The Section Comics

An experiment in comics

Category: 2-Practical Information

  • Practical tips for artists for the best printed result

    NOTE from site: This post was written by David den Ouden, who’s worked on all 3 of the Doe Het Niet Zelf Dutch Graphic Novel weekends. It has not be further edited by the site owner.

    If you want to publish a graphic novel made in 48 hours, you need 2 things:

    •  Speed (so you can create as many pages as possible)
    •  High quality art work (you can publish)

    ‘Just’ creating two page spreads is not enough. The art work needs to be scanned (if on paper), processed and made ready for print.

    Based on experiences with GNW Utrecht 2019, GNW Haarlem 2020, and GNW Amsterdam 2021, we had some lessons learned. So we have some practical tips.

    Sketching and setting up the page

    If you work on paper:

    • You don’t want lead pencil sketches on the final art work;
      • Erasing takes a lot of time, so we can’t do that (because we need speed).
      • Pencil is graphite and is highly reflective. Even light pencil lines show up quite dark in scans.
      • Exception: if it is your style of art to always leave your pencil sketches visible in the final art work, go for it.
    •  So DO NOT sketch with lead pencil on the same sheet as your final art work.

    Some possible solutions:

    • If you ink your sketches directly (on the same piece of paper):
      • Use a light coloured pencil or mechanical pencil (for the Dutchies: vulpotlood).
      • RECOMMENDED: use a (non-repro) blue color! (this can be filtered out very easily, big time saver)
      • E.g. I work with pink colour pencil and a blue mechanical pencil.
    •  Do not ink your sketches; use a light box or other tool to trace and ink your work on a new sheet of paper.

    Working in gray

    With the previously mentioned GNW’s we did not only work in black and white (= time saver, aka speed), but also in gray. Which can work very well. But you have to make sure you can print it in the same quality as the art work itself.

    If you work in gray, for the final printed graphic novel, you want your blacks to be truly black and the gray to have all the nuances and levels as the original art work. You do not want your black lines to turn out dark gray or black-ish. It kills the page.

    How to do the scanning properly, is described in the next section.

    These practical tips we’ve learned the hard way; it will give you better quality and in the end save a lot of time.

    • If you work in gray you have 2 options:
      • 1.   Add the gray to the black and white on the same sheet of paper.
      • 2.   Add the gray on a fresh sheet of paper (use a light box for gray).

    So:

    1. If you draw on the same sheet of paper:

    •  First draw the black and white (line) art.
    •  Scan the black and white sheet.
    •  Add the gray to your sheet.
    •  Scan the sheet and this is really, really important: scan the sheet with the same scanner and same orientation (upper right corner of your page) as the black and white sheet.

    2. If you draw your black and white (line) art on one sheet and the gray on another (using a light box):

    •  Scan both pages with the same scanner and same orientation (upper right corner of your page).
    • Add indicators (e.g. +) in the corners outside the drawing area so the 2 scans can be lined up perfectly.

    Those 2 emphasised sentences are really important. I’ve learned the hard way with GNW Haarlem 2020. The art work was scanned in black and white at the event. Back home, doing post production, I scanned the gray page on another scanner. It was impossible to line up the 2 scans; rotating and correcting for distortions did not work. I’ve spent hours cutting up the gray scans of for pages in small pieces, panel by panel to rotate and deform them so they lined up.

    Most scanners are not perfect and they all distort pages slightly different. So to compensate for that, use the same scanner. And the same orientation, since the scan might have small distortions from top left to bottom right. Rather have the same distortions in the same places.

    Scanning the art work

    Even if the artist is not scanning the art work themselves, it is good to be aware of the process.

    • Scan at the highest possible resolution: 600 dpi (preferred), no less than 300 dpi.
      • This leaves most room for adjustments, polishing up pages and high quality printing.
      • The industry standard for American comics is 350 dpi.
    •  Save as TIFF and if that is not possible, JPEG.
    • Scan as a photo, not a document:
      • Even if you only have black and white line art.
    • If your art work is black and white or gray scale (no colour on the sheet):
      • Scan as gray scale (NOT black & white).
    • If your final art work has unwanted colour:
      •  Like sketches in colour on the same page.
      • Like with fancy comic art board paper with a blue print for panels.
      • Scan as colour.

