I've been quietly working on a graphic novel since February. It is currently at 13 pages, with a target of 60-100. What follows are a handful of rules to guide its creation.
Words are such a pain. They take me an eternity to come up with, and then about as long to render into a composition in a way that I like. 100%-visual storytelling has its own set of challenges, but they are more interesting to me.
Because I own this printer and I like having a physical prototype, AND I still have a refill for this bad boy even after years of intermittent use. Practically, it just means I'm limited to grayscale (but I do print on cream paper).
I've found that obsessing about the reader or the readability of my work is a good way to stifle my creativity and motivation. I'm making something that I think is interesting to read. Good art is not made in excessive anticipation of someone else's feelings.
This is not hard to do. Drawing is a challenge, panel and page composition are challenges, plot development and worldbuilding are challenges. I guess the idea here is to lean into discomfort and to not shy away from the hard stuff.
Usually towards the end of a work of long-form, worldbuilding fiction, the author decides to explain, in detail, why the world they've created is the way it is. And sometimes it really enhances the work (...sometimes). But once the explanations start rolling in, the reader's theories get cleared out, and the work is a little less theirs. What this means for my project is: leave loose ends, don't explain everything.
There's nothing more boring than a human.
That's obviously not true and I love a good drama, but there are definitely more human stories than non-human stories. It's high time for some stories that are just about creatures/gods/robots*.
* I reserve the right to anthropomorphize everything.The flow of a page's panels is not always straightforward. This is most often due to poor planning on the side of the illustrator. But sometimes a drawing is really good, and moreso it is really good at this exact size and even moreso I don't want to redraw it at a different size, so... the rest of the composition is going to pay for it (the price being readability).
I have a specific strategy for these areas. It's hard to explain, but I basically want to fill them with abstract panels that support the theme of the page or plot.
* this is also my chess strategy, where I make erratic moves in the beginning of the game in the hopes of confusing my opponent. It works about one out of every ten times, and is substantially better suited to making art.Good work is rarely made in a vacuum. I am relying on my network of illustrator and non-illustrator friends alike to point out things I can't see and help me make something worth reading. I want to solicit critiques and make adjustments accordingly, while keeping in mind that It's OK To Challenge The Reader.
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