Let me say straight up that I don't believe it's
possible to come up with a set of rules that are always applicable, for
everyone, in every situation. Any halfway-decent cartoonist probably looks upon
any set of rules as more of a set of challenges – "how many of these can I
break and still make a readable comic?" – rather than the artistic
equivalent of physical laws, without which nothing works at all. So I'm
offering these "rules" just as a set of guidelines I find helpful.
These are some things that work for me... except when they don't. I trust
they'll be taken in that spirit.
1. Clarity
is Your First Priority
Comics can do a lot of things - they can look
beautiful, they can challenge you intellectually, they can show off your
incredible range of drawing skills - but if you can't understand what's going
on, all of that effort is for nothing. So I nearly always try to make the information
that the panel or page has to convey as clear as possible – and as easy to
follow from panel to panel as possible – before I even begin to think about any
of that other stuff. Building your compositions according to classical
principles is great if you can do that as well, but if you have to make a
choice between beauty and clarity, or cleverness and clarity, or mood and
clarity, clarity trumps everything. The only exception is if there's some
narrative reason for making the information obscure.
I'm referring here to traditional narrative-based
comics, of course; there are other kinds of comics (poetic/mood pieces,
abstract comics) where none of this applies. (But if I qualify everything,
they'll stop being rules, won't they?)
2. Treat
the Lettering as a Part of the Artwork
Computer lettering is a great time-saver, but it's led
to some really difficult-to-read comics. Sometimes that's because the lettering
itself is done sloppily; there seems to be a school of thought that, because
you're using a font, no further care or attention is required – as if
perfectly-formed letters are the only difficult bit, and balloon shapes,
dialogue placement and correct spelling and punctuation are things that will
take care of themselves.
Other times the problem seems to be that the artist
hasn't thought about the lettering at all, so scenes are staged in such a way
that there isn't enough room for the text, or the dialogue is forced to flow in
a counter-intuitive way in order to accommodate the existing pictures.
Me, I always place my balloons before I draw a single
line. Sometimes I'll go so far as to completely letter the page first, before I
pencil; other times, I'll just rough in where the balloons will go. But I
always, always place the text before I do anything
else. The balloons are an element of the artwork; they need to be a part of
your compositions, and ideally they should come from the same hand as the hand
that draws the pictures.
I have a personal preference for hand-lettering for a
number of reasons, most of which boil down to "it looks better"; I
will resort to digital lettering if limited time makes hand-lettering
impossible, or if I'm specifically asked to do so (for ease of translation, for
example; or company policy; or if what I'm drawing is supposed to fit in with
other comics by other artists and the font is being used as a unifying
element). But it's always my second choice. I have a few fonts based on my own
lettering which I use when I have to. Generic comic book lettering fonts are to
be avoided at all costs if you want your work to have any personality of its
own – they should be strictly reserved for corporate superhero comics, which
(these days) aren't supposed to have a personality.
I don't believe artists who say "I can't
letter." I think this is hogwash, in every single case. If you can draw,
you can letter – the same rules of visual balance, aesthetics etc. that apply
to drawing also apply to calligraphy. Just study other letterers, copy their
letter forms, and practice a bit. Spend the same amount of care lettering as
you would drawing. You'll make better-looking comics at the end of it.
3. Show
the Feet Once Per Page
This is a general rule of thumb I try to stick to,
although it's occasionally not appropriate for certain kinds of comics
(newspaper-style gag strips, for example). But it's a good idea to remember to
show your characters full-figure now and again, particularly if you're doing
action-light, dialogue-heavy scenes. The once-a-page rule keeps me aware of the
issue.
4. Keep
Up the Momentum!
Something I try to do is to avoid having characters
standing in one place doing nothing for two or more panels in a row – unless
there's a timing thing that's required, like for certain types of gags. The rest
of the time, even if it's not called for in the script, I try to have my
characters constantly doing things with their hands, or moving from one place
to another – always, always moving forward in time. Even if you've been given a
script where nothing is happening, you can make it feel as if something is happening by
keeping up the momentum visually. If two characters are standing still and
talking for six panels, you can have somebody doing something in the background
so the scene doesn't feel frozen in time. Someone opening a jar of pickles. Anything. Just keep it moving.
