I then kind of draw it up," Ward said, adding that it takes him around four weeks to create the art after receiving the script.
Hold the line graphic novel how to#
"You have to decide how those fragments of time are," Ward said, explaining that Matt Fraction, the writer of Ody-C, gives him a plot script but ultimately lets Ward decide how to compose each panel. In a sense, comic book artists play the part of editors, too, choosing which fragments to give life to, when they want to hold the reader's hand, and when they want the reader to infer something on their own. The actual motion of the characters stepping into the spring and adjusting to its heat is in your head (if you're following along): The two characters in these panels step into a kind of hot spring, but you don't see a continuous sequence - you see fragments. And then the gutter is the time occurring, and the next panel is what happens after that time's occurred." You don't see that passing of time in the comic because if you're doing it right, the passing of time should be the gutter of it," he added. "You're trying to illustrate time and the passing of time. Ward was an art teacher and is now a full-time artist, working with companies like Image (the publisher of Ody-C), Dynamite, and Marvel. "The biggest difference between a single illustration and a comic book is time," Christian Ward, the artist for the comic book Ody-C, told me. And they have to conceptualize the use of colors in their illustrations the way a painter does. They have to think about composition and contrast the way a photographer might.
Hold the line graphic novel movie#
They have to rationalize the angles and point-of-view the way a movie director would. Because of this, the comic book artist has to juggle lots of information on any given project. What a comic book artist's job is likeĬomic books are unlike any other art form. While stuff like the gutter and the size of a panel or what a panel's border or frame looks like might seem like tiny details, they're actually places where comic book artists are weaving in important concepts and making deliberate decisions.
![hold the line graphic novel hold the line graphic novel](https://previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STL134181.jpg)
And the space that separates each panel is known as the gutter. Each page consists of panels - single illustrations, usually sequential, that tell the story.
![hold the line graphic novel hold the line graphic novel](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FkzJpHDdcYcxrD22UDMvEE-1200-80.jpg)
Pages are meant to be read from left to right and in a "z-like" pattern - you read the rows as they're tiered and make your way down a page. The diagram above is a very basic breakdown of what it would look like if you opened a page in a comic book. How a comic book is structured:Ĭomic books have a form and their own language to refer to that form.
![hold the line graphic novel hold the line graphic novel](https://previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STL181255.jpg)
There are other comics, like Japanese manga, which are structured and read differently. In this article, we're primarily referring to American comic books. Here, then, as part one of an ongoing series, is a brief guide to comic basics - starting with panels and gutters. We don't have a great system for teaching people how to read stories told in visuals.īut there's an art to reading a comic book, one developed over nearly 100 years in the US.Īs the age-old practice goes mainstream, both readers and artists are experimenting with new ways to speak to and read each other. And by and large, comics readers have to be self-taught. And there are plenty of titles that are specifically meant to be challenging. Sometimes, the sequence of events can be hard to follow.
![hold the line graphic novel hold the line graphic novel](https://previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STL145128.jpg)
Reading a comic book can be a daunting task.