Learning to read comic books and graphic novels can be intimidating if you don’t know where to start. Opening up a book and trying to decipher how everything flows should be intuitive, but that isn’t always the case. I wanted to help anyone coming to the format for the first time, better understand it and hopefully not feel like it’s daunting.
There are a couple of different kinds of comics—all comics are a form of sequential art, regardless, but American comics are read a little bit differently than say, manga. They’re more or less the same but just in different directions. But again, to avoid confusion, we’re going to focus on the North American style of comics, like the ones I work on such as Oh My Gods! and The Racc Pack.
HOW TO READ A COMIC PAGE
This seems like a good, logical place to start! When you open up a comic book page, you’ll see a bunch of panels (the individual boxes containing different bits of art that tell the story). Within those panels, there are caption boxes (usually in the top left hand corner of a panel) and word balloons near the character speaking.
The Word Balloon represents dialogue. It will almost always have a directional arrow that points towards the character speaking so that there is minimal confusion. They can still be tricky—What order do you read them in? But they’re the same as panels, so keep on reading:
The way to read the page (and the word balloons within each panel) is to go from Left to Right, Top to Bottom.
With the page shown on the right hand side from ParaNorthern, let’s go through the order that it should be read:
Panel 1 is the top left panel that reads, “Can I get a pumpkin spice latte?”
Panel 2 is the top right panel that reads, “UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Isn’t that just typical!”
Panel 3 is in the middle with the dialogue that reads, “Silas! We’ve talked about this. Pumpkin spice lattes are not made with actual pumpkins!”
And then the two panels along the bottom are Panels 4 and 5, respectively. And hopefully the above helped you to figure out how to read the remaining dialogue there.
Sometimes it’s trial and error a bit with bigger, more elaborate pages and panels, but the art should always be guiding your eye to where you’ll be going next. And again, the rule of thumb is Left to Right, Top to Bottom.
SINGLE ISSUES
Traditionally, single issue comics come out once a month, and are about 22-pages long. There are longer single issues but you’ll see them sometimes referred to as an Oversized Issue.
The best way that I can describe a single issue is that it’s like an episode in a season of your favourite TV show. You get a piece of the story each month that tells a larger over-arcing storyline (aka an “arc”). A story arc can be anywhere from 4-6 issues. It can be part of a continuing story (called an Ongoing Series) or simply be a one-off story arc (which is a Mini-Series or Limited Series).
You typically can get single issues from your local comic book store. They tend to have the most selection when it comes to the comics that are available and are more likely to have something that you’re curious about in stock. We’ll talk more about comic book stores in another column.
TRADE PAPERBACKS (TPB)
Trade paperbacks (often referred to as TPBs) are usually a collection of a complete story arc for a particular comic book series. If we continue with the comparison to TV, this would be the complete season.
TPBs are great! They’re one of the more accessible ways to read comics since a huge variety of places carry them. You can pick up collected trades via Amazon, in your local bookstore, or borrow them from your local library. If you read your comics digitally, Amazon’s Kindle Store often has Marvel trades on for incredibly low prices, starting at around $5, which is significantly cheaper than anywhere else… unless you’re getting them from the library which obviously lets you borrow books for the low price of FREE.
If you’re picking up an ongoing series or a series that has already released trades before, make sure you’re looking at the spine to see what volume number you’re picking up. You’ll ideally want to start at Vol. 1 unless you’ve done your research on a particular series and know of an alternate jumping on point. We’ll cover more of this in later columns.
One other great perk about collecting or reading comics in trade is that there are sometimes little bonuses for readers. Content can include bonus essays, script to final product type demonstrations, and cool concept art.
OGNs
OGN stands for Original Graphic Novel. These are trade-like comic books that are standalone. They’re not part of an ongoing series and if you hear someone saying “Check out this OGN!” it usually means that it is completely readable by anyone. My own books like ParaNorthern and Pillow Talk are originally, standalone OGNs.
Marvel and DC release a few of these a year and they allow for a fan (or newcomer) to check out a character or team in a way that’s not too bogged down by previous continuity.
A lot of the “smaller publishers” release these regularly though. They don’t have other comics or characters that you need to know.
There are many different OGNs that cover every single genre. There’s absolutely one out there for you!
When it comes to making comics and graphic novels, there are can be a lot of people involved…even before you get to the folks behind-the-scenes at a publisher. I wanted to discuss some major ones that you might see…and some that you might not see credited. Typically in the credits of a book, especially direct market comics (such as Marvel, DC Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, etc.) , you’ll see a number of creators listed.
Graphic novels published by traditional publishers (such as Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, etc.) don’t always credit the work-for-hire creators like colourists and letterers. They should but they sometimes don’t. On the copyright information page though, they sometimes will list out the folks who were involved there. Regardless, these are some roles that you might see:
Script by:
Story by:
Art by:
Pencils:
Inks:
Letters:
Let’s get into detail on these roles:
WRITER
The writer is responsible for the script that the artist (penciller, inker, colourist, letterer, etc.) will work off of. This includes panel descriptions, number of panels per page, the dialogue, captions, sound effects (aka SFX), and any other notes that will help the artist effectively bring the story to life.
In many cases, the writer is building the world for the artist too and providing feedback to bring their vision to the page. A good writer, however, knows how to communicate with their artist and how much feedback to provide to them in order to effectively create the structure of the world. Communication is key, and a writer needs to ensure they’re not being overbearing to allow for the artist to retain creative control and enjoy the process.
ARTIST
If there is only one artist credited on a comic book, there’s a good chance that they did the pencils, inks, colours, letters (the definitions of all of those can be found below) etc. Typically in the credits of a book, especially superhero comics, you’ll see a number of creators credited.
PENCILLER
The penciller is the person who lays down the drawings that will be the backbone for the inker. The penciller interprets the script and makes sure that the images on the page represent what’s happening in the story. In some cases, the pencils and inks may be done by the same person, but regardless, the pencils tend to be a looser version of the final product.
INKER
The inker uses strong lines and shading to emphasize the work already on the page from the pencils. The inker adds in any additional details needed to tell the story as per the script.
LETTERER
The letterer is responsible for incorporating all the dialogue, captions, and sound effects onto the page. They work off of the script that’s provided and use a specific set of comic book lettering rules to ensure that the page is easy to read and understand.
COLOURIST
The colourist does exactly what you might think: they colour the comics. A colourist is absolutely vital to the comic book. The comics medium has grown a lot over the years and now the colours on a comic can make or break how the book looks. They help set the tone, vibe, and just make the comic look a million times better.
FLATTER
I reached out to some friends to help me describe what exactly a flatter does and my pal, Richard Pace, described it like this: “If the colourist is a house painter, the flatter is the assistant who preps all the surfaces and tapes off the edges to make the job go faster.”Essentially the flatter puts down simple colours and prepares everything for the colourist to step in and focus on the shading, accents, and other things that will come into effect for the final colours.
EDITOR
The editor is responsible for a lot in the book. In addition to normal things like checking for any spelling/grammar errors, the editor is also responsible for tracking continuity, checking over the pencils, inks, colours, and letters, getting the book off to the printers, following up with publishers for vouchers (if working as a freelance editor), and keeping a schedule for the entire team.
