The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel

by Gertler, Nat; Lieber, Steve

• ISBN13: 9781592572335
• ISBN10: 1592572332
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-06
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.

Summary

You're no idiot, of course. You know that the graphic novel is the hot medium for all sorts of stories -- using pictures and words to portray everything from personal tales to action epics. It's an art form as limitless as your imagination -- so where do you begin? The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel is for you -- whether you want to write, draw, or do it all yourself. It shows you exactly how to develop your concept into a story, a story into a script, and a script into a completely drawn graphic novel prepared for publication. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Nat Gertler is an acclaimed comic book editor, educator, and graphic novel industry expert. His serialized graphic novel, The Factor, was nominated for an Eisner Award, and his publishing imprint, About Comics, has released works by several New York Times bestselling authors. He is the author of seven Complete Idiot's Guides books.

Steve Lieber is an award-wining graphic artist who has professionally drawn Conan, Buffy, Superman, Star Trek, and Batman comics. Lieber recently completed work on a sequel to the graphic novel, Road To Perdition, which was the source for the 2003 Academy Award-winning film by the same name.

Table of Contents

Planning Your Novel	p. 1
The Novel World of Graphic Novels	p. 3
What's a Graphic Novel? (The Short Answer)	p. 4
Why a Graphic Novel	p. 4
Growing the Graphic Novel	p. 8
How Big Is Big?	p. 12
What's a Graphic Novel? (The Long Answer)	p. 13
What's Your Goal?	p. 15
For Money or for the Monet	p. 15
For Yourself or an Audience?	p. 19
Lone Hero or Superteam?	p. 19
One Big Book or a Plethora of Pamphlets?	p. 22
Don't Be a Goalie	p. 23
Creating a Creative Team Creatively	p. 25
Typical Titanic Team Members	p. 25
Collaborate Uniquely, Like Others	p. 29
Rating Goodness? Gracious!	p. 30
Creative Crew, Where Are You?	p. 34
The Benefits of Paying People	p. 35
Doing Right with Rights	p. 36
Doling Out Dollars	p. 37
What's It All About?	p. 39
Genres Are Generally Germaine	p. 39
Make a Theme-Filled Cupcake	p. 44
The Concept of Concept	p. 46
The Writer's Art	p. 49
Who, Why, and Huh? Interesting People and Events	p. 51
Who Are These Characters?	p. 51
Revealing Characters You Never Vealed	p. 54
Why Should Anyone Care?	p. 56
Example Characters: The Big Con	p. 58
What, Where, When, and Whatchamacallit?	p. 61
You're Nowhere Without a Place	p. 61
Time for Time	p. 63
Paperize It	p. 64
Plot-Checkin' Fricassee	p. 65
Pile On the Problems	p. 66
Combinations and Permutations	p. 67
Take Out the Garbage!	p. 68
Planning the Panels	p. 69
Pacing to the Pages	p. 69
Script Style: Every Which Way but Wrong	p. 70
Breaking the Page Window Is a Pane	p. 73
Set Your Scene	p. 76
Be a Remote-Control Cameraman	p. 78
Angles That Work Angelically	p. 79
How Loose Is Too Loose, Lautrec?	p. 80
Delicious Dialog	p. 83
Dallying with Dialog	p. 83
Captions Courageous	p. 88
Sounds Effective	p. 88
Mark Your Words	p. 89
A Bit of The Big Con: Script	p. 93
Putting It in Pencil	p. 103
Designing Your Characters	p. 105
Reading Is Fundamental	p. 105
Start at the Head	p. 106
Body Building	p. 109
Dressing for Success	p. 110
