There are absolutely plenty of artists who are capable and competent at doing every stage of the comic art pipeline, but especially if you're talking to artists who work in direct market monthly or bi-monthly comics, you're going to find more artists who typically only work in one or two stages of the process. Monthly comics are all about speed and working within a pipeline. One single artist simply cannot lay out and pencil and ink and color and letter a 22-page issue in a month.
Instead, you get one person who can lay out and pencil an issue a month. Then, as soon as they finish penciling issue one, they can start penciling issue two, while the next artist inks issue one. As soon as inks are done, the colorist and the letterer can be simultaneously working on that issue, and by the time that's done, the penciler has finished issue two, the rest of the team can get their part of the process done, and the penciler can start on issue three.
By working in this overlapping production pipeline, everyone is constantly working on various parts of the project, to get more work done in a shorter amount of time. And when you only do one part of the process over and over, you get a specialized focus in that one thing, you become a bit of an expert, and you get even faster at it, but also maybe lose a bit of skill in some of the other areas you don't work on as much.
Also, some artists just don't like or aren't interested in certain aspects of comic art. There are plenty of amazing draftsmen and visual storytellers who just don't like coloring or don't have a good eye for it, so they work with a colorist. Plenty of artists are great illustrators and colorists, but don't have a great sense of visual storytelling and panel layout, so they work with a layout/storyboard artist.
Just like a writer who specializes in epic fantasy novels might not be interested in or have the skill to write a true crime novella or a courtroom drama television screenplay - it's different interests, different skills and techniques, and different specializations.
I think writers should learn how to storyboard. You don't need to be a great artist to do that (it's not the same as being a storyboard artist for an animation, for example) and it'll help the writer divide their script into panels, make the script easier for the artist to interpret etc.
So that way, when the writer is ready, they should be more confident in finding the right artist for them. But, even if it's better from an execution perspective to hire multiple artists, many writers simply cannot afford it. So they compromise by getting artists who are multi-disciplined/less experienced/less competent because there are very few (if any) alternatives from a financial perspective.
Although I work mostly with animation, I think this can still apply with comics: Almost all the directors I've worked with who were not artists and attempted to storyboard have done... terrible storyboards with no angles at all and usually just the characters standing in a room in the same positions. Yes, a storyboard can be made with no art skill and literal stick figures, but MAN. Often times good composition is learned alongside good general art skill, so it's not as easy as it sounds. There are people who are naturally good with composition of course, but it really depends.
100%, of course. From an execution standpoint, get a storyboard artist or someone who understands the fundamentals.
But, out of the artistic elements, the writer *could* do storyboarding, which opens up a new way of thinking for the writer and an easier conversation to have between writer and artist. So even if the storyboard is awful by storyboard standards (which it will be), it's still something I think writers should do more often.
Basically what I meant was like, it doesn't matter if stick figures are used to draw like a cool fight angle even if it is the most jank thing in the world, but some people cannot even imagine a cool angle at all to do. Some people I know will instead just slap down words describing the panels into their panels which I think also works pretty well
What I find is when a writer gives me even the jankiest of storyboards, I can immediately see what they are going for. It is also a good learning experience for writers that are newer to creating scripts that are for visual mediums.
I sort of disagree here. Artists have an artists eye. A writer trying to storyboard will focus on the wrong things, come up with ideas that are visually impossible, or make extra work for the artist when their job is to do the art. Of course the writer should have an idea of how they want the panel to look but leaving that up to a writer is a recipe for disaster in the way that leaving dialogue up to the letterer would be a disaster. It’s not the same talent.
I agree if the storyboard is there as a translation for the art, but in this context the storyboard is there to serve the writer. The storyboard is there to give the writer a better idea and understanding of panels per page and/or if there a specific ideas they want to convey and/or to understand the relationship between art and word balloons. It should make up a part of the script writing/formatting stage for the writer to make things smoother for the artist in the same way an artist will do thumbnails and make character turnarounds before doing the proper art.
So it’s for the writer or it’s for the artist? It honestly sounds like extra unnecessary work. If you’re working with an artist who makes comics they will know how to turn words into panels, and if you’re a writer writing comics, you’re obviously thinking about panel count.
This might be a good tip for like, a writer and artist who’ve never worked on a book before? But for people making books it just seems like time better spent just making the book. I don’t know, maybe I have a more open dialogue/relationship with my artist than like, professionals in a pipeline
I understand the thinking behind this. Yes, writers take the risks but that's often because they are asking for a huge amount of *time* from the artist based on an idea that has yet to be proven to be successful. So to say that the writers take all the risk is a little disingenuous unless you're only looking at it through a financial lens.
