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Explore the fascinating process of creating graphic novels, from the writer's plot to the artist's illustrations and the final coloring. Discover some influential graphic novels along the way.
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The Graphic Novel: How They are Made To the Most Influential …
The Writer … • Although most people think of a graphic novel as a series of pictures, it is the written plot that gives the story its direction. • The writer and artist discuss the proposed story and exchange ideas. • During the course of their discussion, they decide on the situations, locations, characters, and other details of the story. This helps define the overall plot from beginning to end.
The Writer … • Because most comics have a fixed number of pages, the writer and artist must then decide how to break up the story to fit each page. • They discuss which scenes and dialogue are critical to keep the story flowing and how the characters and action should be depicted to have the greatest impact. • Once the story has been refined, the writer creates a script.
The Artists … • The artist reads the script and makes a rough sketch of each page, called a thumbnail. • The thumbnail helps the artist decide how each scene should be depicted, and how the different scenes should be arranged on the page. • Using the thumbnail as a guide, the artist begins drawing each page in pencil. Some artists like to work on standard 8.5 x 11 in white paper; others make their pencil drawings directly on the larger boards.
The Artists … • The artist usually starts drawing the main elements of each scene with a hard pencil that makes very light lines. • The artist then darkens the main elements with a softer pencil and adds the backgrounds and other details. Areas for the dialogue balloons, sound effects, and narrative boxes are blocked out in blue pencil to distinguish them from the illustrations. • At this point, an editor may review the pencil drawings and make changes.
The Artists … • When the pencil drawings are complete, they are sent to the inker. • The inker's job is much more than just tracing over the penciled lines of the artist with black ink. It involves the selection of line widths, adding shadows, visually separating the foreground from the background, and creating special effects like splatter or wash to give the illustrations texture. • The inker uses a variety of pens and brushes to produce a finished black and white page.
The Artists … • The final step in the drawing process is adding the lettering for the dialogue, sound effects, and narratives that appear in the script. • This can be done using hand lettering, adhesive labels, or computer-generated digital type. • The letterer selects a typeface that not only conveys the actual words or sounds, but also conveys the action or emphasis of the scene with its size, style, and placement.
Coloring … • The finished pages, including the front and back covers, are sent to the colorist who adds the colors. • The original artwork is first photocopied and then scanned into a computer. The photocopy is hand-colored using colored markers, pencils, and paints to become a guide when coloring the pages on the computer.
Coloring • As the colorist selects and applies each color, the computer automatically assigns a code to it. This code is used to identify the four color components that make up that particular color—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. • When these four colors are printed in an interlocking pattern of tiny dots, our eyes perceive them as hundreds of different colors, even though there are really only four colors of ink on the page. • When all the pages have been colored, a proof copy of the entire comic book is printed from the computer for final review and approval.
A Few Influential Graphic Novels • According to comic book expert, teacher extraordinaire, and all-around good guy Scott William Foley, a few influential graphic novels are as follows:
