Anatomy of a Comic Book Page

If you're going to make comic books, especially if you are going to be writing them, then it's important to know what everything is called so you can describe it to your editor and to your artist.

Traditionally, the first page of a comic book was a big full panel which took up the entire page and contained the title of the story, the credits, and a bunch of other stuff. Nowadays, the splash page is not always the first page of a story, sometimes it's the second, third, or even the last page of a story. Some people say it can only be called a splash page if it's the first page. I'm not one of those people. If it has the title of the story and the credits and it takes up the full page, I think of it as the splash page. It's usually a pretty exciting image, too.

This part above is called the title of the story, for obvious reasons. 

Above is what are called the credits. Just like in a movie, the credits give the names of everyone who worked on this particular story and also what their jobs were.

Often times now, comics that contain several shorter stories, rather than one longer one, will place the title and credits in one or more panels on a page, rather than in a single panel page. This is done mostly because a short story doesn't allow for a full panel page due to space. On those stories we usually need all the panels we can get.

This oddly spelled word running along the monster's back is called a sound effect, because it is spelled and written in a  stylized fashion meant to convey a sound. In this case it is the sound of a monster roaring.

A full page panel (or single panel page) which does not contain the title and credit information, and can fall anywhere in a story is NOT a splash page but is simply a single panel page. They are great for showcasing a big dramatic moment such as the one above from SCOOBY-DOO #96. It has another great monster roaring sound effect, too.

A typical page of a comic book looks like the one above. Each of the "squares" or "boxes" no matter what shape it's in is called a panel. Each horizontal row of panels is called a tier. Each panel on a page is called in order, panel one, panel two, panel three, and so on.

The bunch of text at the very bottom of the page is called the indicia. It includes publishing information for the particular issue it's found in. Traditionally this was always found at the bottom of the first page of a comic book (as it is above) at the bottom of the splash page. Now it can be found in different places such as at the bottom of a letters page, or on the inside of the cover, depending on the publisher and the comic book. The publisher adds this information and the writer is not responsible for it.

The blank white space that you find separating the panels are called the gutters.

You'll notice that the first two panels of our sample page don't have gutters between them. Panel one seems to be resting on top of panel two. This is called overlapping panels.

The rectangular boxes you see that have text in them are called captions, or sometimes narrative captions. These contain description of what might be happening in a scene that is not, or cannot easily be conveyed in the drawing such as "Batman is down to his last batarang." They can also tell us the location a scene is set in, as does the caption above, or the passage of time such as "meanwhile..." or "the following day." Sometimes the caption will carry over dialogue from the previous scene, or show what the character is thinking.

These are more sound effects.

The above is called a speech balloon and contains dialogue spoken out loud by characters in the story.

The part of the speech balloon that points to the character talking is called the pointer. It's job is to indicate who is talking.

Balloons that have what looks like a stream of bubbles leading to a character instead of a pointer are called thought balloons. They are often more cloud shaped as well. These show you what a character is thinking. The bubbles pointing to the character thinking are called bubbles. It's rare to find thought balloons in comic books these days. Most people use captions instead.

Go back to our sample page and look at the first panel which shows the city of Townsville. This panel is called an establishing shot because it shows the location where the story (or part of it) takes place. The text that runs sideways along the outside of the panel which reads DCPPG49 is something the publisher has included to keep track of what this story is for. I don't know what this is called, so ignore it. Instead, here is another establishing shot of Townsville from a different story.

Panels, such as the two above, that show a character or object up close, are called close-up shots, just like in photography, or filmmaking.

If you move back a bit and can see more of the characters and their backgrounds, these are called medium shots. They typically show the characters from the waist up, but can even show the full figures. These are often used for scenes in which two or more characters need to appear, either speaking, or performing an action. We get a better sense of their surroundings as well.

A long shot shows a scene from far away. This is often done when the scene, or location surrounding the characters is more important than the characters, such as in an establishing shot which sets the scene for a story. The three panels above are all examples of long shots.

In the sequence above, panel one and panel two are medium shots. Panel three and panel four are close ups. Panel five and six (which actaully form one larger panel) are extreme close-ups. What do these panels in a sequence suggest to you? Why do you think the writer and artist chose to use them like this in this scene?

We can also describe the angles of view chosen for a panel. Above are some examples of what are called a down angle, or bird's-eye view, because you are looking down, seeing the scene much as a bird flying over would see it, from high above the scene. In the third example, the circular panel which overlaps the orange, down angle panel, and the pink medium shot panel is called an inset panel. This is because it is set into another panel. Inset panels are often used to show a detail in extreme close-up of something seen in the larger panel, to bring attention to it in a way that the composition of the large panel does not. 