Your Work, It's Fantastic!	p. 111
Put It All Together	p. 113
Places, Things, and Other Dead Nouns	p. 115
Read That Script Again	p. 115
If You're Sticking Around	p. 117
Getting Real	p. 118
Making Stuff Up	p. 119
Getting Your Props	p. 121
No Sheet, Sherlock	p. 122
Decrypt the Script	p. 123
Different Sorts of Scripts	p. 123
Read Like a Writer	p. 124
Pick a Theme	p. 125
Using the Theme	p. 126
Motifs	p. 130
Harm Reduction	p. 132
Lovely Layouts	p. 135
Thumbs Up	p. 135
Left to Right, Top to Bottom	p. 137
Calling the Shots	p. 139
The Shape of Things to Come	p. 140
Timing	p. 142
Composition	p. 143
What If They Don't Fit Together?	p. 143
The Little Version of The Big Con	p. 144
Render for Real	p. 147
Some Art Supplies You Need	p. 147
Assembling Reference Materials	p. 152
Blowing Up Your Thumbs	p. 157
Letting Your Live Art Bleed	p. 158
Drawing for Graphic Novels	p. 161
What the Job Requires	p. 161
How to Learn to Draw	p. 162
Depth	p. 165
Acting Out: Finding the Right Gesture	p. 167
Let There Be Light	p. 171
Handing Off the Penciled Pages	p. 172
Stylize Yourself-Finding Your Voice	p. 175
Looking Back at Style	p. 175
Factors That Influence Style	p. 180
Taking Control of the Process	p. 181
Experiments Are Free	p. 184
A Bit of The Big Con: The Penciled Pages	p. 189
Polishing the Pages	p. 199
Old-Fangled Letterin'	p. 201
Tool Time	p. 202
Drawing the Alphabet	p. 204
Placing Them on the Board	p. 207
Balloons and Boxes	p. 208
Sound Effects and Clever Lettering Tricks	p. 209
Read What You Can About It	p. 211
Inking the Art	p. 213
Which Way to Work?	p. 213
Your Job, Should You Choose to Accept It	p. 214
Ways to Get Better	p. 215
Tool Time	p. 216
Changing the Pencils	p. 219
Ways to Ink	p. 220
Transitions and Textures	p. 222
Inking for Color or Black and White	p. 223
Books on Drawing with Ink	p. 223
A Bit of The Big Con: The Inked Pages	p. 225
New-Fangled Letterin'	p. 235
Lettere Requirements	p. 236
Founts of Fonts	p. 236
Pushing the Page In	p. 237
Putting the Text in Context	p. 238
Blowing Up Balloons	p. 240
Colors Besides Black and White	p. 245
Four Colors? Not Millions?	p. 246
Don't Paint Yourself into a Corner	p. 246
Showing Light and Shade	p. 248
Pick Your Crayons Carefully	p. 249
Colorful Computer	p. 250
Putting the Page in Place	p. 250
Flatting: Bad for Tires, Good for Colors	p. 252
Surrendering to Rendering	p. 253
Bring Out Your Book	p. 257
Pretty Please Publish Me!	p. 259
Pitching in the Strike Zone	p. 259
Picking Publishers to Pitch	p. 261
Convention Contention	p. 263
Honor an Offer?	p. 263
Right and Wrong Rights Deals	p. 266
Releasing on the Cheap	p. 269
Limiting Losses Rather Than Gathering Gains	p. 269
Photocopicomics	p. 270
Online Outlets	p. 273
Print-on-Polite-Request	p. 275
Put It Out Yourself: Printing	p. 279
A Single Spurt or Slowly Serialized?	p. 279
Pick a Perfect Printer	p. 281
Pre-Press with Success	p. 284
The Proof Is in the Proof	p. 286
Put It Out Yourself: Distribution	p. 289
Diamond: A Gem of an Operation	p. 290
Direct Distributors on Parade	p. 292
Dealing with Dealers	p. 294
Get Yourshelf in Bookstores	p. 295
Promoting and Publicizing	p. 299
Press. Release. Repeat	p. 299
Adding Ads	p. 304
The Conventions of Conventions	p. 304
Autographing Like a Superstar	p. 306
Appendixes
Graphic Novel Publishers	p. 309
Graphic Novel Conventions	p. 313
Other Resources for Graphic Novelists	p. 315
Index	p. 319
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.