Missed Friday’s post again.

Things are going well with the work on my graphic novel, Payday, though it’s slow-going. Not because I’m not moving along. There are some things I’m drawing that do take some time, but there are two factors that are impeding faster progress. One being my schedule. I draw for an hour and change every weekday morning, and sometimes on the weekend, depending on what other projects I want to work on.

The second thing that slows me down is my drawing hand.  My thumb goes numb when I draw for 5-10 minutes. I stretch constantly, relax as much as possible, and have started to concentrate on not pressing too hard on the paper but instead let the sketching darken the lines for me. Unfortunately, my hand continues to hurt while I draw.

I’m not really sure what to do about this.

I finished page 10 and am finishing up page 11. I have one more panel to go, then I finish up some character things in the next couple pages before hitting the setup of the main part of the plot.

As I was drawing a page today, I was reminded about some thoughts I’ve had about timing in comics. I’ve had these ideas for a while and always meant to write them out, and I guess now is as good a time as any.

I was looking at the page and on it I have a number of repeating images, a technique that is used to imply a slow passage of time. I also remembered that Frank Miller once said that he likes to try to trick the reader into slowing down their reading pace by charming their eye, either by giving them additional things to look at or by giving them a really interesting/attractive/eye-catching drawing. Thus, we have two different approaches to reading time: perception and reading pace.

I don’t like to say someone can’t do something, but to make a generality, it’s very difficult to force a reader to slow down the pace of their reading. A person will read at whatever pace they want to, regardless of what you want them to do and the trickery you use to try and accomplish such a feat. It can be done, sure, but I think it’s usually by way of too much information or making a scene difficult to get through, at least in my experience.

So if a reader will read at whatever pace they want to, does that mean the artist should do away with the details, nuances, subtleties, etc. that make up their drawings? Absolutely not. The reader will look at the picture and, no matter how long they linger, whether for long moments or not long at all, the elements of the picture will convey a message as a whole and that whole is communicated to the reader. Hopefully, the original intention of the drawing will be perceived by the reader. If you change the elements by taking away or altering, the drawing will then be perceived differently.

But I digress…

Since it is more difficult to force a reader to slow down their reading pace, we should really look at the perception of time because, no matter how fast or slow a reader reads, they are still taking in the information displayed on the page. Therefore, whatever and however you communicate your message will hopefully be perceived by the reader as accurately as possible, depending on how clear, vague, ambiguous, or abstract the elements are on the page. It’s easier to influence the reader’s perception of time rather than make the reader change their reading pace. In this way, if the reader reads through a scene quickly, but your panels suggest that time is moving very slowly, then at least that comes across to the reader as they’re plowing through the scene.

For instance, the repeating images technique: repeating images, with perhaps slight alterations, suggests that time is moving very slowly, which can increase drama, suspense, or something else along those lines. Repeating images that are copied and pasted can convey not only a very slow passage of time but also the suspension of time – a pause. A reader can plow through these panels and still understand the sense of time that is being conveyed.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a panel showing Character A punching Character B that is followed by Character A barreling through two other characters three feet away show a leap in time; the action skips of Character B’s fall to the ground, Character A’s advancement into more enemies, and his initial engagement into said enemies. A fast-paced action scene like this can be read slowly by the reader, but the reader will still get the sense that time seems to be moving very fast.

I think more about the perception of time rather than reading time. The perception of time deals more with the pacing of the story and enhancement of a scene, whereas attempting to control reading time doesn’t necessarily do much for the story’s pace or a scene’s enhancement. I let the reader read at whatever pace he or she wants. As long as they understand what it is I’m trying to convey, then I’ve done my job.

Being anal retentive, a technique-head, and needing to have a good method in place for comic page post-production, I’ve searched the Internet for as much information regarding comic book pages sizes and reduction methods. I’m sure a comprehensive guide is out there, but I’ve been doing this for years and I haven’t found one that is definitive, at least for me.

