Do you still think comics are just for kids? Because we can surely tell you that comics aren’t just for kids anymore. Comics are pretty rich in terms of stories because they cater to everyone, be it any age or gender.
This makes comic book writers some of the most brilliant writers in the writing game. And if you’re aspiring to be one, you’ve landed at the right place. Because in this comprehensive guide on how to write a comic book script, we shall share some tips and inspirations. All of this to help you write your best comic book yet.
2 Ways To Write A Comic Book Script.
Creating a comic book is similar to producing a movie; it consists of collaborative efforts. The usual trail starts with writing the script, pencilling the illustrations, adding letters to the illustrations, followed by inking and then colouring. So, if the writer messes up, that may cause pressure on the remaining crew.
Typically, there are two ways of scripting a comic: the DC style and the Marvel style. Both styles are discussed below in detail:
1. The Marvel Style:
The marvel style is also referred to as plot first. Suggested by the name, this method is generally used by the marvel comic creators. Both the writers and artists have a strong understanding of each other, which is very crucial for this style. At the same time, there may also be solo creators who handle both aspects themselves.
The plot either be generated by the writer alone or by the collaborative efforts of the artists and the writers. Next, the artists draw down the entire story, while the writers add texts to the panel to fit the art.
The benefit for writers here is that they know what the art looks like and also how much space is left for the texts while they script it. However, there are also a couple of disadvantages to this style, like; the writer is letting go of some of his commands, like pacing over the composition. The writers may also not get the results that they desired.
For this style, it’s crucial that the writer and artists have developed a great mutual understanding because their collaborative efforts bring life to the story. If this isn’t the style you like, you can check out the other style.
2. The DC Style
The DC style is commonly referred to as the full script. This style is more popular among writers who produce the entire script with panel descriptions. Then the artists draw down the entire script.
The risk here is that you’re unsure how the artist may translate your ideas into illustrations. However, this style is very beneficial for writers because they have more command over pacing and layout.
Consequently, there are disadvantages, too, like, you may have to edit your captions or dialogues after viewing the illustrations, as they might not fit the art. Nonetheless, how the artist translates the scripts into illustrations is crucial to bringing life to the comic, whichever style you go for.
Now that you’ve decided upon a style for your comics, it’s essential to learn how you are going to write your comic.
Step By Step Guide To Writing A Comic Script
We’ve compiled a few expert comic books writing tips to assist you in writing the best-selling comic book. Start with:
1. Storyboard
Without storyboarding, your entire outline is similar to hiking without a map. You’re either destined to get lost or eaten up by a bear.
The process of storyboarding aids in jotting down the entire storyline alongside key plots. This, in turn, saves a lot of resources, like time and money. This also saves the writer from stressing out while writing the actual script and the artist while drawing the comic panels.
It really doesn’t matter if you’re writing a one-time comic or an entire series of comics, similar to Spider-Man, the majority of comic book creators love following the traditional structure of three steps:
- The Setup – also referred to as the inciting incident, is just a fancy name for when the story sets in motion.
- The Conflict – is the part where characters face major changes as an impact of what’s going on.
- The Climax – is the part where the superheroes face the problem and bring up the solution. Any loose ends are addressed here while wrapping up the story.
The arcs of the main and secondary characters are crucial for the outline. Hence these must be done in as detailed a manner as possible.
A storyboard is crucial for the artist. It helps identify loopholes and whether the words can be translated into art. Make sure you fulfil the two main objectives of a storyboard:
- Makes sure that you’ve compiled up all necessary details for scripting and lettering
- You’ve efficiently put together everything to save time editing and fixing things in Photoshop.
The storyboard is a rough draft of your entire comic; make sure you add all necessary details while dedicating a separate panel for each different story.
2. Pick A Script Style
Unless you’ve got a whole lot of skill sets required to produce a comic book, like writing, illustrating, lettering, and colouring, you’re going to need to collaborate with people having the expertise to help complete your comic book.
