Comic-making skills

[Shadow Major]

My friend, who wants to develop his own comic, asked me a question the other day, which to be fair got me thinking. His question was, "Are there any specific techniques in making comics, for example, laying out the different panels, when to use close-up shots, etc." I thought a bit about this, and told him it didn't matter; as long as your audience could understand what was happening in the story. But now I'm not quite so sure about my answer (So I suggested he observe the different kinds of comic styles from other artists). Can anyone help out here?

[polistiren]

Well, as any aspect of the comic (writting, art) the paneling is quite important for the action to go fluently.
Here's a tutorial I found:
lilrivkah.livejournal.com/168859.html
lilrivkah.livejournal.com/168859.html

[MBarbour]

Shadow Major,

Although I can say I have not hit a lot of paneling work thus far, I have to say that it is an extremely important quality. Making a page look presentable and exciting is one of the key aspects of turning your story into something memorable.

I have heard many stories about how an editor will send back a page and have the artist rework the panels to emulate the suspense of the scene correctly. It makes more of an impact than you might believe.

Regards,

- MB

[Caliber Mengsk]

Yes, layout of panels matter. Also, so does the border style. In many more fast paced scenes, the borders of the panel are less refined and not as straight (no 90 degree corners) to make it feel less stable and more frantic.

It can make or break some pages.

[Shadow Major]

Have any of you guys read the "Goblins" comics (www.goblinscomic.com)? The panelling seems to be quite basic there.

[Caliber Mengsk]

It's not that you "have" to have great paneling, but it does add to the feeling a considerable amount. Kind of like a fight sequence can be amazing, but it's much much better with music in the background that matches the fight.