After doing yet more research and some calculations (with the assistance of, yes, a calculator and Photoshop CS), I’ve come up with a process that I can actually use to reduce my comic pages so that they meet today’s standard specifications… I think. All measurements below are in inches.

ARTWORK:
Paper size: 11×17
Full bleed dimensions: 10×15
Safe picture/text area: 9×13.5

REDUCTION AND PRINTING:
Standard trim size: 6.875×10.5
Standard print size, after trim: 6.625×10.25
Safe picture/text area, print size: 6×9

Comics are generally printed in a 2×3 ratio, but not exactly, and not always. For ease of use, we’ll be sticking with a 2×3 ratio and make adjustments if/when we need to.

1. Scan your 11×17 page. I have an oversized, 12×17 flatbed by Microtek, but I did used to use an 8.5×11 to scan in large pages and then spliced them together in Photoshop.

2. Once you’ve cleaned up your scan (another post) and have it looking the way you want, save it as a master copy.

3. In Photoshop, or some other comparable application, reduce the canvas size to 10.5×15.75. This makes the page dimensions a perfect 2×3 ratio at a good-sized scale that will result in having our safe area come out to a near-perfect – if not perfect (at least to the eye) 6×9 in the end.

4. Now, reduce the image size by changing the height to 10.5. This will (in Photoshop CS, at least) change the width to 7. If you are using another application, or a higher version of Photoshop, the scaling might be different.

5. Reduce the canvas size by changing the width to 6.875.

This process gives you the page size of 6.875×10.5, which is the size you’ll need to use when going to print. These dimensions will allow you to have full bleed pages, meaning that you can have images running off the edge of the page. The printer will trim off what they need to, depending on a page being on the right or left (if necessary), resulting in a 6.625×10.25 standard comic book size with a safe 6×9 area.

For this method, I’ve recorded this process as an Action in Photoshop. This way, I don’t have to think about it after Step 2.

Now, if you’re going to be printing a trade paperback book, then you have some leeway. You can choose to have this printed at standard comic book size (which is a good size), or at different size. If you choose to go with a different size, then you’ll need to figure out what size you’re printing at, then add 0.25 to the width and height of the print size. This way, you’ll get your trim size.

For instance, let’s say you want to print a 6×9 sized comic. This means your trim size will need to be 6.25×9.25. In Step 4 above, you’ll need to change either the width to 6.25 (giving a height of 9.375) or height to 9.25 (giving a width of 6.167). Then, in Step 5, you’ll need to change either the width to 6.25 or height to 9.25, depending on how you completed Step 4.

If you want to have a print safe area that is larger or smaller than a perfect 6×9 size, then in Step 3, change the canvas size to a different 2×3 ratio. The larger the ratio, the smaller your safe area; the smaller the ratio, the larger your safe area.

For example, 11×16.5 is a 2×3 ratio. After reduction, your print safe area will be about 5.73×8.6. 10×15 is also a 2×3 ratio, and after reduction, your print safe area will pretty much be 6.3125×9.46875.

Now, these may seem like minute difference, but beware that if your print safe area is too small, there will be a lot of room between it and the edge of the page, so you you don’t have artwork that bleeds to the edge, that’s a lot of blank space. The opposite is true, too; if your print safe area is too large, there will be less room between it and the edge. In this scenario, depending on how large the print safe area is, you’ll either have too little space, you run the risk of having the artwork within the safe area getting cut off (if the safe area is too large), and you really run the risk of having the artwork on the inside of the pages get lost in the binding (DC’s reprint of V For Vendetta comes to mind).

This is why I like to stick with 6×9. There’s a good amount of space between it and the edge of the paper, there’s still room for bleeding art, and chances are artwork won’t get lost in the binding.

Hopefully this has been helpful to anyone who reads this. If you have a different method and want to share, or if you find that the information I’ve outlined here is a bit off, let me know so I can go back and re-examine it.