5. Remind
the Reader Where Things are Taking Place
I'm conscientious about backgrounds and environments.
Not that I feel they need to be meticulously rendered in great detail in every
panel; in fact, that's probably a drawback, distracting you from the characters
the story is about more often than not. But I think it's important to clearly
establish visually where things are taking place, and to keep reminding the
reader with little shapes, silhouettes and details that keep the environment in
mind. These don't have to be elaborate – just little cues are all that's
required – but they ought to be there.
I generally allow myself a generic, non-specific
background every other panel, tops – less than that if I can help it. Two
background-less panels in a row is something I try to avoid. It's part of
creating a credible, internally-consistent reality in your comics. Which brings
me to...
6. "Realism"
is Less Important than Internal Consistency
I think I'm probably in a minority on this, and a lot
of it has to do with the stylistic path I've chosen to follow, but I'm much
less interested in drawing a thing "well" than I am in making it
credible in the stylistic context within which I'm working. And a big part of
making things credible is consistency. In other words, you can set any
arbitrary standards for "realism" in the world you've created, but
once you've decided what they are, you need to apply them consistently in order
for that world to remain believable.
7. Keep
It Looking Pretty
It's become fashionable to say things like
"comics are all about story" and while that side of things is
obviously important, I think focusing on narrative at the expense of design and
beauty can be a mistake. Ideally, you want your pages to be a treat for the
eyes at first glance, because that is what's going to suck the reader in
initially – an ugly comic is a much harder sell than an attractive one, no
matter how good the story is. To that end, I try to break up my page designs
with occasional tricks like circular panels, borderless panels or varying
border widths (ideally at points of narrative emphasis rather than arbitrarily,
but I'm not above an arbitrary use of these tricks once in a while). It takes surprisingly
little effort to add a bit of graphic variety, and it makes the pages a lot
more interesting to look at without sacrificing any narrative clarity.
Well-placed areas of black and use of textures and patterns in your backgrounds
also give a page some weight and make it more attractive. You can do all of
these things without sacrificing clarity.
8. Motion
Lines Are a Cheat
This one really just applies to me, I think; E.C Segar
would look bloody awful without his blur of motion lines. But I like to think
that, if I've got the pose right, if I've created credible body language, a
thrown punch (for example) shouldn't need motion lines to sell it –
the arc of the fist and its impact should be obvious from the characters'
positions in the panel. I'm not above using motion lines to get a movement
across, but I always feel like I've failed a little bit if I've found myself in
a position where I can't sell that action some other way.
9. Don't
Run Bleeds Into One Another on Facing Pages
This is really an offshoot of #1, clarity, I suppose.
It's just something I try to avoid because it makes for a muddy, occasionally
confusing reading experience – unless I'm drawing a genuine double-page spread,
in which case it's essential, of course. But for the most part I try to make
sure there's some white space between pages – so, for example, if I've got a
bleed going off the bottom right of a left-hand page, I'll avoid having a bleed
on the bottom left of the right-hand page (although bleeds at the top of that
page would be perfectly fine). I just think it's clearer, and easier on the
eyes, if one avoids having everything run into everything else.
10. End
Each Page on a Gag or a Mini-Cliffhanger
I got this one from Carl Barks. I suppose it comes
from the newspaper strip tradition, albeit in comics you can do it more subtly
because you don't have to wait days or weeks between pages. It's a great way to
make your pages hang together as a single unit; the comic reading experience
has its own kind of rhythm, each page turn being a beat, and that rhythm
contributing to your narrative momentum. Use that rhythm! Barks used to make it
every half-page, because he worked in half-page units, but I think once a page
is about right for a modern comic book (where, let's face it, there's about a
quarter of the content of an eight-panel-per-page, 32-page Barks comic).
That's all I got! Not all of these will be right for
everybody; it's a personal list, for sure, built up over the years to enable me
to more effectively make my specific kinds of comics. But hopefully there's
something in there you can use, or push back against, or possibly even tear
down entirely and completely reinvent.
Anyway – hope it helps.
You can view Roger Langridge's work at: www.hotelfred.blogspot.com