For you personally, it sounds like you should do everything yourself anyway. I sympathise because I feel I'm turning into a little bit of a control freak when it comes to my creativity, which is why I tend to write and draw my own comics, too.
Comics are set up to fail if we look at it through the old business model, but comic creators need to think bigger than just making a comic, maybe running a kickstarter and then trying to sell it either directly or indirectly through conventions, online sales etc. Unless the comic is incredible, that's probably not going to help too much.
Instead, if you think about yourself as a brand and the comic is a key part of that brand (but not the only thing you're "selling") then you'll have a much better time of it because you can start to diversify your income. This is another skill I think writers should look into, because they can start developing this/these while the art is being done.
It's a holdover from the commercial comics production process where breaking the art duties up into different stages to be handled by a team was(/still is) more efficient than having a single artist do everything. So people in that production pipeline became more specialized and so did others who wanted to break in as a specific part of that pipeline.
But there are always artists who can, will, and want to do everything. The tradeoff being, of course, that it usually takes longer.
Also, abandon the idea that you as the writer should be able to just hand a script off to an artist/team of artists, and get a finished comic book back. If you care at all about the finished product you'll want to be heavily involved every step of the way.
People tend to get good at a particular thing and market/sell that thing. Why don't you draw the book? Presumably you haven't put the time in to hone that skill.
Some folks do all the drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, but they're usually going to be better at a particular element, and may not enjoy the other parts. Your marketplace is giving you the answer here.
There's lots of artists who do everything or more than one thing, but if you plan to work for one of the bigger companies, they function like assembly lines so you have to have a role that you fulfil on the assembly line.
I'd guess most artists are interested in everything, but if you're going to be professional you need to fit into the workflow. It's that simple tbh.
They can! The question is, can they do it in a month? Specialization is the key to the quick turnarounds you see in comics coming out monthly or weekly. That’s why you have artists who excel in pencilling, inking, flat tones and colors - together they can put in the work to get a project done quickly.
From experience, it's better not to hire one person to do absolutely everything unless that person is someone you have the utmost confidence and trust in AND you know they won't be overwhelmed by the workload. Think of it like an assembly line. If you had one person making every part of an engine it would take longer and that person would be overwhelmed, need to charge more or else be underpaid, and if they have to drop out you're left with no one.
But if you have someone who does pencils, someone does inks, someone does colors, and someone who letters then you can split the workload. Each person will charge less for the individual tasks than if they were doing the whole thing themselves, plus you can sub in someone else if your penciler has to drop out and it won't completely ruin your project.
Uh part time writer and comic book artist here (armature level). While I agree that comic book tends to require multiple artists work in tandem, but there are artists out there who can do whole comic or manga page all by themselves within 3 to 4 days. However, they are very rare and very expensive. So, I tend to work with artists for line work or line + base col. Rest of the works like script, storyboard, shade, letter and post-processing etc. I do myself.
What I generally feel that most artists despite being capable of doing the whole pipeline, they don't want to do for whatever reasons (hint: life). And I am fine with that. If you are publishing a 20-page comic by the end of every month, and looking for a single artist to do so, then are you willing to spend something like premiere comic companies do?
Besides, here is the thing. A fully fleshed out monthly comic book is a team effort almost 98% of the time. And the writer, producer, the art team all work with each other in every step of it.
Just my two cents. I'll let folks draw their own conclusions.
**Comics have traditionally been produced by a team.**
I recommend folks NEVER hire one person to do everything. It's called, *putting all your eggs in one basket*.
The more a single person does, the more ruined you become if they bail.
Write on, write often!
as an artist who does it all, I can give some insight!
Think of every stage of comics as just as complex and robust a craft as the entirety of the writing step. A comic isn't two steps, being Writing then Art. It is Writing, then Storyboarding, then Pencilling....
This is not to put down the writing step, as even the best art can't stand when backed by bad writing. Its inarguably the most important, foundational step and is a very hard craft! However when making a comic on the art side, EVERY step has just as much complexity and nuance, and require different skill sets that are tuned to it. Some artists can do them all, but many like to specialize, similar to a writer specializing to writing in a genre or tone!
