This exercise seemed like a really fun way to start section two and would allow me to start to explore some of the relationships between words and images in comics. I did, however, have some reservations with the instructions. For this exercise, I was instructed to print out the template comic four times at A3. Now, I had no technical problem with this, but as I have noted previously in other modules I have an issue needlessly wasting paper when a task can be completed more sustainably and efficiently.
This made me feel a little conflicted, as I expect that there was something in the learning by manipulating things physically and trying out locations for text by hand. However in the end my desire to not waste paper won over. As I had elected to not receive the physical courseware for this module (again - no need to waste paper), I only had the pdf files from the OCA Learn website to work with. Luckily, I have a bit of experience with digital tools, so I first exported the single page, and then imported it as a pdf into Affinity Designer, where I was able to isolate just the inks and the white background. After increasing the size of the document to A3 (to keep in line with the instructions - I would be able to print off this work should I want or need to for assessment) I was ready with a good quality base template to work with:
Next, I had to iterate four times using words with the comic:
Using bubbles only
Using captions only
Using a third-person or narrative description
A combined approach to best tell the story
I thought about how I could start creating the story for each of these. Rather than think too hard about trying to mix the story up each time, I came to a basic story pretty quickly inspired by the actions and interactions I saw in each of the panels. Inspired by one of my favourite storytelling books [4] I decided to keep one story, and then use the different iterations to tell that same story in a different way.
I started by trying to write down the bubbles in a notebook but found that it was unstructured and hard to follow. In Assignment 4: Building Stories of Illustration Sketchbooks, I had decided to create a zine comic. I had found that creating a script for this assignment was incredibly helpful, so I decided to use that approach again.
Given that I was going to tell the same page four times, I elected to do this straight in a Word document over my notebook this time. Reading the courseware, it reminded me of the different ways that scripts and storytelling has been approached through the years (Marvel Method, DC Method, Dark Horse, 2000AD). In anticipation of this module, I had asked and received some books on comic scripts from my kind family. On top of one I already owned, I looked through them to try and establish the best way of approaching this in a clear and useful script format [1,2,5].
What I realised are no set rules, and what seemed more important was a sense of clarity for everyone using the script. In doing more online research I came across a script format from Fred Lente [3] that aesthetically and practically appealed to me. I emulated the layout and structure in Microsoft Word, and created a template with saved styles for the different titles, headers and dialogue sections. I adapted the layout to be a4-orientated and adjusted the fonts and margins to suit my preference. I was pleased that in saving it as a template, I would be able to use it for future work quite easily.
Rather than do all the writing first, I decided to alternate between writing and then placing the writing into the comic template. First, I tackled the bubbles-only version first.
I didn't just write the dialogue but pretended to write the script as if I was doing it before the comic had been drawn. I found that by describing the panels first, it helped me all the way through the different iterations.
I then added the text into the base comic. I had to experiment with different fonts to get the initial feel. I chose one that seemed to work for the story. In order to try and get the bubbles to not get lost in the image, I decided to give them a relatively strong border.
I experimented with different placements and sizes. I found that it was important to get the right amount of negative space between the words and the bubble. I found the basic callout tool in Affinity Designer allowed me to easily adjust the tail, but sometimes the shape of the ellipse part of the callout was not really to my liking. This was particularly true for panel five - I decided to change the font here to aid the storytelling of the woman yelling.
I am not happy with the spiky speech bubble though, the spikes seem too big and it uses up too much real estate. I don't think this is specifically a limitation of the tools I used, but there is line after which trying to get the effect you want would probably mean converting the shape into a curve and tweaking all the elements. This would take away from the efficiency of lettering lots of pages, so I am keen to work out if there are more efficient ways to do it. Clip Studio Paint has a robust bubble tool, but again that can be fiddly in other ways.
