What's your cause?

I sent that to her :D She'll like that a lot; she loves writing (she just finished her first book, which she's going to try to publish eventually).
If she has any questions, I'll post them here (or where ever the mods move this, if they do).

Our comic is going to be aimed so that it could be read by a younger audience, but we want it to be entertaining to a wide audience, especially teens. We have the general plot down, including many of the details, so we're really just worried about writing the script right now.
Do you outline where chapter breaks and all that would be in the script? One thing I'm worried about is how long the chapters should go, and where we should break them when we need to. We're kind of planning a graphic novel by Japanese manga influences (although I don't want us to be a complete Japanese playoff comic; we're still American, but I like the style and organization).
She has a bit of it completed, and I'm worried that it might be too long before we can fit a chapter break in where it would "naturally" fit. Should we work that out now, or should we wait until we start with the art part of it to decide...?
 
Actually, I take it back - there is one or two set standards when it comes to comic book scripts, and this might help you a bit.

First, the average length for an average Western comic (not Manga or pocket sized) is 22 pages. So think of each scripted page as a page in your comic. Panels (the boxes for each scene) can run be as few as one page (full page) or maybe even eight or twelve panels on a page. Usually 4-6 panels are plenty on a page.

Sample script might look like this


[Page 1]

(Background description. Short synopsis of what this page is about. Brief art direction notes, mood of the page. Doesn't need to be long - one or two paragraphs at most. Example: Two archeologists deep in a mysterious cave, in typical archeologist gear. They're bending down and looking at an ancient amulet. This amulet will be used later - for now, pull back on the detail. Later reader will see amulet is made of gold, and the inscription is from a villain who died several centuries ago - who has suddenly come back to life because of the archeologist X's discovery).

Panel 1. We see two archeologists hunched in a dark cave, covered with cobwebs. Dim lighting from a small hurricane lamp surround them. These are modern day Indiana Jones types, and they've seen one too many Indy movies. They think they know what they're doing, but they don't. One is holding a box, the other is scraping the sides with a huge brush.

SPX: Scrape, scrape
Character x: Oh, my.
Character y: What...oh, dear God...is that--
Character x: Hah, hah! We're going to be rich!

2. The cave the archeologists is coming apart - we realize they're inside a live volcano, and the volcano is erupting.
SFX (Sound effects): Boom.
Character y: Come on! We have to get out of here...
Character x: You lied! You told me we'd be safe--
Character Y: Shut up, just go! Run!

3. Archeologists on the run. Mass chaos, eruptions, volcano spews, wild animals living together, etc.

4. Archeologists make it to the edge of a riverbank, but their river guide has been shot through the chest...and the one who did the shooting is holding the smoking gun and looking over his shoulder at them.

Character X: Oh, crap...

***

And so on. That's an extremely crude example of what a first page might look like, but you get the gist of it.

Another friend of mine, David Hopkins, put his scripts on his web page. David's work has actually won a few local awards, and he's done seminars on comic book scriptwriting (he actually let me present one of the seminar sections, too - which was fun!).

This is David's website here. Have your sister check out his scripts. I'd say that the main thing is, you and your sister will have to work in tandem with each other. Both of you have important jobs. The writer is also the director, and the writer is the one guiding the storyboard. Your sister will be the one blocking the shots and calling what she wants it to "look" like. Hopefully you'll both be on the same page - if not, one of you will be disappointed in the end result (or you'll have to keep redoing scenes. Not fun.)
 
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That's one of the things I hate about the current comics, there's 22 pages, and 8 of them are advertisements.
 
Shai Gar said:
That's one of the things I hate about the current comics, there's 22 pages, and 8 of them are advertisements.
Click to expand...

Ye-eah, but unfortunately that's how they make their money. The more adverts, the more the potential profits.

I prefer multiple issues in a graphic novel format. I can read full episodes in one sitting without the ads, and my covers don't tear off as easily.
 
True, in most cases. In fact, you can sometimes get a discount on the graphic novels at the shops, and pay even less for them.
 
I'm actually hoping on working with b&w graphic novel format; it would work better with what we're planning on doing. I just don't know what size paper would be required for that. It's actually a lot harder finding the answer for that question than I thought it would be :mpff:
 
That's a good question, GO...I'm not sure what paper you'd use. You might try looking up Diamond Comics www.diamondcomics.com. They have a vendor page, and their vendor page includes printer companies . Call one of those companies, and ask them. They can probably give you estimates of paper.

Or, in another weird scenario, online self-publishing companies can provide paper sizes and printing costs (this online company is an example - but I don't know anything about 'em).

Don't know which method is cheaper, though.
 
^^ Yeah, that's what we're thinking :) We're probably going to stick him in business management and stuff.

arbygil: I'll definitely look into that! I might wait a while first, though, until I start getting a bit more committed to drawing full comics again, once school smooths out a bit.
 
Cuz he still contributes; he thinks a little differently in that SP way, so he's good at adding a different prospective and different ideas, and he's really motivated in helping us out. Plus, he's not bad at business stuff, so it should work out well, I think.
 
Good promotion is vital for any enterprise, being an ESTP he is ideal for that side of things.
 
To teach people that emotions are not separate from our physical body, but part of it--we need to understand and value what we feel.

I see so many people who are sick because they are hurting emotionally and then they encapsulate it in their bodies and disease or pain is created.


But they just look at me with raised eyebrows. :ohwell:

 
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