Making comics in a crunch

Discuss the Zwol comic. (Random yammering also allowed.)

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Greg Stephens
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Post by Greg Stephens »

Today's comic (archived here) illustrates how to make a comic when a deadline is breathing down your neck: Draw fewer panels, make your characters large in the panels you do have and use minimal dialogue.
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Post by Greg Stephens »

Oh! Another great idea! I can adapt "Waiting for Godot" and just have the characters sitting still for weeks on end...
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Post by shadefell »

flashback to selby gazing morosely at a picture of kate!
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Post by Greg Stephens »

If I hadn't sworn to never draw Selby again ever, ever, ever, that might not be a bad idea.

(I'm kidding about that.)

(Or am I?)
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Post by buzzard »

How much time does minimal dialogue save?
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Post by shadefell »

On 2001-08-12 01:08, Greg Stephens wrote:
If I hadn't sworn to never draw Selby again ever, ever, ever, that might not be a bad idea.

(I'm kidding about that.)

(Or am I?)
you must be kidding about it, becuase you've promised to draw them together again in the future, and we've seen a flashback where selby is alive. so, either you are kidding now, or you are a HORRIBLE liar when you said we'd see the girls together again.

:)
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Post by Greg Stephens »

On 2001-08-12 02:08, buzzard wrote:
How much time does minimal dialogue save?
The more dialogue there is, the longer it takes me to draw the comic because then I have to work out exactly what the dialogue is, make sure that it flows well and conveys all the information that I want/need, measure and rule the lines to keep it straight, pencil in the words to make sure they'll really fit, then ink the letters and word balloons. I also have to write slowly enough to make the words legible to anybody other than myself, and if I screw this up in any way, I have to take the time to fix individual letters in the computer later.

Lettering is an entirely different dicipline (for me, anyhow) than drawing. When drawing, any mistakes I make are probably only visible to me; but when lettering, if I make a mistake, I've got to correct it.
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Post by buzzard »

Would it make sense to move lettering onto the computer? I don't mean drawing freehand (since that's probably worse), but actually using a font... or is that somehow "cheating"?
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Post by Greg Stephens »

Nope, using a computer to letter isn't cheating at all. Actually, all of my comics up through #85 were lettered by computer using a font I created from my own handwriting. Word balloons were also done in computer.

But I find there are several benefits to hand-lettering: I get to see the finished comic on paper, which appeals to my asthetic sense of completion; It's much faster to do any special lettering I require; Positioning the word balloons and characters becomes more organic; I don't waste time drawing complex things which may get covered over later by word balloons.

As much time as I say lettering takes on paper, it takes just as much time in the computer. Sure, the computer can create the actual words faster, straighter, and more legible than I can, but the balloons become a real pain and take the most time because I'm not happy with a simple ovoid shape-- I want something that looks more organic, and that takes time. Now, there may be a happy medium where I can hand-draw the word balloons to the size I think they should be and then fill in the lettering in with the computer (and I have done that), but I just haven't taken that plunge fully as yet.

I am glad I took the time early on to make my own font, because if I screw up the hand-lettering badly enough, I can simply replace entire hand-done word balloons with computer-generated replacements (as seen here-- Balloons 3 and 6 are my font).

Just because I was such a stickler to the DIY ideal and made my own font doesn't mean that more generic fonts are wrong either. Blambot is a great place to find free fonts specifically made for comic work and I'm sure many people are familiar with Richard Starkings' Comicraft.
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