My first comic: the step-by-step!
A few months ago I put my money where my mouth was and solicited help on my first short comic, an interpretation of compulsive behavior I'd never seen quite articulated the way I had in mind before; David Lee Ingersoll turned out to be receptive. I figured it'd be worth showing a bit of how it came together, both to illustrate the process for any followers who haven't seen that much in the way of comics behind-the-scenes, and to demonstrate just how much of this came down to David I.'s phenomenal interpretation of the material at hand.
First, my script. One minor note is that I made a point of labeling the top of the pages as 'Page X', but individual panels as 'Pg. X Panel Y' - the formatting doesn't have to be exact, but labeling them consistently and differentiating makes them simpler for the artist. I also want to note partway through I flipped the suggested 'geometry' of the room in order to make word balloons flow more organically across the page; a simple thing, but being an amateur I was relieved to come to that breakthrough and anyone else on the ground floor might do well to keep that kind of flexibility in mind.
Standard-ish caveat that the artist is gonna know how to tell a story visually better than me, so if you disagree with anything below, I’m at least willing to talk about it and am probably fine with whatever.
Basic look: I’m broadly picturing something simplified and cartoony for this - doesn’t have to be stick figures (it at least has to make stylistic sense for fingers to be visible), but not rich in detail to the point of overshadowing the central gag. The whole 3 pages overlook a person in their bed; page 2 from directly overhead, 1 and 3 from an angle. Don’t feel locked into the exact same angle throughout, and especially for certain panels in particular it might feel best for you to zoom in on a given element, but this is the sort of ‘default’ I had in mind:
(This included a shot I took in my room as reference material; as a matter of privacy I'm leaving it out of this reproduction.)
Page 1
7 panels on a 9 panel grid. The middle tier of panels 3-6 is the standard 3 panels, the top and bottom tiers are each 2 panels bisected down the middle. Each is the same basic angle/view unless otherwise specified, or if you have a better idea visually.
Pg. 1 Panel 1: Our character is reaching by his bedside table to turn off the lamp. The room is dark, the lamp offering only a faint illumination.
Pg. 1 Panel 2: The room and attempted sleeper are rather than swallowed by shadow cast in white now that the lights are out, as if the darkness was represented entirely by negative space. They lie down in bed comfortably, their eyes closed, sleep soon approaching.
Pg. 1 Panel 3: Their eyes snap open, bloodshot, preemptively agonized, as the lamp speaks to them. You can represent this through a word balloon coming off a completely still lamp, a mouth ‘emerging’ from some part of it, or it becoming fully Pixar-level anthropomorphic, whatever feels right for you.
LAMP: Hmm eeeeeeexcuse you. You didn’t touch me properly. That was a bit off-center from the knob. Your finger brushed the wrong bit.
Pg. 1 Panel 4: The one panel that deviates visually from the others. This is a super-duper closeup of the knob of the lamp and the tip of the finger, the latter approaching tentatively from the left, shaking, like a wounded soul reaching out to plead for mercy from their one true God. The fingertip too speaks, however you care to portray that.
LAMP: Yessssss correct your mistake, repent your siiiiiin
FINGER: Please please please, the perfect alignment of the skin and the little thing, do it right so we can shut uuuupppppp
Pg. 1 Panel 5: Back to the baseline POV as the finger and the knob connect (if this can’t be contrived to be easily visible just put a little ‘poke’) and our poor bastard, whether rich or minimal in detail, is clearly tensing every muscle in their body, their eyes no longer bloodshot but still blown wide, their mouth a thin horizontal line.
Pg. 1 Panel 6: Our figure is clearly exasperated with themselves; one arm is grabbing an edge of the pillow and pressing it against the side of their face, the other on their forehead, fingers splayed. Their eyes are rolled upwards, their tongue sticking out the tiniest bit.
Pg. 1 Panel 7: Their arms are now splayed out at their sides, as their eyes close and they take a deep breath. Sleep, at last, seems ready to claim them.
Page 2
Full-page.
