Reddit reviews Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (Will Eisner Instructional Books)
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W W Norton Company
Unpopular opinions time:
Mangaka work an average of ~100 hours a week. Let's say that 1 chapter takes 1 week. From his wiki, Togashi has created at least 580 chapters of manga. That's 58,000 hours of work.
The man is 48 years old so, in order to match that equivalent by an average full-time job (40 hours/week), he would have had to work 40 hours/week since he was 21 with no vacations/breaks/whatever. That's not even including several of his works, illustration training, supplementary work, etc.
Not to mention that he's the primary wage-earner for his wife and two kids (you think raising a kid is expensive in the West? What about in the 6th most expensive country to live?)
But here's the real rub:
Foreign fandom has little to no benefit for Togashi
Mangaka get paid per page by the publishers and then look to make a large portion of their money on merchandising and tankoubon sales. Mail-in (or email-in) reviews and, more importantly, sales of those products are where mangaka benefit from fans. When was the last time you bought a Japanese tankoubon of HxH? A YYH reprint will get him way more cash way faster than putting out HxH chapters ASAP (which I'm sure he's doing anyway).
Most Western fans are probably reading illegally published HxH on a foreign media site and haven't touched a tankoubon in years, let alone gone out of their way to buy a new one from Japan (resells don't benefit the artist). Most of them have no idea how much time and effort Togashi puts into his work because they don't even know what goes into making a comic.
I dare anyone who complains to draw a single manga chapter and try to make it as good as a chapter of HxH. It's really hard.
This is a problem with the new media generation: they sit here and enjoy a product for free and then get uppity when they don't get their weekly fix. It's a one-sided relationship where the fans who give nothing to the creator enjoy the greatest reward. If you're going to reap the benefits of someone else's labor at least have the dignity to do so with some modicum of self-awareness.
I am an artist that has studied narrative a decent amount and I also tutor art, narrative, math and english. I love talking about this stuff! I was not 100% sure this has been added yet, but the Hero's Journey is a great place to start understanding narrative when you are new to story telling. It's pretty much a drag and drop scenario template, and is referenced in every story boarding class I've ever taken. It's basically story telling 101. Yes it is insanely overdone, BUT it is overdone because it flippin' works if you do it right. Star Wars(The original three) is a perfect example of the Hero's Journey.
Here are some resources on the Hero's Journey, Sometimes called the Hero's Tale, and classically known as the Monomyth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm
This book was probably my favorite book on storytelling. It goes beyond just the Hero's journey and really explains narrative told without using words, visual media is different then just writing a story.
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Storytelling-Visual-Narrative-Instructional/dp/039333127X
Lastly, I'll just add a few comments about what I've learned after studying it all. I am pretty passionate about this stuff and have been since I was a kid!
"There are the things that happen in a story, and then there is why they happen." This is a statement my first story boarding teacher said and its stuck with me for years. Understand the difference. Recognize character motivation vs surface level events.
The exact story my teacher made up was: With his fathers permission, a 10 year old boy goes to the corner store to buy milk for the first time.
Going to buy the milk is what happens in the story, but this story is really about a boy hitting a milestone and coming of age. Its the first time his family has trusted and depended on him alone to do something. The fact that it is getting milk is nearly irrelevant without the meaning behind it grabbing the audience. Be willing to change the surface details in order to tell a better story. Go with the meaning over surface every dang time.
Start simple then expand. If the audience understands why your characters are doing the things they do, then they can support it. If people don't know why the villian is being so evil, or why the good guy or gal is even pursuing a resolution of the story then the audience will typically be indifferent.
Much like what cleavetv said he does, "Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?" It's not a bad way to start a story. Your story ultimately should be able to broken down into a sentence and this gives you guidance and clarity. A one sentence breakdown delivers a clear message and avoids convolution. Its the thesis statement of your story. If you start writing something off track or get lost in the process, just stop and go directly back to that first sentence!!!! It is your guiding light. If it is strong then your story will be strong.
One last thing about starting simple. Starting simple provides a foundation, then you can make your story more complex as you go. I know writers and directors that are obsessed with telling a complex story. "I WANT TO WRITE THE MATRIX! OR INCEPTION! OR SOMETHING WAY CRAZIER THAT WILL BLOW PEOPLES MINDS!" So they start by trying to do some crazy thing or gimmick and get completely lost and convolution sets in (btw The Matrix basically follows the Hero's Journey exactly.)
Study your favorite stories. Think long and hard about why you love the stories you do. Use them as reference. Tell a story you want tell. It makes it way easier to do so, because good stories take a long time to write typically.