Generally, a comic book is brought together through writing, drawing, lettering, and finally, colouring. However, this entirely depends upon what style you opt for; the Marvel style or the DC style, as discussed above.
3. Edits
Depending on what style you opt for, the editing process may differ. After jotting down the entire storyline, you will have to make a lot of revisions. Start by drafting the entire script while making adjustments and revisions on your own.
Next, you may include a few comic-lover friends or editor fiend to give their input while making any revisions required. To make the revision process more effective, you can leave the draft for a couple of weeks before re-reading it and revising it again with a pair of fresh eyes.
You must be tired of so much revision by now; however, please note that it’s easier to make any revisions at this stage than once you’re into the illustration phase. Making revisions later in the process may cost you money, while both you and the artist time. So, it’s better to measure twice while cutting once.
Comic book scripts that are strong are usually very efficient in storytelling. They share large amounts of information and emotions in a very simple yet disillusioned manner. If you’re worried that you may not be able to efficiently edit your comic book script. So, read further to find tips on properly and efficiently editing your comic book script.
- Read the dialogues out loud. This will aid in hearing how they sound and if they have a flow.
- Review the panel descriptions with the dialogues. This will help in checking for over-crowdedness and give you a feel for visual pacing.
- Write an entirely new plot for your comic book. Next, analyse the structure of the story and character arcs.
Watch out for the following, too, while reviewing your comic book script:
- Abundance of text, visuals, or sequential action
- Plentiful panels on a single page
- Confusing or senseless panel or scene transitions
- Unclear instructions to the artist
- Long speeches
- Repetitive texts or images
After reviewing and revising your comic book script, you can either illustrate it on your own or hand it over to an artist.
4. Look For A Publisher
Once the comic book has been illustrated and finalised, it’s time for publication. This section will provide you with all the necessary information regarding the publication of a comic book.
Start off with exploring different publication houses, which ones cater to your genre or format of comic books and have previously published similar comic books. After you’ve decided on the best fit, contact their editors. Preferably, you should contact them via email or postal address; you can either get their email online or ask them for it via social media, most likely twitter.
After attaining their email or postal address, send them a proposal package. The proposal package should include:
- A cover letter explaining to them why did you reach out to them specifically
- An elevator pitch or plot teaser for your story
- An estimate of story length or format
- The outline of the plot
- A detailed introduction of the character
- A brief description of the setting
- Either sample pages of the script or the entire script
- Drawing and illustrations
- Copyright and trademark notices
- Your contact information and name on each page
Excluding the script and illustrations, ideally, your proposal package should consist of two pages if you’re writing a short and one-time comic and five pages if you’re writing a long detailed series of comics.
You can check out their proposal guidelines if you’re writing to a submission’s editor. Furthermore, you should only seek follow-ups if the editor is open to it; sending unsolicited follow-ups or submissions may be useless as editors typically do not cater to them.
And in case you’re sending out a proposal to an editor you’ve personally contacted, you should wait for at least one month before reaching out to them again.
And remember to seek out constant follow-ups but after a couple of weeks because editors may receive a high influx of proposals and may have missed yours. Furthermore, remember to keep it sweet and simple, as editors may be busy and may ignore long follow-up mails.
5. Bonus Tips
Writing comics is mostly a team effort unless you have mastered all skills yourself. So, start with forming an outstanding team. Include members you trust and can communicate your thoughts with.
Make sure you have structured your comic book script with a clear beginning, conflicted middle and climatic end. Even if you plan on writing a one-time non-serialized comic, it’s better to leave some space for later instalments if you plan to launch an instalment later.
Ensure that you use all stylistic elements, like:
- Panels – they come in various forms and shapes, usually used to arrange the story.
- Gutters – the space between panels
- Spreads – an image that extends to more than a page
- Speech bubbles – come in different shapes; they allow the representation of speech of characters
- Thought balloons – these cloudlike bordered bubbles are used to represent the unspoken thoughts of a character.
