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Creating Your Own Comic: Idea to Draft to (Indie) Publishing

PRESENTED BY:

PEGGY SUE WOOD

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Assumably, you are here because you would like to start your own comic. This panel is to help you all as aspiring creators get started.

The presentation is broken into four parts:

Generating and Developing Ideas
Drafting and Storyboarding
Creating the Art
Indie Publishing and Marketing

What we’ll cover~

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The Anime View

Presented by: Peggy Wood

Editor, The Anime View

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- Not a professional comic artist BUT...

+ Educator

+ Writer

+Copyeditor/Reviewer for The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies

+ Traditional (>1 year) and Freelance (5> years) Publishing as an editor, reviewer, and marketing consultant

+ Editor for The Anime View

Who Am I?

a little more about me and a confession I must make is that I am sadly not a professional comic artist BUT...

I am-

+ Educator - currently serving as a full time faculty member at Piedmont Technical College in South Carolina

+ I am also a Writer with a BFA in the subject

+I am a Copyeditor/Occasional Reviewer for The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, which is a peer review research journal for the US academic market on the subject

+ My work experience includes time in both Traditional (>1 year) and Freelance (5> years) Publishing as an editor, reviewer, and marketing consultant. I was an editorial intern at DC Comics, now called DC Entertainment, prior as well (2017).

+ As well as, previously mentioned, being the Editor for The Anime View.

So, while I am not a professional comic artist or an aspiring artist at the time, I do know a bit about the field and am pretty confident in bringing this information to you all.

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Layouts

Panel

One drawing on a page, also called a frame or box; Can have borders or be borderless; Shape and size affect story pacing and emotion; Contains segments of action, sometimes asynchronous.

Gutter

The space between panels; Vertical gutters may be thinner to guide reading flow.

Tier

A single row of panels.

Splash

A large, often full-page illustration; Introduces a story or captures attention.

Spread

An image spanning more than one page, often a two-page spread.

Important Vocabulary

Speech & Narrative Elements

Word Balloon

Contains character dialogue; Pointer (or tail) indicates the speaker; Shape conveys tone (e.g., spiked for shouting).

Thought Balloon

Contains a character’s internal thoughts; Often cloud-shaped with bubble pointers.

Caption

Boxed text for narration or internal monologues; Sometimes replaces speech balloons.

Sound Effects

Words mimicking sounds (e.g., “WHAM,” “ding-ding”).

First things first is some important vocabulary

**Layouts**

Panel

One drawing on a page, also called a frame or box; Can have borders or be borderless; Shape and size affect story pacing and emotion; Contains segments of action, sometimes asynchronous.

Gutter

The space between panels; Vertical gutters may be thinner to guide reading flow.

Tier

A single row of panels.

Splash

A large, often full-page illustration; Introduces a story or captures attention.

Spread

An image spanning more than one page, often a two-page spread.

**Speech & Narrative Elements**

Word Balloon

Contains character dialogue; Pointer (or tail) indicates the speaker; Shape conveys tone (e.g., spiked for shouting).

Thought Balloon

Contains a character’s internal thoughts; Often cloud-shaped with bubble pointers.

Caption

Boxed text for narration or internal monologues; Sometimes replaces speech balloons.

Sound Effects

Words mimicking sounds (e.g., “WHAM,” “ding-ding”).

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Cartoonist

Creates both the writing and artwork.

Writer

Develops plot, dialogue, and action; Communicates the story to the artist.

Artist

Creates visual elements of the comic.

Penciller

Sketches the initial layout and artwork.

Inker

Enhances and finalizes penciled artwork with ink.

Colorist

Adds colors to the artwork, affecting tone and mood.

Letterer

Adds dialogue, captions, and sound effects text.

Roles in the Profession

Roles for the Indie Comic Creator

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You may already have an idea for a comic.

In the US, typically we see either: life experiences (slice-of-life), hero tales, sci-fi, horror, mystery, romance, political commentary, or fantasy.

Generating and Developing Ideas

So, now that we have a bit of an understanding for the terminology, let's get into the creative process, shall we?

Starting with Generating Ideas.

If you are struggling at the idea stage, a good way to start generating ideas is to consider what it is that you like to read.

Often times what we like to read, we will have an easier time writing for since we are familiar with that genre.

I'm not advocating for copying of any kind, but thinking about the kind of story you like to read is a great starting points because you probably have an idea of what you would like read in that genre. Maybe it is a premise that hasn't been used before, or perhaps it is something used, but which you would continue in a different way or a collection of things to be put together in a way that others have not.

