Script (comics)

A script is a document describing the narrative and dialogue of a comic book in detail. It is written by a scriptwriter. It is the comic book equivalent of a teleplay for a television program or a screenplay for a film.

In comics, a script may be preceded by a plot outline, and is almost always followed by page sketches, drawn by an artist and inked, coloured and lettered stages.

There are no prescribed forms of comic scripts, though a common form seems to be one where an author makes a list of panels, and describes the action, characters, dialogue and sometimes backgrounds and camera points-of-view for each panel. The panels are listed in the order in which they should appear in the story.

Some publishers, such as the one of the Dutch "Donald Duck" magazine, demand that scripts are sent in the form of rough page sketches. In fact, some writers and artists like Jeff Smith (cartoonist) of the comic book Bone prefer loosely sketching their scripts.

A related document is a storyboard.

ee also

*Script breakdown
*Scriptwriter