The opposite of a down angle, or bird's-eye view is an up angle, or worm's eye view. In this view you are looking up at the action from below, almost as if you were watching it from a point on the ground like a worm would see it -- if a worm had eyes. 

Look at the all the different panels shown in this entry. What does the choice of view do for the scenes depicted in each of the panels? Would they be as effective if they were done using a different perspective? Would a close-up be better as a long shot? Why or why not? What does a worm's eye view do that a bird's eye view doesn't, or even a regular straight on view the way we usually look at things? 

Almost everything that was identified in this post will be discussed in more length in future posts, so keep checking back. If you have any thoughts, or questions, please leave them in the comments area below. 

Artwork used to illustrate this post came from:

SCOOBY-DOO #145 (see story title and credits at the top of this page) published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #96 "Follow That Monster!" John Rozum: writer, Joe Staton: penciller, Horacio Ottolini: inker, Nick J. Napolitano: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Rachel Gluckstern: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

THE POWERPUFF GIRLS #22 "My Fair Fuzzy" John Rozum: writer, Bill Alger: penciller, Mike DeCarlo: inker, Jenna Garcia: letterer, Dave Tanguay: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

WALT DISNEY'S UNCLE SCROOGE #210 Carl Barks: writer and artist. Published by Gladstone Publishing, Ltd.

THE POWERPUFF GIRLS #14 "Gone Squiggly" John Rozum: writer, Phil Moy: artist, Ryan Cline: letterer, Dave Tanguay: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics. 

SCOOBY-DOO #96 "Another Mystery All Wrapped Up" John Rozum: writer, Robert Pope: artist, Nick J. Napolitano: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Rachel Gluckstern: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor.

Published by DC Comics. 

SCOOBY-DOO #60 "The Dragon's Eye - part 2: Russian Into Danger" John Rozum: writer, Joe Staton: penciller, Horacio Ottolini: inker, Tom Orzechowski: letterer, Paul Becton: colorist, Digital Chameleon: separations, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. published by DC Comics.

CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #39 The Secret Saturdays in: "The Cave of the Cacus" John Rozum: writer, Will Sweeny: penciller, Mike Manley: inker, Heroic Age: colorist, Travis Lanham: letterer, Sean Ryan: editor. Published by DC Comics. 

CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #47 The Secret Saturdays in: "Attack of the Lake Monster" John Rozum: writer, Scott Jeralds: penciller, Scott Awley: inker, Rob Clark Jr.: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Sean Ryan: editor. Published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #37 "Witch Pitch" John Rozum: writer, Cameron Stewart: penciller, Andrew Pepoy: inker, John Costanza: letterer, Paul Becton: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #92 "The Curse of the Living Statue" John Rozum: writer, John McCrea: artist, Nick J. Napolitano: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics. 

Robert Greenberger On His Return to Writing Comics

Robert Greenberger has been many things in his career. He's been an editor of magazines, newspapers and comic books. He's written for magazines, newspapers, comic books and websites. He's written non fiction books for kids and for adults. He's written novels, and he's been involved in local politics.

Today is a special day for Robert Greenberger. Today, at a comic book store near you, BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20 goes on sale. This exciting issue was written by Robert Greenberger, and what makes it so special is that this is the first comic book he's written in TWENTY YEARS!

Robert has generously agreed to tell us about what it was like for him to return to writing comics as well as how he approached writing his story and the challenges he faced making it happen.

Here's the cover art for BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20. You can learn more about this cover's art here. 

Here's Robert:

I have not written a comic book in nearly 20 years so was delighted when I was offered a chance to write an issue of Batman: The Brave and The Bold. All through my career in comics, I was either an editor or administrator, letting others do the writing. These days, I am a fulltime freelance writer so wanted to see what I could do with writing some comics.

Here's two of the last comics Robert wrote 20 years ago. 

While the comic initially replicated the television show’s format, a teaser with a different team-up then the main story, I arrived as the comic book’s format was being altered. Since DC Comics sells foreign language rights to their stories, they take feedback from their international clients and for many; a 22-page story aimed at younger readers was too long.

They wanted shorter stories so it had been decided to eliminate the teaser and reduce the main story into two 10-page chapters.  As a writer, this changes how you write the story since you now need to find a point where one chapter can end with an exciting cliffhanger and then open the second part with a quick recap and resolution to the cliffhanger before completing the story.

