My chief comic-book character, The Silver Angel

[fpb]

This is the central character of a superhero universe I created. She also features in two of my Harry Potter fics: http://www.thedarkarts.org/authors/fpbarbieri/SA.html and http://www.thedarkarts.org/authors/fpbarbieri/HGN.html. In the future I may feature sketches of HP characters and situations.

Comments

[chthonya]

Impressive! I keep forgetting about your involvement with comic books.


4)Lettering. This often includes word balloon placement, an important skill

What sort of considerations come into play there, then, apart from not obscuring the action?


I'm looking forward to seeing more of your illustrations.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's easier for me to do it than to explain (as a writer-artist, I normally lay in my own script). Anyway... The reader's eye is trained to go from left to right and from top to bottom. (In Japan the motion is from right to left, which means that Japanese comics have to be photographed in mirror-image fashion before they are translated for the Western markets.) The layout of captions and word balloons must follow this natural motion, take up as little of the art as reasonably possible, and break the script up into natural units, breaking off at dramatic points. Of all these requirements, I would say that the first is the most important: failing to understand it means that the dialogue will be read in the wrong order, with the inevitable results.

[chthonya]

It's easier for me to do it than to explain

Thank you for taking the time to do so, then - it's always fascinating to find out what thought processes lie behind something that I'm used to seeing but have never had to think about.