Consider, for example, isekai stories that all typically start the same, or Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint which pairs many genres into one tower climbing-like story.

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Brainstorming Techniques

Mind mapping, freewriting, and using prompts to spark ideas.
Focus on themes, characters, or personal experiences as inspiration.
Give your major character a unique voice and role.

Developing Ideas

Once you have an idea in mind, the next thing to do is start developing it in a pre-write stage.

This involves:

Brainstorming Techniques first or pre-writing activities as we tend to call them in the English department.

This can involve

Mind mapping, web-writing, freewriting, and using prompts to spark ideas. Maybe creating a vision board of sorts or sketching out ideas.

That this stage, you focus on--for example--themes, characters, or perhaps personal experiences as inspiration.

Keep in mind that lots of work you read today is character driven, so finding your main character or characters is sort of key when you think of the story

Refining Your Idea

Identify the genre and target audience.

Craft a one-sentence “logline” to summarize your story.

Test your idea by discussing it with friends or potential readers.

World-Building and Characters

Create a consistent and engaging world (even for slice-of-life).

Develop character profiles: backstory, motivations, and character arcs.

Tip: Give each character a unique voice and role in the story.

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Brainstorming Techniques

Mind mapping, freewriting, and using prompts to spark ideas.
Focus on themes, characters, or personal experiences as inspiration.
Give your major character a unique voice and role.

Refining Your Idea

Identify the genre.
Craft a one-sentence “elevator pitch” to summarize your story.
Test your idea by discussing it with friends or family.

Developing Ideas

Next is the Refining Your Idea stage.

Once you have a character, you kind of need to know what kind of story they are in so identify the genre is important as it will help you figure out the plot.

How does this character that you've made up, for example, act in various circumstances like a romance or drama or to fear.

People that play role-playing games may have a bit of an advantage here as you get more experience thinking not just as yourself, but as a different person who may choose and act differently from you.

And, when you have that genre and idea for the story down, you can try to create an elevator pitch to summarize the story succinctly as a means to asking if those around you may be interested in reading that kind of story.

Although, you don't have to--I've included this as peer review and hearing input is often really helpful for finding new ideas or considerations.

World-Building and Characters

Create a consistent and engaging world (even for slice-of-life).

Develop character profiles: backstory, motivations, and character arcs.

Tip:

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Brainstorming Techniques

Mind mapping, freewriting, and using prompts to spark ideas.
Focus on themes, characters, or personal experiences as inspiration.
Give your major character a unique voice and role.

Refining Your Idea

Identify the genre.
Craft a one-sentence “elevator pitch” to summarize your story.
Test your idea by discussing it with friends or family.

World-Building and Characters

Create a consistent and engaging world (even for slice-of-life).
Develop character profiles: backstory, motivations, and character arcs.

Developing Ideas

next comes the part that I think most writers both struggle with and excel at:

World-Building and Character development.

Many writers, in my experience, tend to be perfectionists. They will spend hours down a rabbit whole looking up the exact type of screw a train built in 1905 had--or, like Tolkien, spend pages describing plant life.

Its beautiful, but also a challenge because when you are creating a world--the minor details are not going to be what interests the readers, even if they are what interests you as a writer.

As a writer, you need to concern yourself first with creating a consistent and engaging world (even for slice-of-life) rather than a deeply focused world on minor ideas.

If it is not something the reader needs to know, a good editor will likely have you revise it out or have it be in the background but not brought up.

You need to develop character profiles: like backstory, motivations, and character arcs too--though you don't have to fully plan out the whole of the work just now.

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Plotters or Planters

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Plotters or Planters

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Drafting and Storyboarding

In either case, when it comes to drafting a story in the long term, it is good to at least think and draft out where the story starts and where the story ends for you.

If the story starts, for example, with a character going on an adventure--like a hero's journey, then the story usually must end with them having learned something that they lacked before.

And, along the way, something must happen to trigger that change.

In western media, and really this is applicable to all story telling, we tend to see five acts. in a story.

We have act 1, the prologue or exposition where characters and setting are introduced--this is the important information we'll carry with us along the way,

then the conflict or insighting incident, which starts the rising action that takes up the bulk of the story, the climax, the falling action as things settle down and the denouement.

These "acts" are not necessarily lengthy as even a two minute animated short from pixar includes these five elements--as do episodic stories like we see in comics and overarching narratives.