     Digital art work

     If all is fine, you work on the same format as the paper artists.

     Preferably you work in 600 dpi. If that is not possible, at least work in 300 dpi.

     The industry standard for printing comics is 350 dpi. Which can be an issue if e.g. you have (an older) non-professional version of Procreate. With just using black and white you should be fine, if you use gray scale as well,  better check with the organisers of the GNW to see what will work.

    Post production of the art work

    We can’t do a whole course on Photoshop and post production here. But there are a few basic things we can mention.

    You want the black and white (line) art to be truly that: just black and white.

    In post processing we want to optimise the art work, so we have the best quality. If you scan as a document or black and white, the scanner takes all the decisions for you. And you want to make those decisions yourself in Photoshop (or another tool).

    To create high quality black and white images, there are different approaches that all work.

    I usually take the following steps for processing a scan in Photoshop.

    For scans with colours (from pencil or art board paper):

    •  Especially with removing colour, there are many solutions. Pick whatever works best for you.
    • Recommended for (non-repro blue):
      • Create an new Channel Mixer adjustment layer and set the Preset to ‘Black & White with blue filter (RGB)’
        • This method may still need some polishing up, but most blue will be gone swiftly

    Or otherwise:

    •  Copy the background scan layer to a new layer; from this layer you will remove all the colour.
    •  With the magic wand with high enough tolerance and no anti-alias you can select the colours and delete them.
    •  Make sure not to accidentally select any gray scale you want to keep.

    Next:

    • Proceed with the following steps; use this layer without colour instead of the background layer (original scan).

    For black and white (line) art scans:

    • Copy the background layer to a new scan layer.
    • Rotate and move the scan so it lines up with the final page template (panels in place, etc.).
      • Most scanners have some sort level of distortion, so you might have to use a lens correction filter instead or other tools as well to restore the shape of the scan.
    • Add Levels as an adjustments layer and optimise the levels;
      • The white of the paper will be white with some margin (output level < 255).
      • The output level of the black will start in the black ink range (so not just at the beginning level of the black spike).
    •  Add a Treshold as an adjustments layer and optimise what you want black and what not.
    •  Copy the scan layer and 2 adjustments layers and merge these layers.
    • Select all white in the merged black and white drawing and delete the white.
      • You now have a high res layer with a drawing where you can put a gray layer under, without any lighter gray edges.
    •  Add a white background layer.
    •  If needed, go back to the first step and optimise the levels and threshold.

    For gray scale scans:

    • Add levels as an adjustments layer and optimise the layers.
      • The white of the paper will be white with some margin (output level < 255). You don’t want the paper itself to be any gray scale.
      • The output level of the black will start at the beginning in the black ink range.
      • Tweak the middle gray output level.
    •  Add other types of adjustments layers and optimise the grays.
    •  Copy the scanned background and adjustments layers and merge these layers.
    • Select all white in the merged gray scale drawing and delete the white.
      • You now have a high res layer with a gray scale where you can use under the black and white art work.

    Next: Clean up the scan. Duplicate the layer with the art work (so you preserve processed scan). Erase all specks, errors and other things that should not be in final art work. Usually you do not want anything outside the panels.

    Combine the processed gray art work with the black and white (line) art work and make sure they align. This can require some rotation or even a lens correction filter to align them perfectly.

  • What is a Graphic Novel?

    The concept of a graphic novel goes back quite a while, but there first person to use the phrase in its current form, I believe, was Will Eisner in relation to his book “A Contract with God.”

    The rough idea is that it’s a long form comic book containing a single narrative. It might contain multiple stories from different points of view, but they all connect to tell one single cohesive narrative.

    It is not an anthology

    A 48 hour graphic novel is very different from an anthology, which is a collection of possibly unrelated stories, which all fit a single theme. Those are very easy to do in a short term project like the one we’re discussing in this website, because everyone has complete control and can work independently and never talk to anyone else and just make their thing.