The term "cliffhanger" comes from old movie serials. Serials were episodic movies shown in chapters each week before the main movie at a movie theater.  The filmmakers would try to make people want to come back to the theater to see the next chapter by ending each episode with the hero in a dangerous situation that seemed like he could never escape from it such as hanging from a cliff.  The above panel from "The Amazing Spider-Man #26 by Stan Lee and Steve Dikto shows the comic book equivalent of a cliffhanger. The issue ends with Spider-Man being captured by the villains. The reader, just like the last man speaking in this panel, wants to know "What's gonna happen next?" and hopefully buy the next issue. Stay tuned for a future post devoted to entirely to cliffhangers. 

In my case, I had Batman and Big Barda on the hunt for the missing Mister Miracle and the altered story structure meant I needed more action than actual detecting, which meant introducing the real threat earlier than I planned, setting up the cliffhanger.

In order to accomplish my creative goal of Batman seeing a successfully happy married super-hero couple, I decided to tell the story from a first-person perspective. From beginning to ending, he comments on their situation and Barda’s near-panic over her husband’s fate.

Here's a panel with Batman commenting on Big Barda's marriage to Mister Miracle.  Because Batman is the main character in this story, and also serves as the narrator, the narration is refered to as "first-person narration." The main character is usually the first person that we meet in a story which is why narration from their point of view is called first-person narration.

Had I been able to include the teaser, I would have had Batman and Huntress stop minor criminals Punch & Jewelee, a happily married pair of villains so it set up a subtle theme that would carry into the main story.

If you watch BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD on television, the "teaser" is the sequence before the main titles at the beginning of the episode which shows a portion of one of Batman's adventures that leads into the main story, but maybe features different characters than the main story. You can see from this splash page from the beginning of BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20 that Robert was able to take everything he wanted to tell in his teaser and condense it into three narrative captions. This entire issue is an excellent example of how narrative captions can be used to convey information to the reader about the characters and situations without intruding with the flow of the story. Robert tells you exactly what you need to know so that you can read the story with full enjoyment. This is the result of his long career as both a writer and an editor. 

In the end, I think we rushed some of the ending because of the space issues (you lose panels for storytelling by adding a second splash page to open part two). Robert Pope did a marvelous job with the packed adventure, from his imaginative cover to the final panel. It made for an excellent reintroduction to the world of comic book writing.

Thank you, Robert Greenberger for taking the time to talk about writing BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20! If you have any questions for him, or want to let him know what you thought of BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20, please leave a comment below. 

Parents and teachers can learn more about Robert Greenberger by visiting his website.

Choosing a Cover

Just in time for when BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20 hits stores, artist ROBERT POPE returned to tell me a little bit about how he illustrates the cover. Here's what I learned. 

Robert also drew the story inside the comic which was written by talented Bob Greenberger. This makes it easier from him when designing a cover since he already knows what all the characters, settings, and props that are in the story look like since he's already drawn them. First Robert begins with the plot of the story. In this story the world's greatest escape artist, Mister Miracle goes missing and Big Barda enlists Batman to help her find him. He could have chosen to pick a single exciting scene to put on the cover, but wanted to do something different. In this case he wanted to choose an image that suggested what the plot of the story was about, but without giving anything away including who the villains might be. 

Then Robert set about coming up with a few thumbnail sketches [small rough drawings that give an idea of what the finished artwork will look like, but without concern for detail and clean lines. These are made mostly to get a sense of the composition--how all the elements of the drawing are arranged in the drawing. The name "thumbnail" comes from the fact that these drawings are often tiny--about the size of an adult thumbnail.] of ideas he has for what images might look good on the cover. 

Take a look at the thumbnails below. You can make them larger by clicking on them. Which of them do you think would make the best cover? Think about what made you decide on your choice. What was it about the covers you didn't choose that made you not pick them? These are the decisions that the editor makes when Robert sends in his thumbnails for the cover. The editor will take a look at all of them, and then decide which one would work best for that story. Sometimes they will choose one but ask for small changes, such as the size of the characters, or maybe reversing where they are in the image, or maybe a prop will be added, or taken away. 

You'll notice in each of the thumbnails that there is a lot of empty space at the top of each image. Almost a third of each cover image is empty space. The reason for this is that that's where the big title logo of the comic book goes (in this case: Batman: The Brave and the Bold) along with the DC Comics logo, the information which tells you which issue number this is, how much it costs, maybe some descriptive slogans of what's inside. Robert also makes sure to leave a space for the UPC codes (the white box with the stripes and numbers that gets scanned at a cash register) or to make sure that it won't cover anything essential in the artwork. You can actually see the rectangle for the UPC codes sketched into some of the thumbnails below. 

Now, the editor has chosen the image he wants for the cover. Robert then works from his original thumbnail and creates a larger image with more detail and nice clean pencil lines. Before you continue, did you choose which thumbnail you thought should be the cover? If you did, then keep reading because the finished pencils for the cover image are shown below.

