Art Post 9 Roles In Comic Book Creation

When I first started learning about how comics are made, I learned that popular weekly comic books, such as DC and Marvel comics, are worked on by multiple people. The team usually consists of: a writer, a penciller, an inker, a colorist, a letterer, and an editor.

If you would like to learn more, I can point you to The DC Comics Guide series. There are many how-to-draw-comics guides out there, but it’s important for a beginner to get information from reputable resources instead of random things on the internet. There might be other quality books out there, but these are the only ones I have personally found and okay’d thus far. The DC series contains: Writing Comics, Pencilling Comics, Inking Comics, Coloring and Lettering Comics, and Digitally Drawing Comics. All were published in 2013.

Of course, comic books can also be self-published and written and illustrated by one individual. Or, a smaller team where people take on multiple jobs. For example, an inker can also be a colorist. Some indie graphic novels are produced like this.

It’s important to understand this– that producing a comic book takes a lot of hard work and time. In the case of some comics, it takes multiple people, including editors and others who perform other jobs in the production. If you are one person, it can feel overwhelming. But like anything else, with practice and experience, eventually it gets easier and you can do it faster. It’s also important that not every scene has to be perfect, or that you have to have an advanced skill level to start. The best way to learn is to do.

For a long time in my twenties, I felt like a failure and overwhelmed because I couldn’t produce something that looked like a Catwoman comic right away. When in reality, weekly comic issues could be written by a 36 year old woman, pencilled by a 45 year old woman, inked by a 58 year old man, and lettered by a 32 year old woman.

So it was enlightening to learn how much work and hours professionals put into a single 21 page comic. There are some comic book artists who might both pencil and ink their full length graphic novel, and this is noted and respected among other professionals.

There is probably a lot more information out there, but this is what I have learned so far. As much as I prefer the independent route, I have not ruled out working with others in the future, and it has been helpful to get a general feel for the industry. The world of comics/graphic novels/sequential art includes many amazing artists who put out inspiring work and I guess it’s good feeling to be immersed in that sometimes?

There are times when I doubt myself, if I really want to do this or not, or life becomes too busy and I have to ignore art. But sometimes seeing others’ work or getting strokes of my own inspiration always makes me say, I want to be doing that!