Editorial Process

A good editorial process is often missing in many comics publications.

A frequent problem is that many creators jump straight to final artwork before asking for editorial feedback, so even if an editor is able to give good feedback, it's already too late to do anything about it. As a result, there are many comics which suffer from poor storytelling and other common problems.

Breaking the production into stages will help to catch problems early, as it's painful to make changes when the final artwork is already done.

Over time, the Panelgraph project aims to develop such an editorial process. Here are some suggested stages that we can focus on at our editorial meetings:

• Story pitch (story outline and character designs). Look for suitable contributions at this stage.
• Thumbnails / storyboard (quick roughs that are not too painful to throw away and redo). Fix panelling problems, story flow and clarity issues at this stage.
• Pencilling and lettering. Clarity and continuity can be refined at this stage.
• Inking and colouring. Fix aesthetic issues.

It's better to sort out problems at the earlier stages, rather than near the end when you've already invested so much time and effort that there's not much wiggle room.