You do not need to have huge, world-crisis level peeks in a story to tell a tale, but you need to have action and results or consequences of those actions to create something engaging.

And, once you have those ideas down--typically in a written form--you can really begin to draft.

Image:

https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/five-act-structure

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Drafting and Storyboarding

Scriptwriting Basics

Writing a comic script: balancing dialogue, captions, and panel descriptions.

Action Tip: Panels are still, so actions per page should be small, but meaningful

Character Tip: Keep track of location of character. Keep them dynamic/in movement or “fluid.”

Dialogue Tip: Keep it concise and natural. Try to keep it under 4 lines in a screen writing format or about 24 words or less per character/bubble

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Drafting and Storyboarding

Scriptwriting Basics

Writing a comic script: balancing dialogue, captions, and panel descriptions.

Action Tip: Panels are still, so actions per page should be small, but meaningful

Character Tip: Keep track of location of character. Keep them dynamic/in movement or “fluid.”

Dialogue Tip: Keep it concise and natural. Try to keep it under 4 lines in a screen writing format or about 24 words or less per character/bubble

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Drafting and Storyboarding

Scriptwriting Basics

Writing a comic script: balancing dialogue, captions, and panel descriptions.

Action Tip: Panels are still, so actions per page should be small, but meaningful

Character Tip: Keep track of location of character. Keep them dynamic/in movement or “fluid.”

Dialogue Tip: Keep it concise and natural. Try to keep it under 4 lines in a screen writing format or about 24 words or less per character/bubble

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Drafting and Storyboarding

Scriptwriting Basics

Writing a comic script: balancing dialogue, captions, and panel descriptions.

Action Tip: Panels are still, so actions per page should be small, but meaningful

Character Tip: Keep track of location of character. Keep them dynamic/in movement or “fluid.”

Dialogue Tip: Keep it concise and natural. Try to keep it under 4 lines in a screen writing format or about 24 words or less per character/bubble

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Ask friends/family to look at your drafts. What do they think? (Helpful if they enjoy the genre too)

Seeking feedback from critique groups or beta readers

Look For The Tools: Online communities, Discord servers, or local workshops.

The importance of multiple drafts is to help refine your work

Revisions and Feedback

From storyboarding, I like to recommend that authors get revision and feedback.

You don't have to do it here--some do this earlier and some do it later, but I think that the rough drafting phase when you have some art and dialogue ideas along with a story goal is one of the best places to arts.

I always ask friends/family to look at my drafts first, and many writers I know do the same. What do they think? (Helpful if they enjoy the genre too)

Then seeking feedback from critique groups or beta readers

- reedsy.com for example or form open online communities, discord servers or local workshops.

I know that this sometimes instills fear--like, what if my work is stolen--but if you are worried about that remember that, when shared digitally, you have time stamps and evidence of your originality and that cannot be disregarded. I would also say, and this is going to sound callous, but--if you are afraid of getting plagiarized, you're not ready to publish and may never be.

Work gets copied all the time, and that is a sad truth of this world that is even more true with AI on the loose. I'll discuss this more in part 4, but keep in mind that your work will always have the potential to be stolen ESPECIALLY if it is good and while I can't say you should "get over it" because that would be wrong to say--I do like to advocate for thinking about it in a different way--specifically: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness," as Oscar Wilde once said.

Moving on--the importance of this feedback on drafts, even multiple drafts, is that it helps refine your work. So, let's take that slide I should you last as an example

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Drafting and Storyboarding

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Ugh--I don’t want to go to work. Maybe I can sleep a bit more...

OH LORD--I need to stop hitting the snooze button!

Hi Sarah, no worries!

... Oh, that reminds me, did you bring your presentation notes?

Hey everyone--sorry I’m late!

Yeah--they’re on my laptop. One sec-

!

It was then Sarah realized she had left her work laptop at home.

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Ugh--I don’t want to go to work. Maybe I can sleep a bit more...

OH LORD--I need to stop hitting the snooze button!

Hi Sarah, no worries!

... Oh, that reminds me, did you bring your presentation notes?

Hey everyone--sorry I’m late!

Yeah--they’re on my laptop. One sec-

!

It was then Sarah realized she had left her work laptop at home.

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Creating The Art

(Tools and Software)

Traditional Pen & Paper

+

Scanning with phone or tablet or fax

ProCreate (iOS)

$12.99 USD

Clip Studio Paint

(iOS + Windows)

Depends - $$

Gimp (Photoshop-like)

Free

MediBang Paint

Depends - $$

Photoshop

Depends - $$

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Negative thoughts

Sound Effect

Announcement

Speaking in two parts / across panels...

