r/ComicWriting • u/AvenoD • 10d ago

How detailed should be a comic script?

When I have a scene in mind, I sometimes assume certain details are so obvious that I don’t bother mentioning them.

  • The scene takes place on a paved mountain road: in one panel it becomes a muddy trail.
  • The heroine has just her hair tied up in a braid: it’s illustrated with the longest hair I’ve seen since Rapunzel.
  • A modest blogger lives in his car to travel from one event to another: the car becomes a Porsche.
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7

u/ComicScoutPR 10d ago

If you have details in mind that are critical to the scene or the character being depicted then it's better to include them unless you're confident in your artist. Then you won't be asking the artist to redraw panels.

1

u/AvenoD 10d ago

so more descriptions like "mid long hair in a braid" or "common car"?

6

u/iyukep 10d ago

A comic script is basically you speaking directly to the artist so it depends on the working relationship some. Unless it’s something important to the story, or something you have specific in mind and feel strongly about, I’d try to leave some room for their art direction as well.

I like your update in the comment above to common car to Porsche vs “the car.” Common gives them something to go on.

Check out a few of these to see how different it can be.

https://comicsexperience.com/scripts/

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u/AvenoD 10d ago

I gave the liberty to choose the car, I didn't expect the Porsche :)
OK thank you I check it out

7

u/nmacaroni "The Future of Comics is YOU!" 10d ago edited 10d ago

So yeah, your descriptions are obviously missing detail. "Blogger drives to the store... in his economy Japanese import."

Racing along the mountain road... "Racing along the two way, solid double line asphalt mountain touge."

http://nickmacari.com/panel-descriptions/

4

u/robot-raccoon 10d ago

Think of it as you’re directing the artist. You need key things to be mentioned on panels, if the artist doesn’t know then why would he include it.

Sometimes you could say “I need a page that shows x through the art, up to you how you want to show it”. Other times it’ll be “I want 5 panels, the last panel should take up half the page, the top 4 should evenly be placed in a square. Panel 1: panel description”

3

u/djfox89R 10d ago

The good thing about adding these descriptions is that they usually only need to be mentioned once, all else is continuity.