    A single narrative with everyone working together, on the other hand, requires the communication and community that this type of project was meant to bring about.

    A little jam, A little exquisite corpse

    Though they are not directly what we’re doing here, the concepts of a comic jam or an exquisite corpse are also worth understanding, because there’s a bit of that to a 48 hour graphic novel. Those are story telling forms where one creator begins, and another takes what they have written, and creates the next section (in a comic jam, it’s usually page by page). It’s a more linear story telling process, where everyone just builds off of the person who came before.

    This isn’t really the idea of a 48 hour graphic novel, but it’s more in-spirit with the idea than an anthology is, because it has that component of trying to tell one story together. The difference is, of course that on a practical level in a 48 hour graphic novel, you don’t have time to wait for the each individual before you to finish their part before it’s your turn.

  • Feedback Welcome!

    I don’t believe there’s one right way to do anything — but I do generally believe that there are things we can do that will make it easier to achieve a 48 hour graphic novel for the majority of people. I’m just not certain I know them all. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I don’t. So, I’d like to hear from you.

    Everything in this webpage is based on what I’ve seen, what I’ve understood, theories I have, and what others have suggested. I want to hear any experience that you’ve had, or ideas and suggestions for solving the many difficulties associated with a project of this sort. So, if you start your own 48 hour graphic novel or participate in one, and notice something, let me know.

    I hope it’s pretty clear from the text that I will write about different points of view in the process. I might have my own point of view in there, as well, but in fairness it is my website. And I’ll make it clear when it’s my commentary so people can ignore that part.

    So feel free to email me at 48hourgraphicnovel at gmail dot com.

  • The Event Timeline

    Everyone who does a 48 hour graphic novel is probably going to do it differently, and more importantly, should do it differently and make it their own.

    But when you plan out the event, you need to make decisions. The only rules put in to this concept, obviously, is that it’s 48 hours and it’s a graphic novel. Beyond that, it’s open. And point of fact, I don’t even have any control over you doing a 46 hour graphic novel, or a 48 hour quilting bee, so really, even those two “rules” are just guidelines.

    The timeline we planned in the very first graphic novel weekend

    For the first GNW, we had an evening session on Friday, a full day on Saturday, and worked until 5pm on Sunday (48 hours after the beginning). The beginning evening was mostly planning and discussion, with some work being created. The second day was really the meat of the project. The third day was a mad dash to finish everything. We made sure there were regular meals brought in by caterers and snacks available all day.

    We found that over time there was less need for the writers to be present, as the art naturally takes the most time. But Initially, the plan was to have morning meetings with the writers on both Saturday and Sunday. The initial goal was to have act 1 finished the first day, act 2 the second day, and act 3 on the third day. The writers instead planned a structure on the first day and each took a chunk of the story. So that turned out not to be necessary, for us but you might want to do it the way we (i.e. the organizers) originally intended.

    We also determined that we wanted people to be able to sleep between the days, to have a more balanced experience than 24 hour comic day can give (after being awake for 24 hours, if you’re writing in sequence, act three is bound to have a few inconsistencies).

    But this was what we planned out for that event. There are definitely other options.

    Make it your own, but make it

    Helmuth von Moltke, a Prussian General who died in 1891, had some advice for those engaging in a 48 hour graphic novel. He said, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” All the same, it’s still better to have a battle plan. I recommend making a detailed planning of what you expect to happen, and what needs to happen in the project, based on the time you have. Figure out when you want people at the location, when food will be there, when you’ll start, when you’ll end, etc. Things may shift almost immediately, but the next steps still need to happen, and this will help you determine order changes.

  • Give credit where credit is due

    From a creative project perspective (be it a film, a book, a work of art, etc.) the most important thing is having proper credit. This is what makes it easier for creators to get additional work, to use any creative project’s final results as a CV, and for consumers to follow up and find that creator’s other works easily. It can show not only that they were involved, but what they did, and what they are capable of doing.

    When making any comic project, it’s important to note what creators did what on a page by page basis.

