Writing Short Comics

So maybe you are now convinced that the best way to start drawing comics is to draw something short. Now you have a problem. All your ideas are for 13-volume epics. What to do…?

Do not despair. Writing short comics is a skill you can learn. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Limit the number of characters
A short comic (let’s say, 30 pages or less) doesn’t have enough space for a large cast. Tell a story about one, maybe two main characters, with no more than a handful of supporting characters. The fewer characters you have, the more screen time you can give them, and the better they’ll come across.

Limit the amount of time covered, and locations visited
Every time the action moves to a new location, you have to introduce that location. This eats into the space you have to tell the story. Keeping your time and space limited will help you pack your story into a tight, punchy bundle.

Aristotle would tell you the same.

Make clichés your friend
It can be dangerous to play with clichés, but they can help you, too. One of your challenges is to introduce your characters in a short space. Here, clichés can be your friend. Certain characters need only a few lines to come to life. A woman in a pantsuit, with tightly drawn back hair, shouting at someone: it’s the office bitch! A man with a skullcap and a dark robe, hands in the air: aha, evil wizard time!

From a few brush strokes, a complete character unfolds in your reader’s mind. The downside: these characters are boring and generic. Use them as background and minor characters only. Or you can invoke clichés deliberately to put your reader on the wrong track, and then do something completely unexpected with them. I tried to do this in my comic Hero/Villain.

Think of a twist ending
A lot of short stories, in prose and comics, rely on a twist to deliver their punch. This makes twist endings in themselves a bit of a cliché, but it’s a cliché that works. Just make sure that you don’t signal your twist too much early on, and that it’s plausible enough to work.

Trust your readers to close the gaps
This especially applies to fantasy stories; you don’t have to explain everything. A lot of fantasy writers, especially beginners, build a complex world in their heads and then feel that they have to explain all of it to their readers, including the world’s creation myth, the relationship between different races or creatures, the history and what not. If all that needs to be explained, of course, your story won’t fit into 30 pages.

When writing stories in a fantasy world, share information on that world with your readers on a need to know basis only. Whenever you find big blocks of text in your script, either coming from one of the characters, or, worse, from a narrator, ask yourself: how much of this does the reader really need to know to appreciate the story? How can I break it up or show it through action and dialogue? Assume your readers are intelligent, and can connect the dots.

Keep it close to home
Alternatively, stay away from the fantasy genre and its fancy world-building, and work within a world your readers know about: this one. Your own experience can be a rich vein of inspiration: you’d be amazed how interesting the particulars of your life can be to someone else.

If you’re writing autobio or semi-autobio comics, it’s important to be specific. Change details, merge characters and alter time to fit the story, but don’t generalise. Don’t set it in Generic City #23, but in your city, and draw it in a way that means people can recognise it. Draw your own street and your own house; real life details like those can really bring a story to life.

I hope that helps. If you’d like further advice or have any questions, feel free to Sound Off!.