What does a Comic script look like?

01 Introduction: Why Comic Scripts Aren't Like Screenplays

The goal of your comic script is to

• Tell your story effectively
• Communicate relevant information to artists

It is very easy to bomboard a with things they may not need to know at that moment or misinterpret events. Screenplays deal with this by forcing the writer to focus on lines of action and dialogue, typically they are encouraged to not direct shots.

This is counter to producing a comic, manga or graphic novel. As the author of a comic, you are expected to also be the artist, director and producer to varying degrees of your own work and thus a screenplay format is not adequetate.

But we can learn from Screenplays. In the MGS (Maganaplay Script) format, you have the same strict enforcement of prioritsing action lines. The format directs you to be clear as to how many panels are on a page, what type of panel are they, what is each panel depicting whilst also being able to tell a story in a digetable mannor for an artist, letter or editor.

Of how to make a comic, clear communication is key.

02 The Anatomy of a Comic Book Script

This is a real Mangaplay Script from the Manga A BOY NAMED DOROTHY by Pistol Taeja.

# Page 1 EXT. SUNBURY TOWNSHIP - AUTOMATON HIGHWAY - DAY

Panel 1 [WIDE]
It is neither a utopia nor dystopia, only infrastructure. A landscape continuously built for their children before leaving them behind.

Mechanical high rises, endless highways, fields and water supply. The sky is grey, oppressive.

    NARRATION
    The United Kingdom; 2845 AD; Current Population 112,900.

    NARRATION
    Somewhere in the Sunbury Township.

    NARRATION
    The Machine does exactly what it is told.

Panel 2 [BLEED]
A cracked highway stretches into the distance.

Panel 3
In the far background, crab machines build endlessly. No humans visible anywhere.

Page Marker

The Page Marker tells the reader that the page is set at an EXTERIOR location, at a place called the Sunbury Township, on a highway and its during the day.

# Page 1 EXT. SUNBURY TOWNSHIP - AUTOMATON HIGHWAY - DAY

Panel Marker

They are then told that the first Panel on the Page will be WIDE, this can be interpreted as a WIDESHOT or a WIDE angle or a large horizontal panel.

Panel 1 [WIDE]

Action Lines / Prose

Immediately the Panel then lays out action lines describing what is happening on in the Panel. It also adds prose to bring to life the kind of atompshere trying to be achieved in the manga script.

It is neither a utopia nor dystopia, only infrastructure. A landscape continuously built for their children before leaving them behind.

Mechanical high rises, endless highways, fields and water supply. The sky is grey, oppressive.

Character Dialogue

The name of the character when speaking must be CAPITALISED and indented. In this story, the first spoken character is actually the narration that has been labeld as NARRATION.

    NARRATION
    The United Kingdom; 2845 AD; Current Population 112,900.

03 Three Popular Comic Script Formats & Templates

The Mangaplay Script format is the most use by manga authors at present but there are other formats for you to consider when making your comic.

• Steenz's Standard Comic Script (SCS) — Put together by Eisner-winner Steenz and Z2 editor Camilla Zhang in 2022, this is the comics industry's first real attempt at agreeing on what a graphic novel script should look like.

It is built for teams, with clear slots for the writer, artist, letterer and editor so nobody is guessing what belongs to who.

• Fred Van Lente's MS Word/Pages Template — A free Word template from Marvel and Valiant writer Fred Van Lente that has quietly become the default look of an American comic book screenplay.

Each script page sits on its own document page with a big bold "PAGE X" header and numbered panels, and is usually the first example of a comic book script a new writer downloads.

• Three-Column Table Format — A simple Word or Google Docs table — Panel # / Visual / Dialogue & SFX — that lets the artist read one row per panel without hunting through prose.

It is the everyday manga script and webtoon format inside Japanese, Korean and Tapas studios, because the grid keeps art direction and translatable dialogue cleanly apart for assistants and letterers.

04 Crucial Scripting Rules for Beginners

Most amateur comic book scripts fall apart in the same few places, and they are all easy to avoid once you know what to look for.

• Cap your panels at 5 to 6 per page. Any more and the artist runs out of space, the page starts to feel cramped and the reader loses the beat of the story.
• One panel, one moment. A panel is a frozen second in time. If you find yourself writing "she walks across the room, sits down and then picks up the phone", that is three panels, not one.
• Write what the reader can see. Smells, thoughts and backstory do not draw. If it can't be shown or spoken, cut it or move it into a NARRATION box.
• Keep dialogue tight. A speech balloon eats art. Two short lines almost always beat one long one.
• Name your characters in the panel description the first time they appear. It saves the artist guessing who is who on page four.

Get these right and your comic book script will already read better than most of the slush pile.

05 Conclusion & Script Archives for Further Reading

The honest truth is that you learn to write a comic script by practicing. There is no shortcut to becoming a better writer, artist or author. You need to put in the work at improving your craft.

Reading the works of other comic scripts can boost your own understanding by seeing how other graphic novel authors work.

Templates and rules will only take you so far — at some point you need to see how working writers actually break a page down, where they choose to splurge a panel and where they keep things tight.

A few places worth bookmarking:

• The Comic Book Script Archive — free pro scripts from Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse, donated by the writers themselves.
• The showcase page for A BOY NAMED DOROTHY — the full Mangaplay Script next to the finished manga pages, so you can see how each line of script becomes art.
• Your own bookshelf. Pick a comic you love, try to reverse-engineer the script for a single page, then compare your version to the panels on the page. It is the fastest way to internalise the rhythm.

Read widely, steal generously, and write your next page.

Important Questions

Is there an official standard comic book script format?

Yes, MGS (Mangaplay Script) is losely enforced and used to layout a manga, comic, graphic novel or webtoon. It is the format you have been reading in this article.

Established writers for Dark Horse and others have exploreed using an losely defined format, Fred Van Lente's MS Word template, or the Standard Comic Script (SCS) depending on team preference.