Chinatown Comics

From the script I’ve knocked into shape, I need to layout the ‘script’ into thumbnails. Here I’m thinking first about page layout, including how the information and rhythm in the pages lay in relationship to the other pages. For example, if there’s a ‘reveal’ or vital piece of information, I might want to keep it up my sleeves and away from the reader’s peripheral vision, so when they’re reading one panel in one page, they might not spoil further information by glimpsing something further down in ‘time’. I might otherwise want to consider how the rhythm of one page’s sequences affects with pages flowing on to the next, whether I might want them to harmonise or whether I want them read at a dissonance.

Once I have a sense of the scale of the story and its length, I can do deeper to look at the panel rhythms in each page – should there only be one splash panel? Should there be 9 neurotic panels? Should they be equal sized and paced like a metronome? Should they be different every time and surprising? Once that is settled, I can look at the compositions within each panel – ‘staging’ the actors and sets and props so that the audience’s focus knows what’s important to read and perhaps sprinkling a richer layer of detail in between. I’m also thinking about the synergy with the text that corresponds with each image on the page – do I ever want to just repeat the narration? What can I do with my visual vocabulary and the recurring symbols and metaphors in each story to expand the understanding and emotion behind single line? What devices from the rich history of comics and art’s visual techniques might I reference as a shortcut to a lend a wider empathy to the narrator and his or her story?

In comics, the text, captions and dialogue or word balloons occupy the same space as ‘real’ things, people and environments. A word bubble might take up the size of a student’s cramped bedroom. Thought bubbles might compete with character’s head space to squeeze out with all their thoughts.

At the thumbnail stage, it’s less about pretty pictures and more about figuring out these mechanics. Staging all these elements requires thought into both their functionality (eg. readibility and flow), but they are also means of expression and to heighten the telling of the story itself.

Here are some pencils for the comic. It’s a little hard to tell in these photos but if you look closely, my first page in the thumbnails (on the left of the previous photo) changed completely and I moved up what was previously my final page up front to open Juno’s story (far left in the above photo of my pencils). Anyone whose worked in comics knows these pencils are more than rough, they’re worse than most people’s thumbnails! As this is the first time this comic’s appeared on a scale comparable to the pages that I’m working on for my final pages, I’m just getting a sense of the space on my final page – the finished size of panels, how much space I have for text and characters and comics devices like balloons.

Since I am the sole creator – writing, penciling, inking editing – I’m able to speak to myself in my own shorthand. Luckily my own language of bad abbreviations, handwriting and rough sketches is clear for instructions as I’m just speaking in my own head, but if I passed this onto a team where we divided the roles, each step would have to be significantly tightened.

Inking is the sexiest part of making a comic, it’s easily the most enjoyable part. Everything comes alive, it’s the lightning bolt into the dead pulp that wakens this Frankenstein’s monster of pictures, design, word, art and reproduction into its own artistic being. Even if you aren’t familiar with the process, I think it must be really clear even with a glance through these process photos and this guide to comics making – all the mess and anxiety and neurosis in the mass of words, messy thumbnails and fog of pencils opens up and takes a big breath at the inking stage where the artwork and words embolden and reveal themselves.

And then I email the comic back and sit on the end of nails until I hear some feedback!