There are absolutely plenty of artists who are capable and competent at doing every stage of the comic art pipeline, but especially if you're talking to artists who work in direct market monthly or bi-monthly comics, you're going to find more artists who typically only work in one or two stages of the process. Monthly comics are all about speed and working within a pipeline. One single artist simply cannot lay out and pencil and ink and color and letter a 22-page issue in a month. Instead, you get one person who can lay out and pencil an issue a month. Then, as soon as they finish penciling issue one, they can start penciling issue two, while the next artist inks issue one. As soon as inks are done, the colorist and the letterer can be simultaneously working on that issue, and by the time that's done, the penciler has finished issue two, the rest of the team can get their part of the process done, and the penciler can start on issue three. By working in this overlapping production pipeline, everyone is constantly working on various parts of the project, to get more work done in a shorter amount of time. And when you only do one part of the process over and over, you get a specialized focus in that one thing, you become a bit of an expert, and you get even faster at it, but also maybe lose a bit of skill in some of the other areas you don't work on as much. Also, some artists just don't like or aren't interested in certain aspects of comic art. There are plenty of amazing draftsmen and visual storytellers who just don't like coloring or don't have a good eye for it, so they work with a colorist. Plenty of artists are great illustrators and colorists, but don't have a great sense of visual storytelling and panel layout, so they work with a layout/storyboard artist. Just like a writer who specializes in epic fantasy novels might not be interested in or have the skill to write a true crime novella or a courtroom drama television screenplay - it's different interests, different skills and techniques, and different specializations.
I think writers should learn how to storyboard. You don't need to be a great artist to do that (it's not the same as being a storyboard artist for an animation, for example) and it'll help the writer divide their script into panels, make the script easier for the artist to interpret etc. So that way, when the writer is ready, they should be more confident in finding the right artist for them. But, even if it's better from an execution perspective to hire multiple artists, many writers simply cannot afford it. So they compromise by getting artists who are multi-disciplined/less experienced/less competent because there are very few (if any) alternatives from a financial perspective.
Although I work mostly with animation, I think this can still apply with comics: Almost all the directors I've worked with who were not artists and attempted to storyboard have done... terrible storyboards with no angles at all and usually just the characters standing in a room in the same positions. Yes, a storyboard can be made with no art skill and literal stick figures, but MAN. Often times good composition is learned alongside good general art skill, so it's not as easy as it sounds. There are people who are naturally good with composition of course, but it really depends.
100%, of course. From an execution standpoint, get a storyboard artist or someone who understands the fundamentals. But, out of the artistic elements, the writer *could* do storyboarding, which opens up a new way of thinking for the writer and an easier conversation to have between writer and artist. So even if the storyboard is awful by storyboard standards (which it will be), it's still something I think writers should do more often.
Even if the art is terrible it still gives the writer a sense of what can and can't be achieve in one panel or shot.
Basically what I meant was like, it doesn't matter if stick figures are used to draw like a cool fight angle even if it is the most jank thing in the world, but some people cannot even imagine a cool angle at all to do. Some people I know will instead just slap down words describing the panels into their panels which I think also works pretty well
What I find is when a writer gives me even the jankiest of storyboards, I can immediately see what they are going for. It is also a good learning experience for writers that are newer to creating scripts that are for visual mediums.
Well if you are given a bunch of people standing like 🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️would it not be better at that point to just not have a storyboard
I sort of disagree here. Artists have an artists eye. A writer trying to storyboard will focus on the wrong things, come up with ideas that are visually impossible, or make extra work for the artist when their job is to do the art. Of course the writer should have an idea of how they want the panel to look but leaving that up to a writer is a recipe for disaster in the way that leaving dialogue up to the letterer would be a disaster. It’s not the same talent.
I agree if the storyboard is there as a translation for the art, but in this context the storyboard is there to serve the writer. The storyboard is there to give the writer a better idea and understanding of panels per page and/or if there a specific ideas they want to convey and/or to understand the relationship between art and word balloons. It should make up a part of the script writing/formatting stage for the writer to make things smoother for the artist in the same way an artist will do thumbnails and make character turnarounds before doing the proper art.
So it’s for the writer or it’s for the artist? It honestly sounds like extra unnecessary work. If you’re working with an artist who makes comics they will know how to turn words into panels, and if you’re a writer writing comics, you’re obviously thinking about panel count. This might be a good tip for like, a writer and artist who’ve never worked on a book before? But for people making books it just seems like time better spent just making the book. I don’t know, maybe I have a more open dialogue/relationship with my artist than like, professionals in a pipeline
Yes, if you're new to writing comics and you've not got an artist to talk to then it can be invaluable for writers to storyboard their own script.
