4 Panel Grid Up All Night

The basic comic page grid.

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

The Grid


Here is what forms the basis of the standard grids used in comics and graphic novels. You can use this as a starting point  to create your own grids to meet your story needs. Hey, it can be all diagonal panels. Just make it work! Sorry, I was having a Tim Gunn moment. The grid choice should serve the story. For example, you may want to use standard rectangles for the pedestrian parts of the story and then always use diagonal panels whenever there is action. I study and dissect what artists do and do not do. I met the great Gene Colan and talked to him for a while. After gauging that he seemed to be a nice guy and guessing he might not go off on me I told him, 'I noticed you use diagonal panels in your action scenes, so I stole that from you,' he laughed and said "That's okay. I stole it from somebody too." We both laughed and talked some more about the art form we love.

Now let's look at what can be done with the grid.

The 4 panel grid

Here's the 4 panel grid. 

Now Variation A presents a problem in western culture and Variation C presents a problem in eastern cultures. In the west we read from left to right, top to bottom. with Variation A the western reader's natural tendency will be to go from the first panel to the panel on left next, thereby missing the content of the small left bottom panel. In the east, they read from right to left, top to bottom and Variation C presents the same issue.

One way to be sure the two small panels are read first is to give the reader some clues, such as the border in Variation B. I've highlighted the border red here to emphasize it for you now, but by no means take this to mean you have to make that border red.

Ideally you never want to have a set of panels down the left side that have to be read first. It will be confusing to the reader. However, if you approach the page as a design (as I do most of the time) then you may find yourself in a situation where this is the best solution. I'll discuss this  more when I discuss page design.

Jack Kirby usually used this grid a lot to show big action and Asgard in The Mighty Thor comic books. After all the Viking gods are too awesome to be contained by a mere 9 panel grid. He used the 6 panel grid for earth bound moments.

to be continued...

read next - 69 Grid
previous - Grids

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copyright 2012 H. Simpson. Other art copyright their respective copyright holders.

Avengers Movie Review

Avengers Assemble to Entertain

First, let me say that I'm not a purist. I don't feel that a movie of adaptation of comic book characters have to follow the comic exactly. The Christoper Reeve Superman movie set the standard and showed that when you respect the source material and treat the characters as real and not as cardboard cutouts or stereotypes a good movie can be made. Not a good comic book movie, just a good movie.

Great movies started being made with the comic book characters when they started fleshing out the characters and understanding their motivations.

This is what helps make The Avengers a great movie. The individual movies clearly defined the characters and their motivations. Even without seeing those movies, it's clear to the viewer that those motivations are in conflict as the heroes assemble. Helping to give us the obligatory hero vs hero fight,which is handled very well. It's not just tossed in for a hero fight, it actually contributes to the story.

In fact therein lies another reason for the greatness of this movie. Not a single frame is wasted. Every move, every frame, every line contributes to advancing the story or revealing something about the character(s).

The movie opens on an alien world with Loki and an alien (not a Skrull). During the trailers the sound system was pumping. So I know it worked. Yet it was hard to hear clearly in this scene. Were they mumbling? This was the only time the sound was bad and my first disappointment

Then we see a captured Black Widow and the style of the movie is set in this one scene. Drama, action, humor, defined characters, understandable story, good acting and an investment in the characters. The balance is set here and maintained throughout the movie. There are two writers on the movie, but the Whedon style is immediately evident.

My second  and last disappointment was the title sequence. Was this an after thought? After months of pushing a well designed Avengers logo in our face. The title sequence shows a poorly designed logo.

There are payoffs for people who saw all the previous movies, but that's just icing on the cake. It does help at a critical turning point and really makes the audience (as well a the heroes) emotionally invested. The character interaction is amazing and serves to drive the story.

This movie arrives at just the right time. Special effects are at a point where you can't tell they are effects and so don't take you out of the story. As a comic artist I can create destruction on an epic scale. And it doesn't cost a thing. Previously movies couldn't afford to do this. Finally we can see a movie that can create the destruction that is believable in a world populated by superheroes.

The movie is longer than normal at 2 hours and 22 minutes, yet it does not feel long at all. I felt like I could have sat another hour without any seat bottom wiggle.

The Avengers is an awesome, entertaining movie.

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copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Avengers Assemble!

The Avengers movie opens today!

I'm going to go see it today if all goes well.

I'll post a review here later.

It's Free Comic Book Day tomorrow!

Find a store near you.

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IN-GRID

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

The Grid

Good designers use a grid. Great designers know when to break the grid.

A grid helps you to provide patterns and rhythms with your panels, thus creating pacing and manipulating time.

What is a grid? For our purposes it's a system for organizing your panels on the page. You've seen it all your life and you may not even have known it. It's used in newspapers, magazines and web sites. And also comics!  Let's look at the history briefly.

Illustrated manuscripts were first produced by monks during the dawn of the Middle Ages to transcribe sacred text. The grids used here are a combination of vertical and horizontal lines as seen in these examples.

As you can see the grid was flexible and showed variety back then, even as it does now. It is not restrictive, it is liberating. It can allow your visual design sense and storytelling to be very dynamic by allowing you think about content, time and space within a framework. It's easy to be creative when you're free. It's more challenging when you create a cage for yourself.

The grid can be used to control time as well as for psychological and aesthetic effect. It gives you a systematic way to layout your pages and give it consistency and unity.

Jim Steranko's Chandler (1976) was one of the early graphic novels. The others released that year were adaptions or compilations. Chandler was an original work. The cover calls itself a visual novel, while inside it's called a graphic novel. It's not the first graphic novel*, but it is indeed the first illustrated novel to combine comic book panels and text in this way. 

Steranko made a creative decision ahead of time to use this grid.

It would seem to be he painted himself in a corner, however he was very creative with his use of this grid. 

Chandler copyright Jim Steranko

*Gil Kane's Blackmark published in January 1971 is the first graphic novel. The term graphic novel was not in wide use then. Europe had what they called "albums" and manga were in Japan.

to be continued...

read next - 4 Panel Grid
previous - Comic Book and Graphic Novel Panels

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Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.


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The designer's guide to grid theory

The Grid

15 Reasons Why A Grid Based Approach Will Improve Your Designs

Using Layout Grids Effectively 

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Some movie poster concept ideas

Rough sketch  ideas for movie poster

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copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Comic Book and Graphic Novel Panels

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

Panels are the drawn borders that create a frame on the page. The frame becomes the window into the reality you've created.

The space between the panels is called gutters. The gutter is where time happens.

The panels can be any shape.

Panels can also indicate a flashback, dream sequence; emphasize and emotions 

or emphasize action inside the panel.

The panel can also be a symbolic image like binoculars.

to be continued....

read next - IN-GRID
previous - The Conventions

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson