Evan Dorkin

New Comic About Making Comics (#4 in a series)

Added 2023-03-08 02:12:15 +0000 UTC

Use where applicable, obviously.

But honestly, too often it feels like there's a generic fallback position so many comics make in regards to setting and atmosphere, which has nothing to do with budget or logistics, as it does with film or radio drama. You don't need a rain machine, a fog machine, you don't need fake snow, you don't need to wait until the clouds are just right or fix it in post. We just assume "night" and "day" are generic background descriptions. Paying attention to weather conditions just to reflect life can add a little reality to a comic, even if the reader isn't paying strict attention. It alludes to a larger world, a truer world. Even if the weather doesn't affect plot, but allows for some change in visuals -- characters wearing weather-appropriate clothing, running to get into a house or building, something different for the artist or cartoonist to draw. Seasons change, weather changes, it's something you can change in your settings and backgrounds, subtly or forcefully. As plot or mood simply as a way to avoid being generic, and just filling pages the way everyone else does.

Weather will open up possibilities you haven't thought of -- reflections in rain puddles, body language, striking images, obstacles for characters to overcome, ways to help heroes escape or two people to meet. Like geography and physical objects in a fight scene, the more thought you put in, the more possibilities there are for improvisation, for inspiration and for just grounding your comics in a more realized world. Think about the weather.

Think about everything.