Hurt!: Page 1, Thumbnail Comic Book Art

Now we have a nicely planned page, and can see where the text goes and how much space we need for it, and also have a feel for what each frame will look like. It's still planning at this stage and far from the graceful dramatic art we're used to seeing in comic books, but this won't generally be seen by anyone except the artist and maybe the editor and writer. Next step is to sit down with a pencil and clean it up nicely.

Page 1:
Script
All thumbnails
Pencils (coming soon)

Page 2:
Script (coming soon)

Hurt!: Page 1, Planning Comic Book Art with Thumbnails

Thumbnails are a great way to plan out your page layout. They're small and simple so you can crank out a few of them in a matter of minutes. This lets you try out some dramatically different variations to see what works best for you.

The first one above is simple and straight forward. The frames are equal in size, which may seem boring by modern comic book standards, but it offers a lot as far as pacing goes. The nice big frames allow for a lot of space for detail so that's an appealing factor. The repetition also ties the 3 frames together and implies continuity between them.

The second takes a different approach. The angle on the city is much higher up. This is a great image, and the possibilities are exciting with such a dramatic angle. The problem with it is that Table Mountain is seldom seen from that angle, and it's not as recognizable even to the folks who actually live there.

The third is not too different from the first but the frames are used as tension building device.... The outlines grow thicker and more erratic as the story progresses. With a comic book this idea seems cool, but in practice it might be over kill.

Have a look at the comic book script for this page, and have a look at the thumbnail I chose.