Panel Comparisons - Fantasy

An illustration from The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics by me and - a comprehensive guide to making (and selling) comics, manga, and webcomics from concept to publication. Available for pre-order now on Amazon, DCBService.com, or from your local bookstore and comic shop.

This is from the 'Drawing' chapter of the book, showing different ways to approach panels. The top row does the job well enough - two people face a dragon, dragon roars, heroes ready themselves. But the bottom row changes the angles to find much more interesting ways of giving the same information. As a comic artist, you are the director of the movie - you should always be looking for the most interesting place to put the "camera" in each shot. What angle can you find to best tell this piece of your story?

The characters in the piece are actually Comfort and my characters from our tabletop fantasy RPG. She's a princess, lost in magical stasis for 30 years; he's a former knight who finally found something worth fighting for again... they're in looove and we're disgustingly adorable, I know. After a while spent illustrating this How-To book, we had to find ways to keep ourselves enthusiastic and excited for each new drawing (and there were over 500 illustrations in the book). Using our gaming characters for this scene was really fun.