Hi everyone! I've been around for a while, and it's quite common that new members join the subreddit with little to no idea of how comic book development works. While I don't intend to be an authority on the subject, I thought it could help other people if I shared my process.
I'm currently writing a comic book series called Otherkin, and working with a single artist, Victor Costa.
It all begins with writing. Without turning this into an essay, one thing that was clear to us since the early stages of conception is that a full story arc of Otherkin should be properly planned and written before we begin illustrating the very first page. The first step of the process was for me to write the story outline, and once that got approved by Victor, I started to build each script.
When it comes to comic books, scripts are usually structured in several pages, each with a number of panels. It’s up to the writer to clearly describe what each panel should show and what dialogue it contains. It's also standard to decide which sound effects (SFX) go into each panel at this stage. Then, artists usually take care of panel distribution, following the general writer's instructions. We do things a bit differently. To help lighten Victor’s workload, I design each page during the script writing process, determining the position and average size of panels. A page, done this way, looks something like IMAGE 1.
Once every script is written, Victor reads them all and gives me feedback. I use this feedback to polish the story. Yes. That means all eight issues of the story arc we are currently working on are already fully written. We don't leave anything to chance.
After the full batch of scripts gets written, it's time to focus on a single issue. This time, Victor and I read the script together, discussing each paneling decision and making changes when we think something can be improved. That usually takes two to three hours over a voice call, where we do funny voices to impersonate characters. Once we are both fully satisfied with the panels' planning, Victor takes the helm of production and draws a rough sketch that shows all the positions, angles, and framing for each panel of a full issue. For Otherkin #1, the rough draft looked like IMAGE 2.
It's my turn to give feedback and discuss what could be improved, so we can finalize the rough draft. Each following step is incremental. First, Victor does a detailed sketch of each page. That same script page now looks like IMAGE 3.
Once I give my input on everything that could be tweaked and improved, Victor finalizes the art in black and white. Now it looks like this IMAGE 4.
At this point, there's not much that changes. Since we constantly communicate at each step of the process, we can fix everything that doesn't translate well from the script before Victor wastes too much time on a single page. Finally, it's time to add color, like IMAGE 5.
With the artwork complete, it's time for the lettering. Victor adds the dialogue – which I manually translated into French and Brazilian Portuguese while he took care of illustrations – and we start to discuss SFX. We both give ideas of which panels can be enhanced with the addition of SFX, and decide together what's best for that issue. That leads to the final page, IMAGE 6.
Once all 24 pages are done, it's my job to review everything in the three languages to catch any typos. Then, the full issue gets uploaded to digital platforms like Kindle, GlobalComix, and Gumroad, and sent to the fine folk at DerryComics for printing and distribution. We usually publish one to two weeks after the issue is finished, giving DerryComics enough time to handle printing.
Creating a single comic book issue takes an incredible amount of effort. We both spend hundreds of hours crafting our story and art. Plus, while I have plenty of work, illustrating is by far the biggest time sink. That's why, if you are a writer trying to start a comic book project, you should always take it upon yourself to find out how to properly pay your artist(s).