- Splashes – this is a single panel full page
- Narrative captions – the tool used for narrations between illustrations
This will better portray and bring love to your comic book. Keep the dialogues short and realistic.
If you’re short on ideas or don’t understand where to start, you can look up a few all-time best-selling comic books for inspiration on how to write a comic book script.
Top 7 Comic Books Of All-Times To Get Inspiration From
Previously, comic books didn’t have much of a fan following. However, over the past decades, we’ve seen comic books develop a fairly huge following, take Marvel, DC, or Dark Horse, for instance. Contrary to previous beliefs, comic books aren’t just loved by or targeted at children. Adults love them equally as much!
Best-selling comic book writers have repeatedly advised aspiring writers to surround themselves with comics to inspire them. Read ahead to read about the best-selling comic books to take inspiration from
1. Batman: The Killing Joke
This all-time classic comic book has never faded away. Especially since the release of the film Joker in 2019, this comic has been ruling the hearts of its fans. If you’ve loved the movie, then you’ll surely love the comic too. This is why:
- Dark and gritty humour
- Written by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
- Starring a psychopathic criminal mastermind
The reason behind the success of the comic greatly depends on the fact that the audience has been able to resonate with the storyline. This comic has truly been an inspiration for aspiring comic book writers.
2. Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon
This comic from the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fairly gained popularity since the feature of Hawkeye in the Avengers series. While most superheroes have a secretly normal life, Hawkeye is not like that. What’s so special about this comic? The fact that:
- The illustrations are dramatic yet unglamorous
- The muted retro colours
- And the fantastic duo of Pizza Dog and Kate Bishop
These reasons are enough to inspire an aspiring writer.
3. Ms. Marvel: No Normal
This comic revolves around a Muslim teen. She is also a captain marvel fan and turns part alien after sniffing a strange mist. The comic follows how she balances her life between saving the world and school, friends, and family. The comic is beautifully scripted in terms of:
- Sensitive writings
- Gorgeous drawings
- Extraordinary real
Even though the story is fictitious, the extremely intense script and illustrations bring life to the story.
4. Monstress
Monstress follows a blood-spattering matriarchal society torn by a war between magical creatures and a group of sorceresses. The comic is
- Blended with a variety of arts like Egyptian, nouveau, steampunk, and manga
- Set in a lush world
- Contains ambiguous and complex characters
While all of this makes the comic hard to figure out. At the same time, it makes it even hard to forget.
5. The Walking Dead
This comic by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore gained popularity through its adaptation of a tv show. But before all that, the walking dead was all about a horror, bitty black-and-white comic, and it still is. Yet readers love it because:
- The creators love the genre; hence dive deep in
- Serving punishment with dispassion
- The comic plays with the expectations of the reader
Though this is just a battered vision of a zombie apocalypse, it can be a punishing experience if you fall in love with a character.
6. Wonder Woman
This comic from DC by Gail Simone and Amanda Delbert revolves around a super-power diplomat. The comic was also depicted in a movie, which was buzzed about. The comic featured a:
- Powerful depiction
- Compassionate script
- Movie buzz translating to a popular groundswell
The duo was so compassionate and loyal to the comic, which shows in their work.
7. Astro City
This comic features a witty and adventurous anthology. The superhero genre offers an uplifting clever comeback with:
- Grim and gritty superhero storytelling
- Familiar characters
- Continually new stories and perspective
This hopeful comic dares to believe in superheroes unembarrassed and wholeheartedly.
Wrap Up
This article walked you through a comprehensive guide on how to write a comic book script—starting from styles of comic book writing to steps, adding a few bonus tips, and all the way to real-life inspiration for aspiring writers.
We hope you can now write a comic book of your own. However, if you still aren’t sure, you can always reach out to us to help you write a comic book for you! So, stop waiting, and contact us today for our script writing services.