You don’t have to present the text all in one go (one paragraph or bubble).Practice diagonal composition of objects and subjects within panels. Forget “true to life” perspective outside of the establishing panel).You at most only need one establishing panel of the setting and environment (scene) per page.Plan and draw the pages in spreads (the twos) since this is how it will appear in print and when you submit them to an editor for review guess what, the pages with an exception to the first and last will be reviewed as spreads.Try to stick to 12 pages for this crash course.) ( If at the very end you find out you need more pages and it’s absolutely unavoidable and totally necessary you have to add them in fours. *Draw the first and last page as a spread in situations where the beginning of the story mirrors the end of the story. and 7 (this is typically one large image that takes up the space of two pages),.Remember, DIAGONALS!!! open up an issue of batman, superman, spider man, deadpool or whatever youre reading theyre everywhere. Advanced comic book artists manipulate time with the number of panels and the size of each panel. I like to have about 3 to 4 panels per row or less but I’ve seen the “rules” broken before. My maximum per page is nine panels but I’ve seen pages that have way more. aftermath/“darkness before dawn”/struggle turning point/plot twist/epiphany (this one epic image, to page spread is pivotal, spend a lot of effort into creating this) rising action/false resolution to conflict/investigation establish conflict, setting, and mood by the third page. point of entry, in media res, hero intro Next is translating the beats to pages….Professionally you don’t want more than 25 words per speech bubble and no more than 250 words per page. Try to keep all your text chunks as short as a tweet.If a story can’t be told with the art without the dialogue– you messed up and it’s time to rethink your life choices. Since comics are a visual medium, highest priority is given to the beats.After the beat sheet, write up all the sound effects and speech bubbles and conversation/dialogue you want to be in your comic.Guy comes down from the rocks he as climbing and sees bear.The bear goes to where a cabin used to be (only roof tiles are left).A lone bear shambles over from the other side of the mountain.
Personally I work “backwards” because the end is the only wholly necessary page or set of panels in the story. Here is my set of instructions, tips, and notes towards making a 12-page comic. I’m NOT an expert but I have some working experience I can share. Rapidpunches: SHORT STORY/ONE-SHOT/ONE CHAPTER/COMICS 101 CRASH COURSE RAPIDPUNCHES’ STYLE