Controlling Pacing Through Art

One of the problems in comics is pacing. Unlike other media the writer has little direct control over the pacing but has to rely on the artist to change up the pacing. While there are numerous ways for the writer to tell the artist that pacing needs to be adjusted, the problem is that the conventions of the medium work against the writer, creating some artificial handicaps for the writer. By exploring these conventions we can make adjustments in the pacing, and thus making it easier to add suspense and urgency to the comic.

First off, one of the biggest problems is that the pages are usually the same length. In a movie or novel you can create suspense or urgency by reducing the length of scenes; by reducing the length of scenes a little bit over time the incremental reduction of the scenes can create an overall sense of urgency; you effectively quicken the pace of the audience's beats by quickening the scenes, and that creates a real nice sense of suspense. Because scenes are limited to half-pages or full-pages this is hard to simulate in comics; you just can't shorten scenes by a short amount each time to create suspense. Thus this neat trick is pretty much off the table for comics.

However, compare the difference in the length of cuts between a dramatic scene and an action scene in a movie; the more dramatic the scene the longer the cuts while the shorter cuts create a faster scene, making it perfect for action scenes. In comics this can be simulated by splitting the panels in two and simplifying the artwork to speed things up while larger panels of more complex artwork will slow things down. Even adding small Easter eggs and other details in the outlying areas, such as graffiti and sign names, can help slow things down.

You can also use word balloons to slow things down as well, but you want to try to avoid using this as much as possible. While it can be a great way to express character, it just comes off as cheap; even if the audience can't tell the specific trick it can come off as cheap on an instinctive level. The same applies to captions; it works but it comes off as just as sneaky. Nonetheless, if you need to slow things it is something worth doing as long as you don't do it a lot.

You can also split pages to help create urgency as well. The idea is to split the page vertically following different stories stories on each side. By creating parallels between the two actions, you then effective double the stakes by creating the illusion of a double or nothing situation; both actions must succeed or fail. Because of the raised stakes you can create some increased suspense. However, try to avoid raising the stakes through any other means; this way works because you naturally expect friends and allies to suffer equally while other means just come off as somewhat cheap.

Thus, while you need to be more subtle as well as work with the artist to adjust the pace and thus create suspense or urgency, it can be done. This can be a great tool to use but needs to used as subtly as possible in order to be effective; keep that in mind and you should be able to have some fun with the story's pacing.