Hi, Folks:

I’m beginning a non-weekly, intermittent column called Art Talk here on Johnny Saturn. This is a bit different from Tech Thursday and Web Wednesday because both of those columns are technology based. That’s all well and good, but, unlike technology, the fundamentals of art are timeless, whether you are working digitally or with brushes. Indeed, the demise of Web Wednesday came about because the technology and updates were happening more quickly than I could write blogs, and the column itself became dated almost instantly. Not so with Art Talk.

I’m going to move into one my favorite subjects, composition, but I figured before I dove in I would explain how I chose to format the Johnny Saturn strip. Composition changes to meet the format, after all, and those of who draw webcomics might find this interesting.

You may have noticed that when the Johnny Saturn strip began, its format varied episode by episode. Originally, this comic was created for print format, with no accommodations made to fit the web. So, when I divided the pages up for the web, all sorts of panel sizes and configurations resulted.

Beginning with issue six, I changed my approach. All the comics would be multipurposed for print and the web. Around that time, Zuda comics had begun, and they required pages in the three by four ratio. I never submitted anything to Zuda, and don’t have any intention of doing so at this point, but I immediately saw the wisdom of their formatting.

Essentially, it works this way: Each Zuda page is half a traditional comic page, and two Zuda episodes stacked together equals one print page. A normal comic page has a 10” x 15” live area when drawn, thus being 2 x 3 ratio. Cut this in half, and you have 1 by 1.5 ratio, aka 4 by 3 ratio.

Click to Enlarge

So, 2/3 equals 4/6, and if you divide the height by 2 you get 4/3. Thus, I can make every episode a standard size, which looks much nicer on the website, and two episodes equals one printed page.

Why does this format work for Johnny Saturn? First up, besides the multi-use print/web aspect, each episode fits “above the fold,” and can be read without any scrolling required. I feel this is important.

How did this approach affect my storytelling? In several ways, to be honest. Now I usually put more panels per page, because I want each individual episode to advance the plot. Second, full page spreads are out; Episodes with only one panel each have become my new splash pages.

Some of the recent changes have been in response to printing requirements, not the web. For example, double page spreads and full-bleed pages added a lot of unnecessary work to my workload when printing, so I’ve dialed them back. This has been fine, because I’ve wanted to give the readers more content per page or episode, and these restrictions have helped me become a better storyteller.

So, there you go! Next time I do an Art Talk, I’ll move past the formatting and dig into composition.

Scott.