Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

"Writing & Sequential Art" focuses on writing, already shown to be an essential part of the interweaving that characterizes sequential art. Writing for comics is a unique skill, most closely related to playwriting. It consists of conceiving an idea, creating an order of telling the story, constructing narration, and composing dialog. In writing words alone, the author directs the reader's imagination, but in comics, the readers imagine and interpret on their own. Words when welded to images do not describe but add sound, dialog, and connections.

Comic writers follow this procedure: 1) create a written script of their idea and story/plot, including narrative and dialog (balloons), and 2) expand and develop the concept in words, giving the illustrator instructions on page and panel content. Writer and artist both "pledge allegiance" to the integrated whole. The segregation of writing and drawing is widespread (as...