Finally, I'll frame this in a way game devs will be interested! So you got this awesome game mechanic, but you want to tell a story, and its seems impossible to blend the two. The key is thinking about your mechanic and how it functions and then linking it back to the real world. Does it have characters? If it does then sending a character on a mission to find something is the classic way to do this, obviously. Mario, Megan Man, Zelda, etc., in the early days stuck with that formula and it works. But if you have a mechanic like tetris then the story becomes much harder to write. Why do we have to move these tetris shapes around? Maybe you're an astronaut that has to maintain the balance in a ship manually moving these shapes to keep your engines from exploding. Or its an ancient tribal ritual every tribesman must endure in order to become a full fledged adult member of the tribe. Once the meaning is derived you can flush out the GUI and cut scenes and music from there!
TLDR Learn about the Hero's Journey, Think about character motivation and the narrative having a deep meaning, think about how your game mechanic relates to the real world and functions in order to frame a story around it.
EDIT 1: After taking 5 minutes to reflect, I wanted to acknowledge that not every game needs a story. Tetris works great without one. If you feel your mechanic lends itself to narrative then go for it, it can be a lot fun writing a story and creating your own world. But if its just not working, don't be afraid to go without one.
I have some experience with webcomics. I write and draw Miamaska, which has been going on for 2+years, and I'm about to start my second comic next month.
General advice for web comickers!
(or: How I learned things the hard way and eventually stumbled into a good system)
Regarding dialogue and pacing... what I tend to do is thumbnail an entire scene (3-15 pages for me) first and read through it a few times. I'll leave mini-cliffhangers at the end of each page (like a question, or a realization, or a character entering the scene). During this little review process, I'll also make sure the view for the reader doesn't violate the 180 rule too much, that it's obvious which bubble should be read next, and where the reader is going to look first.
I don't have any experience in the print form of comics yet. So no advice there. Just make sure your comics are in print resolution as well (300+ DPI), or you'll be sorry later.
Resource time
I didn't have many resources starting out, but I'm gonna recommend these for you and anyone else interested:
PaperWings Podcast -- podcast and blog on web comic-making (ongoing, good community, regular but sparse updates, good backlog). Has even more resources on its website.
Art and Story -- podcast on print +web comic-making and the comic industry (ended, but a great backlog).
Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics by cartoonist Scott McCloud, worth a read for any comicker. A little more geared towards print, but breaks down comic theory really nicely.
Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative, by Will Eisner.
Those books are pretty popular, so you can probably pick them up from the library or find them on the web somewhere.
I'm gonna disagree with a lot of people and tell you to not buy Understanding Comics. I mean, you can, I don't disagree with most of what he teaches, but I disagree with his results. Perhaps it's one of those 'good in theory, terrible in practice' things. The Sculptor, his latest (?) book uses his UC technique 100% and while it makes for an easy read, it's visually boring and the story is just one unbelievable trope after another, complete garbage.
I'm also not going to tell you to copy other comic artists, that's a very common mistake in comics. When you copy other comic artists you learn their mistakes, or shortcuts, or cheats. I still find after I've drawn a page I'll go back and see where I unintentionally swiped a pose or technique from John Buscema (How to make Comics the Marvel Way had a big influence on me as a teenager, which is who it was made for).
For figure drawing you want George Bridgeman. His figure drawing techniques are the foundation for pretty much every other great illustrator in the last 100 years.
Another good source is Burne Hogarth (Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Figure Drawing) his stuff is more action and hero based, but his lessons are sound. He founded what became the School of Visual Arts. These were my first art books when I was a teenager, and they still hold up.
For storytelling, I go for Will Eisner's Graphic Storytelling and the Visual Narrative, Sequential Art Principles and throw in Expressive Anatomy, because, why not?
David Chelsea's Perspective for Comic Artists is great, because it teaches you exactly how to do correct perspective, then in the last chapter he tells you how to cheat at all of it.
For classes, take a look at the horribly designed website for http://comicsworkbook.com/ it's run by a guy, Frank Santoro, who's actually not one of my favorite artists, but he knows his shit, for sure, and he's a helluva nice guy who loves comics 100%. I think his full online class is $500 and he runs it twice a year, I think. Also look in your area for a college or art store that might have figure drawing classes, they are invaluable.
Even if this is supposed to be a part of something larger, it should have its own arc. You know what's supposed to happen as the author, so maybe to you, it seems like its fine. But you need to look and craft these things from the perspective of the audience.
I'll use, say, Cowboy Bebop as an example. It's almost entirely a series of self-contained episodes, save for a few episodes that touch on this relationship between Spike and Vicious. But, the self-contained episodes are often iterating and riffing on some of the same overall themes that these connected episodes are built on. Or, when they aren't, they're carried on pure entertainment value. They feel good. They're flat out fun to watch. Or they revel in the absurd, which ties into the show thematically and also rides pure entertainment value.
