where the writers are

how to create comic books and graphic novels

  • #5 graphic novel-in-progress: Tricks, Illustrated

    June 11, 2008

    • Paul in Amsterdam, who has his own comics website, asked me questions, which I will answer at the bottom of this post. So, this is what I finshed yesterday, and I want to show you a few tricks.  Below, you see I made an error. How do I get rid of it?  I use my Xacto knife and scrape away the extraneous lines. Don't dig too hard. Go gently and lightly with the knife or you'll dig a ...
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  • #4 graphic novel-in-progress: Flying Out the Window

    June 9, 2008

    • I continue to work on my graphic novel, "Forget Sorrow: A China Elegy," to be published by WW Norton and Company. I got tired of the talking heads in this section, so I threw the scene of the last panel outdoors with kids playing ball. In this panel, I directed the dialog bubble to the man in the window, one of my great uncles, in conversation with my grandfather on how to make ...
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  • #3 graphic novel-in-progress: Stitching

    March 17, 2008

    • My father has been telling me stories about old China for nearly two decades. It took me eleven years to write my third nonfiction manuscript, and now I am turning the words into images, instructed by my imagination and the parameters of the comics/graphic novel format.Below, in the first panel, we are in my father's garden, and I am asking him questions. The second panel moves to the story of ...
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  • #2 graphic-novel-in-progress: A Good Day

    March 13, 2008

    • It is probably 2 A.M. and I am at work on my graphic novel. (Yes, I am a night owl.)This is a photo journal of my day's work on one page of the graphic novel, "Forget Sorrow: A China Elegy." I received notes yesterday from my editor, Alane Salierno Mason, at W. W. Norton and Company.   Tools of the Trade   Drawing Table, Small Drawing Board, Script and Art on Bristol ...
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  • #1 graphic novel-in-progress: Notes from Alane Salierno Mason

    March 11, 2008

    • I was like a kid looking forward to Christmas presents as I waited for my editor, Alane Salierno Mason,* at W W Norton & Company to send me notes on my graphic novel, "Forget Sorrow: A China Elegy." When the notes did come, I was ready to do somersaults. Then the fear set in and I circled her notes as a lion tamer would a feral beast, wondering from what angle to approah is ...
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