Make your life so much easier and enhance the reader’s exerience by creating your story using “Comics 2.0” (a.k.a the Visual Novel). Let’s face it, making comics is an enormous endeavor for any one person wanting to dive into: not only do you have to spend countless hours creating artwork for each and every panel, but you must also be your own storywriter, and understand the quirky rules that have been adopted over time. Rules such as: writing everything in uppercase; applying special grammar exclusively used in comics (look up crossbar I, double dashes, and gasp marks to name just a few); knowing which type of caption box to use; using the correct amount of words or sentences in a speech balloon; the correct amount of speech balloons to use in a panel; the size of the speech balloon and it’s tail; the type of shape to use for a speech balloon; the placement of speech balloons; the proper reading order of panels; and how far to space your panels. Even if you master everything there is to know about making a good comic, unfortunately many people in the literary world will still view comics as “children’s entertainment”, despite one winning a pullitzer prize (yes, we’re talking about “Maus”) and many winning various awards.
The “Visual Novel” offers a unique perspective for reading and creating comics.