Fallout: New Vegas does this as well. Side-quests seem self-contained, more or less, but they build on your understanding of the world and they often build on this theme of nostalgia for the Old World, or Old World Blues, as the game eventually puts it. All of the companion character side-quests riff on this theme of clinging to the past or moving forward, the factions all follow in this theme (whether its the major factions modeling their selves after Old World powers or the Brotherhood of Steel finding that they don't belong in the world anymore, so they either need to adapt or cling to the past and die). All of these side quests are self-contained, thus having their own arc and feel satisfying to complete, but also they build on the overarching theme of the game and give the player something to think about once everything is said and done.
You can do this with your own work. You can figure out what it is that you want it to be about and make build on those themes, even just from the start. If you have ideas and themes you want to explore, you can explore them from the start in whatever way you want, and tie it all into something more grand later if you're telling an overall story, or just keep riffing on them in different self-contained scenarios. The main, best thing to keep in mind though is that if this is intended for an audience, you need to write it with the audience experience in mind. Your ideas could be incredible, but the audience would never know it if you've written it to be impenetrable to them, or just so boring that it's unlikely they'll continue to read to get to the good parts.
As an example, I love the show Eureka Seven. Somewhere towards the middle of its run, it has a small arc with a couple of characters named Ray and Charles that culminates in some of the best TV I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. But, I can almost never recommend this show to anyone. The first ~10 to 15ish episodes are a chore. The show sort of acts like you should know who all the characters are already, or doesn't give you a whole lot to work with in terms of giving you something to come back for. For this reason, it took me from when it aired back in 2005 all the way until 2014 to finally finish the show from front to back. There was a ton of good there, but it was so, so difficult to get to it through the start of the show.
So, Entertainment value. Have you read Fiona Staples' and Brian K Vaughan's Saga? The very first panel of the very first page oozes entertainment value, while also giving some great banter to help establish the characters and introduce us to the world. This is a strong opening, and even if there is some lull to the comic afterwards (which there may or may not be depending on your tastes), its given you a taste of what it is and a promise of what its capable of delivering. This is a really great thing to have. If you're aware of Homestuck, it's the GameFAQs FAQ that serves as the end of the comic's first Act that suddenly shows you how the comic will format itself: Lots of nonsensical goofing around until hitting an emotional climax that re-contextualizes the events you had just seen. This isn't at the start of the comic, but entertainment value carries the comic until that point, assuming you're into programming jokes and goofball shenanigans. But, this scene comes so comparatively late that it's likely you've already dropped the comic before getting to the "good part" if these jokes didn't carry the comic for you.
Actual Advice and Critique
Comics are hard, because, unless you have a writer or have an artist to partner with, you're doing both jobs, and the quality of the thing depends both on being well-written and well drawn (or at least some balance between the two that makes it palatable to read). I think that if you think in an actual episodic way, you could improve your writing a ton. With this comic, the arc would be "how did Lasereye become Lasereye?" It's potentially a pretty good premise, right? You'll establish a character and have plenty of chances to create entertaining scenarios because... It's your story! Lasereye became Lasereye in whatever way you decide he did. Go crazy, tell us a story! How did some young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid turn into some dude in a slum with one eye glowing brighter than ever and the other dim and jaded? Telling this in three pages would actually be a great exercise.
Your art is rough in that it looks like you could use learning some base fundamental things like human anatomy. Your palette and the food stand itself reminds me of Kill Six Billion Demons though, which is great. You've created a good atmosphere in panels 1, 2, and the last panel on the last page, despite the artwork itself being rough. That's great! You know how a thing should feel. That's a great thing to have down pat that will only continue to be a boon as your technical skill improves (and it will if you work at it!). I think that if you buckle down and grind through learning how to draw, you could make very great, visually appealing work.
There's a problem in page flow on Page 2. Here I've shown how your page directs the eye with red lines. The way the page is laid out, you end up reading the fifth panel before you read the fourth panel, which will cause a reader to have to double back to read things in order. You don't want that. You'll wanna keep an eye out for how your pages read in the future. Just give them a once-over and ask where the eye would naturally go following the lines on the page.
So, if you aren't currently, learning human anatomy would be a great place to start placing effort. If you have access, figure drawing classes and the such would be a great way to start working on that. It helps immensely to have others around who can help you if you aren't sure what you're doing at first. Books on comics in general would be a good place to go as well. Understanding Comics and Making Comics, both by by Scott McCloud, are good introductory texts. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner and Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist also by Will Eisner would be good as well.
For writing, Dan Harmon's Channel 101 guides will be great tutorials as he's one of the best working writers today in episodic TV. I'm aware this isn't directly comics, but the best writing advice is rarely going to come from a comics-focused book. Will Eisner will tell you how to use visuals to your advantage in telling a story, but the nitty-gritty of actually writing will have to come from somewhere else. The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell may help you understand structure further. This is what Dan Harmon is riffing on and working off of with his Story Circles, but adapted slightly for the sake of episodic television. Film Crit Hulk, an online movie critic/ the Incredible Hulk has a screenwriting book called Screenwriting 101. It's invaluable. I highly recommend it, even if it isn't directly about comic writing. You'll be able to adapt the advice as you work in your own medium.
