For today's post, I thought it would be fun to share some of the steps in translating a RUNNERS script to actual art. So I'll be breaking down the first scene from Volume 3, Chapter 1. As always with me, everything starts from a fully written script, although once it's written, I'll usually make minor changes here or there if I find some things lacking. Here is the script for the scene, along with my notes scribbled in the margins:

The first thing I do with the finished script is break it down into actual comic pages. On these scanned scripts, you can see the numbers in pencil on the left side, along with dividing lines designating the page breaks. It's definitely all a judgment call on where to make those breaks within a scene, but I'll usually try to keep an actual scene change from happening in the middle of a page. Above, you can see that once the scene switches from the alley to the dive bar, it's on a new page.

On the next script page, I didn't like Azarek asking about "getting some action" as it felt a tad too tawdry for a generally all-ages book, even though I liked the double meaning and the hint at the fight to come. 

I also added a bit more dialogue on one page that was originally just about the fight scene. When drawing that page, I realized it needed them talking through it so that it wasn't a silent scene of them just smacking each other in various ways. And I like that the little extra dialogue makes Hiura seem that much more competent and knowledgeable about her prey.

Also on the following page, you can see that on some pages, I also break things down further into actual panels when I think the actual beats are important enough to warrant how I specifically split up the text. 

For the thumbnails themselves, I'll do very rough sketches that are usually only legible by me! If you ever saw them on their own, you'd probably have no idea how to read them. But seeing them next to the finished page helps show how I see them in my head.

For page 1, most of the angles and layout came very easily. It was just the last panel where I had trouble deciding if the focus should be on Azarek or the bounty hunters and what angle that should be, so the majority of my sketches were for that one panel.

For page 2, the thumbnails show that I originally had a different idea for panel 2, showing Azarek from behind facing the bounty hunters. But I realized I hadn't given the trio anything but a long shot and back view on page 1, so I decided to do panel 2 here as a close-up to show them a bit better.

Page 3 was super easy to thumbnail. In this instance, I had basically written it with the shots in mind, so I thankfully didn't have to spend much time playing with different variations. That would come with all the action scenes though. Ugh.

Action scenes are always the worst to thumbnail, and these next two pages took a while to figure out. I didn't have any specific fight moves planned out, other than the initial head butt,  so it was just a series of punches, kicks, and misses. But it's always tough trying to figure out bodies in extreme motion vs characters just sitting and talking. And in this case, the two characters were tethered together, which made the poses even harder to figure out. 

Page 5 is the one I mentioned above as not originally having any dialogue. But I didn't want a  silent page of just action, so I added extra dialogue during the penciling stage. And it's always fun to have mid-fight-scene posturing and taunts! 

For page 6, I knew I wanted a large dramatic panel for the kick. I did do one sketch that was a slightly more comedic kick pose, which would have been fun. But I ultimately thought a more "serious" kick would cap the scene better. For the last panel, I flipped it horizontally from the thumbnail sketch in the final version. I think there's just something about having a character exit right that feels better, since the direction of movement matches the reading direction, leading the reader to the right and onto the next page.

Hope you enjoyed this look at the script and thumbnail process! I am also now working on the cover for Chapter 3, one of the last pages to finish for that chapter. I'll be doing an art process post for that once it's done, so look for that (and the resumption of the story on runnersuniverse) coming soon!