah, obviously it's bad and usually you shouldn't do it, but maybe there's some situations where you have to close a portal or something, and knowing how exactly stream crossing works would be useful! The other character interrupts, adamant that that kind of thinking gets people killed -- no, crossing the streams is bad, it's always bad, under no circumstances should you do it and you CERTAINLY shouldn't teach our new team members how to do it. It's bad. Leave it at that.

In the second option, this scene is more than just exposition -- it is exposition about stream-crossing, but it's also Showing us something interesting about these characters and their attitudes towards life and problem-solving (and each other). [...]

I think if you have a story that has a lot of talking, the answer isn't always to hide the talking --sometimes it's better to make the talking parts dynamic and interesting and full of character. Situations where a character is hiding information can be incredibly tense. Situations where characters argue can be interesting or upsetting or funny. Even just a character yammering on and on about something can be played for laughs, or made into an endearing moment where a normally stoic character opens up about something they're genuinely interested in. Think about what else is (or could be!) happening in that moment other than just the exchange of scientific information!

I don't think Action Scene is always more interesting than Talky Scene, but the idea behind that suggestion is sound -- thinking about using a scene for more than just sharing information.

[chris68]

I think if you have a story that has a lot of talking, the answer isn't always to hide the talking --sometimes it's better to make the talking parts dynamic and interesting and full of character.

Thanks! This is exactly the sort of advice I hoped to get. I hadn't thought of exposition as an opportunity for character building.

I draw really slowly, so I'll probably leave this section mostly as-is, but your comments give me a new way to think about things, and I will hopefully find good ways to redesign sections of the comic that I plan to redraw anyway.