An artist gave me a list of books to read at a convention after I showed him my work.
Figure drawing for all its worth
Perspective! For Comic Book Artists
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
The Classic How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way
There's a ton of advice I could give you - and I'll try to throw a bunch of it at you - but keep in mind I've barely begun this process myself. This is what I can tell you based on what I've observed, take it as you will.
My first piece of advice is to do the thing you said you never do. Put them down to paper. These little scenes and random thoughts you have swimming through your head are exactly where "we all find ideas to start from." It could be a simple scene in the middle of a larger story, it could be the very last words you want to someone to hear. Regardless of what it is, put it down on paper. I always carry a small moleskin notebook with me and have gotten into the habit of just jotting down something whenever it goes through my head. When you're used to just thinking of things, it's a little jarring at first to stop and write it down, but believe me - it will be worth it. This is the fountain of ideas you're looking for.
Arguably the most important thing I can tell you, is to write. Don't worry about whether it's formatted right, if you've structured your characters enough, or if you've done a good outline. Write. Whenever, wherever, as much as you can. You're only going to get better at writing by writing.
That being said, worry about format, structure, and outlines. And what I mean by that, is look back on the work you did, figure out where you could have done better and the next time try to do that. The first thing I ever wrote, I did without thinking about my characters, what they really meant, their back story, the environment they lived in, and said to hell with an outline. After it was finished, I knew for my next project that this had to change.
Consume the media you want to create. Not only should you actively read comics, you should try to consume anything that gives you insight to the business and how other people work. This is a list of books I bought and think have been extremely helpful. They give insight into the importance of creating characters, environments, etc before you even begin a script. I've listed them in the order I personally liked from best to still pretty damn good
The last one is great because you get to see the various script styles of in-the-business writers. For comics, I also actively listen to these podcasts:
In addition to all that, I follow /r/writing and try to stay active on this subreddit. We've done a few writing prompts, which I think are great ways to get you writing - though I wish more people would take part.
JoshLees has compiled a larger list of resources, definitely take a look at that. The above listed things are what I consume personally.
That's all I have for now, and the community can feel free to correct me or add to it, but other than that good luck!
Your skills to 'show, not tell' will become more essential. As the previous comment said, you are going to lose most of the 1st person POV prose accommodates (and even if some of it is retained....compare something like Fight Club the novel, to Fight Club the movie or Fight Club 2 the graphic novel....still considerable differences once visuals come into play.). Even dialogue can be a bit of a sticking point - it depends on the genre you're writing for as how much room you have before audiences start to get bored.
If you're writing for film/animation - consider learning about basic camera movements and shot framing (ie ECU, CU, WS, rules like the 180 degree rule). Watch videos on film analysis, one of my favorites is the Every Frame a Painting channel on YT, but there are other series/videos out there that aren't completely boring (and some that go very extensively into worldwide film history, such as A Story of Film: An Odyssey which is streaming on Hulu at the moment, used to be on Netflix)
Animation is a little trickier as a lot of writing is actually done in the storyboard phase (so is more art oriented), but a classic there is Disney's The Illusion of Life book as a starting point even for non-artists.
If you're writing for graphic novels: My favorite beginner reference is the DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, with Will Eisner being another classic author on the genre. Brian Michael Bendis did a book that's pretty good too.
Likewise, stage plays, radio plays, have their own sets of tips and industry tricks, but I'm not as knowledgeable on those topics to offer suggestions. Good luck and have fun!
Sup LazyJ507. It looks like nobody's really given you any tips yet, so I'll try, and see if this helps at all.
Work on drawing.
By that I mean draw from life. Often. Get a sketchbook and go out and draw a whole lot. Draw your family, your friends, your classmates, etc. Studying anatomy helps a lot! The real meat for drawing figures is in learning what things are SUPPOSED to look like. Try to find some life drawing classes.
Read a lot.
And by this I mean reading lots of comics. Read lots of comics and read lots of books about comics. See what you like and try to emulate--NOT COPY-- things that you think are awesome. I recommend checking out Scott McCloud's Making Comics and Understanding Comics. Also, check out Will Eisner's books: Comics And Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy have helped me tons. It's awesome seeing professionals in the comics world give you tips and visuals that help you learn. Also, read novels, watch cartoons, watch movies, play video games. Find the aspects that you like about each and see how you can connect that to making comics. Comics are a pretty limitless medium.
As for this comic specifically, work on size, spacing, lettering, panel layouts, and black-and-white balance. And maybe comedic timing, but that's more in the writing area.
I can't really think of any more tips, but if you're wondering about anything else, go ahead and ask.
(i'm a sequential arts student a bluh bluh bluh)