Comic Book Elements
Back to Help- The PAGES of a comic book are filled with specific arrangements of images to tell the story by the page. A series of images is not broken arbitrarily to fit the pages, there's a higher design and it's always defined by the writer in the script.
- A PANEL can be any size or shape you'd like, with or without a border, in any configuration. Most comic book pages have one path the reader should follow and it's up to the artist to arrange the panels in such a way the reader's eyes follow that particular path as defined in the script.
- ACTION is also known as description in comics, for this is the part of the script that explains in detail exactly what is shown on the page. How much descriptive detail is included depends largely on the relationship between the writer and the artist.
- First write the CHARACTER name and then begin typing DIALOGUE. If you wish to have more than one word balloon for the same string of a single character's dialogue, you would skip a line and write the next line of dialogue under the same character heading, no need to duplicate the character name. A CAPTION is a box of written text that could be spoken by a character out of frame, an omniscient narrator, or be a simple label for time and place. When creating a PDF, you will have the option to number each dialogue balloon as a reference to the comic book letterer. CAPTIONS are also included, but not SOUND FX because that is typically drawn by the artist.
- PARENTHETICALS are used to indicate the font style or describe the kind of word balloon for that line of dialogue. In comics scripts, these are embedded within the dialogue, not on a separate line. We do provide a parenthetical element, but only for the sake of format swapping.
- SOUND FX are usually drawn by the artist, embedded in the frame. Comics don't have an audio track, so it is the challenge of the artist to make the reader hear with their eyes by using onomatopoeia and stylish lettering design.