    The other reason we do this

    The American comic book industry had some real difficulty over the years giving the creators their due (from important creators like Carl Barks and Bill Finder to lesser known figures there are so many stories of creators who almost went uncredited completely and suffered because of it), so it’s become a very important part of any comic project from a different perspective. It’s part of comic creator ethos and now-a-days, not giving specific credit is considered pretty unethical except in cases where creators intentionally want to remain secret, and even then they usually use a pseudonym.

    European creators have used pseudonyms in comics for other reasons, of course – Hergé, Peyo, etc. It’s as important to respect that aspect of things as it is to give credit, of course.

    NOTE: Admittedly, the process of giving credit to mangaka assistants in manga is a bit murkier to me (as I do not read Manga in its native language), but as I understand it they are generally credited in some way, though it can be a lot less clear to readers. But there you have a real structure that helps people get work in the industry, and a very large industry. Also, in that case, the assistants are literally there (in theory) to assist one person’s vision working in a technical capacity, and in the case of 48 hour graphic novels, everyone is there working as equal creators. So this is not a good analogue for what we’re doing. Also, manga assistants deserve every bit of credit they can get.

    Make it easier to track

    So as you finish a page, it’s a really good idea to write up exactly what every creator did on that page so that there is a clear listing that can be put into the final book.

  • What is the bare minimum you need in order to do a 48 hour graphic novel?

    I will go into these topics much more in depth through out this webpage, but I wanted to write up a list of what I believe is necessary at the minimum to make a 48 hour graphic novel work. These projects could be widely varied, but there are a few things that seem to be universal to this sort of project:

    • Time (at least 48 hours)
    • Art and Writing Supplies
    • People
      • Artists
      • Writers
      • Letterers
      • Digital team
      • Print expert if printing
      • Managers
      • Helpers
      • People who know, love, read, and/or create comics*
    • A Place to work together (either physical or digital)
    • Food and Drinks

    *This is not to say that everyone involved should be comic experienced – this is to say that some of the people involved should have experience with comics. Comic creation and structure is a whole world unto itself, and it’s important to have at least a few folks who are intimately familiar with the format.

  • Digital Team

    We totally dropped the ball on having a digital team in the first GNW. Arnoud from Doe Het Niet Zelf and I thought we’d be able to manage the digital production work in addition to organizing and arranging things. This was not the case. I spent a great deal of time walking around and working with artists to help them with comic technique, giving advice, pointing them to the books we’d provided. Arnoud was managing things the entire time, as well, and the amount of work needed for doing the technical portion of the production was much higher than we expected. This was especially true on the last day of the event when everything needed to be scanned, last minute digital work needed to be done, and etc.

    We ended up having to push lettering to post-production, and continually try to work through the page ordering throughout that process.

    So in reality, managing the digital tasks is a job that’s as important as any other, and you will need people to manage it.

    • You will need someone responsible for scanning hand drawn art
    • You will need people capable of doing digital retouching to hand drawn art
    • You will need people capable of digital lettering
    • You will need people capable of using digital publishing software (adobe indesign, affinity publisher, etc.)

    It’s ideally important to have these people involved throughout the process, because this is a lot of work and it’s not a simple matter of finishing this up after the event, because that will probably take some of the creative work out of the hands of the creators and that’s not the intention of this type of project.  

    Everyone is together during the weekend only. It’s important that the writers and artists can connect with the final product. So it’s good to have a clear picture of how everything is fitting together. This will also help writers see gaps that need to be filled. 

    This isn’t to say that everything with regards to production will be possible in the weekend. It’s impossible to know whether that can be done on such an aggressive timeline, but the more stable the product is when pencils go down at the end of the last day, the more the follow-on work which is done after the event becomes practical, rather than creative.

    What if we can’t do the production work during the event

    My recommendation is that you do the following:

    • Work on the page order through out the event, so that it is solid – try and number the pages in a way that will make it clear where they go.
    • Draw clear lettering guides (i.e. sketches of where the word balloons should go on copies or digital versions of the pages).
    • Type up all text clearly

    In the end, what you want is a final product that might not be perfect or finished, but is something you can actually read (with some difficulty), so that it takes away any need for the production staff to do anything other than make your product shine.

