Making Comics

This, we talk about revising unused / mothballed stories and making them new (3:55), setting up a story around dialogue (10:15), negotiating with artists (15:00), designing a logo for your comic (23:50), and writing a comic's scene skeleton and page outline (29:00) before this week's topic: overshowing and overtelling (35:50).

This week, we talk about comic lettering and changing dialogue (5:10), ensuring the characters are doing the work of the story (12:15), reviewing the almost-final version of your comic for consistency (21:40), having a plan for the middle of a Kickstarter (28:20) before this week's topic: finding the right way to end a story (41:00).

This week, we talk about the differences in writing long and short stories (6:10), designing characters for a story arc and getting the essence of your source material (18:25), turning an unused remnant of a large story into a story of its own (24:55), and absorbing material to improve your stories (31:25) before this week's main topic: letting your work air out (44:15).

This week, we discuss celebrating the work you complete (5:00), starting and completing work different than the type of work you've done before (13:40), the line between doing work yourself and outsourcing (22:05), working with the next generation of creators (30:40), lettering your own sound effects (38:00), and a Scott and Keith collaboration cover (45:40).

This week, we talk about moving on from a project (10:00), finding the right angle for a background panel (21:50), starting and finishing a cover (29:40), starting the flats for your comic (32:30), and changing the seas of pop culture intake (34:40) before this week's topic: setting your 2023 goals (54:00).

This week, we talk about choosing the proper angles for your panels (8:30), reconciling creative mode and business mode (19:00), investing in the fun details of your comic (22:15), and asking yourself questions on whether or not you're writing the right thing (34:00) before this week's main topic: remembering the money angle of making comics (41:15).

This week, we discuss printing out your script to enable a revision (4:00), using, but not overusing, artistic tools so your own creativity shines (11:30), cutting the unnecessary parts from a scene (28:00), and staying patient wiht your clients (33:00) before this week's topic: choosing the right parts of the story (34:40).

This week, we discuss finishing the first draft of a comic script (6:30), the value you should put on names in your story (10:45), that magic point on a project when you can plan for the end date (25:20), another method of tackling the work on a comic (29:10), the value of ramping down (41:15), and confirming story solutions wiht your editor (53:45).

This week we discuss finishing a page that contains a ton of detail (6:25), loose scheduling for upcoming projects (16:00), working with clients (20:00), getting your first blast of feedback and rethinking the broad strokes on a new project (28:00), and getting product back after a long design process (40:45) before this week's main topic: rules around magic systems (45:00).

Continuing the year-end Making Comics tradition, it's part two of our year-end suite with guest Gary Hodges, this time with favorites of the year! Roll out the year with us as we share our favorite comic book (8:30), artist (15:45), writer (43:00), TV show (53:45), movie (1:05:00), and band (1:13:00), among other favorites.

This week, we welcome Gary Hodges back to the show for our year-end tradition! To get things started, we discuss the compromise between productivity and perfectionism that every comic has (4:30), tackling the tough work when that's all that's left (30:10), reaching the point where creativity has to give way to research (38:30), and the importance of backing up your work (45:00) before this week's...

This week, we discuss feeding your brain with pop culture (4:15), sticking to page-a-week work goals (7:45), a different way of doing research while working on your story (12:10), when work and payment schedules don't go smoothly for commissions (24:15), and rewriting dialogue and scene descriptions for already-completed art using paper and pencil (28:20) before this week's main topic: the other r...

This week, we talk sticking to getting your page done for the week and becoming aware of a change in your style (7:00), working out an interesting way to deliver 'talking heads'-type information (11:00), working through editor feedback on your comic (20:15), writing your way through a story to figure it out (33:30), and considering a change in your daily goals (38:30) before this week's main topic...

This week, we discuss finding even better ways to retrofit prior ideas into a story (5:00), completing a panel a day while also developing your style (13:15), re-focusing your project priorities (21:30), using for-hire artists to finish a project (29:10), and getting feedback from a professional (43:00) before this week's main topic: understanding characters different from you (48:30).

This week, we talk about returning to a project with renewed energy (6:25), exploring the rules of your story world (14:00), commission updates (22:45), writing critical scenes to your story as you need to do it (25:20), and using and growing a network of contacts (37:30) before this week's topic: comic convention 101, from getting a table at conventions, to remembering the right things to bring a...

This week, we discuss the big thinking that goes into stories and repurposing prior ideas (11:30), writing as exploration (25:30), fighting to work when you're under the weather (28:55), incorporating all notes (big and small) into your comic (33:15), and working with client corrections (39:30) before this week's topic: your comic's done... now what? (43:00)

This week, we discuss the end of separate journeys; the end of a month-long panel a day project (3:45) and the end of a nearly five-year journey in completing a novel (8:00), working on different projects and the differences in them (15:20), starting a new project and consciously thinking about new processes (21:00), balancing paid work with your own projects (26:30), and seeking outside opinions...

This episode, we welcome E.Bursonson (Ed Brown) to the podcast and start with a discussion of comics we grabbed at Alakazam comics in Irvine, CA (4:00) before we discuss editing multiple comic scripts and story planning (24:40), doing the hard work on pages, so final editing can happen (37:00), and working on commissions and compensating for you own time (48:30). 

This week, we discuss the work ahead involved in Drawtober when you're using Drawtober for a project (5:45), the need for detailed thinking around your characters (12:00), a commission update (23:40), and improving a cliffhanger ending for a comic (26:00) before this week's topic: making every word (and line) count (35:05).

It's the enormous 100th episode! We welcome Gary Hodges to discuss drawing pages that involve a lot of detail (5:30), trying a new method for a backup story in a comic (11:05), and progressing through the middle of Drawtober (25:35) before Gary runs us through a series of questions on the comic process and the first 100 episodes, including the accountability involved in a podcast (35:30), the mast...

This week we recap a guest appearance on a show (6:30), different ways to approach your work when it's not flowing or feels off (8:55), preparing thumbnails for an intense Drawtober (18:30), top-level thinking around a comic involving scene versus summary (23:40), scheduling backward from a goal date (30:20), and completing commissions ahead of schedule to open up your schedule (42:30) before this...

This episode, we discuss the Amazing Las Vegas convention (4:40), the work it sometimes takes to finish complex pages (8:10), the attendance difference for top creators (12:30), a nice lesson from a popular show (25:30), and consolidating unnecessary dialogue and story (29:15) before this week's main topic: striking first and striking hard... when it comes to making your comic (34:15).

This week, we talk about work on a detailed double-page spread and its ensuing complex page (6:00), lettering (and editing while you edit) and assembling the visuals for a comic (11:20), planning out an upcoming work schedule (24:45) and how research can pay off when you least expect it (29:00), before this week's main topic: dynamic poses (39:30).

This episode, we discuss the final major hurdle in a writing project (3:55) and using the SLAC method and picking the coolest page to get your energy back on a project (12:50) before this week's main topic: submitting your comic proposal to publishers (32:00). At 51 minutes, we discuss AI art and an experiment we had with AI generators. If you want to see this art and get a visual to the discussio...

This week, we discuss tackling an issue of drawing when you can choose what you want to do (4:00), a show that reinforced proper storytelling (10:00), resetting yourself with a good adage to make comics by (15:40), and lettering your own writing and editing on the fly (20:45) before this week's main topic: writing tips from comic "prose" from an old Wizard article (28:15).