Construct a general plan.
As in writing, there are rules of construction for a narrative. Introduction – Development and disruption (climax) – Conclusion. This classic scheme is a logical sequence that your audiences know. It is reassuring and facilitates reading for them since they know where the story goes. – WriteComics.com
Define the highlights of your comic.
Your comic story will be made of weak times; moments of calm and highlights, moments of action and unexpected events that will come to rhythm and energize your story. Before validating an event in building your story, imagine the consequences and how you will orient your story from there. For example, in an action scene, a group of heroes fighting against a group of villains on the roof of a building and suddenly you decide to blow up the building. Consequence: Everyone is dead, finished story. You have not left room for development. – WriteComics.com
Develop and Order Narrative.
Make a list of key moments in your story and highlights. To help you better see the progression of your comic story; draw a chronological frieze by taking the main lines. – WriteComics.com
Write a Script.
One of the most common mistakes is to start drawing your comic book before working out your story. While you may feel like grabbing a blank sheet of paper – or launching your favorite drawing app – and just diving in, by doing so, you’re likely setting yourself up for failure. Take the time to write a script. It doesn’t need to be fancy and you don’t need an expensive app to get it done. A simple text editor will do. However, if you’re looking for a more robust app for writing, my preference is Scrivener. When it’s time to write your script, there are four main points to keep in mind:
- Know your genre
- Understand your main character’s goals/challenges
- Create a believable setting
- Include a beginning, a middle, and an end. – CreativeBloq
Focus on your strengths.
Draw what you love to draw. Don’t make a story about the army if you suck at drawing tanks (unless it’s your mission to learn how to draw tanks while making a GN). But I’d suggest not using this medium to learn how to draw something. It will just look different from start to finish and you’ll constantly want to go back and fix old ugly tanks. – MakingComics.com
If you plan to draw realistic human characters, make sure you know anatomy.
If you plan on drawing lots of perspective then learn the rules of perspective. Take some classes or buy some books FIRST. Practice your anatomy and perspective for a good year or two before starting your book. Trust me, you will waste a lot of time if you don’t. Here are some of my favorite anatomy and perspective books that I learned from. – MakingComics.com
Work in at least 300 dpi.
That’s what all the printers print at that I’ve talked to. Most Marvel and DC guys create their pages at 450 to 600 dpi but it all gets reduced in the end to go to print. If you want to print posters of your pages then you will want to make your file 600 dpi, though. Once again, figure out what you want out of your project before you just start making 50 pages. – MakingComics.com
Think of a short story idea that would work well visually.
You want large, easy-to-define moments and larger-than-life characters and a lot of dialogue. If you are already working on a novel, try adapting your characters and setting to comic form as a creativity exercise. – Masterclass
Think of extraordinary settings and strong, powerful emotions like love, death, anger, good, evil.
How are these represented in your comic book? – Masterclass
Learn to accept the 90% rule.
You’re drawing 20-30 pages a book. Don’t worry that a panel isn’t perfect. Don’t worry that a page isn’t perfect. Don’t even worry that all the pages are perfect.. they’re not. I promise you it’s okay. Tell the story as best you can right now… then move on. When you finish a book the next book will be better. You will be better. Now go draw something. – The Art of Matthew Childers