PUBLISHER
This is pretty straightforward and doesn’t just apply to comic books. A publisher is the company that has chosen to take on a particular comic book and distribute it under their brand. Marvel and DC are the “Big Two” with the largest market share and then other publishers include Image Comics, Dark Horse, Boom!, Valiant, Oni Press, and more.
CREATORS
Sometimes you’ll see this listed in a book, especially indie titles. Created by refers to the person who initially came up with the original story, and characters. Unless the person is both an artist and a writer, usually there should be at least two names for this: the writer who came up with the story and the artist that came up with the character designs and concept art.
While a writer may have gotten the ball rolling on a pitch or story idea, comic books are a visual medium, and artists should always be credited as a co-creator. The artist is building the world that the readers will be absorbing as they go through the book and in this medium, that is extremely important.
As a series continues, you may see that the writer and/or artist is different from the CREATORS. Oftentimes, a creative team might decide to move on from a series to work on other projects, so they’ll hand their book off to someone else to take over. The new creative team will be credited appropriately, but CREATED BY along with the original creators names should always be something that you see accompanying everyone else in the credits.
SCRIPT BY or STORY BY
Mark Waid’s run on Black Widow was the first time that I ever noticed a fantastic way to lay out their credits**…
STORY BY: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee
SCRIPT BY: Mark Waid
ART BY: Chris Samnee
It had some additional variations but I’m mentioning this there is an important distinction to be noted here. The artist is very much responsible for how a story looks on the page (duh) and they’re communicating with the writer to ensure that what’s in the script is getting translated properly into images that convey the story.
The artist is as much of a storyteller as the writer is, when it comes to comic books.
Samnee being credited (in this example) is a great way of acknowledging the work that an artist puts into making the story an actual story. Without the art, these would just be screenplays, and people would likely just read novels instead.
I loved this so much and I wanted to address it in case you ever came across something like it in a book. It’s extremely respectful and in a book where you might not get a “creator” credit (Marvel and DC own their own characters), it’s maybe the next best thing to acknowledge the collaborative process between a writer and artist.
**There’s a chance I might be mixing up the exact way that Samnee/Waid are credited in Black Widow but I do distinctly remember that Waid gave Samnee a credit as a storyteller within the series either by saying “Story by” or “Written by” and crediting them both. Regardless, I’ve seen it in Black Widow and a couple other books (with different creators) over the years.
If you’re looking to understand comics and graphic novels more and what the various terminology means, here’s a handy dandy guide to help you out.
Let’s dive in:
COMIC BOOK ROLES AND CREATIVE TEAMS
This list of terms breaks down the different roles within a comic book, commonly referred to as the Creative Team.
Writer – The writer is responsible for the script that the artist (penciller, inker, colourist, letterer, etc.) will work off of. This includes panel descriptions, number of panels per page, the dialogue, captions, sound effects (aka SFX), and any other notes that will help the artist effectively bring the story to life.
Penciller – The penciller is the person who lays down the drawings that will be the backbone for the inker. The penciller interprets the script and makes sure that the images on the page represent what’s happening in the story. In some cases, the pencils and inks may be done by the same person, but regardless, the pencils tend to be a looser version of the final product.
Inker – The inker uses strong lines and shading to emphasize the work already on the page from the pencils. The inker adds in any additional details needed to tell the story as per the script.
Colourist – The colourist does exactly what you might think: they colour the comics. A colourist is absolutely vital to the comic book. The comics medium has grown a lot over the years and now the colours on a comic can make or break how the book looks. They help set the tone, vibe, and just make the comic look a million times better.
Letterer – The letterer is responsible for incorporating all the dialogue, captions, and sound effects onto the page. They work off of the script that’s provided and use a specific set of comic book lettering rules to ensure that the page is easy to read and understand.
Editor – The editor is responsible for a lot in the book. In addition to normal things like checking for any spelling/grammar errors, the editor is also responsible for tracking continuity, checking over the pencils, inks, colours, and letters, getting the book off to the printers, following up with publishers for vouchers (if working as a freelance editor), and keeping a schedule for the entire team.
For a more in-depth look at what each of these roles entails, check out this article.
FORMATS
Single Issue – A single issue (sometimes also referred to as a Floppie) is a 22-page comic typically released once a month. The individual issues make up a larger story arc (think of them as an episode in a season of a TV series). The page count and frequency of publication can change based on the book, but those are the standards.
Trade Paperback (TPB) – A trade paperback (or TPB) is a collected edition of a comic book series arc. This usually compiles all the individual issues previously released as Single Issues in one volume that tells a complete story arc (think of this like the complete season of a TV series).
Original Graphic Novel (OGN) – An original graphic novel (or OGN) is usually a comic book that stands alone. If it’s a character that is pre-existing and has previous continuity, it’s usually a book that anyone can pick up to learn more about that character and read a storyline that isn’t bogged down by all the other stuff going on. In indie and creator owned markets, this is usually just a self-contained story that anyone can pick up and enjoy.
Digital Comics – Digital comics refer to comics that you read on any digital platform such as tablet, phone, computer etc.
Digital First – This is a digital exclusive comic that is released online only first and then eventually it is released in print, either in single issues or collected as a trade.
Digest – A digest is a smaller format comic book – a digest sized version! Usually with a lower quality paper and many different short stories geared towards a younger audience. These types of comics can be found in grocery store queues and superstore book aisles, making them very accessible to just about everyone.
Omnibus – An omnibus is often a collection of either “essential” storylines or a “complete series”. It’s usually a mammoth hardcover book that also includes bonus content such as concept art.
Limited Series/Mini-Series – A Limited Series or Mini-Series is a comic that will have a set amount of issues that will be released (usually 5 or 6). This is different from an OGN because it’s released in single issues but will wrap up after the story is concluded. An OGN is released in a complete collected trade and eventually a Limited/Mini will likely be released this way too, but after it wraps up as single issues.
Webcomic – A webcomic is a serialized story that’s published on a web site regularly. Creators will release a new chapter periodically (such as every Monday) and are typically free for anyone to find and read.
Zine – Indie comic creators will often creator short zines that they’ll publish on web sites or at conventions. They can be as simple as being printed on regular printer paper and folded up like a pamphlet, or more professionally done at a printer. There’s no set rules for a zine!
Variant Cover – A variant cover is an alternative to the main advertised cover for a specific Single Issue. Marvel and DC do a lot of variant covers but they’re a big item amongst collectors as they showcase the work of different artists that may not normally be associated with a particular comic book.
OTHER TERMS
Panel – A panel refers to one of the boxes on a comic book page. Each box tells a piece of the story on the page and move the plot along.
Word Balloon – A word balloon surrounds the dialogue that a specific character is saying. A word balloon also often has a directional arrow that points to the character that is speaking.
Splash Page – A splash page refers to a page that only has one panel. The one panel can be laid out many different ways but ultimately one big “spread” or art takes up the entirety of the page.
Double Page Spread – In the same way that a Splash Page takes up one whole page, a double page spread does the same but across two pages. This is always done on side by side pages so that readers.
