A lot of the time I do single panel comics, so one of the points in question is would a border make the thing look better or is it just unecessary?
some of the time however, I like to do multi panels, so the real debate with me is whether to panel the pages close together, as in no gaps, or to space the panels out on a background. I guess I wanna hear opinions of the pros and cons of each.

I tend to space out my panels - as in, have a border of white around each panel - but simply using thick black lines can work as well.

It depends a bit on the comic, really. For me, black and white comics look better when the panels are simply separated by black lines, whereas colour comics look better when you use the white, broader borders. Intense colours tend to "swallow" the black lines - separating the panels with white borders makes them stand out more.

All simply my opinion, etc., etc.

What Frostflowers said basically sums it up pretty well. It all depends on the comic. For my work a border isn't necessary because the black background of my site shows the edge for me and the simplicity of the artwork lends itself to going without a border. What you're mostly going for is whatever is going to give the contrast you want to make the border lines show up, but not stick out from the rest of the page.

When doing artwork that is very involved and detailed, I prefer using thick solid black lines to separate panels since I like the over-all more solid look and contrast against B&W art and light colour work. But as noted, really intense colour can make those lines almost disappear.

thanks for the advice, this was one of my terrible areas, I've only been drawing for half a year really let alone making comics, this helped a lot!

My advice... start with simple panels seperated by white 'gaps' and as you get better, study how the pros do it, eg; splash pages with panels positioned across the page, different sizes, shapes, etc.

Pay attention to the text, no matter how you position the panels the text needs to lead the reader through the action.


This can take a lot of writing and re-writing but when you get it right it's well worth it.