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james19931234
Oct '17

How do you reccommend a comic script should be written to allow the artist to easily/professionally work with the provided information or script given. I would like to make it easier for my artist to follow the script and give my writer a more specific format to follow. Thanks for any suggestions, please feel free to provide examples so we can all help eachother out.
To give insight into the creative process:
This comic's script of Mercenary Gu https://tapas.io/episode/6490464 is created in this process, 1.I come up with the general summary for the story 2. I send a few paragraphs explaining the story to the writer as well as extra information on how certain character personalities should be portrayed as and other details. 3.He sends me a completed script. 4. I edit the completed script to ensure it matches the tone of the story in mind. 5. Send the edited script to a small group for feedback(sometimes) 6. Send it to the artist.
The issue is sometimes the limited amount of pages prevent the story telling from proceeding a natural pace or for to be visually understood very well. I think in my latest issue of the comic I've confused the readers because something may not of been visually represented well enough because of the script clashing with page production limitation. Any tips how to help on that?

My other series Mountain's End https://tapas.io/episode/3470641 is done in a simpler process where I send the artist a basic idea and he creates the script alongside with me, but I take the story of that series at a much slower pace.

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joe_galindez
Oct '17

Someone recently mentioned that there's no standard format for comic scripts (I've noticed this too) but that movie-script-style formatting is fairly popular. It's understandable. Why invent a completely new format when Hollywood already has something perfectly serviceable?

How does it work when you have both a writer and an artist?

DMBrigman
Oct '17

If you have a limited amount of pages to tell a story and are having pacing problems, then it would be better if the writer at least broke down action by page. That way that artist doesn't have to figure this stuff out and the pacing can be figured out before the long laborious art process has begun. It is also important to the writer to call out anything that is important for the artist to draw on each page. It would be helpful to see an example of a script to offer more specific feedback.

For new writers I find that they often write a script thinking a potential reader would read it, meaning that if there is a shadowy figure or an surprise coming then they hide it until the moment it has to happen, which leads to the issue you mentioned that the artist didn't draw it! The writer should never keep anything secret from the artist. It also helps to have the writer differentiate important thing in ALL CAPS or bold so the artist knows those are important things.

Here are a few examples:
http://www.jimzub.com/the-full-script-for-wayward-1/9
http://www.comicsexperience.com/scripts/5

punkarsenic
Oct '17

theres no real precedent for comic scripting, so its probably best you have a long talk with your artist about what each of you needs for your project to work. some artists do a lot better being left to it with the plot and dialogue, some want a great deal of clarity, down to panel layouts and shot descriptions and many are inbetween.

one thing to note, however: its best to have a description of a setting at the beginning of a scene that mentions any props or pieces of scenery that the characters interact with - otherwise, that coatrack might have to pop up out of thin air.