The Ruthless #18 Production stills (Patreon)

If you hate spoilers then look away!

I don't share production details about our comics, but thought it might be interesting to see some of the behind the scenes for an existing book in progress.  I just hired an art studio to continue The Ruthless series for us.  

We are discussing page layouts of the book, and that's where we're at in the process.

The scripts are rather meticulously laid out.  It's not just "hahaha" for 12 pages, each panel carries descriptions of the camera, backgrounds, body language, etc.  This initial layout process allows me, as the comic's director, to give specific instruction to the artists if I think a layout needs to be improved.  It is a collaborative process.  As an example, the studio made a judgment call to add an extra panel on a page because they felt it would help the flow of the dialogue better.  I agreed with their assesment, and approved the change.

There are lots of decisions that go into how a page is presented in its final form.  What kind of clothing should be worn, how should the clothing look after a character is tickled, what does their hair look like, how much light is in a scene, should their feet be included, should the laughing panel focus on their face or the part being tickled, should some dialogue be shortened or removed to allow the art to "breathe", etc.

If you're interested in any particular part of the process, let me know!