Robert's pencils are then sent to the inker (in this case the phenomenal Scott McRae) who adds blacks as well as texture and shape depending on the thickness of the line he uses. You can compare Robert's pencils above to his pencils with Scott's inks over them below. Then the colorist adds the color to the image.

All it needs now is to have all of the lettering and UPC codes added to it and it is finished. You can see what the final cover looks like by visiting a comic book store near you on Wednesday, August 25, 2010.

Special Guest Robert Pope on Drawing Comics -- Part 2

Above: Robert Pope hard at work drawing a page from one of your favorite comic books. Now he's going to tell us more about what goes into drawing a comic book story.

If you haven't done so already, make sure you read Part One of our Q & A with penciller extraordinaire, Robert Pope before we continue here with Part Two.

8. What goes into your decision making on panel layout? 

Amount of space needed for word balloons.  Juxtaposing camera shots to create variety on a single page (so that we see a close-up, then a medium shot, then maybe an extreme close-up, just to mix it up a bit.)  What the layout of the previous page was, so as to avoid repetition, unless the script's tone calls for it, as it sometimes can.

Above: Here is a page which shows what Robert means when he's talking about using close-ups, extreme-close ups, medium shots and long shots. The top panel uses an extreme close-up of the newspaper to bring us the details of the photograph and the accompanying headlines. The third panel is a medium shot showing the speaker at a podium on a stage. the flag is an important detail showing that this story takes place in England. The next panel of the speaker is a close-up used to show us the award trophy he is holding. The final panel is a long shot showing the speaker, the stage, the banner above him, the audience he is speaking to and a new character in the foreground. Credits to this story also appear in this final panel. Notice in all of these panels, Robert leaves plenty of room for dialogue balloons and the credits so that they don't interfere with the artwork, or the way that you read the story. 

9. Do you ever do things differently than what's in the script?

Very rarely will I deviate from the writer's intentions, and only for good reasons.  Sometimes, a certain shot is called for (long, close up, ect.,) and the nature of the characters will make this either impossible or clumsy.  For instance, a wide shot works well for showcasing a lot of characters from the chest up, or a panoramic take on a cityscape from the distance, but if you want to show a entire figure from head to toe vertically and spotlight something like clothing details, a medium-shot would be more in order.  

Sometimes very rarely I will be compelled to change something based on how I consider I "know" the characers.  I once drew a "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" story where, at the story's end, Bloo was supposed to punch Cheese in the face.  Even though they had been at each other throughout the story, I felt this oddly violent and out of character, as Bloo is, to my way of thinking, more of a sneaky slacker, mischief-maker and prankster.  I drew the panel with Bloo kicking Cheese in the butt, sending him flying.  The panel was much more tolerable drawn this way, as to my mind a kick in the butt seemed less violent than a punch in the face.  I e-mailed the page to my editor, noted the change, and offered to draw it the way the writer wanted it if I had overstepped my bounds.  My editor agreed that the face punch was too visceral, and the butt kick stayed.  This sort of correction is extremely rare.  

One thing that DOES force the penciller to tinker with the script on a fairly regular basis is a situation that happens when multiple characters are talking in a single panel and, reading from left to right, the character at the far left of the panel has to deliver another line of dialogue AFTER the character that is at the far right, which should be the natural "end" of the panel.  In this instance, I either have to A) make space in the layout for another word balloon and hope that the reader can follow the narrative flow in spite of having to double back "into" the panel, or B) break down the panel into two separate panels to ensure that the narrative flows correctly.  Obviously, "B" is a better solution, but it makes more work for the penciller as you have now added a new panel that must be shoehorned into the page layout and not require you to draw so small that the reader has to look at your art with an electron microscope to figure out what is going on.  

Above: Some panels taken from the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends story "Color Me Bloo" written by Scott Cunningham, pencilled by Robert Pope, inked by Jeff Albrecht, lettered by Travis Lanham, colored by Heroic Age, and edited by Ian Saddler for CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #45. Notice how Robert placed the characters in each panel so that their dialogue would read smoothly from left to right without crisscrossing word balloon tails. Even when characters speak more than once the arrangement allows for the balloons to be placed in such a manner that reading them is easy and not confusing. This is tricky for the artist and something the writer should also be thinking of when writing a scene. 

Further, it is also difficult when a character or characters in a single panel are written doing multiple actions.  This also happens quite often, as in "Page 1, panel 5:  Johnny Bravo runs down the street, bursts through the door of his home, and lifts his couch to look for his missing date."  This would work much better as at least two, or maybe even three panels.  

