Comic Book Page Size

[joiesimmons]

I wrote an article about the differences between store-bought comic book paper sizes. I wrote it because it's the kind of thing I wanted to read years and years ago.

http://tinyurl.com/dyl4jnx

[Jamon]

doesnt matter what size paper you draw on nowadays, just keep it to a 2x3 ratio and it all gets scanned and cropped anyway. 'safe' area's not that relevant either, they'll just shrink the image to fit.

[joiesimmons]

doesnt matter what size paper you draw on nowadays, just keep it to a 2x3 ratio and it all gets scanned and cropped anyway. 'safe' area's not that relevant either, they'll just shrink the image to fit.

Yeah, but I like to get going right away, I like to be pretty fast, and I have OCD about production stuff. Too many years as a graphic designer, I guess. I figure if I'm going to buy something in the store, I want it to be "right" or at least damn close.

[Jamon]

yeah i feel your pain - i gave up years ago as blueline is way too expensive, and so i would just draw on watercolour paper to about 10x15inch. the way i figure it is that if i ever turned pro then they'd provide me with the right paper anyway! it should be noted that comics used to be drawn on heaps bigger paper, and some still do, i forget what the dimensions are.

[joiesimmons]

yeah i feel your pain - i gave up years ago as blueline is way too expensive, and so i would just draw on watercolour paper to about 10x15inch. the way i figure it is that if i ever turned pro then they'd provide me with the right paper anyway! it should be noted that comics used to be drawn on heaps bigger paper, and some still do, i forget what the dimensions are.

I forget the dimensions, too. They changed to the smaller (cheaper) paper in the 60s. I don't know exactly when but I think you can tell. There's a Fantastic Four Essentials (I want to say Essential #5) where all of a sudden the lettering is HUGE! I might be wrong, but that seems like maybe the letterers hadn't yet learned to work smaller.

And Paul Pope works at like 18x24 and bigger. He works on monster-sized pages!

[MartinRedmond]

yeah i feel your pain - i gave up years ago as blueline is way too expensive, and so i would just draw on watercolour paper to about 10x15inch. the way i figure it is that if i ever turned pro then they'd provide me with the right paper anyway! it should be noted that comics used to be drawn on heaps bigger paper, and some still do, i forget what the dimensions are.

I'm pretty sure you can hand in your own scans, fyi. So any paper is fine as long as it ends up being a BMP at the right size.

EDIT oh LOL I repeated the very first answer.

[rocketpig]

This has always frustrated the hell out of me. I've used several different kinds of "comic" paper and they all seem to have different board sizes, different live areas, and therefore, different trims. I figured that I should just stick with one brand and stop worrying about it (Canson Artist Series boards for me now).

[joiesimmons]

This has always frustrated the hell out of me. I've used several different kinds of "comic" paper and they all seem to have different board sizes, different live areas, and therefore, different trims. I figured that I should just stick with one brand and stop worrying about it (Canson Artist Series boards for me now).

Yes! This has always frustrated me, too! I'm a production-orientated guy for my day job, so when it comes to this, I'd rather do it right. I have a mental block if I think it's going to be wrong.

I'm also sticking with the Canson boards. I've started using a brush and ink on the latest Stupendo-Dog and it's really working out well. So pencils, markers and brush and ink work and flow very nicely on their paper!

[joiesimmons]

Glad to see this thread still has life.
This has been a pretty popular post and I hope it's helped.

[joiesimmons]

Going to bump this.

This has been a very popular blog post.
Glad people are getting some use out of it!

[joiesimmons]

This is cool. It's the most popular post on my blog and I'm glad people are getting some info out of it. It was a long time before I had any idea of the exact size to draw a comic. Glad this is helpful!

[joiesimmons]

This has been a popular post. I updated it a little over at my new website, IndyComix.com

Check it out here!