I'm trying to get into comic writing and have a random question: How many panels is too few for an issue. My first issue looks like it's going to hit in 125 range for panels, and if the average panel per page is about 5, then this puts me in the 25 page range. I know that 28 pages is what a lot of serials hit (correct me if I'm wrong), so is 125 too few panels to stretch out across 28 pages, or do I really need to write more. I'm worried that I'm dragging out as it is, but adding any more story is really out of the question. If I go into the next part of my outline, the next stopping point would put me at probably the 48-64 page mark, which for a first issue isn't terrible, but I would rather keep them all uniform.

Also, would it be a cop out if I had a character profile at the end of each issue to let the reader on the inside of some aspects of the character that are not extremely important to the story, would be really awkward to add in the dialogue, but would help make a little more sense to the reader why some things happen?

Example: one of my characters was made by scientists to be the world's most powerful defensive being. He is made entirely of individual single celled organisms genetically structured to function as human brain cells. The cells think as a hive mind and function as one being. They are aquamarine in color due to chloroplasts that provide food for the cells. The genetic alterations to the cells have decreased the lifespan of the cells to only 5 minutes, but the cells can go through mitosis once every 30 seconds, keeping the creature alive indefinitely. The cells that are alive during the day create enough food, transferred during mitosis, to keep the cells alive during the night. The creature can only think as 1 being, and any cells that stray too far away from the central mass will lose connection with the hive mind and die out from lack of self preservation. If any part of the cells come in contact with a human, they can interact with that human's brain causing that human to either conjure up old memories, see only what the creature wants you to see, or even become linked with other humans in contact with the creature. lastly, the creature was designed to be purely defensive, and it won't use any of its power unless directed to do so or if ever it feels under attack.

Some of that I can add in through dialogue, some of it is just flavor, and some of it the character probably won't ever know. Some of it is pretty important to the story and can be told through dialogue, but not very easily given what the characters really know about him, and would most likely be told straight forward by the creature. I know that it is pretty common to add little character bios after issues to make them seem longer, and I was just wondering what you guys thought about them.

Well, I'm something of a pre-pro, so I will offer my take and you decide if you want it.


Script out pages, not panels. Your artist is going to be composing pages and using the panels to play against each other.

Also, you're going to want to deliver something special when your readers turn the page (at least some of the time) so you want to pace your panels to give a reveal when you turn the page.

Honestly though, there's no mark to hit for panels in a comic. There's just a mark for story. Make sure whatever number of pages you hit, that you have told a good chapter (if that's what you're doing).

The comic format allows a lot of freedom to you, so just make sure you're telling your story in the way you want and don't worry about hitting artificial goals with pages and panels...

I hope this helps.


As for the character profile... it's a toss-up. I think you want to reveal as much through the story as possible and let people discover the details of the character... but maybe your plot will be slowed down too much by that and a profile would let readers in on your secrets.

So personally, I say no profiles and let the story reveal what you want people to know about the character. Anything more and you take some of the mystery out of people getting to know a new character...

Addendum: you don't have to reveal everything you want to reveal through dialogue. Think visually about how you could reveal that stuff about the character. If your artist does good work, the readers will start to understand the nature of the character without you having to spend time on extra exposition.



Also, if any of this seems useful to you and you have more questions, feel free to PM me about it.

Thank you jackstar for your help.

I am almost done with the latest draft of my issue 1 script, but I'm coming across 2 main hindrances: (1) I am not great with dialogue. I have my characters saying what needs to be said to progress the story, but I could use some help giving my characters a specific voice. I have an idea of what the voice should be, but it doesn't always come out. (2) I am not great with panel description. I can describe what I want the entire scene to look like, but I am not great at arranging panels and making the visuals flow from once panel to another. On top of that, I have no artist to help me visualize the scenes, and I can draw a good looking stick figure.

If anyone with a generous amount of free time wanted to help review and edit in these 2 areas, or even consider helping out with artwork, please contact me.

I'm going to be paying attention to this thread fairly closely. I have an idea for a mini-series, which I think is pretty great. Its mostly meant to be satirical of comics, but still runs into the same issues of pacing, and panels.

Keep on dropping the knowledge Jackstar!

I can't give too much advice, but I love the idea on a character page. I hate reading a back story of a character in small boxes on a page when really there is no point half the time, it'd be better if it was all together at the end or beginning.

I wish they did this in stories like AoA, where whenever a character shows up they tell their back story all over again. No point!

I think the character page is excellent.
I don't think you might want to give it all away at once, but giving out basic details and maybe adding more later on would be great. Something among the lines of the Dark Tower comics that we get stories related to the main arc at the end of each issue.

I am shooting for 6 issues in my story. The first issue focuses on the 2 main characters as they find and "tame" the character I mentioned above (Hive). I have found a decent way to add much of the information into the comic flow fairly well, in a flashback where one of the scientists working on him explains some of the details to a general. The scene turns out quite similarly to the opening of the movie Serenity where the doctor explains to Simon Tamm about the condition of River, but it's the bad guys that get better end of the deal in my story (I have an almost completed draft of the script that I am going to post soon to give more specifics).

Anyway, the first issue was going to spotlight Hive's character since he was the focus of the issue. The second issue will introduce a new character with an awesome powerful armored suit, and the spotlight will be on her and her suit's gadgets. The second and third issues we will learn some interesting information about one the 2 main characters from the first issue, so the third was going to spotlight him. The fourth issue we learn some really cool info about the main character, so we will spotlight him with all the knowledge about him. The fifth issue we meet an interesting villain for the first time, so we can spotlight him. And the last issue we find out that a possible main character does not die the way history was supposed to happen, so we will spotlight her. If I can find a cool way to get all of the information I want into the actual script, then I might do away with the profiles, but I kinda dig the idea and am cool with either way.

My first issue can now be seen in script form here. It is still pretty rough. My panel descriptions have been written during 2 different sittings, and some are very detailed while others are not, and my character dialogue is not completely consistent yet, but it is all there at least.

It would be great if a few of you could read it and give me some criticism on what you think. There are some sorta necessary boring parts, but I think I handled them pretty well with quickness and interesting visuals. Thanks to everyone who spends time to help, and also thanks to those who are just helping in spirit!

I read part of it.
I like the ancient feel to it since I feel like it's a time period that rarely gets explored in comics. I feel like you might have to be more descriptive with your panels. They are pretty straightforward, but I feel like they are missing some detail. I mean, if you are planning to illustrate it yourself, I imagine there is no problem. It's in your head so you should not have a problem if it's the way I said it is.
As far as the actual story goes, I didn't read the whole thing(it's 3 AM) but you might need some grammar work(read the first sentence) I can't comment on the actual story yet since I have not read the whole thing, but looks interesting so far.

The setting is actually post world war 4 (where ww3 was between humans and superhumans, and ww4 was where superhumans of like power fought against each other) in the year 3972. I'm glad you liked the ancient feel, though, because that is what the planet returns to. Every nation closes its borders, and begins to live in the way it did in ancient times, with a few exceptions. As far as grammar stuff goes, its still a very rough draft. One character has a very thick Irish accent mixed with some cockney in it, so I'm still working on what his dialect should be where the reader still understands what he is saying, and I'm still working on the voices of most of the other characters.