One of the best parts of writing a graphic novel is getting to see your words illustrated. Comic book style illustration is a multi-step process that begins with a written script, which the artist uses to make a pencil sketch of the scene. The pencil sketch is then inked and shaded, after which it is colored. Finally, the letterer adds the dialogue balloons and sound effects. 

Today we're going to examine how it all comes together for Page 14 of the graphic novel.  

Panel One

Establishing shot. Big panel that takes up full page width and two-thirds of its length. We’re in the Squadron’s Female Locker Room. It looks like a high-end fitness center locker room with a long wooden bench running between rows of red-white-and-blue painted lockers. 

STILETTO is in the foreground, sitting on the bench, fully dressed except she is still lacing up her left thigh-high boot. The other boot is already laced up. There’s a wet towel laying on the tiled floor nearby. Her hair is wet.

AURORA, slightly behind and left of STILETTO, is fully dressed except for her right arm. She is still pulling her latex opera glove onto that hand. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a towel. There’s a pink fuzzy bathrobe on the bench near her.

DR QUANTUM is behind and to the right of AURORA. She is fully dressed already and floating in the air, cross-legged. She has a laptop on her crossed legs.

1.       AURORA CAPTION: Being part of the Star-Spangled Squadron means being part of a TEAM of AMAZiNG women. 

2.       AURORA CAPTION: I LOVE them. 

3.       DR QUANTUM: Are you two READY yet? 

4.       DR QUANTUM: Was hoping we’d have time for a BITE before Hawkins YELLS at us.

5.       AURORA: I just need to blow dry. But EDWiNA SCiSSORHANDS over there is still lacing up her BOOTS.

6.       DR QUANTUM: I don’t know how she does ANYTHiNG with those razor nails.

7.       STILETTO: It could be worse. I could be a FLYiNG FLASHLiGHT.

Panel Two

Close-up on DR QUANTUM. She has her hand over her mouth to hide her smile. 

8.       SFX: Tee-hee

Panel Three

Close-up on AURORA. She has her head cocked and looks confused.

9.       AURORA: Wait. Are you talking about ME? 

10.    AURORA: That’s not funny!

Panel Four

Close-up on STILETTO. She’s admiring her nails.

11.    STILETTO: You’re right. 

12.    STILETTO: I should have said FLYiNG FLESHLiGHT. 

13.    STILETTO: THAT would have been funny.

14.    AURORA CAPTION: OK, so sometimes it’s more LOVE-HATE.

You be wondering why all the "i" are in lower case in uppercase words but not for uppercase "I" as in "I am." It's because in comic lettering, a different "I" is used for the pronoun to ease readability. Writing the script this way enables the letterer to easily cut and paste the script. 

Here's how Mel Joy illustrated the script. Mel Joy works digitally, so in her case "pencils" actually refers to the first sketch on her digital sketchpad.  This is, by comic book standards, a relatively simple page with just four pages. It's just some dialogue of Stiletto making fun of Aurora while Dr Quantum laughs. 

But Mel Joy is very good at what she does, so she takes advantage of the framing of the scene to add depth and humor. See how Stiletto is in the top frame, but the heels of her boots extend towards the bottom two frames, where Dr Quantum and Aurora are in portrait? It's illustrated such that Stiletto's right foot is almost resting on Dr Quantum's head, while her left foot seems poised to stomp on Aurora's head. The characters, obviously, don't know they're in comic book frames, but we as the reader see the whole scene at once. (Those of you who have read Volume I can also see this sort of artistry at work on the very last page, with Stiletto gazing through the panel at American Eagle and his wife.)

Here's how Mel Joy transformed the pencils into inks.

The inked page was then colored by colorist Rohvel Yumul.  Rohvel uses digital coloring and has worked extensively with Mel Joy. Different artists have different styles of inks, and a colorist needs to adjust his style accordingly. When working with Mel Joy, Rohvel uses a light touch that emphasizes rather than paints over her fine lines.
 

When I first started working on comics, my mentor David Campiti told me that lettering is what separates an amateur comic from a professional comic, and recommended I hire the best letterer I could find. That turned out to be Kathryn Renta, a veteran with 20 years of experience in the industry. Below you can see how the image looks after she's added the speech balloons and captions. Notice how she manages to place all of the speech balloons in such a manner that the flow of conversation is preserved while at the same time ensuring that the balloons only fall on "dead space" in the image.

I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough of "how the sausage gets made." This is only the second graphic novel I've written, so I am myself still learning the trade. I cannot tell you how many pages of my first script were sent back as "undrawable"! Fortunately, I have had excellent mentorship from David, who has teamed me up with top-tier professionals.  

Let's finish off today's update with another daily poll....!