Anthology – An anthology collection isn’t something exclusive to comics; it exists in many other mediums. Typically it’s a series of stories done by a number of different creators with one common theme.
The Big Two – The Big Two refers to Marvel and DC Comics who collectively take up the largest market share when it comes to comic books.
Creator-Owned – Creator-owned means that a specific book is fully owned by the people who created the characters and story. The publisher doesn’t get any say when it comes to the creative rights of the book.
Indie – This is usually a broad term that describes pretty much anything that’s published outside of DC and Marvel. Some people believe that Image Comics is no longer indie but as they solely carry creator-owned titles, I still firmly believe they fall in that category. Indie, like in other industries, just means it’s independent.
Continuity – Continuity is another term that is found across other mediums. It refers to the consistencies in the story as well as the history of it.
Crossover – A crossover is when two pre-existing characters or worlds are in one story. Such as back in The Big Two teamed up to do a a short series called DC vs. Marvel back in 1996. A crossover isn’t exclusive to publishers teaming up, but can also be two characters that you wouldn’t normally see together in a story.
Event – A comic book event is a publicity stunt where a large over-arcing story takes over all the properties at a publisher (usually). Marvel does these a lot with Civil War being one of the most famous ones (as an example since this was also turned into a film).
Solicitations – These are the up coming releases from a publisher. They tell you the title, a little description of the book, the creative team, and when you can expect it to be released. They’ll also sometimes include a pre-order code that you can take to your LCS (see below) to ensure that they order in a copy of the book for you.
LCS – This is an abbreviation that stands for “Local Comic Shop”. It’s something you see online a lot, especially on social media.
One of the most common questions among creators in any field, but especially writing, ask: how do I get started? It’s common because not a lot of folks really talk about how hard it can be to break into the industry and land published work, especially if you’re not able to draw your own stories.
It’s marginally easier to find published work in comics if you can draw your own stories. You can build up your portfolio on your own, and not have to rely on collaboration, and saving up money to bring your scripts to life. But while it’s maybe easier to break in that way, artists ultimately get the short end of the stick, as they tend to be burdened with the majority of the work, crappier deadlines, and less pay.
That’s why it’s important for writers to practice as they come into the industry, and learn how to be the best collaborator that they can be. It’s not just about building up a portfolio, it’s about building up your work so that you’re taking your co-creators into consideration.
If you ask other creators who’ve been around for a while How do I get started? you will almost definitely get the response, “Just make comics!” This can be a little bit frustrating to some folks who feel that they don’t know how to make comics yet, and the question is more about WHERE do they start? How do they build up a network of peers? How do they seek out editors and published work? There are so many different components at work here, and we’re going to try to jump into a few of those in this piece.
GETTING YOUR WORK PUBLISHED
I am a massive advocate of the short story. Short stories can be incredibly hard to write, and even harder to make satisfying to your readers. But being able to write a short story can be a powerful portfolio piece for you that editors will note and appreciate. It’s hard to drop people into a world, even if it’s our own, and set the stage so that the story can play out with anything that the reader may need to understand. You need to play around with how much information you absolutely have to convey vs. what can your reader be left to deduce on their own. To do that, you have to understand your audience, and write for who you think might read your story.
Thankfully, that sort of information tends to be provided to you if you look for anthologies and zines to submit to. Coming up and writing original story ideas can be really daunting without parameters, but because of the rise of the comic book anthology, small press publishers have been working on putting out a wide variety of collections to showcase a wide variety of creators.
They’re not always open call anthologies, and sometimes you just need to know the right people. Joining a group like Cartoonist Cooperative, can help you stay in the loop for the ones that do open their submissions.
Writers who aren’t able to draw their own stories are often concerned about their ability to pay an artist to bring their story to life. Submitting to, and getting accepted into an anthology can not only help with that, but it gets you a credit in a published project.
Most reputable anthologies and small press publishers will make sure to offer a page rate to the creators on their books. Because they’re small publishers though, the page rate is usually pending a crowdfunding campaign – they tend to get the money via Kickstarter (or another crowdfunding platform), which includes rates for the creators as well as the money they need for the actual creation of the book. You can visit TO Comix Press’ site to learn more about the process; they are completely transparent on the process, the funds, and everything else you need to learn about anthologies or to run your own.
Some creators may want to work with an established artist for a short story – an artist who may otherwise be out of their price range. What you can also do here, is negotiate with said artist. By negotiate, I mean you find out what their regular rate is, find out the rate that the anthology is paying to the artist, and then subtract that number from the regular rate. From there, you can pay the difference to make up for it, and potentially have the chance to work with a bigger name creator.
This can be good because a) it brings more repute to the anthology b) it gives more weight to you as a creator and c) allows you to learn about collaborating with someone who already has experience in the industry.
But even though you have a contract for the anthology (probably), make sure to also develop a contract between yourselves for the additional page rate to be provided.
Even if it’s small press or a micro press, having a story published in an anthology or zine still counts as published work. There can also be a lot of competition for these story slots too, so don’t be discouraged by rejection. You can always hang onto stories to work on and develop on your own down the line.
That brings me to my last point with this section though, and that’s about READING THE BRIEF. Each anthology will have specific perimeters and will often break things down into things that they want to see and things that they definitely don’t want to see. It’s important to read carefully and make sure that whatever you come up with fits into what they’re looking for. If not, you run the risk of being disregarded immediately.
Make sure you include everything that is asked of you. Check to see if they’ll help pair you up with an artist; if not, look into some options like again, being a part of a group like Cartoonist Cooperative. Check if you need to provide a web site; do you have a web site? If not, make sure you have one, and make sure that whatever you submit is what they’re looking for (for instance, some folks do not want to see Instagram shared as a portfolio).
Real talk: once you know that you want to take your creative passion to the next level, you should always have a web site. Always have contact information on your web site. Always make your web site accessible – you never know who might notice you! But most editors will never love a creator enough to hunt them down… if you don’t have a web site, or contact information listed anywhere, and are generally unaccessible, you are going to miss out on potential opportunities.
Most anthologies won’t ask for a script or art up front, but read to make sure. A lot of anthologies will at least want an outline of your story (including a satisfying resolution to the story), an idea of your characters, and a description like what you’d see on the back of a book.
This is tricky, especially if you don’t go to conventions or if you have crippling anxiety or… well, there’s a bunch of reasons why this is tricky.
There’s this great thing that exists called The Internet! And on the internet, you can utilize social media. And on that social media, you can still connect with editors (and your peers). I know things are really in flux right now in regards to that, but if social media doesn’t feel like an option for you, or it’s too overwhelming…hey! That’s okay. Many of us are right there with you. Again, joining a group like Cartoonist Cooperative, especially connecting to them or others via their Discord servers, can be a huge help.
I’d recommend building up a network of your peers first, and building up a good relationship with them. It doesn’t have to be a working relationship – in fact, most peer relationships are built as traditional friendships rather than being treated as a co-worker or colleague. Creators want to build healthy relationships with peers that they can be in the industry with; folks they can talk to and understand and relate to. Interacting, engaging, and supporting your peers in a way that feels (and is) genuine will go a long way in helping you build your career.