10. What are your favorite characters/ comic book to draw?

I love cartoony comics, and the Scooby gang are of course faves.  Working recently on "Batman the Brave and the Bold" has been great as well, due to the fact it's a weird hybrid of mainstream comic book theory and of course a translation of an animated property to the page, something I think I'm pretty good at.

I have drawn stories based on many animated shows:  Fosters Home, Grim Adventures, Johnny Bravo, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and drawn covers featuring most of the "modern" Cartoon Network properties.  While they are all challenging, I love them all for various reasons.  

Above: The first story of mine drawn by Robert Pope featured Space Ghost for CARTOON NETWORK STARRING...#18. It was inked by Dan Davis, lettered by Ryan Cline, colored by Digital Chameleon, and edited by Joan Hilty and Harvey Richards. 

  

11. What comics did you read growing up? 

Carl Barks' Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge.  Fantastic Four (John Buscema's run, I got my Kirby by way of Marvel's Greatest Comics, as I was born in '67)  Amazing Spider-Man, Any Gold Key comic I could find, most anything with Ben Grimm or Victor Von Doom or heck, Super Goof on the cover, any Richie Rich title, any Archie title drawn by Dan DeCarlo (I could tell) Herb Trimpe Hulk comics, Kirby's odd run back at Marvel circa '75, any Flash drawn by Carmine Infantino, Green Lantern as long as Joe Staton was pencilling, Superman, Batman if Don Newton or Dan Atkins or Jim Aparo were in there somewhere, Justice League of America (some fun runs by Perez, to be sure) and Wonder Woman when Ross Andru was pencilling.  And that's just the short list!

Above: A page from an Uncle Scrooge story written and illustrated by Carl Barks. 

Above: A Fantastic Four cover by John Buscema featuring both Dr. Victor von Doom and Ben Grimm, also known as the Thing. 

Above: Green Lantern by Joe Staton.

Above: Wonder Woman by Ross Andru. 

12. What made you decide to be an artist? 

I loved the medium, and could honestly do very little else.

13. What made you decide to draw comic books? 

I got in totally by accident, kind of sideways.  I got into animation in '88-'89, and some years later ('95) was animating for my pal C. Martin Croker, who was the animation director for the Cartoon Network show "Space Ghost Coast to Coast."  Some time after THAT ('99, to be specific) DC, by way of Cartoon Network, approached Clay about pencilling a adaptation of the show.  Clay, who is really an amazing talent, probably THE most naturally talented animator I know, knew he would need help, so he got me and animator Matt Jenkins (who had also animated on SG) to assist on the first issue, which was edited by the very great Heidi MacDonald.  I helped Clay on a couple of subsequent issues, we were co-pencilling, more or less, and when the work slowed, I approached then editor Joan Hilty (who was my first big booster at DC and incredibly patient with how stupid I was at the time) about additional work and ended up doing some sample pages for Scooby, among other things.  When Clay later wrote a Scooby script, I got to pencil it, and moved from there onto other properties, doing interiors and later cover, which I consider to be a lot of fun.  

14. How long does it take you to draw a comic book story? 

When I get the script, I read it the first night and do thumbnails.  Then I blow the thumbnails up to 1/2 size to create tiedowns.  I can do 5 of these in a night, so a 20 page book takes me 4 nights.  THEN, I take a night to rule boards and blow up the 1/2 up tiedowns at Kinko's.  Then onto the final pencils; I can pencil between 1/2 and 1 page a night, including spotting blacks.  So 20 pages takes me on average 23 or 24 days.  All in all, I average about 30 days to get through a full-length book, working 7 nights a week.  If I had the luxury of doing comics for my "day" job, I am sure that I would be much faster.  Whenever I draw on weekend days I am startled at how much faster I can produce.  However, starting in on pencilling after a full day of work and then dealing with family and other responsibilities means a drop in energy that inevitably takes a toll on speed, but hopefully not quality.  

15. Do you get to pick the inker? 

No, but over the years I have been asked my opinion on possible inkers by various editors, and this chance for input has been very gratifying.  My fave regular inker, Scott McRae, is a great artist and a swell guy.  And he doesn't cheat my details.  

Above: The cover to SCOOBY-DOO #118 by Robert Pope and Scott McRae.

16. Do you work at home? 

Yep, home studio.  I animate during the day in an office, but my comics are produced in the wee small hours, so being right there at home is crucial.

Above is the animation desk that Robert Pope works on when drawing comics at home. 

17. How long have you been working in comics?

Eleven years and counting.  Here's hoping for eleven more!

Thank you Robert Pope for taking the time to share so much valuable information with us. If you have any questions for him, please ask in the comment section below.