based Wizard battle

>>4827 woah, is he ok? I don't know if this is all, but I hope he gets his eyes back. I saw this thread today and wanted to make the OP until I remembered I don't know how to make a good OP. But I have a good handful of resources that could be added or put in another OP at a later date (it's late here, i'll post them later) I can't resist posting so here's a page I worked on today.

>>4849 > woah, is he ok? I don't know if this is all, but I hope he gets his eyes back. He's fucking traumatized and needs to recover, same with the witch who has sustained significant damage from the old master. Eventually the boy will probably get his eyes back, but before that he needs to learn epic anime powers, so he can show that jewish hag some justice.

Sorry about how rough my stuff is, but it wasn't really meant to be shown. Lately I've just been sketching page layouts, looking into cinematography to improve my shot composition, and trying to just do more visual stuff instead of nothing but talking heads. >>4820 I'm noticing that you hardly ever show two characters in frame at the same time. Let alone all three. As a consequence I have no idea what their spatial relations are. You could put more thought into your establishing shots. Reading order is a little iffy in places but you seem to be working on that so I'm not sure there's much I'd dare to comment on. But for example, have you considered that the boys reaction to the rustling is read before the reader is aware that the rustling occurs? It's debatable whether that's a problem, but my point is that there is a sequence within the panels as well, not just between them. >>4849 On the subject of that kinda thing I really like the lower left panel, how the first bubble seems to be spoken before his hand is raised, and the second one after. I dunno if it's a more basic thing than I imagine but I never think to do that stuff.

>>4862 > I'm noticing that you hardly ever show two characters in frame at the same time. Let alone all three. As a consequence I have no idea what their spatial relations are. I didn't notice that. It's probably some subconscious laziness, because I didn't want to spend time drawing panels that were not related to the action. But yeah, I guess it would be better to have more environmental ahots, which might be more boring to illustrate, but ultimately seem to be necessary. > But for example, have you considered that the boys reaction to the rustling is read before the reader is aware that the rustling occurs? That's an interesting observation. How that panel currently is, makes the boy notice the rustling before the viewer, which leads to a disconnect between the viewer and the character. I the rustling was shown before, that would make the viewer assume the role of the character and be more immersive. That again is a question of what you're going for. But yeah, it should probably be actively considered. Thanks for the feedback. >>4849 I just realized that I didn't comment on your page. I didn't download it, because of the file size. xD But the page looks pretty good honestly. That's outside the context of other pages. Btw. guys, if you convert the color space of your files to greyscale, the file sizes drop considerably.

>>4862 >the first bubble seems to be spoken before his hand is raised, and the second one after I didn't about that either but if anyone asks the answer is yes I did lmao! I'd like to think i'm a lot more considerate about my bubble placement and feel for natural reading order now, even with goof ups still manage to slip through the cracks. It just goes to show there's even more ways to arrange bubbles than natural reading flow.

I've compiled a list of resources that I thought would be pretty helpful, starting with some books: Draw your own manga- Haruno Nagatomo How to Draw Manga Vol. 30 Pen & Tone Techniques Manga in Theory and Practice- Hirohiko Araki Making Comics- Scott McCloud Perspective for Comic Book Artists- David Chelsea My Road to Mangaka- A fun autobiographical comic by Mizukami Satoshi There's also The Complete Guide to Self Publishing Comics and The Webcomics Handbook featuring examples from some not so well respected authors, but solid advice overall. The first two books on the list are pretty dated (30 or so years old) but offer solid advice for manga, especially if you are taking pen and paper as opposed to pen and tablet approach. A few things not accounted for though: Bleed areas Pages typically have a "safe zone" then a margin that extends to an area called the "bleed zone" Pages are cropped to this margin when they are printed. Nodo zone If you anticipate publishing work, you have to account for the binded area. The Nodo zone is the side where the pages are bound, you don't want your text to run outside of the Bleed area here or it will get lost within the book's binding. Proper resolution 72 is typical for web, but if you expect to print, make sure you keep resolution to at least 300 dpi, or 600 dpi. Do it even if you don't know if you'll print so you're not kicking your ass later. Manga in Theory and Practice is an extremely unique insight into the overall process of writing and drawing manga, but applications can go outside the the manga sphere. That in mind it was written for the audience of aspiring Shonen authors so some advice can be taken lightly. Additional resources: https://blambot.com/ -thousands of free fonts, all made by one guy. Purchasing licenses for the fonts are more of a kind suggestion, but consider it for his hard work. https://www.naokiurasawa.com/- Episodes of Manben, a program by author Naoki Urasawa that shows you how the sausage is made. He interviews different authors giving you a peek at their process. https://hikaku-sitatter.com/en/- a website that lets you compare the heights of different people. there are also some objects you can add to scale. feel free to add anything to this list you find beneficial.