As you and your peers grow in the industry, you’ll find that people tend to share the wealth, so to speak. Creators are happy to give intros to other creators, to editors, and to other pros working in the industry. They’re willing to do that for their friends and peers that they will feel will be a good reflection of them since it’s their introduction that will open the door.
All of this can apply to IRL relationships and communities, if you’re the type of person okay with social interaction and being at conventions and industry events, but it still applies if you’re exclusively online only.
It’s about treating others with respect. Read the room, so to speak, and engage with others in an appropriate way. Respect your peers. Understand the rules and boundaries, and respect them.
WRITING EXERCISES AND PROMPTS
I won’t spend a long time on this section, so I’ll get to the point. Like I mentioned within the Getting Your Work Published section – sometimes when your have no perimeters, it’s intimidating to come up with a story idea. If that’s the case, and you don’t see any anthologies or zines to pitch to, look for writing prompts!
You can definitely find lots of them on Pinterest, on social media, and just generally around, but what you can also do to prepare yourself for other anthologies, is looking at old anthologies no longer accepting submissions. You can look at their guidelines and specifications, and try to build a story with them. It gives you structure and timelines to work with. You can choose to come up with the ideas and outlines only, or you can play around with the scripts and actually write them.
Other things to do? Think of your favourite characters from anything at all, and try to come up with a story that you haven’t seen done before with them. Shout out to FANFICTION!!!! It’s existed for many, many moons, and is fantastic. You can change the names of the characters or heck, you can just write out the character as the character. Just make sure that should you ever pursue having the script made, that there are certain legalities around selling a story that’s based on someone else’s property.
But as an exercise just for you? It’s great.
FINDING TIME TO WRITE
Despite what anyone says, you do not need a fancy app or word processor to write your scripts. For both writing and editing, I exclusively use Google Docs. I only really use Microsoft Word for copyedits or to send a file in a specific format to a creator or editor. Google Docs is great because it allows me access to my work anytime, and anywhere that I have internet access. Even if I don’t have internet access, as long as I’ve made the file available offline, I can still get to it.
This allows for me to, again, work from anywhere. I can work on my commute (I literally wrote an entire novel over the course of a month just on my daily commute), I can work on my day job breaks, and I can work if I have a few minutes before an appointment, or meeting or wherever else I am.
For me as also an editor, formatting is important, but it’s not as important as just getting things down on paper. You can free flow your idea and stories onto the page, and once you’re in a place to build up from that groundwork, go in and fine tune things.
Creators often don’t find time to write – most of us continue to have day jobs and side hustles that we have to do to pay our bills. If we focused on finding the time to write, it would never get done. We make the time to write.
This isn’t a humble brag on my life – because make no mistake: it’s a mess that I constantly struggle to balance. When I first started making comics, I was working a 45+ hour/week job and had numerous volunteer gigs and part-time jobs on the side. Plus trying to manage my personal life. But I still try to write every day. Or nearly every day. You could easily look at my life, and minus the editing and writing portion, think Wow, when would you have time to do anything else? and again, the answer is this: I make the time.
You need to make the time.
So at the end of the day, it comes down to you. When you, or anyone else asks How do I get started? it comes down to how bad you want it. Do you love comics? Do you love telling stories? Can you make time for this?
You need to tell these stories for you, first and foremost. You have to love the medium, and turning what’s in your brain into something more on the page. If you’re focused on making comics for other people, chances are, you won’t make it far. Tell stories that are important to you, and stories that you want to tell. That way, it becomes easy to make the time.
Get excited for your art. Get excited to tell a story. Get excited to see it come to life with an artist, and other collaborators! Collaboration is the best part of this medium, and when you open yourself up to the possibilities of what you can do within it, you’ll maybe find that the excitement is intoxicating and addicting in the best ways possible.
I regularly get asked about how to get your stories published, and it all starts with building a pitch for an agent, editor, and publisher to look at.
There’s no one, standard way to pitch in comics, but there are certain elements of your book that should be included no matter who you’re reaching out to. But I’ve melded my own personal way of pitching with Jim Zub’s method (from his post Here Comes the Pitch and other educational posts by him). Feel free to change it up to be whatever you need, but this is my go-to way to make sure I have everything that I need for telling folks about my story idea.
NOTE:This is the bare bones template. You’ll want to spruce it up with art, fonts, and personality that match your pitch. You don’t have to, but it does help to make your pitch stand out amongst others.
Keep in mind that what you need for a pitch can vary from agent to agent, editor to editor, and from publisher to publisher. For publishers that have open submissions, they’ll typically list what they need from you right on the page. Make sure to follow the instructions and include everything that they require to give your pitch the best possible chance for success. ALWAYS adjust your pitch to their specifications.
To give you some additional context for the pitch template you’ll see below, you can also take a look at our completed pitch for the OH MY GODS! graphic novels. A lot changed from pitch to final product but this will give you a rough idea of what we put together to get it in front of editors and publishers, keeping in mind that at the time, we were originally looking to release it serially within the direct market (comic book publishers as opposed to pitching it as a graphic novel to traditional publishers within the book industry).
Below are the elements that you’ll want to include in your pitch but there’s also a downloadable template at the bottom of the page for you too.
TITLE (OR WORKING TITLE*)
WRITTEN BY:
ART BY:
*Always include a title as opposed to UNTITLED PROJECT or whatever. The title can be changed later but it’s important to have something in place here. Include all other additional credits and creators that will be a part of your project.
LOGLINE:
A short summary of your story no more than 1-2 sentences long. It’s basically the elevator pitch to entice readers in.
DESCRIPTION:
This is the longer summary of your story that gets into slightly more detail. Think of what you’d read on the back of a book or graphic novel. Concise, catchy, and alluring. Ideally 2-3 paragraphs long. You really want to entice readers (aka editors, agents, publishers) with this.
CHARACTERS:
One of the biggest components of any pitch is your character section. This is a breakdown of the major characters that we’ll meet in the story (or the first arc that you’re pitching—if you’re looking to create an ongoing series). Put the focus on the ones that we see the most and/or the ones that have the most impact on the characters around them.
You not only want to include a blurb about who each of the characters is, what they look like, etc. but also the journey they’re on. Who are they at the start of the story vs. at the end? What will they learn? How will they grow?
If you have an artist attached to your project already, having concept art for the main characters can be very helpful. If you don’t, that’s okay! I personally like to build Pinterest boards to establish a “look” and aesthetic for each character to help support the visual. And you can include those Pinterest boards in your pitch too. Ideally, if an agent or editor is working on comics and graphic novels, they’re fairly visual and can use the tools you give them to envision the final product.
SETTING:
I’d say this can be optional to expand on in a pitch with the exception being if you’re creating a fictional place. It can be helpful to lay out the world and explain any differences between ours and the one you’ve built.
DETAILS:
This isn’t story-related stuff, per se. In this section, you want to include an estimated page count (or issue count if you’re thinking of a serialized story). Include whether or not it’s standalone, part of an ongoing series, etc. Make sure you research approx. page counts for the audience you’re aiming for too, so you know if what you’re pitching is within reason. And speaking of audience, this is also the place to go into that. Is your story MG (middle-grade), YA (young adult), adult, etc.
