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Comic-Book Scriptwriting Basics

Article by Randy Ullrich

According to Scott McCloud in his influential work, Understanding Comics, comics are: “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in a viewer.” And before that, Will Eisner characterized comics as, “Sequential Art.” These definitions cover a lot more than just comedy, and neither suggests that they have to be rendered in book form! Comics share many similarities with movie screenplays – they are both visual mediums and they both tell stories with pictures and words (spoken words in the case of screenplays). But a key difference is that comics can also express a subject’s inner domain. Since screenplays are written with just elements that the audience can see and hear, comics differ from screenplays in that comics can convey the thoughts and emotions of its characters.Here’s another difference: the delivery mechanism. Movies are delivered in front of live audiences at movie theaters, on DVD, over cable and broadcast TV, or increasingly, over the Internet. Comics can be delivered in stapled soft-cover books (saddle-stitched), square or perfect-bound books (soft cover or hard cover and the popular format for graphic novels), in the comics section of major newspapers (often in serial form), over the Internet as web-based comics, or heck, on the wall of a bathroom stall! This is all background for the topic of this guide: format guidelines for comic-book scriptwriting. But this is a bit of a misnomer as, unlike screenwriting where generally accepted formatting guidelines are largely agreed upon (some may argue this), scriptwriting for comic books has no such generally accepted standards. Publishing houses like Dark Horse and Marvel have put forth script-submission guidelines, but they are all different. There are, however, some generally accepted elements common throughout, such as pages, panels, captions, balloons, and sound effects. What we attempt here then – based on (1) the works of McCloud and Eisner; (2) publishing-house guidelines; and (3) best practices from screenwriting – is a set of comic-book scriptwriting format guidelines. And we’ve implemented these guidelines into FiveSprockets’ scriptwriting software. Why comic book scriptwriting at all? Aren’t comics mostly illustrations?True, many comics are dominated by illustrations. But comics – like movies, television serials, novels, and even more abstract art – tell stories. And scripts are a great way to formalize a creator’s story. Furthermore, many great comic-book writers are not necessarily the best illustrators. In fact, comic-book creation, just like filmmaking, is a very collaborative process between story writing and production elements like illustration, lettering, packaging, and distribution. Do you have any thoughts or opinions on what we’ve put forth here? If so, we’d love to hear from you via email at support@fivesprockets.com. Now, on to the guide!Comic book scripts start with a page indicator that includes the number of panels on the page, as in – PAGE ONE (FIVE PANELS)This is left-justified, underlined, and in all capital letters. With FiveSprockets, you can insert a page indicator by selecting it from the paragraph style dialogue box (below).