How I Format a Comics Script

In which I show you how I do it and explain why, which isn't quite the same thing as saying, "This is how it must be done."

Unlike our cousins in the movie game, there is no universally established way a comic script should be formatted. However, some guidelines for how to submit a comic script have been more or less formalized. For example, I was the last one freelancing for DC Comics who was allowed to send in scripts handwritten — because my block-printing handwriting was very legible. That was the script for Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of Dream, by the way. But finally, Shelly Bond (still Shelly Roeberg at that time) said she/DC would actually buy me a laptop computer, so I can stop sending in handwritten scripts.

The trouble wasn’t in the legibility of my scripts, mind you, but in the fact that my scripts had to be sent in via Fed Ex or surface mail (which can easily be lost, or misdirected), and by that time DC had well and truly switched over to expecting documents to be sent in via email.

I didn’t take DC up on their demand/offer (as I’m not entirely a skinflint). Thinking the time had finally come to own my own computer, I used part of the Merv Pumpkinhead pay to buy one for myself.

In any case, getting back to the point, there are many acceptable ways to format a comic script. The way I am about to show you is my way. It’s worked for me for the past twenty to thirty years, and has been refined over that time so that there is now a good reason (in my opinion) for why I do everything the way I do it.

Perhaps this can be of help to some of you.

First of all, I write scripts on Microsoft Word. I do this because it’s the program I learned on, and there should be little to no reason to have to learn more than one word-processing program. If you use a different program, you should be able to adapt most of what I show you here to your preferred system.

I write all of my scripts double spaced. Why? Because, when it’s printed out in your loyal editor’s office, that leaves her plenty of space to mark things up between the lines.

I also set a space of 12 points between paragraphs. Why? To make sure things like pages, panels, captions, and lines of dialogue aren’t jumbled too close together.

Every script begins with some clear information, centered at the top of the first page: the title of the series, followed by the issue number. I spell out the issue numbers, but there’s no hard reason for that. It’s an affectation.

After the issue number I put the title of the issue. Note that this issue title is for information only. If you expect the title (and credits and such) to actually appear in the body of the printed comics pages, it will have to be placed within the actual script body too.

If the issue is part of a multi-part story arc, then I follow the issue title with a subtitle that indicates which issue of the arc it is. In this case, using an old Fables script as my teaching example, I’ve indicated that this is the first chapter of a larger arc called The Dark Ages. If you know exactly how many issues a given arc will take, it would be a good idea to mention that here. But, typically (and a source of frustration to publishers and editors) I didn’t always know how many issues a given story arc would take, so I didn’t include that information here.

After the titles I confess to being the person who perpetrated the script. This isn’t just ego on my part. A given editor at any given publisher is likely to be supervising a goodly number of titles at once. It’s helpful to her to clearly label whose script this is, so it can be appropriately filed to be able to find later.

And finally, in the script headline matter, I list how many pages this script is. Note that this doesn’t indicate how many manuscript pages the script is, which doesn’t really matter. It indicates how many comic book pages are intended to be produced from this script. That’s vital information, which should be stated upfront.

Okay then. We’ve done the headline stuff. Let’s get to the actual script.

You’ll note I change the formatting from having the words centered on the page to having everything justified left. This left-justification will remain for the remainder of the script document.

We start with Page One.

Because most of any comic script is a letter to one person: the artist, we always include information that will be helpful to your artist. In this case, right after the beginning of the first page, and every new comics page to come, I clearly state how many panels will appear on this page. Don’t make your artist have to hunt through the script to figure out how many panels he’ll have to draw on a given page. Why not? Because he’s an artist who thinks visually. He starts visually imagining a page from the very beginning. If he first imagines a four-panel page and then only finds out later that it’s a seven-panel page, he’ll have to rework all of his ideas until that point. And then he will begin to hate you for wasting his time. Oh yes, he will hate you and plot his revenge.

Always begin each new comics page on a new manuscript page, no matter how little of the previous manuscript page has been filled.

Why? Because it’s very likely your artist will have printed out your script. He works on one page at a time and will want the script pages that concern that comic page taped to his art table, handy to refer to as needed. He doesn’t want the entire script cluttering up his table at one time — just the page he’s working on. Now then, what happens when it’s time to go on to the next page and he removes all of the previous manuscript pages to make room for the next round? What if part of the new page he needs is still attached to the previous bunch? It’s easy, when the script is separated into sections, to lose track of parts of it. Make it easier on him by making every comic page into its own separate-able thing.

Always number your manuscript pages. Why? Isn’t it obvious?

If you’re writing full-script (which is all I do, for far too many reasons to explain here, but maybe I’ll cover that later), each panel of each page is its own nearly-autonomous thing. I format it thusly: Page number, panel number, panel description, captions (if any), dialogue for character # 1 (if any), dialogue for character # 2 (if any), and so on.

For example:

Page Six (five panels)

Panel One

Junior shoots Mack in the face. He smiles as he does it, because Junior is an evil man.

Cap: Junior ignored Mack’s pleas for mercy, because there’s no mercy in him.

Junior: Die, you dirty rat!

Panel Two

Same scene. Mack lies dead on the floor, a pool of blood beginning to spread out from his body. Junior turns to leave and at the same time drops the gun on the floor.

Junior: And do me the courtesy of burning in hell.

Panel Three

We switch scenes to the exterior of the building, where we can now see that Bratman has seen the entire thing. He’s hanging from his trusty Brat Line and looking through the window.

Bratman: Gadzooks!

Bratman: Maybe I should’ve intervened!

And so on.

Note that I don’t specifically label panel descriptions as such. This is because everything that our letterer will eventually letter on a comics page is specifically marked by a character name, followed by a colon (:), or by cap: If you also write the panel description as Panel Description: Same scene. Mack lies dead… it might confuse your letterer that it is also something intended to appear on the comics page. It’s a small consideration, but I believe it is an important one. Since a panel description is always the first thing to appear below the page and panel numbers, you shouldn’t have to specially label it.

Okay then, I think we’ve covered the basics. This wasn’t intended to cover quality of writing, or story structure, or anything like that. It was a simple tutorial on how and why I format a comic script for maximum utility for the editors, artists, letterers and others who have to use it to construct a comic.

If you have further questions about this, do please ask below.