Again, do your research there to see what would be the best fit based on your characters and the story you want to tell. Sometimes an editor might ask to age your characters up or down to better fit into a market too. But that’s not something to worry about here.
You also want to select some comp(arable) titles to help show that there’s a market for your story. For instance, with Oh My Gods!, some of our comp titles included Lumberjanes, Percy Jackson, Clone High, etc.
OUTLINE:
Finally, you need a breakdown of the story. You don’t want to hold back here—include all the details of the story from start to finish. Lay everything out for the reader. If you have the story broken down into chapters, think of each outline as a detailed version of the DESCRIPTION section but with everything spelled out. Make each chapter 1-3 paragraphs long and be as concise as possible.
SAMPLE SCRIPT:
You’ll want to have a sample script to show too. Having at least 30-40 pages written will likely be the bare minimum. Some agents and editors want to see a FULL manuscript, so be sure to read submission guidelines to know what you need.
ART:
If you have concept art, include it. If you do include art, you want to make sure that you have character concept designs. If you’re building your own world, consider including some designs showing that off too. Direct market pubs often require preview pages* of the story (usually six pages, minimum) but be sure to read submission guidelines. If not, it never hurts to mention what you envision for the art and list a few artists whose style you think may work for the book when the time comes.
If you do have an artist/creative team on board, make sure details are worked out between you (ie. ownership split, payment system, royalties division, etc.) Be sure to have it in writing in the form of a collaboration contract. You can use this one as a template.
*if you’re going to include preview pages, keep in mind that the recommended six-pages don’t have to be the first six-pages. Use six-pages from your script and story that best represent the overall vision and tone of your project.
OTHER:
Lastly, this isn’t the definitive guide to pitching your comic. This is what I do and have had success with. Research other pitches and do what’s best for you and your story. This is a starting place to help you out. Before you submit, be sure to visit the websites for any editor, agent, or publisher to read their submission guidelines. They’re often outlined extensively so you’re giving them what they want to see.
If you pitch and get interest from an editor or agent…that’s great! But don’t sign a single thing until you’ve had a lawyer or agent review the paperwork. That’s another thread…but always protect yourself, your team, and your IP.
No matter what level you’re at in the industry, contracts are vital and important. Whether it’s between you and a publisher or you and an editor, or you and a co-collaborator, making sure that what you’re all doing is laid on paper is very important.
Even if you’re working with a friend, it’s important to make sure that what you’re doing together is clear and concise, with everyone’s roles outlined.
The idea of putting together a contract can be incredibly daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! Having everything on a piece of paper that you both sign can be your contract that will protect you (ie. Creator 1 is responsible for the art. Creator 2 is responsible for scripts. Both Creators will submit work on time as per an agreed upon schedule. All royalties will be split 50/50 and both will maintain co-ownership of the book.) – BUT if you want a slightly fancier contract to help keep your team safe, you can use this handy dandy Collaboration Agreement:
This agreement is just a template and it can be adjusted to fit your needs, based on the number of creators on your project, what you want to hash out, and more.
Here’s a tip: a friend of mine, Tory Woollcott, pointed out that a contract doesn’t have to be full of legal mumbo jumbo. If a publisher or collaborator sends you a contract that you don’t understand, break it down into simple terms. Write out the contract in ways that you understand with all the terms and ask the publisher/editor/collaborator if what you’ve written encapsulates everything within the jargonese of the more complex contract. If they say yes, ask if it’s okay if they sign your version of the contract so you have something that’s far easier to digest.
This might not always be feasible for every contract but between creators and collaborators, this way might be a lot more straightforward. For a publisher, if you don’t understand things, always be sure to hire a lawyer to review the terms and make sure that there’s nothing screwing you over in the legalese.
This post is meant to help out creators who want to put themselves out there for work, preferably of the paid variety.
Editors and creators in general are always on the lookout for new talent. As a freelance editor myself, I keep an ongoing list of the creators I come across that I want to find a project for someday. The list of creators is longer than the amount of work I could possibly do in one lifetime, but I still keep and add to it in the hopes of having the perfect person in mind for whatever project comes down the line.
Now, the rest of this piece will highly depend on what kind of work you’re looking for—but before I get into anything else, I want to talk about a few basic things that should be included in a portfolio no matter what kind of work you’re looking for. But I’m going to make the primary focus on building a portfolio as an artist. However, I will also include a little section at the end for a writing portfolio and specific things to include there.
A Home Base for Your Work
You don’t need to pay for a fancy website (Squarespace, Wix, Artstation etc, are fine) with a domain, etc. I want to see the art as easily as possible (straightforward navigation, etc.) and be able to contact someone. But you should have a home base for yourself that includes a short bio, a CV (if you have previous credits to list), your social media links, and above all else—CONTACT INFORMATION! I cannot stress how important this is. No matter how great your art is, there is no editor who will hunt you down to hire you if you don’t have easy ways to be contacted.
I know I’m not the only editor who sees this all the time. I know it can be scary to put your information out there to the world, but invest in a site and a contact form if you don’t want to include your email address.
Including a section in your ABOUT page on what you want to work on, what you like to draw, etc. is also helpful! Not necessary, but definitely helpful. And updating your ABOUT or CONTACT page with whether or not you’re available currently for work is also extremely helpful.
What Kind of Work Do You Want?
Unless you’re already a big name where a creator knows your work by flipping through a comic book that they’re already familiar with, you’re going to want to make sure that your portfolio includes images that showcase the type of work you’d like to be doing. If you want to do…
COVERS – have a strong portfolio of illustrations showing your range. Mockup covers for your fave books too, if you want and/or can.
INTERIORS: include samples of your sequential work.
Make sure to include illustrations and art that conveys the range you’re comfortable/happy working in. It’s okay to have a variety! But try to only include stuff that you want to do more of. Even if it’s just in sketch form, showcase everything you can draw, especially if it’s stuff that some artists don’t enjoy working on (ie. cars, bikes, horses, backgrounds, foliage, animals, etc.)
I’d say that most artists wanting to work in comics, animation, etc. can draw people, but you don’t always see a strong range of what else they can confidently do. How do your layouts look? Do you have strong line work? How’s the anatomy of the people on the page? How do you convey facial expressions and emotions? There are a ton of factors that go into whether or not someone is a good fit for a project and most of those come from seeing samples.
Maybe if I have time to put a project together (and spare cash), an editor can look into test pages for you to do if they’re REALLY interested, but more often than not, editors are looking for someone that they can already see knows their way around a page.
Think about portfolio pieces that will show an editor or potential co-creator everything that you can do for their book. You want to showcase anything that will make you stand out from the crowd, and having dynamic backgrounds, and being good at all the other things will absolutely make you an exceptional candidate.
If you’re looking for work as an interior artist primarily, it’s still okay to include a gallery of illustrations and other such things. I’d try to make them separate items though within your portfolio. For instance, you can have a menu set up with an Art tab – within that, you can break it down into Comics, Illustration, Mixed Media, etc.
You don’t have to limit yourself on your website and portfolio, but making it as easy as possible for editors and creators to find the things they need to find will ultimately help YOU out in the long run.