  • Art tips: software

    In the comic industry at the moment there are two softwares that dominate: Clip Studio Paint, and Procreate. There are other options, of course, and if you’re comfortable with one, you should probably stick to that, but these two have really become the standard.

    Clip Studio Paint or Manga Studio (iOS, Android, Mac, PC) has been around for quite a long time. It’s Japanese and was originally designed for Manga creation. It’s one of the best softwares I’ve found for creating pencil or ink drawings on both. It is very powerful. While it goes on a subscription model and is a bit pricier than Procreate, it has a free trial, which means that if you get it a few weeks before a 48 graphic novel project, you probably have time to get used to it and use it there before you pay.

    Procreate (iPad) One of the earliest art tools designed for iPad, Procreate is fantastic to work with, it’s simple, and it has a great community for finding tools that might help you. It’s priced very reasonably at around 11€ and is used by professionals to create comic books.

    These are some great tools, and I recommend trying them out if you want to go digital with your art.

    A note on resolution of final art

    There is one thing to keep in mind – Procreate will restrict what you can create based on the power of your iPad. If you have an iPad Pro, you can create much larger works, and export at higher resolutions. If you’re on a standard iPad or iPad mini or possibly even an older iPad Pro, you will be restricted to lower resolutions. Clip Studio, on the other hand, can handle larger resolutions even on lower powered machines – though you may find that it crashes when working with very sizeable art.

  • The Importance of Diversity

    Diversity within your group of creators is important, for many reasons. First, truthfully, as a white, cis-gendered, straight man, born in the US, I’m pretty certain (owing to 75 years of cultural dominance in the TV and film industries) that anyone reading this paragraph could credibly tell my story if they wanted to up to a point. I am the central character of modern entertainment. Anyone from a different background telling my story is likely to add new depth and interesting angles to it that I might miss, myself. 

    Diversity is important because perspective matters and people need and want to see themselves represented in fiction, but in addition to that, new stories are interesting stories. If you hear the same joke more than once, it’s no longer funny. The same horror story and it’s no longer scary. 

    Yet we keep telling the same stories again and again, with the same sort of hero. Joseph Conrad has a lot to answer for with regards to this idea of the hero’s journey, but he’s dead, and it’s time to focus on other possibilities. 

    So it’s important to get people who do not have similar lives involved together in this sort of project. Because in a limited time such as this, the only way to ensure the story doesn’t fall into cliche is to ensure that as many people with different experiences and perspectives as possible are involved.

    The Dangers of Symbolism

    Additionally, there is no time in a project like this to plan symbolism. Anything symbolic that happens is going to be accidental, and potentially will be offensive and not at all what anyone in the project would want or intend. 

    More people, with more perspectives, give an opportunity to catch that. This is not to say it is their job – everyone is there to create comics. But more eyes on potential issues is always going to be a good thing. 

  • Lettering tips: Affinity Publisher

    Most people putting together print works these days will use Adobe Indesign, and the rest of the Adobe creative suite – which costs 60-90€ per month. 

    I recently started working with Affinity Publisher, and while your mileage may vary, I have to say it’s a better choice. Purchasing Affinity Publisher, Designer, and Photo together only runs 165€ total (55€ each), and on the iPad the apps can do everything they can do on the computer, and only run 22€ each (Note: Affinity Publisher is still not yet available for iPad as of this moment).

    But beyond the price, and quality of the products (which I’d say is quite high), the reason this might be the best choice for a 48 hour graphic novel is that if you have all 3 tools, there’s a feature they have called “Studio Link” which allows you to do everything together within Affinity Publisher. Photo retouching, and vector graphics (which is heavily used in digital lettering), and put everything together into a print file. 

    It speeds up my process dramatically, and I love it. Plus, if it does work for you, it costs the same as about 3 months of Adobe (or about 1 month once Publisher is released for iPad).  And everything can be sent to InDesign, if necessary.