What is the best way to script a comic? Should you separate it by panel,or write it like a play and have the artist worry about how it should be paneled?

Like, I'd rather go with writing it like a play, and not so much by panels, because it restricts the artist, and things rarely stick to the original script anyway, so you should have a script that is able to adapt without too much trouble. On the same note, where would storyboarding come to play in all this? Should the artist be responsible for the storyboard, or the writer?

Storyboarding is a skill all it's own - it should be done by the person who is best at it - or perhaps the person who loves doing it the most. I've seen comics where the breakdowns are done by a third person altogether!

In the same way, the best way to script the comic that has a writer and an artist is to find what works best for them. Some artists need a lot of direction, some need some freedom. Some writers know exactly what they want on the page - others want to see the artist show more creativity.

A good writer/artist team are working together, taking advantage of each others strengths and making up for each others weaknesses.

I say, try a few very small projects first, like, things that are just 1 page long. Experiment a little and see how you best work together. Then go with that.

I've written tons full-issue scripts & just gone straight to thumbs to plot my book.

I write my full scripts as panel by panel breakdowns so that the artist has the best chance of understanding (& therefore rendering) my intent. Speaking as an artist, I prefer the writer give me ALL the info he can. It makes my life easier by far. Speaking as a writer, the more detailed my scripts are in descriptions & panel layouts, the better change the artist will have of giving me a product I like. A detailed script also paves the way for solid, creative communication between the writer & the artist, which tends to strongly benefit the finished product.

When I'm producing my own books, I tend to script my thumbs, even if losely, because the ideas tend to already be very cohesive in my head, so a script would just take longer than I have.

You have to find what works best for you, & for you AND your artist. And that could change from book to book.

Best wishes,
Chip

I read an article comparing how different writers write comics. And there's a wide variety. Alan Moore writes very much as you describe, just long paragraphs for the entire page, filled with what he needs visually, and then it's up to the artist to do storyboards, break it down panel by panel, etc.

Other writers know what they want visually and how they want it broken down, so they write what should happen in each panel, the viewpoint angle, etc. And the artist follows it.

Yet others describe the visual of the panel in a sentence or two and allow the artist to fill in all sorts of details visually.

As others have already said here, it depends on how you like to write and what the artist likes to see. And you two need to figure that out, but there is no RIGHT or WRONG way, only what is right or wrong for your team. And that was good advice, do something small, a couple of pages, to see what works for you. Good luck!

...I don't actually have a script for mine. I just do a rough, poorly drawn draft of the page and thats it.

It also depends on a lot of what your artist would enjoy, if this is a non-profit collaboration. If your artist needs lots of wiggle room to keep up his motivation, you need to give him that room so he doesn't burn out and quit.

I tend to keep things like normal prose for conversational pages, so the artist can do his own thing. I tend to put the most dense descriptive storyboarding into the action parts, because I believe in elaborate ballet-like choreographing of action, ala John Woo. Punching and shooting eyebeams back and forth like in a 1960's comic book is boring.

Okay, simply because I'm slightly curious. Is there an "Official" way to write a script? Like, we've already established that theres no wrong way to do it, but I'm wondering that once you get into the professional world if there's a standard that companies want to see.

I think the most common 'scripting' that you'd see would be what can be found in theatre or movie scripts. Both are pretty much the same. What I'd suggest is finding some scripts from your local theatres or go online and seach for one. Then you can look at how its written.

Though, I would suggest that you devlope methods that works the best for you in scripting and storyboard. Not everyone follow the same pattern.

Since I'm doing all the tasks, what works for me is define the dialog for each panel. if I don't have dialog, then I have a couple of notes on the action of the panel.
I like using Word's Outlining functions. So I can hide and show levels.

I've put two pages of script in here for example:

Why a museum?
Obsessed Fred
RUUN: D-During the war, my Uncle Fred was freedom fighter against the Kings and Neo-Othordox Puritan Corporation. He was captured and they re-directed him as part of their compassionate conservativism. They pick something "safe" and b-brain fuse the victim's passion into that.
The victim with a head set on, and screaming. Rounded corner to the frame.

Obsessed with 20th century
RUUN: most are obsessed with something trival like bonsai or koi. Uncle Fred was accidentally assigned old earth 20th century culture.
shot of the house, full of 20th cent reproductions

20th century 2
RUUN: He must have really hated the NeoPuritans because he was fanatical about the 20th century. I am more familiar with 3000 years ago than I am with NOW.

