Learn About Sequential Art

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Sarah

Have you ever wondered how to go about getting a story you’ve already created into graphic novel form? Creating Graphic Novels will help you through the steps toward that desired end.

Adapting a screenplay to the graphic novel form requires learning the mechanics of the graphic novel / comic book form. Even if you have read comics and graphic novels for years, sitting down to write a script that the artist can work from doesn’t come automatically. A graphic novel script has to do some things that are very different from what a screenplay does.

Learning these details are not hard, once you adjust to the different purposes. But it really is not the same thing as a screenplay.

“Creating Graphic Novels is the book I’ve been waiting for! It’s actually written with screenwriters in mind, knowing that eventually we’ll be asked the dreaded question by a producer, ‘Is there a book I can see?’ From terminology and creation, to networking and marketing, this book has it all. I can’t recommend it highly enough for screenwriters looking to turn their story into a graphic novel as an aid to getting a movie made, or as a rewarding, tangible creative endeavor in its own right.”

— Trevor Mayes, writer/director of My Demon Girlfriend

This volume, Creating Graphic Novels, will help you go from graphic novel reader to the creator of one. If you know how to tell a story, you will be able to follow how to fit your story into the graphic novel format. For writers who are not artists, who wonder how they can find an artist to help visualize the story, the book also provides information on where to find the artists and how to create a working team with them.

Finding an Artist for Your Graphic Novel

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Sarah

Artists Alley at a convention

When you are a writer setting out to create a graphic novel project and you are not yourself an artist, the biggest question can be “How do I find an artist?” You may have friends who are artists, but who have never done sequential storytelling. Or you may like their style for many things, but know that it doesn’t quite fit your story. When you really want everything about the project to be “just right”, you face some challenging decisions when you look for an artist.

If you don’t know a lot of professional artists (or even semi-professional ones), how do you find an artist? You can check a number of online website, that’s true. A site like Deviant Art will let you browse through the galleries of established and aspiring comic book artists. But you can’t always tell if the artist who has great pin-ups can also handle the sequential storytelling of a graphic novel.

Artist Tone Rodriguez in Artists Alley

Another place you can go to find an artist is at conventions. Most all conventions that are geared toward the popular culture of comics and graphic novels will have an Artists Alley, where working artists display their work, create works on commission, or even work on assigned paying jobs while making themselves available to fans. You can talk with them, look at a variety of their works, discuss collaboration possibilities.

This is just the briefest bit of advice on selecting an artist for your project. In Creating Graphic Novels you can find more information on what to look for in an artist, as well as the factors you need to consider in connecting with a creative partner (because that is what your artist in the graphic novel will be). Check out the book for the most accessible introduction to the business of comics and graphic novels.

Where to Begin in Creating a Graphic Novel?

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Sarah

I know a lot of writers who have toyed with the idea of creating a graphic novel version of one of their (usually unpublished) works, whether it’s a screenplay, novel, or short story. But they hold themselves back from it because they aren’t familiar with the business side of graphic novels and comic books. It’s a pity because the process, though a lot of work, is not as difficult as they might imagine.

Thinking Visually

One of the first things to consider in approaching the possibility of turning your story into a graphic novel is the visual possibilities in your story. Since, assuming you are not an artist yourself, you are going to be hiring an artist to draw the images for your story, you want the tale to give that person some exciting things to do: action encounters, emotional intensity in the characters, interesting locations. And while you may be in love with your prose, a graphic novel is about images. You will be giving up some of your wonderful prose in favor of wonderful artwork.

For the script of a graphic novel, you want to make the artist fall in love with the image potential in the stories. If you bore the artist, you will get boring artwork. So you want to excite your artist. To do that, you have to think visually about the story you are telling.

Learning About Artists

Of course, if you don’t know any artists, you may have no idea of what will excite one. To learn about what any artist likes to draw, what they are good at, what their finished artwork looks like, you need to do some research. You can search online and find many artists and then initiate email conversations with them. Or you can go to comic book conventions and cruise the Artists Alley of the exhibit hall, and see first hand the various styles and abilities of many artists. The artist is usually right there at the table for you to talk to and discuss possibilities.

Information Right at Your Hand

There’s no need for you to feel completely overwhelmed by these steps. I give you the basics for getting started in Creating Graphic Novels. In this book, I walk the graphic novel novice through the whole process. I explain the special jargon of graphic novels and comic books, finding art teams, and the options in publishing.

This books is a great gift for your aspiring graphic novelist, or for yourself. Check it out! (And by the way, if you purchase from the publisher right now, you can get the book at a 25% discount with free shipping! Don’t wait!)

Showing off Creating Graphic Novels at Comic Con International

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Sarah

I only had one day for activities at Comic Con International at San Diego this year. I hoped to connect with a number of people I knew, but when you have only one day and you’re in the midst of 100,000 plus people, you will miss them. However, I did stop by to see my friend Sergio Cariello at his spot in Artists Alley.

Sergio is a great comic book artist. He’s the artist for The Action Bible. He was also the artist for the graphic novel Iron Ghost. I’d used some of the art and script in Creating Graphic Novels.

So he showed off pages that have some of his The Iron Ghost: Geist Reich
artwork on it.

I was very thankful to be able to use material from Iron Ghost in the book. I really have to thank Sergio and writer Chuck Dixon for their support on the project!

A Preview of Some Content

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Sarah

We’re getting closer to the release date for the book! So I figured it was about time to start giving you some idea of the cool stuff inside the volume.

This page is the initial version of the explanation of “sequential art.” It may seem fairly obvious, but for people, especially writers, coming to the craft of scripting a graphic novel, it’s something that they don’t always “get” right away.

“Sequential art” actually moves things along

Sequential art isn’t just a series of images that represent action happening. Each succeeding image needs to build on the information of the previous panel. The reader has to feel that something is progressing.

This is one of the reasons why it is important to see sequential work when the writer is hunting for the primary artist. Pin-up pictures on DeviantArt may be gorgeous. But if you haven’t seen sequential work – and several pages of it – you really won’t know if the artist can handle the storytelling.

There’s much more about this in the book, of course.

Pre-order now!

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The page from the graphic novel shown is from Chuck Dixon’s Iron Ghost, art by Sergio Cariello, and used in Creating Graphic Novels by permission.

Creating Graphic Novels

Adapting Stories for a popular medium

Tag Archives: Artists