Posts Tagged: writing

Artist X Artist: Jason Brubaker and Daniel Lieske discuss Kickstarter, storytelling, and life

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When great minds collide, they tend to create something rather wonderful. Yesterday, Jason Brubaker (reMind, Sithrah) sat down with Daniel Lieske (The Wormworld Saga) to field questions from fans of each other’s respective series as well as how they go about working on such excellent titles. Since both of them have Kickstarter campaigns exploding, they felt that a little Q&A with backers of their projects would be a great treat for everyone. (more…)

#TalkingComics w/ Kevin Cullen: John Layman on Writing and Its Varied Process

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This week’s interview spotlight falls directly on the writer mastermind, John Layman, who won the Eisner for Best New Series in 2010 and Best Continuing Series in 2011. With superstar titles like Batman and Chew under his belt, Layman’s definitely got some sway in the swirling, mishmash world of comic books. I talked with him recently about his process and how he manages to wrangle such manic worlds into cohesive stories. (more…)

10 Pieces of Advice for Freelancers

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This article applies to more than just the comics industry. I’ve been working as a freelance artist since 1998 and this is some of what I learned along the way.  These are my ten best pieces of advice for working independently.

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Unnatural Talent

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Making Comics is proud to present the first chapter of Jason Brubaker’s book, Unnatural Talent, for all to enjoy! If you’re looking to get into comics, are already pursuing your stories, or looking for some solid resources to add to your already impressive collection of knowledge, then Jason’s book should be at the top of your list! If you like what you see, you can purchase the entire book in ebook or good old paperback forms on Amazon by clicking here!

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What’s In A Name? Choosing An Effective Title For Your Webcomic

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Consider this; 2.5 billion people are known internet users worldwide, with more people adding to that number every day. It’s a truly enormous pool of potential webcomic readers, but reaching them isn’t easy. Marketing strategies and networking help, but no single method is completely effective on its own. Part of the reason for this is the competition for attention, with over 22,000 competing webcomics monitored by The Webcomic List alone–and thousands more beyond that. All this free content means that for a webcomic to attract a large crowd, it needs to not only be appealing to its audience, it needs to be good at being noticed in the first place. Ads and banners can help with that, but nothing represents the identity of a story quite like its title. There are several things to consider when choosing a title for a webcomic.

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WRITING TROPES: NAMING CHARACTERS

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Tropes are storytelling devices. Used well, they enrich a story; used badly, they result in the dreaded cliché. This series of articles takes a closer look at some major tropes relevant to comics and the pitfalls they may present.

This isn’t a trope per se, but a collection of thoughts and advice on this subject from someone who was deeply obsessed with names at some point. It’s written with comics in mind but applies equally to writing for other media.

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Panel Descriptions In The Digital Age – Part 3

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We’ve been talking at length about panel descriptions. Hopefully you’ve got a friend friend willing to collaborate, or found a forum somewhere that encourages people to post panel descriptions so that other people can try to draw them. Practice makes perfect! Aside from that, here are a few more tips that will save you time and money in the long run. I’ve already stressed the importance of establishing expectations with your art team well before sending them a script. In this section I’ll be discussing word balloons in panels, letterer notes, and the benefits to the revision process made possible by email. (more…)

Writing Tropes: Copy-Paste Plot

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Tropes are storytelling devices. Used well, they enrich a story; used badly, they result in the dreaded cliché. This series of articles takes a closer look at some major tropes relevant to comics and the pitfalls they may present. (more…)

Panel Descriptions in the Digital Age (part 2)

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You’ve worked out your tone, the character design sketches, and are ready to write those panels, right? Great! The format of your pages is entirely up to you, your artist, and your editor. Heck, you could text message or tweet a description of each panel if you wanted to! But the main point is to get on the same page, and this is done by finding a common language before you begin. (more…)