Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics
#175 P DTP:204 Page:152
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(Text)
Creative Process
Before I begin drawing a comic strip, I start by writing a complete
script. Script ideas come from various places—things I’ve seen,
people I’ve talked to, thoughts that just randomly pop into my head. I
work through several drafts, honing the joke until it flows in a natural
way that acts to set up the punch line but is also, hopefully, fun to
read. I then break up the script into panels based on how much text
is contained and how I want the dialogue to flow. Sometimes I’ll even
do a few thumbnail sketches to try out various layouts in order to
help figure that out.
Once that’s decided, I start drawing the comic. I draw out all the
panels first. The panels are usually done in equal widths based on
a grid system—usually one, two, three, four, or five columns. Then, I
loosely sketch in approximately where I want the art to go so I know
where I’ll need to put my lettering. Using a ruler, I pencil in guides
so that my text can have even leading, and then I letter the comic in
pencil. Once I know where all the text is going to go, I begin the real
process of drawing and fleshing out the comic.
I start off loose, getting the basic shapes in and then refine, refine,
refine, until the drawing is very tight. When that’s completed, I look at
the entire comic and give it a read to see how it flows. Often at this
stage, I’ll tweak the dialogue further until it feels right. At this point,
the comic is essentially done and all I have left to do is ink it and
finalize the text. For some comics, I have repeating panels where the
art is exactly the same or only slightly altered. In those instances, I’ll
draw and ink the first panel unlettered and make photocopies of it,
which I then paste down on the page. Then I’ll letter the entire comic.
For drawing, I use mechanical pencils with 0.5 HB lead. For inking,
I use Micron pens and Zig Writer pens. The paper used is two-ply
Bristol board.
The Summer of Full Release started off as an assignment from
an editor at New York Press for its annual summer issue themed,
appropriately enough, “The Summer of Full Release.” I wrote and
edited a full script for this comic before thinking about how it would
Neil Swaab
152
N
eil Swaab is a New York–based illustrator,
designer, cartoonist, writer, and animator. His
weekly alternative comic strip, Rehabilitating
Mr. Wiggles, has been published in newspapers and
magazines around the world for the past ten years and
has been published in books in America, Italy, and Rus-
sia. As a designer, he’s art directed many best-selling
children’s books and young adult novels for HarperCollins
Publishers, and as an animator, he’s created and drawn
characters and key frame art for the first season of the
show Superjail! for Adult Swim and the pilot of Ugly Amer-
icans for Comedy Central. Swaab is also an instructor at
Parsons The New School for Design, where he teaches in
the illustration department. The Society of Illustrators, Print
magazine, Communication Arts, and American Illustration
have recognized his work.
Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics
#175 P DTP:204 Page:152
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120-176_19413.indd 152 5/26/10 9:14:54 AM
Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics
#175 P DTP:204 Page:153
(RAY)
120-176_19413.indd 153 5/26/10 9:03:6 AM
(Text)
Creative Process
Before I begin drawing a comic strip, I start by writing a complete
script. Script ideas come from various places—things I’ve seen,
people I’ve talked to, thoughts that just randomly pop into my head. I
work through several drafts, honing the joke until it flows in a natural
way that acts to set up the punch line but is also, hopefully, fun to
read. I then break up the script into panels based on how much text
is contained and how I want the dialogue to flow. Sometimes I’ll even
do a few thumbnail sketches to try out various layouts in order to
help figure that out.
Once that’s decided, I start drawing the comic. I draw out all the
panels first. The panels are usually done in equal widths based on
a grid system—usually one, two, three, four, or five columns. Then, I
loosely sketch in approximately where I want the art to go so I know
where I’ll need to put my lettering. Using a ruler, I pencil in guides
so that my text can have even leading, and then I letter the comic in
pencil. Once I know where all the text is going to go, I begin the real
process of drawing and fleshing out the comic.
I start off loose, getting the basic shapes in and then refine, refine,
refine, until the drawing is very tight. When that’s completed, I look at
the entire comic and give it a read to see how it flows. Often at this
stage, I’ll tweak the dialogue further until it feels right. At this point,
the comic is essentially done and all I have left to do is ink it and
finalize the text. For some comics, I have repeating panels where the
art is exactly the same or only slightly altered. In those instances, I’ll
draw and ink the first panel unlettered and make photocopies of it,
which I then paste down on the page. Then I’ll letter the entire comic.
For drawing, I use mechanical pencils with 0.5 HB lead. For inking,
I use Micron pens and Zig Writer pens. The paper used is two-ply
Bristol board.
The Summer of Full Release started off as an assignment from
an editor at New York Press for its annual summer issue themed,
appropriately enough, “The Summer of Full Release.” I wrote and
edited a full script for this comic before thinking about how it would
look visually. Once I knew what the script was, I did a variety of
thumbnails to figure out the composition of the page as well as the
individual panels. I then started the actual comic by gridding out my
page into three columns and then drawing the sixteen panel borders
to divide the page. I roughly blocked in the drawing and then lettered
the entire comic in pencil so I could make sure there was enough
room for all the text. In certain instances, I cut and altered text to
fit the space allowed. When that was completed, I penciled in the
drawing, starting loosely and then tightening and refining until it was
how I envisioned it. When that was all completed, I inked the comic
and scanned it gray scale into Photoshop. I used channels to sepa-
rate the black line art from the white page by doing the following: In
the Channels palette, I selected Load Channels As Selection. In the
main menu up top, I selected Select > inverse in the Layers palette, I
selected Create a New Layer. In the main menu, I selected Edit > Fill. I
filled the new layer with black and deleted the original background.
I then converted the document to CMYK and left the line art layer
untouched, coloring art below it on separate layers using the fill and
pencil tools. The title of the comic was then set using a font in Photo-
shop. When the art was all finished, I flattened the file and saved it
as a TIFF file to send to the editor.
Title: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles
Client: Various newspapers and magazines, 2007 and 2008
Media: Ink on paper
Title: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles: The Summer of Full Release
Client: New York Press, 2003
Neil Swaab
153
Neil Swaab
Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics
#175 P DTP:204 Page:153
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120-176_19413.indd 153 5/26/10 8:56:45 AM
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