Fresh eyed posts.
A technique for figuring out what actually needs fixing in my comics once I’m out of the weeds.
One of my favorite parts of working on a long-running project is putting it away for a while, then coming back with fresh eyes.
I think Steven King talks about writing the entire first draft of a book and then putting it in a drawer and moving onto something entirely different before going back to it. He might write an entire first draft of a different novel. He might take out a previous first draft and do the revision pass on it. The point is it's been months before he will return to the draft he just put away and look at it again.
With me, and comics, that usually means opening a PDF version of the book as it stands in Preview on macOS and reading through it, trying to experience the book like someone who’s never seen it before. I’ll spot small beats that want to be added, others that need cutting, and places that aren’t working. When I’ve had enough distance, the reasons are usually obvious. That clarity only shows up after stepping out of the weeds. While I'm writing the first draft and drawing the first pages, I still have a million thoughts in my head like "What if this were drastically different? What if this character wasn't in this scene? What if? What if? What if?"
When it's all just in my head, it can bounce around forever. But once it's down on a page, especially once it's got a version of itself that's drawn, it's not a question of what the thing should be. I'm looking at the thing. It's gonna be something pretty close to this. What's the best version of this look like?
Since my comics are drawn in black and blue, I'll use the tools built into Preview to annotate my thoughts onto the PDF in red. That way I can skim the pages even at thumbnail size and immediately see where I’ve left notes. Then it’s just a matter of going through, one note at a time, and dealing with them.
Here are some examples of what I'm talking about, from Hello Robo, my current graphic novel project. If you're curious what this book is about, I've shared the pitch document I use when pitching to publishers with my Patreon supporters.
I share detailed breakdowns like this with my Patreon supporters each month, including full project PDFs and early looks at revisions in progress. Join my Patreon to see the unfinished work and learn from my process.
