I absolutely adore your comics!!! Everything from the art and composition to the gut wrenching twists and dialogue. It just seems like you can depict mood shifts so well!! I don't know how to explain it but reading them is always so riveting, whether it's a scene that is super comedic, dramatic, tragic, heartwarming, or a mix.
How do you plan out your comics and come up with such wonderful ideas! And do you have any advice on getting into comic-making or storytelling in general? Thank you!!
Ahhhhhh thank you!! I'm so happy you like the storytelling!
I don't feel qualified to give advice because I'm literally just vibing but I can tell you what I do? So mind, what I'm about to say is what works for a beginner self-taught fanartist.
I almost never come up with stories/ideas with the intention of making a comic. I'd say 99% of the time I'm just thinking about my favourite characters, happen to land on an idea I like well enough, and think 'oh I think other people might like this as well'.
Usually the ideas are a scene or a single sentence premise. Most often, it's 'would it be [funny/tragic/awkward] if this happened', or an emotionally intense moment, such as character A holding B while they bleed out. So if I like the premise/scene well enough I start building around it - how did the characters get to this point?
Once I've formulated a story that works well enough on its own (it's at least got a set-up and a punchline), I test it by running it through my head repeatedly and checking that it still elicits the intended emotional reponse. Say, if I literally felt a pang of pain in my heart in first time I thought about the idea, do I still feel the same sadness after playing the scene in my head for the 15th time? If I couldn't help but chuckle the first time round, does it still make me giddy when I think about it, three weeks later? Most ideas die here.
If I'm confident enough that the idea is emotionally effective, I'll start planning the panels and dialogue. At this point I'll usually have at least 70% of the dialogue planned out and memorized word for word because it's been playing inside my head repeatedly. The rest usually comes from having to add in transition panels because it wasn't obvious that the audience needed additional information between one scene and the next when it wasn't on paper yet.
I've got a long way to go in terms of panelling effectively but using references is definitely the way to go. I definitely have Haikyuu open in a tab when I'm looking for ideas. Generally I just make sure to allocate more page space when something signficiant is happpening/being said. Also, more panels when you're trying to slow down the pace of the story (e.g. important heart-to-heart between characters), less when the opposite applies (e.g. time passing).
The last thing to think about when making comics is modal affordance! As in, what is the medium of 'comics' able to do that illustrations, animation, and text can't? And then use this to your advantage! For example, it's harder to depict a whole conversation or a series of different actions with a single illustration. In animation, there's no point having multiple characters saying or doing things at the same time, because the audience won't be able to catch it all, whereas several conversations can happen in one single comic panel, and you can add as many character shinanegans in the background as you like. In text, if you want the audience to know something exists, you must necessarily describe it - which means it's easier to hide a chekov's gun in the background in visual mediums.
