I’ll be honest. I have a stack of comics on my shelf that I haven’t read. I bought them, sometimes for the art, sometimes because I thought they’d be good, sometimes just to support the creator that I like. There are a bunch that I started and honestly, just got bored.
I’ve done this with books I’ve tried to read and movies that I started and just wasn’t feeling it. The worst is when it’s a concept that sounds really great. I get excited to see it or read it. Sometimes I wait months for it to come out. Then… meh.
So why does this happen so often? I guess it just breaks down to… storytelling is hard.
Comics are unique in the storytelling world. That’s a big part of what makes them so fun and interesting to work on. When you read a novel, the author guides you through the story but your own mind creates the visuals. It’s an active experience on your part. Movies on the other hand, are a passive experience… everything is fed to you. You can just sit back and get immersed in the world.
Comics live somewhere in the middle. Comic creators have the ability to guide the reader through the story with a lot more control than a novel would, while still allowing for an active experience from the reader who has to create everything that happens between panels. But the creator has control over the pace and the emotion.
There’s a delicate balance, though. Too many words can get boring. Some of the worst comics over-explain everything or treat the dialog like a movie script. You can tell they’re written by an author that isn’t used to the “graphic” part of a graphic novel. The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” is sometimes correct… it can be… if it’s the right picture. If it’s the wrong picture, it’s worth nothing.
Providing visuals to the reader gives them a starting point for their active participation in the story (what happens between panels). If done well, it can set the mood for how readers should feel. Here’s an example.
Let’s say the story has a dude in a dark hallway. He’s a bit scared and doesn’t know what’s about to happen. We could draw something like this…
It gets the job done. We can tell from the character’s body language that he’s nervous. But what do you, as the reader, feel when looking at this option? Not much, right?
Now, what if we raise the camera angle and zoom in a bit?
This one gives off more tension. Not only is the character nervous, but it makes us, as the viewer, a bit nervous as well. We can’t really see what’s around him so it pushes our imagination to think of the possibilities.
Whenever a drawing is a part of a visual narrative, it requires that you understand and ask yourself: what’s the point? Everything either adds to the narrative and makes it better, or detracts from it. What’s the mood? What’s the feeling that you want the reader to have? What’s the point of this image?
Subtle things like this can make or break a visual story. Done right, it can make the story so interesting the reader will have to keep turning the page. Doing it wrong can make the reader give up and throw it on the stack of all the other boring books that they’ll probably never open again.
The Atlantean update…
I made a lot of progress this past week! Chapter one will be 18 pages, of which, 7 are already drawn. Full disclosure, a good bit of it is a reworking of the prologue comic that you got if you subscribed to this newsletter. I’ve tightened up the storytelling and am working on redrawing it. Once that’s done, I’ll make it available for all subscribers on here to download for free! I’m still figuring out the best way to get chapter 2 and beyond out to you so more on that coming soon.
In the meantime, here’s a page:
Thanks so much for the words of encouragement and support, it means a lot!
Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my artwork/sketches/ramblings, follow me on X and Instagram. And if you really want to support me, I have a store!
I also started an illustration studio, so if you or anyone you know is in need of custom illustration, check out Sketch Foundry!
Have a great week!
-Brad