>>4903 Good stuff. I've been meaning to get back into this.

>>4903 I might add Understanding Comics, also by Scott McCloud. It brings up some interesting ideas as well as analyzing types of sequences and their effect on atmosphere and stuff. Judging by a certain recent chadpost I think at least one anon might appreciate this book in particular right now. One takeaway I got from it was basically that comic art is not really images the reader passively observes, but instructions for what to imagine. Might be that I'm projecting a bit of my own ideas there, I've been thinking a lot about that stuff recently, but either way I believe it's definitely worth at least skimming through.

>>5039 Yeah! I actually forgot/was only half aware of this one for some reason. Time to pick up a new book.

>>4903 Thank you, these are all great resources. Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre is a solid addition to the list. It focuses on storytelling in visual mediums in general. Its author spent decades working in animation, so book is colored by that experience, but almost all lessons he lays out are universal. Framed Ink explains how to frame things, how to design a panel or frame with purpose, keep continuity, certain stylistic techniques, and much more. It has a small section specifically about comics and graphic novels at the end. >>4903 >Manben I checked this or similar site months or years ago few times, but it was always broken. Eventually I forgot about it completely. It's nice to see that it's finally working again.

rate my shit i need advice badly, i've complete tunnelvision

>>5409 It's got an interesting style. I think the "normal" parts are kind of under developed, but the action lines, dramatic shadows and schizo moments are really well done. Reminds me a bit of older underground college comics.

>>5409 The climax is well done. The setting is concise. The motives and intentions of the main character are easy to understand. It is unclear whether we should read from the left or the right due to the ambiguous text and panel placement. The transitions on page 4 and 5 are not entirely clear either. Also on page 2 the speech bubbles are not on the same panel as the person talking. The reader is lost and this detracts from the effect of the comic. Quite solid overall. Try to make it easier to follow.

>>5410 >>5410 >I think the "normal" parts are kind of under developed which parts specifically? and in what way are they underdeveloped? i'd like to know >Reminds me a bit of older underground college comics. i never knew this was a thing, could you post some? >>5412 >The transitions on page 4 and 5 are not entirely clear either. got it >Also on page 2 the speech bubbles are not on the same panel as the person talking. The reader is lost and this detracts from the effect of the comic. i get it, placing the speech bubble over the establishing shot was a mistake i should've added a panel or two of the protagonist reacting to his coworker calling his name, firstly a panel of his coworker calling him, then his reaction thank you thanks for your the phenomenal feedback!

>>5412 I'm sorry if this comes off as kind of hostile, but "detracts from the effect of the comic" is such a vague statement. It straight up does not mean anything. Are you implying that it is always wrong to do this kind of reverse order establishing? Because that I just can't agree with. There are many reasons why you might want to use that technique. I agree it's an awkward application if only because it's just a name, and shoved into the corner at that, but I wouldn't say that I feel particularly lost. >>5413 Here's an example that kind of sequence in Aruku Hito, even more vague and on the very first page of the comic, although in that case it's kind of irrelevant who is speaking. I think it might make it less awkward if you rewrote the dialogue to fit more information over the establishing shot, rather than just the name of the protagonist, if that's the way you want to play it. The "heh" bubble on page 3 I think would be better placed inside the last panel, or at least further down. The way it is, my eye is drawn to it even before looking at panel 4, which messes up the sequence. I would generally be careful about placing bubbles between panels unless you have a specific reason to. It's a useful trick for making something read as simultaneous or softening a transition, but it can just as easily make a sequence feel kind of limp. I'm a little curious about your reasoning for that particular bubble placement. p.5 has a similar issue, I read the text and move into panel 3 right off the bat. I pretty much have to force myself to look up to the corner at panel 2. It would work better if the two boxes of exposition weren't completely adjacent. If you moved one or had a gutter between. Overall I think the takeaway is simply study how professional comic artists place their bubbles. Compare their work with yours and think as much about what they don't do as what they do. This stuff is pretty sensitive, you want to avoid making the reader need to actively move their eye elsewhere than the most obvious reading order, and speech bubbles seem to take priority over pictures in most cases. Anything that can be mistaken will be mistaken.

