The Basics
What is pacing you ask? Well, essentially, pacing is the rate and speed at which events occur in a story. And while some pacing does come down to preference, bad pacing can truly wreck an otherwise good comic. So here's a basic break down. Your story should have a set-up, a conflict, what I call the struggle, and then a resolution.
The set-up essentially sets the stage, introduces your characters, the setting, the world they exist in, all that jazz. This can be really boring sometimes because you're essentially throwing a lot of essential information at the reader with very little happening. However, it's also important to not gloss over this information because it's what helps develop your characters and really we're not going to care about a story if we don't have some sort of attachment to the characters or the world. Depending on the kind of story you're doing there are a few ways of doing this well.
If you're doing a short (something less than a single issue) I'm a big fan of the pulpy splash page with captions to catch the reader up. Essentially, have a one page panel that's right in the middle of the action with some short captions to explain how we got there. This was really common in a lot of war comics back in the 40's - 70's, and it still works great today! I employed this with great success on my first FUBAR story "Severed," and it's still one of my favorite pages I've written to this day.
If you're doing a one-shot story, it can be a bit trickier because you're limited to 22 - 24 pages and you've got a lot to tell in such a short time span. So, opposed to just throwing dialogue, captions, and what-have-you at the reader, I recommend having them in the middle of a situation that explains them. Are they a street level superhero? Have them stopping a mugger, showing off their powers or abilities. Are they an occult detective? Start the story with them finishing their previous case. Are they an intergalactic warrior? Show them winning (or losing) a cosmic battle! (This totally ties into the bit in my last post about showing over telling.)
Finally, if you're writing a mini-series or long-run series you have a lot more freedom to spell out your universe, usually across the first issue or two (depending on your proposed length.) But again, I recommend doing this via actual actions as opposed to dialogue and captions. Essentially, it's an expanded version of the solution in the previous paragraph.
Okay, on to the conflict. This is pretty self-explanatory. The conflict will present whatever problem the character or characters have to overcome. This is generally pretty easy to keep interesting because it's what piques our interest about the story. So if you're struggling with making this gripping, you probably need to come up with a better conflict. I know that's kind of mean, but people aren't going to buy in to a story with a boring conflict.
The struggle is essentially where the protagonist figures out how to overcome whatever they're facing. Whether it's through research, training, or past knowledge, this is the bit where the reader should be going, "Oh crap! How are they going to figure this out?" This one is kind of a grey area because there are so many ways this can be handled and it totally depends on your story. With Igor: Occult Detective I tend to lean toward research, past knowledge, or quick thinking due to the nature of the comic. Research is the toughest to make interesting because, generally, it boils down to someone reading. Heh. The best way to do this is to have time-lapses, keep the panels small, and generally emphasize the conclusion. Example:
PAGE 15 (4 Panels)
Panel 1: Igor is pouring over a tome, sitting at the desk in his study. He is smoking a cigarette. There ought to be a couple books, an empty ashtray, and a cup of steaming coffee on the table.
Panel 2: Igor is still at the desk, but reading a different book (different color cover/binding is a great way to distinguish this fact) there are a few books piled up next to him. The ashtray has a couple cigarette butts in it and his coffee is no longer steaming.
CAPTION:
An hour later...
Panel 3: Igor still at the desk but reading yet another book, his cigarette has burned down nearly to the filter. The ashtray is now over-flowing with cigarette butts and the table is littered with coffee mugs. There ought to be a tall pile of books beside him, implying that he has already read them all.
CAPTION:
Four hours later...
Panel 4: Close panel - Igor points to a specific page in the book with a spell on it.
IGOR:
I've got it!
Now that's not actually from an Igor story but I've written at least one page pretty damn similar to that before. Really, no one wants to read four pages of someone else reading. It's key to keep these pages concise, so that you don't bore the reader while still conveying that the protagonist did a lot of work to find a solution.
The conclusion, again is pretty easy to keep interesting because it's the show down, the big fight, the resolution to your story. It's the hero overcoming the villain. Whatever. This is good stuff! You can also use this part of the story to reveal the struggle via flashback which if you've ever read any of the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories he really loved to do this. Holmes would solve a case, then explain how he did it. You see this sometimes in espionage/spy/crime-thriller type films sometimes too.
EDIT: Here's a really interesting article about plot without conflict that is definitely worth checking out from still eating oranges.
* * * * *
Since I've covered pacing of your overall story, I'm going to discuss smaller-scale pacing and how it can help your stories as well.
Event/Scene Pacing
Events within your story should have pacing all of their own. Usually this starts with an establishing panel, to tell the reader where they are, what time of day it is, that sort of thing. After you've done this, you can really get to the meat of the scene. Once you've gotten through the main point of your scene, it's good to segue into the next one with either a sort of final line of dialogue or final action to signify that this part of the story is over.
Pacing for Dramatic Effect
Within a scene, pacing can also be used to create tension or suspense or to emphasize a certain point without spelling it out for the reader. For example, if you want to have a big reveal of a character, you can have multiple panels of them walking forward (or having the reader's point of view moving closer) in multiple panels until we see who it actually is. Start off with the character far away and in silhouette, and then as you get closer and closer reveal more and more of the character until BOOM! It's WHOEVER! Another way to do this is start with a focus on their feet, then in multiple panels move up their body to reveal their face.
You can also emphasize something via your pacing. Say, if you're trying to show that a character is dreading having to do something like going to work. You can take multiple panels or even pages to show them getting ready to leave for the day. Of course, the character shouldn't look happy about it either (but that's pretty obvious, right?) Make it feel like just getting ready is a chore. Or in a horror story if a character hears a noise in the other room and has to go investigate and is scared. Have multiple panels of them reaching for the door knob, their hand getting closer and closer with each panel. This will give the impression that not only is it taking the character a long while to actually perform the action, but it'll build tension within the reader who is waiting for the reveal.
Page Pacing
Okay,
finally, we've come down to page pacing. This is a biggy that a lot of
folks who nail the rest often neglect. It's also something that took me a
long time to figure out and even now I still haven't quite mastered it.
Each page of your comic should essentially have a beginning, a middle,
and an end. A lot of this comes down to one question, "What is the
purpose of this page?" Because your scene/event can generally be broken
down into multiple smaller events you should try to get these smaller
events to coincide with your page breaks. This can be tricky and
sometimes you will have to accept the fact that you can't make this work
without forcing in filler or snipping out crucial bits from another
scene. But when this can be adhered to, it should be.
Okay, I think
I've covered everything I intended to here. This was a doozie of a post
and I apologize for the length, but I really didn't want to split it up
into multiple posts. Have a good week and I'll see you next time!
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