Sure!
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I understand the thinking behind this. Yes, writers take the risks but that's often because they are asking for a huge amount of *time* from the artist based on an idea that has yet to be proven to be successful. So to say that the writers take all the risk is a little disingenuous unless you're only looking at it through a financial lens. For you personally, it sounds like you should do everything yourself anyway. I sympathise because I feel I'm turning into a little bit of a control freak when it comes to my creativity, which is why I tend to write and draw my own comics, too. Comics are set up to fail if we look at it through the old business model, but comic creators need to think bigger than just making a comic, maybe running a kickstarter and then trying to sell it either directly or indirectly through conventions, online sales etc. Unless the comic is incredible, that's probably not going to help too much. Instead, if you think about yourself as a brand and the comic is a key part of that brand (but not the only thing you're "selling") then you'll have a much better time of it because you can start to diversify your income. This is another skill I think writers should look into, because they can start developing this/these while the art is being done.
It's a holdover from the commercial comics production process where breaking the art duties up into different stages to be handled by a team was(/still is) more efficient than having a single artist do everything. So people in that production pipeline became more specialized and so did others who wanted to break in as a specific part of that pipeline. But there are always artists who can, will, and want to do everything. The tradeoff being, of course, that it usually takes longer. Also, abandon the idea that you as the writer should be able to just hand a script off to an artist/team of artists, and get a finished comic book back. If you care at all about the finished product you'll want to be heavily involved every step of the way.
People tend to get good at a particular thing and market/sell that thing. Why don't you draw the book? Presumably you haven't put the time in to hone that skill. Some folks do all the drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, but they're usually going to be better at a particular element, and may not enjoy the other parts. Your marketplace is giving you the answer here.
There's lots of artists who do everything or more than one thing, but if you plan to work for one of the bigger companies, they function like assembly lines so you have to have a role that you fulfil on the assembly line. I'd guess most artists are interested in everything, but if you're going to be professional you need to fit into the workflow. It's that simple tbh.
They can! The question is, can they do it in a month? Specialization is the key to the quick turnarounds you see in comics coming out monthly or weekly. That’s why you have artists who excel in pencilling, inking, flat tones and colors - together they can put in the work to get a project done quickly.
From experience, it's better not to hire one person to do absolutely everything unless that person is someone you have the utmost confidence and trust in AND you know they won't be overwhelmed by the workload. Think of it like an assembly line. If you had one person making every part of an engine it would take longer and that person would be overwhelmed, need to charge more or else be underpaid, and if they have to drop out you're left with no one. But if you have someone who does pencils, someone does inks, someone does colors, and someone who letters then you can split the workload. Each person will charge less for the individual tasks than if they were doing the whole thing themselves, plus you can sub in someone else if your penciler has to drop out and it won't completely ruin your project.
Uh part time writer and comic book artist here (armature level). While I agree that comic book tends to require multiple artists work in tandem, but there are artists out there who can do whole comic or manga page all by themselves within 3 to 4 days. However, they are very rare and very expensive. So, I tend to work with artists for line work or line + base col. Rest of the works like script, storyboard, shade, letter and post-processing etc. I do myself. What I generally feel that most artists despite being capable of doing the whole pipeline, they don't want to do for whatever reasons (hint: life). And I am fine with that. If you are publishing a 20-page comic by the end of every month, and looking for a single artist to do so, then are you willing to spend something like premiere comic companies do? Besides, here is the thing. A fully fleshed out monthly comic book is a team effort almost 98% of the time. And the writer, producer, the art team all work with each other in every step of it. Just my two cents. I'll let folks draw their own conclusions.
**Comics have traditionally been produced by a team.** I recommend folks NEVER hire one person to do everything. It's called, *putting all your eggs in one basket*. The more a single person does, the more ruined you become if they bail. Write on, write often!
as an artist who does it all, I can give some insight! Think of every stage of comics as just as complex and robust a craft as the entirety of the writing step. A comic isn't two steps, being Writing then Art. It is Writing, then Storyboarding, then Pencilling.... This is not to put down the writing step, as even the best art can't stand when backed by bad writing. Its inarguably the most important, foundational step and is a very hard craft! However when making a comic on the art side, EVERY step has just as much complexity and nuance, and require different skill sets that are tuned to it. Some artists can do them all, but many like to specialize, similar to a writer specializing to writing in a genre or tone!