Hoping to Improve Your Comic’s Pacing? You Need to Pay Attention to These 7 Things
Poor pacing is one of the most common comic-making mistakes I see among beginners. Even if someone has experience writing books or picture books, comic pacing is unique. Existing somewhere between time-based media (like animation and film) and still media (like book illustration). And you, the creator, MUST be fully in control of the reader’s sense of time. I recommend learning by studying comics you love, and here are seven things you need to pay attention to as you learn pacing.
What is Pacing?
Pacing refers to the speed and rhythm at which a story unfolds for the reader. It’s about how quickly or slowly events, images, and dialogue move the narrative forward, and it shapes the reader’s emotional experience.
Slow pacing works well for emotional scenes, build-up to explosive moments, or tension-driving cliffhangers.
Fast pacing works well for action scenes, urgent moments, or snappy dialogue.
The most important thing to remember is that you, the creator, are entirely in charge of how pacing is handled in your comic.
If you are new to pacing, I recommend reviewing your favourite comics and graphic novels to learn from the experts in how to control pacing successfully. Here are some things that you should focus on while you are reviewing master works.
How does the opening sequence unfold?
Openings are hard. They set up your reader’s expectations for what type of story is ahead while trying to grab their attention and interest. You might only get one or two pages to convince someone to read on. So while reviewing masterful comics, spend a lot of time on the opening. How is it paced?
Take, for example, this beautiful two-page opening sequence from Snapdragon by Kat Leyh.
Across these two pages, Leyh establishes a sense of foreboding (crows, bones, spooky forest, witch), a plucky protagonist, and an initial conflict (the witch eats pets and the character holds an empty leash).
Seven panels (one inset). A combination of extreme close-ups and establishing shots. Colour used for drama, not just local colour. Punchy narration. Leyh really pulled out all the tricks to establish a fast-paced opening scene with immediate energy and tension.
2. How are active panels used to change the pace?
Active panels where something in the panel gives the illusion of being in motion (like the bike-riding panels in Leyh’s work above) have a significant impact on pacing. If they suggest slow movement, for example, small figures walking across an enormous backdrop, the pacing can slow down. Especially across multiple panels, when there is a change in time but not location.
However, when active panels engage dynamic movement tools, such as diagonal compositions, action lines, or sound effects, you can just as easily create a sense of fast pacing. In Leyh’s work in Snapdragon, the bike squeals to such a quick stop that it kicks up a cloud of dust. While biking, the character is hunched forward over the handlebars, lifting off her seat, implying speed. If the character is in a rush, and you’ve built enough tension, your reader will feel the accelerated speed, too.
3. How are passive panels used to change the pace?
Passive panels, where nothing is moving, are just as important as active ones for pacing.
These striking full-page panels from Emily Carroll’s A Guest in the House bring the pacing to a pause. The abundance of negative space in each panel creates a bubble of time, allowing us to linger on the emotion of the protagonist, in both real life and her dream-state/imagination.
Look for moments when the creator inserts images of still objects, scenes or characters. What are they communicating? How is time demonstrated in these still images? Do you quickly scan them, or stop and take in the details?
4. How does the layout of dialogue or narration impact pacing?
The above page from Sunny (Volume One) by Taiyo Matsumoto is a simple, short conversation between two characters (note that this comic is read manga-style, right-to-left). The small amount of dialogue contained on this page could easily fit into one or two panels. So why does Matsumoto choose to stretch it over the whole page?
The slower pacing created by stretching text over more visual space adds impact, emotion, and a sense of reluctant conversation. Dedicating an entire panel to a character merely thinking (“…”) shows that this is not an easy or fast conversation for these boys.
The layout of wording is essential to controlling pacing and is often an underutilized skill. Beginners might assume that sticking the text in wherever it will fit is sufficient, but in comics, the text is part of the image and should be given the same weight of consideration.
5. Are you giving each part of the story the time it needs?
Whatever plotting tool you prefer, you may still be familiar with the Save the Cat! method of screenwriting. If you’re not, I strongly recommend you familiarize yourself with the concept, as it is used in almost all big Hollywood movies. You can learn more about it on the website.
One thing that beginners are often surprised by is how plot points can be broken down in a fairly formulaic way to establish what should be happening on each page of the comic. For example, in Save the Cat! the set-up should take 10% of the total length of the story. For a 200-page comic, that means you should have set up your story by page 20. In other words, in 20 pages you need an exploration of the hero’s status quo life and flaws. You should introduce supporting characters, the hero’s goals, the hero's reluctance to change, and the stakes.
Does that make you think of your pacing in a new way? How do your favourite comic artists weigh different parts of their stories?
6. Does your genre or audience have conventions to follow?
Writing an action-oriented manga for Shonen Jump requires fast pacing for a significant portion of the storytelling. That’s just the way it is. If you want to learn more about writing those types of comics, I’d highly recommend the book Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki (the creator of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure).
Writing a psychedelic, avant-garde comic for a literary publisher like Drawn & Quarterly might require a slower pace.
Comics like Holy Lacrimony by Michael Deforge, pictured above, can afford a slow pace. It’s expected from the publisher and from a more psychological work.
Understanding your audience, genre and dream publishers will help you find examples of pacing that you should be emulating. After all, a Shonen Jump action would not likely resonate with Drawn and Quarterly… but it might resonate with Viz Media, Harper Alley or Image Comics.
7. How do comic creators reward their audience?
You want your audience to enjoy reading the comic as much as you enjoy making it. That means they ideally linger on the panels you spent the most time on and skip fast through the scenes you want them to consume with urgency.
Keep your audience, imagined or real, at the center of your focus. When you want your reader to slow down and immerse themself in a moment, reward them with a visually striking panel or page that invites delicious lingering. When you want them to speed up, desperate for the next panel, end each page on a cliff-hanger and give them that motivation to turn that page fast.
Engage your reader. And look at how your favourite creators are engaging you. There’s nothing wrong with writing for an audience, even if you don’t have one yet! Make it as fun for them to go on the journey as it is for you to write and illustrate the journey.