Pg. 2 Panel 1: We’re looking down from directly above the bed in this shot, a straight angle. If our protag is on the more realistic end, their eyes are blown wide and their lips are pulled tight into their mouth; if more cartoony, their eyes are swirls and their mouth is wobbling line a sine wave. From the top left, the edge of the wall between the lamp and the character is speaking; from the top right, the side of their skull bellows. Below the sheets beneath their knees speak, and in the bottom-left corner their toilet is wailing from off-panel, which is an image I’ll elaborate on shortly.
WALL: Hmmmm not to be a NAG but you brushed past me a moment ago, I could use a little of that TLC myself, y’know what I mean?
HEAD: hey what if you. shook me. really hard. until it hurt. shake it all right out
SHEETS: Look pal if you’re rubbing me with the bottom of your knees anyway would it KILL you to get your feet in here too? Huh? Would it?
So the deal with the toilet is that its word balloon is in the shape of a sideways toilet, as seen below (not necessarily at this exact angle, however you can make it work). Most of the text is in the balloon, but the toilet seat opens and the ‘eeeeee’s and the question mark at the end of the sentence are contained in bubbles ‘falling down’ from the open seat.
(Note: I rotated this simple toilet graphic to indicate the angle I wanted in the doc, but that doesn't seem to be translating across the copy-paste)
TOILET: Are you suuuuuuure you flushed meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?
Page 3
Nine-panel grid
Pg. 3 Panel 1: A return to the ‘standard’ shot seen in most panels of page 1, which will be the angle of every panel of this page. Our protag’s mouth is neutral, their eyes wide and bloodshot; this will remain their expression for the remainder of the time we see them. They are still.
Pg. 3 Panel 2: They reach out to touch that corner of the wall.
Pg. 3 Panel 3: Their knees rise up from under the sheets, so we can tell they’re rubbing their feet over those spots.
Pg. 3 Panel 4: They shake their head VIOLENTLY, clearly painfully.
Pg. 3 Panel 5: Still again; identical to panepl 1 except maybe stars or something are floating around their head to indicate the aftereffect of the shaking.
Pg. 3 Panel 6: They’re hopping out of bed to approach what’s clearly the bathroom on the bottom-left
Pg. 3 Panel 7: The bed is empty, an offscreen SLLUBSHHHHHHHHHHSHSHSHSH or whatever other flushing sound effect you please.
Pg. 3 Panel 8: They flop face-first onto the bed, the sheet rising from the impact.
Pg. 3 Panel 9: They’re still face-down on the bed, the sheet having settled back down. From below the panel, a pair of arms rises, holding aloft a boxing card.
BOXING CARD: ROUND ???/∞
So that was the basic layout; I sent it to David via Google Doc, he liked it, we agreed on a price, and we were largely set, at which point he sent me the initial thumbnails:
..and after making a few minor clarifications/requests, it was off to the races. However, in that regard I feel obligated to cop to a rookie mistake upfront: in my eagerness to get going I only gave it a cursory glance, and only hours later realized and sent in an additional note. Fortunately it was still early in the process, and David was generous enough to make the adjustment, but under other circumstances that might've been me causing a real pain the ass, so for your own projects make sure to be a little more meticulous the first time around. As you can see, David kept the lighting simple, altered the panel structure of the first page to make it flow better, and came up with his beautifully horrible depiction of the fingers' 'Pixar speech'.
Next was the 'bluelining' phase - a phrase I wasn't familiar with, David informed me these were to be printed as bluelines prior to inking, with a few further adjustments as the comic was beginning to take its final shape, such as the alteration of the angle on the first page's fourth panel, and the movement of the dresser:
And the printed-out bluelines of the first two pages, complete with lettering (and the first part of his fantastic take on the lamp's page one panel five proclamation, though not yet stylized):
Then the inks, as the comic reaches its structural final form:
And after some cleanup and the addition of layers of gray: the version of the comic I shared on Twitter and Tumblr back in July!
This was I hope only the beginning of a long, long road to come, but I couldn't have asked for a first result to come out with more style or stronger craft behind it - thanks again to David for his interest, help, and patience. Like my last non-Who post, this is one I'm curious about people's responses to. Any mistakes on my end I overlooked, or suggestions for what I could apply to future work? Anything here that educated you on the comics-making process? Sound off wherever, however!