Next, I thought about how I might tell the story with only captions:
I decided that in this example it was best to let the visuals do all the talking in panel five, as it should be pretty obvious what was happening, and using a caption to describe that would be poor storytelling. When I then put the text into the comic, I altered the font to one that seemed better suited to a caption but kept the relatively bold borders for the captions to help them stand out. I think leaving the fifth panel was the right choice. It's interesting to see how just using captions makes the storytelling seem to 'plod' along. It actually detracts from the visual storytelling element in my opinion.
For the third iteration, I had to decide how to best use the narrative element. Using a third-person voice for my story seemed too close to the captions. So instead, I opted for a first-person narrative approach, as if the man were re-telling the story to someone else.
Given that I had to make the reader realise that this was his inner monologue, I decided to alter the containers for the text. I used a dotted border to try and give the sense that it was closer to a thought bubble than a caption, and I also chose a font that looked like the speech bubbles in iteration one. I actually chose a different font as I found the first one was too restrictive, not allowing me to emphasise text, only underline.
Placement for both captions and inner monologue was tricky - I had to play around with the width of the container and wrapping the text. When I experimented with different font sizes, I learned that inconsistent sizes didn't work, and also I had to remind myself that this would eventually be reduced from A3 to A4. Having text too small in order to fit it in would make the panels hard to read literally and figuratively. Instead, I opted to reduce the width of the containers. I like this effect, as it gives more of a sense of dialogue and having two lines which are not full width doesn't detract from the composition of the panel.
Lastly, I was to create a combined approach factoring everything that I had learned in previous iterations. This allowed me to play around a bit. I went through a number of iterations trying to work out how best to use different combinations. This is where doing this exercise physically would have been helpful! To work around this, I ended up switching from script to comic and back again - sometimes trying things out on the comic before writing the script panel and sometimes the opposite approach.
I think that in the future if I am writing a script I will find it useful to take a combined approach between scripting and thumbnailing the layouts at the same time in a sketchbook, allowing me to play around with different combinations and placements. It will likely make my panel descriptions better as well which would be important if I was not the one doing the drawing!
This iteration also gave me the opportunity to play around with sound effects. I had to work out how best to put these into the script, and how to think onomatopoetically to create the most appropriate sound! When it came to placing these sound effects into the page, I tried to think about how I could transform the shape of the type to aid the storytelling. In panel five I chose to help it convey the speed and perspective, and in panel six I made each letter larger through the word. In panel six I also made the text follow the path of the exhaust. My intention there was to try and add a sense of depth as well as help the reader's eye move across the panel efficiently.
For the story itself, I realised that in combining the different elements, I could tell more sides of the story and help the reader understand what was really going on. For all the other iterations, it's centred around the perspective of the man. I decided to instead also show the perspective of the woman through the use of through bubbles. I enjoyed this at it reveals subtext that the other options didn't allow.
Reflecting on the initial speech bubbles, I used the updated font and reduce the thickness of the container lines. I kept the caption formatting as I thought this worked well. This time I also re-worked the exclamation bubble, stacking the text which allowed me to make the bubble itself that much more succinct.
All-in-all, I found this exercise a lot of fun and allowed me to try out some new approaches. It's given me a lot to think about and challenged some of my assumptions that I already knew a lot about this. I have a huge appreciation for the work that letterers do, and I find the fact that there is as much a design part to comics as there is 'art' really appealing.
Also, taking the time to find a way that starts to work for me to write scripts has made me feel a lot more confident in writing them. I am hoping that in time that will inspire me to just spend time writing for the sake of it and allow my brain to think of stories that it revels in.
References
Bendis, B., 2014. Words For Pictures. 1st ed. New York: Watson-Guptill.
Kneece, M., 2015. The Art Of Comic Book Writing. 1st ed. New York: Watson-Guptill.
Lente, F., 2021. Anatomy Of A Comic Script. [online] Creator Resource. Available at: http://www.creatorresource.com/anatomy-of-a-comic-script/ [Accessed 24 January 2021].
Madden, M., 2007. 99 Ways To Tell A Story. London: Jonathan Cape.
O'Neil, D., 2008. The DC Comics Guide To Writing Comics. 9th ed. New York: Watson-Guptill.
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