If you’ve played around with different styles and can really change up how your art looks, show us! I love seeing the range that a creator is capable of and it makes me want to take a risk if you’re maybe not exactly what I was initially looking for.
Having your art coloured isn’t essential in your portfolio since colourists are available to work on projects. If you feel that your colours aren’t particular strong but your line work is, don’t be afraid to just include your line art. It’s nice to see completed art but I’d rather see strong lines that showcase your strengths rather than your art watered down with colouring skills that aren’t quite there yet.
Other Roles
These things can be applied to other jobs in comics as well. Substitute sequential art for illustrations if you’re looking for cover work. Show us your ability to letter and colour comics, respectively.
If you don’t have art to work on and practice with, there are templates and such you can use to practice your colouring and lettering skills.
But again, no matter what: the most important thing is always to have a way that you can be contacted.
Where to NOT Host a Portfolio
Instagram is not a great place to have your portfolio—not everyone has an Instagram and if I’m an editor without one, I’m not making an account solely so I can message you. It’s also hard to zoom in on your linework and take a really decent look at what you’re creating. You can use Instagram if you really need to and don’t have alternatives, but I strongly suggest using something else, and again, having a website that really showcases you and your work.
Ditto that with deviantART, Behance, and other art websites. Those sites are fine to host a portfolio on but you absolutely NEED to include contact information. I am not signing up for deviantART (or trying to hunt down my password from 2005) to message you.
For Writers and Other Roles
As promised, I don’t have a lot more to add specifically for writers (because a lot of the above can still be applied to y’all), but here you go:
You need an updated CV of the work you’ve done. That can include any written projects, including if you’ve written for websites before as a news editor, or whatever. People just want to know that you can properly string together sentences. As time goes on and your portfolio grows, it’s definitely good to update your CV to include the work that most represents what you want to be doing and moving towards.
If you’re listing all the sites you covered news and movie reviews for, it’s possible that you’ll keep getting asked to do that kind of work rather than, say, writing comic books. So just keep that in mind.
I’ll leave you with the most important thing that I’ve discovered when looking at portfolios. I’ve already said it once but I’ll say it again for you all:
ALWAYS HAVE CONTACT INFORMATION ON YOUR WEBSITE!!!!
This is not the be all and end all to creating a portfolio—this is from my perspective of important components to include from my work as a freelance editor as well as a creator who is often on the lookout for exciting talent to work with.
Outlining your story is easily one of the most important parts of the process, and one that can sometimes be overlooked. For years, I thought I could get away with having a general idea and then jump into writing it and letting it evolve as I went along. It’s maybe no surprise to those who are avid outliners that I didn’t get very far with this method; I always seemed to lose traction and not know where to take things.
It seems like a simple revelation now, but when I finally realized how much an outline could (and would) help me fully realize and get my stories down, it was a game changer.
Even for short stories, outlines can be essential. They allow you to play around with the plot beats, move things around, and rework the story until it all makes sense and you’re happy with it. It saves you from scripting, editing, scrapping the whole thing, rewriting, editing, editing, editing, and editing some more. Most stories, short or long, will require edits and numerous drafts, but at least with an outline, you have a better skeleton to get your story off to a solid start.
Everyone’s outlining stage looks different but here’s what I do for my outlining process:
BROAD STORY DESCRIPTION
Once I have an idea that I want to develop further, I write out a plot description in a very loose format that tells me the general gist of the story. Kind of like what you’d see on the back of a book. I like having a broad sense of what the main story is, what the conflict will be, and the hook to readers.
This isn’t necessarily for everyone, but this is what I do.
LOOSE BRAINSTORM
From here, I like to use a good ol’ notebook and pen to jot down story ideas that will happen throughout the book. They may not be in “order” yet but I try to think about the characters, what I want to do with the story, and fill in gaps that will be inserted into the more detailed outline. Sometimes I come up with a great lead-in to the ending so I write it down so that I can add it in when I get to that part.
ASK QUESTIONS
Once I have a better sense of what I want to do, and before I get to the outline, I like to write down questions that I still need to answer to tell a complete story. Things like, “How does my protagonist solve this conflict?” or “What is so-and-so’s main motivation?” or “How do I drive up the conflict and stakes within the story?” etc.
Having an idea of things that I still need to work on and address in early stages helps me to think about what the story is lacking and try to add more substance to it. Sometimes it’s simpler things like exploring what makes a character who they are, and how to build on it, but the more questions we ask ourselves, the stronger our outline (and eventually story) will be.
STORY BREAKDOWN
One thing that I do for long-form writing is breakdown my stories into chapters. I have ADHD so trying to think about my stories as one big chunk is really hard for me. I can’t remember bits and pieces and where everything fits together when it’s presented to me that way, so I break things down into digestible chapters. The chapters themselves may not make it into the final product but being able to pinpoint specific areas for each part of my story makes it exponentially easier for me.
This also makes it easier for me when I edit and work on a new draft of a story, but that’s an article for another time.
I try to think of my story and then break it down into the major beats that will form the skeleton of the story. Those will be the chapters.
DETAILED OUTLINE
This is the bread and butter of each story I write. I put together an outline that is just for me and includes what more or less works out to a plot point per 1-5 pages. It varies in level of detail; sometimes I know exactly what I want to happen in that particular section, including bits of dialogue, while other times I can leave it pretty vague because what I’m writing gives me a good enough sense of what needs to go there.
Your bullet point count can vary and include much broader strokes if you work better with less structure, but for me, doing a really extensive outline allows me to write my scripts pretty quick since most of the work on the structure has already been done.
For a 250-300 page YA project that I’m currently working on, I have an 8-page bullet point outline that’s over 4500 words long. It’s probably my longest outline to date, but after having a more bare bones one, I went back in and added additional plot beats to work in some early editorial notes.
PROFESSIONAL PITCH OUTLINE
Once I have the detailed outline, I use it to build a more professional plot synopsis for my agent or an editor to read. This goes into detail about everything that’s going to happen in the chapter but in a back-of-the-book kind of way. There’s more detail than what you’d see there and includes spoilers (editors want to know what’s going to happen, not the juicy version meant to entice readers) but with my extensive bullet point plot beats, this version of the outline is a piece of cake. Or at least easier than it would be without it.
As you can hopefully tell, outlining is extremely important to building a solid story foundation and being able to tell a cohesive story. Everyone’s process is different, but hopefully this helps give you a sense of what goes into at least one writer’s outlines and what each step entails.
There are lots of other steps that can come before or after the outline stage (ie. worldbuilding, character concepts and descriptions, settings, etc.) but this particular piece is focused solely on the outline part, which should at the very least be firmly before your scripting stage. Everything else is up to you!
One of the biggest ways to grow as a creator, whether you’re new to the industry or a seasoned veteran, is by writing short stories. Short stories are often overlooked in the industry and although anthologies have been extremely popular over the years, individual stories aren’t often mentioned or praised in mainstream circles.