& gutters

Negative thoughts

Creeping in

Robotic

Anxious

Surprise

Anxious/

Unsure or Weak/Fading speech

Yelling /

Angry

Thinking

Talking

Bubbling Dialogue

caption or narration

Whisper

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Creating The Art

So, this is not my field of expertise--but art is really subjective and, honestly, what really makes the money here.

It's more about story.

Still, there are lots of people out there that feel limited by their art and--when that is the case, I like to point to the many creators whose art was not really great or perfect but have hit it big.

Like, Tomohiro also called ONE who made one-punch man initially or Odd1sOut on youtube.

What I matters perhaps more than art styles when starting out is more so, again, story and consistency.

Art can always improve and choosing a style that fits the tone of the story helps but is not necessarily needing to be perfect when beginning.

Rather, maintaining consistency in character design and environments is a great starting point and going from there.

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Sample

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Creating The Art

Tips for Efficient Workflow

Leave room in the drawing for bubbling as early as the story boarding
Take advantage of blank space by using tones
Many professional artists use 3d modeling and tracing to assist them with angles
Don’t be afraid to re-use panels
Batch drawing (doing steps together, like inking all pages at once)
Time management and avoiding burnout

INVINCIBLE 007 (2003)

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Time Management and Avoiding Burnout

With art now covered, that now brings us to the publishing aspect and I want to pause for a moment to make a little note on time management and avoiding burnout.

Content is king, as the saying goes, but quality and consistency will always be worth more in the long run.

it's essential to think about how you handle the organization and management of the backend as well.

For our social media management, I use Trello. It includes member cards, a calendar featuring important dates and events, resources, and other self-explanatory elements.

With the exception of post writing—where each member contributes—I handle all other aspects of social media management. Consequently, the Trello is shared with only one other person (specifically as a precaution in case of lockout).

This organizational setup aids me in managing dates, times, projects, goals, etc. It's accessible on my phone, allowing for quick note-taking, and it has an autosave feature.

However, some people prefer tools like Notion, a physical notebook, the calendar app on their phone, etc.

Regardless of the tool you choose, maintaining a record and organized system is crucial to ensuring consistent content output.

Having a system can prevent burnout by providing a clear visual representation of the time allocated for a project and the efforts invested.

Burnout is a significant concern in many industries, so keep this in mind.

When starting out, find what works for you now. Set SMART goals for the future.

For instance, don't commit to posting three 1000+ word articles three times a week if, after a month, you realize you're exhausted. It might be more sustainable to aim for one post a week or even once a month and build up to that goal.

While content is king, consistency is the goal, and realistically, the slow and steady path is more likely to lead to long-term success.

That said...

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Indie-Publishing

(Tools and Software)

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Social media tips: Posting and cross-posting regularly, engaging with readers, using hashtags.

Networking: Attend conventions, collaborate with other creators, join online communities and local workshops

Reaching out to reviewers, bloggers, and influencers (nicely) to ask for feedback and potential sponsorship

Creating email newsletters, socials, and building a fan base.

Marketing

(Tools and Software)

Along with publishing though, we must discuss MARKETING!

This goes more into Building an Audience, which is one of the most challenging parts because after you have your story and art, you probably want someone to read it.

And, if your art is like mine, that does present a bit of a challenge getting first time engagers.

BUT, it is not impossible.

First things first, do your research. Marketing is a beast and if you aren't planning to hire a marketing professional then you need to figure out what works best for you alone because everyone is different.

Some things are consistent between people--like platforms and strategies, but what works best for your content changes over time as does your work, assumably.

For example, many years ago--everyone posted on tumblr but not so much any more since Webtoons and Tapas are so huge.

Before, many used photoshop or--heaven help us--microsoft paint but now it is mostly digital tools in this industry.

Some big ideas that work here though include

Social media tips: Posting and cross posting to various socials regularly, engaging with readers, using hashtags.

Networking: Attend conventions, collaborate with other creators, join online communities and local workshops

Reaching out to reviewers, bloggers, and influencers (nicely) to ask for feedback and potential sponsorship

Creating email newsletters, socials, and building a fan base.

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Continuous Workflow

Story

Drafting

Creating the Art

Posting

Publishing and Marketing

Drafting and Storyboarding

Generating and Developing Ideas

Creating the Art

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Final Tip: FIND YOUR “WHY” AND KEEP IT CLOSE!

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