I like grids with two columns for the "call and
response" sort of rhythm they have. It's good for dialogue, gags,
keeping a story moving at a steady beat. I find that the six-panel grid
is the easiest to design, since it gives you very clean and simple
diagonals to work with. I like grids with three columns to stretch the
pacing out a bit more and really let characters move around (or
across) a page.
2. Don't overdraw.
3. Feel kind of weird and shitty about coloring your comic. If
you are drawing a color comic, constantly look at your finished pages
and ask yourself, "would this page work just as well without color? Is
it doing something that I couldn't accomplish in black and white?" It
doesn't really matter what the answers are, but it's an important thing
to feel self-conscious about. This applies to any design elements on
your page that might be superfluous or purely ornamental, really.
4. Print stuff yourself sometimes. Aside
from all the lessons (in economics, in design, in production) that
self-publishing teaches you, comics is also one of the cheapest mediums
to work in, and it's nice to take advantage of that.
5. Learn how to letter by hand. There
are, like, four exceptions to the "hand lettering always looks better"
thing, and it's a good skill to have anyway. Even if you end up using a
typeface because you can't afford the time to letter everything
yourself, just knowing how to do it will make your pages flow better.
6. Ignore "blocks." I know
there isn't one way to deal with writer's/artist's block, so this is
just how I do it. I can't take a break during those stretches. If I'm
not feeling it, I just have to work through it anyway. Sometimes that
means turning out thirty pages of garbage and tossing them in the
recycling bin before hitting my stride again. The longer I spend away
from the drawing desk, the more I'm thrown out of my routine, the harder
it is for me to get back to work.
Drawing for comics is such a weird and different
process compared to other types of drawing. Some days, working on a
comics page has more in common with organizing a spreadsheet than it
does, say, drawing in my sketchbook. So I need to keep that muscle
memory there because blablabla it's like exercise etc
In general, I think it's dangerous when cartoonists
wait around to be "inspired" to work. Drawing isn't always going to feel
like lightning bolts are coming out of your fingertips or playing jazz
music. It's work, and on most days it will feel like work. If you've
chosen comics as a vocation, a lot of your time is going to be spent
measuring panel borders or crosshatching a brick wall, so get ready.
7. Set deadlines. Set
yourself a reasonable quota of pages you can do every week (or month)
and force yourself to meet those deadlines. Ignore your friends, lose
sleep, let your health decline, etc. Allow other things in your life
organize themselves around your art. Feel awful about yourself when you
fail to meet those deadlines. Eventually feel good about periodically
letting yourself off the hook after you've been meeting them for a
while. Eventually, these routines become so internalized that you no
longer need to police yourself as much.
8. Learn when to draw generic and when to draw specific. This
is an intuitive thing. Sometimes a cartoon house that looks like a
triangle on top of a rectangle is the best possible choice for a panel.
9. Overshoot. Every new
project should feel like you're attempting something a little outside of
your skill set. (This might actually be the case)
10. Take advantage of the low stakes. The fact that there isn't any money in comics isn't
ideal, but there are advantages to not having anybody pay attention to
what we're doing. If you succeed, nobody really cares, and if you fail,
nobody really cares, which means there's a lot of freedom to experiment.
These things are cheap to make and you're taking a smaller financial
blow by xeroxing 200 copies of a comic nobody buys than by (for
instance) pressing 200 copies of a 7" nobody listens to.
You can view Michael DeForge's work at: www.michaeldeforge.wordpress.com
You can view Michael DeForge's work at: www.michaeldeforge.wordpress.com