Short stories are notoriously hard to do and even harder to do well. Practicing and mastering the art of the short story can do wonders for you and your career. Here are a few examples of how they can help you:
PORTFOLIO PIECES
Shorts make for excellent portfolio pieces for up and coming creator. When an editor isn’t familiar with you or your work, being able to showcase several shorts with a variety of styles and genres is significantly more valuable than one long-form piece. And not to say that you should try to write something in every genre and do something to find any work; you can tinker to see what works and more particularly, what you enjoy.
Make your portfolio pieces the types of stories that showcase your range and are indicative of the kind of work you’d like to do as a creator. It’s important to have some focus when it comes to building your brand as a creator, but that still can afford you options. For instance, if you want to write middle-grade or YA, that’s the audience to build but you can still work on different genres for those audiences.
CREATOR REPUTATION
I’ve got bad news for any creators going into the comics industry without any short story experience: very few artists will want to work with you. I don’t mean for this to sound harsh, but it’s true. If you’re a writer with not a lot of scripting work under your belt, artists will automatically be wary of you. It’s no secret that the art process in comics is significantly more intensive than the writing process. There’s no debate. Artists don’t want to be brought on board to a project with a creator who doesn’t understand how to write specifically for the medium. It tends to make their jobs that much harder.
You have to allow yourself some time to learn the craft and hone your voice for the medium. There are specific things to learn and in a collaborative medium, it’s the least you can do to make the rest of your team’s lives easier.
PACING
Another important reason to play around with short stories is for pacing, especially if you’re unfamiliar with writing for the medium. Writing a 10-page prose story is NOT the same as writing a 10-page comic script. There’s far less room for you to tell your story and you have to learn to condense your idea down and understand that you may not be able to fit everything in. Keeping your panel count to 5-6 panels per page is equally important here. You can’t just overwhelm your artist (and the reader) by thinking you can fill up the page with panels. The story will suffer if you try to cram too much in.
Short stories really force you to learn what’s important to your story and what can be left behind. Simplify an idea down to the bare bones, figure out what you absolutely need, and add flourishes where you can.
CHANGING BAD HABITS
There are a myriad of bad habits that can be formed as a writer. That’s not something exclusive to the comics industry; it’s just something that can happen to anyone. But with that being said, as you learn about some of those habits and try to break them, you can challenge yourself through the short story.
For instance, if over-narration is a thing you do, how can you work around that? Challenging yourself to write something that uses no dialogue or narration is a great way to practice this. How can you convey your story by solely relying on the art? It’s an important and excellent way for creators to learn the essential lesson: show don’t tell. Comics is a visual medium, and as a writer, you need to learn to trust that the art will tell more than you think it will. Learning to let go and put faith in the rest of your team is a great way to level up as a collaborator.
CREATOR GROWTH
Continuing to learn and grow is an essential part of being a creator. If you don’t want your work to get stale and if you want your work to get better over time, practicing and trying new things are essential.
With a short story, it’s much easier to try out a new creative voice, to utilize a new script style or format, or to play with genres that are outside your comfort zone. When you dabble in something that’s 10-pages long, it’s easier to take risks and be less precious about the characters and what ultimately happens. And it’s much easier to evaluate your work and see what worked and what didn’t.
Telling a satisfying story is hard enough when you have 200+ pages to work with. It’s even harder when you only have 10-pages. To reiterate an earlier point, learning about what is essential to your story and what can be left out is a must to this art form. It pushes creators in different ways that help with your growth.
Even if you ultimately write short stories for you and you alone, practicing this art will make you a stronger creator in the end. If coming up with an idea for a short story is daunting, write fanfiction or do a spinoff of one of your other ideas. Tell a story that involves a side character, or try to elaborate on something you weren’t able to include in another project. There are lots of ways to form an idea that’s relatively low-stakes for you and still gives you the opportunity to practice.
Anthologies can give you a place to utilize these stories and get published, but even if you don’t come across one that’s a good fit for a specific story, you can still use the script itself as a portfolio piece to show to editors. But again, at the end of the day, short stories have so many additional merits that make them not just excellent portfolio pieces but brilliant educational exercises.
Whether you’re here because you want to be a comic book editor or whether you’re just curious about what exactly it can entail, welcome! For this piece, I’m going to speak about my personal experience as a freelance editor, which can differ from what is expected of an editor at a comic book publisher.
Maybe even moreso than writing questions, I get asked about being a comic book editor. When you think of what editing typically entails, you probably think about copyedits – someone to help check through your spelling and grammar – and someone who will help you work out any issues with your story.
Comics editing does involve those things, and can just be those things, but it’s often a lot more comprehensive than you might imagine. Depending on what you’re being hired for, and what you feel comfortable doing, freelance editing also means that you’re essentially a project manager for the book that you’re on. You are responsible for working with the team from start to finish, and keeping everyone on track.
EDITS – SCRIPTING
As mentioned, you are responsible for things like spelling and grammar, but it’s a matter of focusing on the important parts and knowing what matters. For instance, you don’t need to be pedantic and copyedit the panel descriptions; the descriptions are ultimately not going to make it into the story so you don’t have to spend a ton of time trying to tidy that all up. You only need to fix descriptions if they don’t make sense for the artist who will have to interpret them. The captions and dialogue are what’s important there, and ensuring that it flows well, serves the overall story, and doesn’t explain what the art will show.
Having a good sense of page layouts will serve you well since in the beginning (if you’re handling the entire book), you won’t have the images to help guide the story for you. It’ll be part of your job to read the descriptions, captions, and dialogue, and interpret whether or not the story will make sense with what the writer has put on the page. You have to try to also think about what the artist will draw from the description and decide if it’s enough for the reader to understand the story.
Alongside that, you’re also giving overall notes to decide if the story makes sense. It’s always different for each project too. Sometimes you’re working on a graphic novel which needs to tell a complete story in one book. Sometimes you’re working episodically and editing individual issues that come together to tell a complete story arc. If you’re working on the latter, do the individual issues feel satisfying and move the story along? Is there too much crammed into any one issue while other areas feel lighter on story?
In comics, everything has to come together to tell a cohesive story, and things can fall apart at any moment if you’re not on top of it all.
Talking to your team about what they want to convey in the story is also great too. It gives you specific things to look for and provide notes on, especially if it falls outside of the general story and copyedits. Maybe they want to focus on strong themes or big character moments. You can focus on whether or not those shine through, and help give inspiration and motivation whenever they feel like it’s not entirely hitting home.
EDITS – ART
Once you have a complete script done, and supposing you’re on board to edit the entire project, the next step is working with the rest of the creative team to bring the script to life.
An editor should strive to have the art process broken up into various stages, even if the artist you’re working with is doing it all; line art, inks, colours, and letters. Typically I would break the process down into:
Thumbnails
Pencils
Inks
Colours
Letters
Those steps would be scheduled individually, given their own realistic deadlines, and we would work through them all with notes given wherever needed along the way. An artist wouldn’t move on to the next step in the process until it’s compared to the script and approved.
The thumbnails phase should mostly be to layout the page based on the script and number of panels needed. It should also include very loose pencils, with word balloons taken into account for placement on the page. An artist doesn’t want to spend a ton of time on pages and panels where things will largely be covered up with captions and/or dialogue.
