Thumbnailing: Where the comicbook takes form

To me, creating comicbooks is a magical process. There's an importance and respect one should give to the various stages of its production. So, if writing is f*cking, then thumbnailing is surely the pregnancy.

I tend to write in a short 'verse-like' manner that keeps an eye on how sentences are concentrated in each relevant picture panel, and ultimately, how it may read as a finished page. The example below shows how i group sentences when i write:

Then, with the script in hand, I brainstorm the panels with thumbnails. Here's an unrelated thumbnailed page that illustrates what I do:

Thumbnailing is one of the most enjoyable aspects for me. It's where the rubber hits the road, and the actual 'comic' form is worked out. Here's some more thumbnails of another story I've been doing in the background. Here I brainstormed in blue pencil, and the panels that I felt came out well, were 'blackened' as a quick visual que when i come back on deciding what to actually start laying out when I pencil the final comicbook page:

Reproduced with permission from Bobby N.'s blog at www.bobbyn.com