
- COMIC STRIPS TRANSCRIPT HOW TO
- COMIC STRIPS TRANSCRIPT LICENSE
Characters should appear in a panel in speaking order.Dialogue boxes are often depicted as a round or oval-shaped bubble, usually with a small "tail" to a character's mouth to indicate that that character is speaking. Dialogue is the actual conversations and soliloquies that characters speak during the course of the comic.
COMIC STRIPS TRANSCRIPT HOW TO
Some writers even recommend to the illustrator how to frame each "shot" of each panel.
Panel description gives detailed instructions to the illustrator on how each panel should appear, and what should happen in each panel. The illustrator then decides how many panels will appear on each page, and chooses how best to represent those instructions in each panel. Page description provides the illustrator with the setting, mood, characters, and action sequences that are to appear on each page of the comic. There are two common methods of writing description lines:
Common directions given in description lines include instructions for the establishing shots in a given comic, closeups of characters or images, and background imagery. This can be tricky, as it requires you to combine the visual imagery you've envisioned with detailed written instructions to the illustrator. The description lines will instruct the illustrator on how various parts of the comic should appear. Think about what kinds of written direction you would need to give an illustrator for him to design that scene/panel/character. Look closely at the style of each comic and the details given in each panel.
The best way to train yourself to think visually as a comic writer is to read a wide variety of comic books and graphic novels. You'll also need to come up with concrete visual images for things like establishing shots, character closeups (including the style of dress and any traits or quirks of characters), and the general feeling you want readers to have about each character and the environment they inhabit. COMIC STRIPS TRANSCRIPT LICENSE
You may choose to give a lot of creative license to your illustrator, or you may decide to give visual direction to the illustrator on how to depict the setting of your comic (including whether that setting's ambiance changes from day to night or from season to season).
Don't just restrict yourself to the main sequence of events. Before you begin writing the script, think visually about the outline you've created. Once you've plotted out your story's outline, you'll need to start planning for the script itself.
Unless you intend to write and illustrate your comic, a plot first script works best when the writer and illustrator have worked together in the past and trust one another's vision for the comic. Often times the particulars of a scene, such as dialogue and captions, are added by the writer after the illustrator has created the art and broken the various scenes down into their panels. This type of script generally leaves the details of the script, such as the number of panels, the arrangement of panels, and the pacing within the page, to the illustrator's discretion. A plot first script will typically include the characters, narrative arc, and page instructions. There are exceptions, of course, but typically a plot first script is chosen when the writer and the artist have a strong rapport from previous projects, or when the writer will also do his own illustrations, in which case the script serves more as an outline for what the artist/writer anticipates will happen. Plot first scripts, often called "Marvel style" scripts due to Stan Lee's preferred style, leaves out a lot of the detailed instruction and gives that creative license to the artist or illustrator. Decide if a plot first script is right for you.