Pencils are the next step, and they’re the more refined line art for the story. Different artists will do this step in varying levels of detail which tends to come down to whether or not they’re also doing the inking for their art. Artists (in my experience) will go into a little more detail if they’re passing the work off to an inker.
Inks come next, and this is once again comparing things to the script to make sure that everything matches up, and the story is coming together and laid out correctly. This is the final line art, so it should have a refined look, any black and white shading, and should ultimately look complete even without the colour.
The colouring stage is sometimes broken up into more than one step depending on the artist. Some prefer working with someone who can do the colour flatting on the art, while others like to do it all themselves. But the main gist of things here is to set the atmosphere and tone of the story through colour. You once again have to compare things to the script to make sure that everything makes sense and that there aren’t any inconsistencies.
The final step is to hand the nearly completed pages off to a letterer who will then add in the word balloons, caption boxes, etc. as well as the dialogue that’s meant to be in each spot. ALWAYS HIRE A PROFESSIONAL TO DO THIS. Unless you are trained in lettering, I can almost guarantee you that people will notice if you try to cheap out on this step. If the lettering is good, people (unfortunately) won’t notice. If the lettering is bad, people will definitely notice, and can immediately ruin the book.
Through all the steps, it’s important to, again, make sure that everything matches up with the script.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
This is pretty straight-forward now that each of the steps have been outlined. Whether you’re working with one creator who is doing everything or you’re working with several creators who are handling individual parts, you need to have a conversation with every person on your team.
You need to be someone that each creator can come to with any issues, questions, concerns, etc. and more than that, you as an editor need to be familiar with them, how they work, concerns they have, and the best ways to help them bring the story to life. You also need to have a realistic idea of how long it takes for each step to be completed.
I always try to ask the creators I work with how long it takes them to complete one full page of pencils/inks/colours/letters. If they’re able to complete more than one page per day, how many per day can they complete? From there, it’s a matter of asking them how many days per week they work, and then doing some math to estimate how long it will take to complete each step.
You do this for each and every issue (if you’re working on a series), and take into account any issues that might come up, factoring that all in. Ideally, you have a generous schedule that you use to keep the team on track.
I tend to put things in a Google Doc, Calendar, and Spreadsheet for my creators. The Google Doc so that they can reference the dates, the calendar so that they can have it set up to give them reminders, and the spreadsheet so we can check things off as they’re completed.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
This is very similar to the Project Management aspect of things but in addition to all of what’s listed above, team management involves trying your best to talk to your creators and making sure that they’re doing okay. As friend and fellow editor, Adam P. Knave puts it, you’re also a part-time therapist.
If your creators are stuck at any part of the process, hopefully they feel comfortable enough to come to you and talk. If they’re struggling with a story element, working through it together. If they just need someone to vent to, you can hopefully be there.
It’s okay for creators to fall behind on deadlines, but it’s not okay to ghost on your team. As an editor, trying to have everyone communicate with you is vital. You can rework deadlines and move things around if you know what’s happening, and what to work around. It only gets to be a problem when you don’t hear from someone for ages, and don’t have any way to keep things moving.
You have to be a problem solver and come up with solutions to each unique situation that comes up.
At the end of the day, comics editing can be really intensive and it’s important to know what you’re able to take on. It’s okay to be available to discuss story elements and copyedits (or just one or the other). If you want to just be a project manager, that’s a thing too!
But making sure that you are aware of what you can offer and making sure that your creators are aware of that is key. Communication is what will get you through the journey!
Got anything to add to this? I’m sure I missed some important things along the way, so please feel free to help me add to this, and make it more comprehensive for anyone who is interested and wants to know more about comic book editing.
The world is still finding ways to adjust to the “new normal” post-pandemic, but regardless events have been happening again in full force. Amongst those things is a return to conventions, which has long been a place not only for showcasing your work but connecting with peers and networking with your community. As we make our way back to that life, I wanted to share some networking advice with you.
When networking with peers, many make the mistake of trying to connect with the biggest name in the room, so to speak. They think becoming friendly with them will be their golden ticket. It makes sense, in a way; if you can get in good with them, if they recommend you, it’ll mean that much more. But those people already have their network and while it can grow, they’re usually pretty set with their own group that they’re comfortable with and trust. The people that you should be connecting with are the ones at the same level as you. You need people to come up with who understand coming into the industry at the moment.
The people who’ve come to the industry before you had a completely different experience; all industries and how to break into them are constantly evolving. As much as I could give you advice on that and how I came into the industry (same with other established creators), that will change regularly and the people who understand where things are at as is (as I’ve said), are your peers at your level.
The network and support system you’re creating is about sharing information, helping each other out, critiquing groups, and more. You want them to become your circle that you can bounce ideas around with, talk to about what’s going on in the industry, help introduce each other to more of your peers as well as people with hiring power. And on a similar note, as you all find your way into the industry, hopefully also sharing the wealth.
And by “sharing the wealth” I don’t mean giving them your money. It means that if you have to pass on a job, you’re recommending someone else from that network and potentially helping them get hired. This happens all the time where schedules don’t align or you’re just not the right fit but chances are that you know someone from your network who would be a good fit or is actively looking for a project. You pass their name along and your peers are hopefully doing the same for you too.
At every networking event, there is always at least one up-and-coming creator who bails on their peers to star chase because they’re convinced that that’s their way into the industry. But finding the people who are just starting out and forming genuine connections is a million times more valuable to you as a creator. They can help you navigate the industry as it is and grow. And again, not to say that you can’t be friends with bigger name/established creators because you totally can. But the ones that are going to help you the most are the ones who are at the same level as you.
Treat your peers with respect. Understand that people can tell if you’re not genuine in your attempts to befriend them. And the sooner you learn that the industry is smaller than you think, the better. You might not think anything of it but if you’re the type of person to blow people off to hang with “bigger creators,” your peers will remember.
As you continue on in the industry, one of the most rewarding things about having a network is watching them find their success. Sure, it’s amazing to find your own version of success too, but seeing your peers succeed is inspiring and exciting. Every single time I see a friend announce a new project or get hired for something cool, I am so genuinely happy and excited for them. And eventually, seeing their work out in the world? THE BEST!!!!
That’s another reason why those networks and genuine connections are important. You shouldn’t want to compete with your peers but it’s okay to be inspired by them and strive for your own version of success. It’s about having a group of peers and friends that help you stay accountable to your goals and hold you to becoming the best version of yourself.
This seems like a good, logical place to start! When you open up a comic book page, you’ll see a bunch of panels (the individual boxes containing different bits of art that tell the story). Within those panels, there are caption boxes (usually in the top left hand corner of a panel) and word balloons near the character speaking.
Traditionally, single issue comics come out once a month, and are about 22-pages long. There are longer single issues but you’ll see them sometimes referred to as an Oversized Issue.
Trade paperbacks (often referred to as TPBs) are usually a collection of a complete story arc for a particular comic book series. If we continue with the comparison to TV, this would be the complete season.
OGN stands for Original Graphic Novel. These are trade-like comic books that are standalone. They’re not part of an ongoing series and if you hear someone saying “Check out this OGN!” it usually means that it is completely readable by anyone. My own books like ParaNorthern and Pillow Talk are originally, standalone OGNs.