How many panels fit on a comic page, and how long an issue runs
Most of my pages have five or six panels, and that’s where I’d start on a first issue.
The number changes with the pacing. Here’s how I decide it while I’m laying out a script.
Panels per page
A comic page is a fixed size, so every panel you add makes the others smaller. Nine small panels and three big ones fill the same page, but a reader moves through them at different speeds, so the panel count sets the pacing.
- Five or six. The working average, and where I start.
- Nine. A grid, read at a steady, even pace. Past nine the art runs out of room.
- Three or four. Bigger panels, for moments that need the room.
- One. A splash, which marks a big moment. It keeps that effect only if you use them sparingly.
Pages with a lot of dialogue need fewer panels. A panel carrying three balloons has less room for art than a silent one, so I drop to four when everybody’s speaking. Nine panels of people talking will get a note from your letterer.
How much room a balloon takes is in the lettering guide.
The page turn
A reader sees two pages at once. The left one is already in view when they turn, so the right-hand page is the only one that can surprise them.
When a reveal matters I put it on an odd page and plan backwards from there, setting the panel counts on the pages before it so the reveal lands on that page. Every page in the preview is marked LEFT or RIGHT, starting with page one on the right, and Page turns lets you step through the script two facing pages at a time.
How long a script runs
Comic scripts are counted in comic pages. That’s the unit the artist, the letterer and the printer all work in.
- A single issue is 20 to 22 pages of story.
- A short for an anthology is 6 to 10. Good length to learn on, because the story has to move quickly.
- A graphic novel runs 100 to 200, most often near 120.
- A webcomic episode doesn’t have fixed pages, which changes where the big moments fall.
In the script, one comic page takes between a third of a page and a whole page, depending on the dialogue. So a 22-page issue usually lands around 12 to 20 pages of script.
Two-page spreads
A spread is one image across two facing pages, so it uses two of the twenty-two pages. A [SPREAD] page takes two page numbers in the script (PAGES 16–17, with the next page at 18) so the page count stays right.
It also has to start on an even page. Page one is on the right, so two and three face each other, and so do four and five. A spread that starts on an odd page prints its two halves on the front and back of one sheet, so nobody sees them together. The preview flags it.
What you type
# EXT. LIGHTHOUSE ROCK - NIGHT [SPREAD]
## SPLASH SPREAD. The beam cuts the storm in half.Add [SPREAD] to the page line and SPLASH SPREAD. to the panel. More on spreads, side-by-side tiers, and insets in the comic page layout guide, and the rest of the format in the comic script format guide.
Pages and panels are numbered for you
Each page and panel gets its number from where it sits in the file. A line starting with # starts the next page, and a line starting with ## starts the next panel.
What you type
# INT. BUS - CONTINUOUS
## Janida moves down the aisle.
## She stops at a seat that is already taken.What you get
Cut a panel out of page four and everything after it renumbers, on every page.
When someone needs the numbers written in, for example an editor who wants to point at page eight, panel three, download the numbered copy and send them that. The numbers aren’t added to the file you work in.
Planning twenty-two pages
At five panels a page, an issue has about 110 panels. I keep that in mind before planning a scene that needs forty.
- Page 1. Where we are and who’s there. Fewer panels, sometimes a splash.
- Pages 2 to 20. The story, five or six a page, dropping to three where a moment needs the room.
- Pages 21 to 22. The ending. Fewer panels, because the last image needs the room.
That’s how a typical issue is laid out.