>>5443 >that kind of sequence Maybe not the right phrase actually. The sequence itself isn't that comparable Whatever.

>>5443 >I'm a little curious about your reasoning for that particular bubble placement. i'm afraid i didn't really think about it the same goes for the text bubble on page 5 maybe i should have placed it at the top of page five ty, i don't know if i'll ever do something like this ever again, but if i do i'll try incorporate your advice

Been looking forward to this thread since it was started. It might a damn good while before I have much in the way of story telling to share, so here's something related in the meanwhile.

>>5804 >>5744 Very nice, very talented you guys

>>5804 Dude you have really improved, it's great to see you posting again. Please visit us in the Drawpile sometime-it's where a lot of the activity has been funneled these days but we're trying to keep a heartbeat going here as well.

>>5804 Very expressive. That slam at the end has all the force it should.

>>5804 >TFW no sassy tiny white girl to share my beeg cream with

Comic Book Resources used to have a script archive, but they since took it down. Luckily it is preserved at: https://www.comicsexperience.com/scripts/ https://web.archive.org/web/20211216000857/http://www.comicsexperience.com/scripts/ A lot of scripts are from hacks, but there are some good ones. Some decent writers to take a look at are Cullen Bunn, Alan Moore, Brandon Seifert, and Chuck Dixon. Scripts by the likes of Bendis can be used as something to avoid. Either way, it could be useful resource to at least see how things are done in the American industry.

This is a nice step by step of a comic page from The Grémillet Sisters by Alessandro Barbucci that I found. Most artists do not show their step by step process. On rare occasion when they do, it's usually veteran mangakas with enough experience to rarely need any rough drafts or on-paper planning.

I'll go ahead and bump this thread with a question for you all: What's a comic or webcomic or manga that's inspired you and your art style? Or has just had a major influence on how you see art? As much as it pains me and as cringy as it is now, Homestuck definitely had a major impact on me when it came out. All of MS Paint Adventures did, really, but especially Homestuck considering how popular it became and how many drawfags on 4chan and elsewhere essentially aped its style.

>>6520 Homestuck certainly is lame yes, much like using disgusting filthy normal-faggot lingo like "cringe". Jokes aside, it was alright until Hussie decided to tailor it to tumblr. It also went on for too long, which was probably related to the fanbase as well. Almost everything wrong about that comic was related to tumblr in some way, but of course Hussie bares the greatest responsibility since he wasn't being forced to do anything.

>>6520 My biggest influence is Hayashida Q, and to a lesser extent Hirano Kouta. When Dorohedoro was going I really grew to love the silliness adjacent to cruelty and brutality. Another comic, Nekojiru Sou, is also like this (though it is much more cruel and the silliness is more contained in presentation). This has held a major influence over how I approach things. I wouldn't call myself obsessed but I did develop something of an obsession with her oneshot "underground underground" which i've read over many times as well. I became fond of this particular aesthetic of things being a little messy and impressionistic. I think in enjoying her works I also understood what I wanted from my own art, at least a little bit. I've struggled with trying to feel out how I want my own art to look, that has lead my nose to many more artists drawing manga in styles not seen as typically conventional. On the off side, not having conventional or 'current' influences also means it's not what people are used to expecting from manga.

>>5409 Its been two years since i made this post, i've graduated and dropped out of college I want to thank all you anons for keeping me drawing and pursuing comics, i've finished 1 and am still working on the other I'll get to the point, recently i met a former classmate, he told me i look even more insane then i did back then (i stopped shaving last year, it doesnt look good) point being, I am here to express my utter contempt for my former self I have gotten much better at drawing and have a clearer understanding of anatomy, but i will never again be able to make something this coherent and while i've understand anatomy better now, my drawings have degenerated, they're no longer as clean as the ones in this post I hate myself, i've gone insane, and I hate my former self for somehow being better than who I am now

>>6613 Sounds like the average artist experience to me.