Writing Comics (Tips, Links, Questions, Stuff)

[Karen Mahoney]

I thought we could do with (or maybe I could do with!) a thread for questions, tips, useful links, etc. specifically on writing comics. Craft stuff, mostly.

Kaz

[Karen Mahoney]

So, I have a sort of specific technical scriptwriting question. You know in comics when one character is talking in a panel, and their dialogue is broken up into - say - two balloons... But sometimes the word balloons are completely separate while other times they're linked, and noted by 'linked' (strangely enough!) in the script.

At times, it seems obvious why you'd link the word balloons, e.g. if the character has a longer speech on the same subject, you can break it down into a couple of balloons - or even three - and have them linked so there's only one 'tail' pointing to the character's head. But I've noticed that some writers might not bother linking the multiple word balloons at all. Or they split one off into its own balloon, while linking two of them.

Example 1 (Bottom left panel, Dinah's speech)

Example 2 for comparison.

Does it all depend on context, dramatic effect, spacing of word balloons on the panel so as not to disrupt the art, etc. etc.? Is there some Important Rule that I don't know about?

Am I worrying too much?

Cheers,
Kaz

[Adam Witt]

So, I have a sort of specific technical scriptwriting question. You know in comics when one character is talking in a panel, and their dialogue is broken up into - say - two balloons... But sometimes the word balloons are completely separate while other times they're linked, and noted by 'linked' (strangely enough!) in the script.

At times, it seems obvious why you'd link the word balloons, e.g. if the character has a longer speech on the same subject, you can break it down into a couple of balloons - or even three - and have them linked so there's only one 'tail' pointing to the character's head. But I've noticed that some writers might not bother linking the multiple word balloons at all. Or they split one off into its own balloon, while linking two of them.

Example 1 (Bottom left panel, Dinah's speech)

Example 2 for comparison.

Does it all depend on context, dramatic effect, spacing of word balloons on the panel so as not to disrupt the art, etc. etc.? Is there some Important Rule that I don't know about?

Am I worrying too much?

Cheers,
Kaz

Context, dramatic effect, and spacing of word balloons are all valid reasons.

Plus, there might be something to be said for two medium-sized wordballoons being easier to read / looking better than one that's just jam-packed.

[Karen Mahoney]

Context, dramatic effect, and spacing of word balloons are all valid reasons.

Plus, there might be something to be said for two medium-sized wordballoons being easier to read / looking better than one that's just jam-packed.

Thanks for the reply!

Kaz