I don't fit
RUUN: I don't fit here
RUUN: I want to join your crew.

how old? seq
5 low stacked panels
Panel 1
DANTE: How OLD are you?
RUUN: 31
shot of the house, full of 20th cent reproductions
Panel 2
DANTE: in earth years?
RUUN: 25
Panel 3
DANTE: (glare)
RUUN: 21
Panel 4
DANTE: (glare)
RUUN: 20
Panel 5
DANTE: (glare)
RUUN: really! i-i'm 20!
http://www.drunkduck.com/FreeFall_Drift/index.php?p=229295

If I was working with an artist, I'd give much much more detailed notes on what needed to be shown in the panel to advance the plot.

Hmm, ppl have different ways of scripting. I simply write the script as if I'm telling a bare-bones prose story, composed of mainly dialogue and simple descriptions of actions during dialogue. In scenes where I need detailed play-by-play, I describe each panel in a separate paragraph.

Basically I write it this way so that it's easy and FUN to go back and re-read it, like reading a standard novel. That's important because I constantly go back and edit my script. Writing it in a set theatre style or formatted storyboard style would be too much work, and NOT FUN to go back to read.

AlmightyNam
Okay, simply because I'm slightly curious. Is there an "Official" way to write a script?

Yes, absolutely. Try to find some online sample scripts. The standard format is that the scripts are broken down into panels with a description of what goes on in each individual panel and all the dialogue and caption text. I read something by Ron Marz online somewhere (which unfortunately I can't seem to find anymore) where he wrote a short introduction to scripting for Marvel for new writers, and it had guidelines for absolutely everything down to text formatting and what abbreviations to use. Now I'm guessing the detailed stuff varies from company to company, but I've seen a bunch of scripts by now, and they all follow the panel breakdown structure. That's how it's done.

spacehamster

AlmightyNam
Okay, simply because I'm slightly curious. Is there an "Official" way to write a script?

Yes, absolutely.

I'd say this is only true if you're looking to produce work for the one of the majors, especially on a work-for-hire basis. If you're working independently then, as others have said here, all you have to worry about is what works for you and the artist you're working with. The Scryptic Studios guys looked into this some time back and again, as has been said here, found there were about as many ways to write a comic script as there are writers.

My scripts have all been written before I knew who the artist would be and so they tend to have very detailed panel-by-panel descriptions (what's in the foreground, what's in the background, what's the camera angle and what's the focal length etc). If the artist then wants to move away from my layouts in any major way, we discuss that together before he starts on the final artwork. Usually, I try to trust the artist's view on what will work best visually and give him the final say. (Usually!)

Of course, if you're both the artist and the writer, it really doesn't matter which format you use as long as it works for you.

DAJB

spacehamster

AlmightyNam
Okay, simply because I'm slightly curious. Is there an "Official" way to write a script?

Yes, absolutely.

I'd say this is only true if you're looking to produce work for the one of the majors, especially on a work-for-hire basis. If you're working independently then, as others have said here, all you have to worry about is what works for you and the artist you're working with.

Sure, I just figured that's what he meant by "official" - if you're in a position where you can communicate more directly with the artist, it doesn't make much sense to adhere to convention just for the sake of convention.

Still, though, I actually write scripts broken down into panel descriptions for myself - I find it's just what works best for me. I often change things once I get to the page layout stage, but initially I really need to write down what happens in what panel.

This is an interesting topic! Storyboarding isn't something I used to spend a ton of time on but after a wonderful letter about my terrible pacing I spend a lot more time on it now.

It really depends on the scene for me. The scene itself is usually already written in the original novel form but that's not much when trying to go to graphic novel. Typically I'll start out with a script detailing each panel and the speech in it. Sometimes I just write a bunch of blarg and sketch it out visually.

A real loose, non-detailed version would be like this:

On-shot of the car driving, attempting to outrun black mafia Mopar vehicles. Gunshots - One panel. The Lexus swerves and the black cars come up on the side. Gunshots erupt but bounce off as the car is bulletproof. At least one shot of Juno in the first page. She is younger. Her hair is tied back.

And then I'd follow in Photoshop full scale with a layout storyboard. Right now this page looks like this [starcrossd.net].

And since I've started doing this my pacing has improved by leaps and bounds. :D

As an artist, I personally like the:

pannel 1: person a walks up to person b

pannel 2:
person a: hi
person b: hey

pannel 3: awkward scilence

pannel 4: person a pulls out a container of mentoes
person a: want a mentos
person b: sure

Normally, I'd prefer a more precise description, like what exactly they're doing in each pannel, the setting, the camera angles", ect ect. A lot of people will say that's too strict, but I've been lucky enough that all the writers I've worked with have been very flexible with creative control, and have discussed with me anything I'd like to change.