So my process is to create something called thumbnails, and that means that I have an idea of the story in my head. I can sort of see the characters in their environment, whatever it is. And then the first thing I put on the page still looks like a comic, so I’m drawing the squares, the boxes, the panels, and then I’m putting little stick figures inside of those. And then their dialogue is drawn in word balloons that’s coming out of their mouths. And so, I mean, we’re talking rough, very, very, quick.
But it’s still look like what it’s going to look like eventually. It’s a blueprint. So the reason I like to do that is because so much of what happens in a comic is in the quiet space. A lot of it’s in the body language. A lot of it’s just in the pauses that the characters do when they’re talking to each other. So making a thumbnail means that I get to see that whole exchange. I get to see the whole thing right away. And so that’s what I give to my editor.
I give her 250 pages of thumbnails, and we edit from that stage, and then once we’re both happy with it, I start working up the pages on better paper. It’s called Bristol Board. And I do my pencils with like just a cheapo retractable pencil from Staples. And then I ink over the pencils with a brush in India ink, waterproof. And then when the inks are done I scan them into a computer. And then the colorist puts the colors in. I don’t do my colors. That’s the only part of this that I don’t do myself.
Colors are all digital, done in PhotoShop. And then the files get sent to the printer in Asia, and then it all comes back to me. And it’s kind of cool ‘cause I feel like when it all gets assembled, I get to see it myself for the first time. And it’s kind of like magic that way, and I’m like, “Oh, yeah. I did write that story. I did draw all those pictures, but look at it. Look at it. Look, it’s so pretty.” So it’s always gratifying to see your book for the first time in your hands.
