From Ideas (in no particular order) to
Panels (in sequence) or,
How to Make Comics the G.T. Labs Way
Enough people have asked, enough times, how I do comics about scientists that I figured rather than try to describe it each time I ought to try and show it. So here goes...
(Clicking on the images will save you plenty o' eyestrain, by the way.)
Leaving aside the "where do you get your ideas" part, for me the process starts with a subject and some vague and indistinct visions. Perhaps they're snippets of dialogue, perhaps a few key incidents, perhaps a particular effect I would like to achieve through page layout. From there, I do a lot of research, building on what I know already, and adding and subtracting scenes and bits of information to try and get to a point where I have a story.
(Sometimes the subtraction part takes me all the way to zero, meaning I have to discard complete stories, unfortunately. An example of this occurred in Dignifying Science, where I had originally intended to do a story about Lady Ada Lovelace, often considered to be the first computer programmer. As I got further along in my research, I realized that I didn't believe the publicity, and that while she was a remarkable woman in many respects, I think she received too much credit for things she didn't really do.)
But assuming I have a story I like, then I begin the process of writing. There's nothing glamorous about that, as my wife can tell you. It consists of bad moods, late nights, and unreasonable demands for silence.
The result is a first draft of a script. Here's an example from the Hedy Lamarr story from Dignifying Science.
What you see here is the finished script, of course. But if you'll pretend that it's a first draft, with it I have two things that are really useful:
First, I have a framework from which to rewrite the story. The first draft is, with about 80% certainty, not very good and, with 100% certainty, too long.
(You'll note that -- among other minor changes here and there -- one of the bright ideas I had, about using photocopies to heighten the iconographic presence of Lamarr, was very wisely rejected by Carla...)
Second, I have an idea of what style the story should be drawn in, and that gives me ideas as to which artists I should approach.
After that draft has sat in a drawer long enough for me to forget most of its details, I go back to edit it. In this respect, I may be somewhat unusual, since for me an integral part of the editing process is drawing the script myself.
And obviously, I draw for only myself-no one would pay money for a comic book that looked like that! The reason I do this is simple: I need to know whether something that works just fine inside my head will work as still images, in sequence, on paper. And I also need to know whether what I've asked for can actually be drawn! After all, it's simple to write "Einstein nods his head." or "From above, we see a sailor sitting at a player piano on the deck of a battleship." but neither are easy to draw!
So as I draw my own script, I put myself in both the artist's shoes and the reader's, and see what works and what doesn't.
When I've finished, I go back and re-write the story, then hand it to some comics-literate friends for their feedback. One more editing round later, and it's off to the artist, along with as much visual reference material I can get. As an example. in Fallout we needed to depict London taxis accurately, even though they only appeared in one panel. So off to the library I went. Which isn't as bad as it might sound -- I'm a librarian, so usually the artists receive a thick package of photocopies!
I also send my stick figure layouts along for the artists to look at -- or to laugh at -- if they want.
Since I always work with people whose art I admire, from that point on the story is in their hands. If they have a better idea for how a story works, I encourage them to let me know.
And many of the artists do have better ideas. We talk about them and if I can explain what I had in mind (but maybe didn't describe well in the script) and why, it may end up looking like what I envisioned in the first place. If I can't explain why I want something a certain way then I defer to them.
Returning to the script we started with, an artist like Speed will now take the script and break it into panels for herself, sometimes doing detailed sketches:
From there, and many months later, we get a passel of completed comics page.
Whatever happens, when the artists finish the stories I get the pleasure of seeing them through somebody else's eyes. It's a lot of fun and it's one of the best things about writing comics.
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