Those poor forgotten comic borders

NerdHouse · Post by **NerdHouse** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:48 pm

First off do this: open up a bunch of your favorite web comics. Now look at the borders on the comic and/or its panels.

When putting together my own, I came to a realization. I'd say almost 99% of comics out there have nothing actually going on there other then a solid color and maybe some text bubbles bleeding over.

In one of my early designs, I actually had spell casting-ish runes all around the border. A little distracting so I opted for the simple gradiant used now. But still it surprises me that something like borders, which get repeated limitless times, do not get a bit more stylized attention.

Yeahduff · Post by **Yeahduff** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:52 pm

http://yeahduff.keenspace.com

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:10 am

Borders are there to keep stuff in and together and in place. They're there to show the picture, not be the picture.

My ideas, anyway. Doesn't mean they're gospel of course.

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:29 am

Honestly, when designing a comic page, the KISS method is best applied. The last thing you want is to distract from the readablility of a page, or the impact of the illustration. However, people have certainly gotten away with experimenting panel border designs. The early work of Jhonen Vasquez most readily comes to mind in this. With his graphic style, he was able to pull it off, because his borders were chunky and black. I figure that if you know what you're doing, and you're aware of the importance of the overall page design vs. specific elements, and you think you can pull off more flashy panel borders without taking away from the comic strip itself, go for it.

Kirb · Post by **Kirb** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:38 am

People have told me that they can instantly recognize my comic simply by looking at the panel borders. I tried to make them a part of the comic itself.

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:51 am

yeahduff wrote:http://yeahduff.keenspace.com

Interesting factoid, Mr. Duff, your panel borders started losing viscosity in mid-October, 2003. They finally started to break apart on November 11th of that same year.

Yeahduff · Post by **Yeahduff** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:54 am

Hey, you're right.

Part of it was going back to where I started in high school five years earlier, where I did this overlapping panel thing. The other part was that I realized I sucked at doing straight panels and wasn't going to use the computer to make them, so I intentionally screwed them up.

CJBurgandy · Post by **CJBurgandy** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:58 am

I use the same border template....

all the time....

everyday......

4 equal sized boxes......

maybe in the future I'll do something different, on a differnt comic.....

but for now.....

4 equal sized boxes....

Princess · Post by **Princess** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:38 am

I use rounded borders, because I don't like sharp angles

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:39 am

I's got squiggly ones. Squiggly squiggly! Squigglypoop.

Uh. But only in the main storylines.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:00 am

I usually stick to four equal sized panels with straight black borders, sized 20 pixels wide before I resize them right down to their final dimensions. Otherwise I generally go for three, with one of them a double size. Only vary rarely have I gone to five or six panels, mainly because the maths involved in making sure the panels will fit in the final strip is too much for me to bother with.

I only teach grades three and four...that sort of maths is not necessary in my line of work.

If I think it fits the strip and the picture in the panel, occasionally I'll leave a panel without a border, leaving the picture basically floating between two others. Only ever the second or third panel though, mainly the third. I like to keep the first and last panels with borders because I think they act as bookends and keep it all together.

Haven't done that for a while though...generally I stick to the four because it's not too much trouble and they fit evenly on two A4 sized pieces of paper.

Ricky · Post by **Ricky** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:33 am

Even though I use a computer to make them, my borders change dimensions between every comic, if not every panel.

I'm not experimentalist and artsy though, I'm just imprecise and lazy.

Mvmarcz · Post by **Mvmarcz** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:40 am

my panels float in a white abbyss....but I give each of them a 4pixel wide boarder, it wasn't even until partway through chapter one someone convinced me to go back and add a border around the whole thing.

Kris X · Post by **Kris X** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:24 am

Panels have always plagued me...I should murder them!

RemusShepherd · Post by **RemusShepherd** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:30 am

I use precise, computer-made borders, but I do a lot of stuff outside of them. Like everything else, borders are just a part of the composition. Usually the part to which you want the least attention drawn.

TheSuburbanLetdown · Post by **TheSuburbanLetdown** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:39 am

I have mine blend into the background of the website since the background is black. I also don't use a ruler when inking the borders.

http://endofthings.keenspace.com

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 7:30 am

I take pride in my comic layouts. Frankly, I couldn't imagine doing the same panels day in and day out.

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20050815.html

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20050912.html

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20051007.html

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:27 am

mmmmm... buster mentioned jhonen vasquez... his borders are crazy... usually they're thick jagged lines... in his earlier stuff, he'd make semi-hidden messages along the border... shaping the border into vague letters and stuff... although he stopped doing it because he said it took forever to do (o rly)... although for his happy noodle boy comics there's all sorts of crazy messages all around the borders, the kinda stuff like 'the money stole my oatmeal' and stuff... x10000 ... he's funky.

for me, i don't care about the borders, they're just there to separate the panels ...

Mr. Caravaggio · Post by **Mr. Caravaggio** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:46 am

Playing with border can be fun. But when I saw the thread I thought that he was going to be talking about comics which didn't even have them, like lulu eighbtall or certain far side strips. But this is good too, because like lulu eightball, losing the borders is probably more restrictive to your creativity then actually having big blank borders is.

blackaby wrote:I's got squiggly ones. Squiggly squiggly! Squigglypoop.

Uh. But only in the main storylines.

I tried, I really did, but trying gives me carpel tunnel.

Not drawing squiggly lines, just trying. That's all.

Escushion · Post by **Escushion** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:36 pm

Black Sparrow wrote:I take pride in my comic layouts. Frankly, I couldn't imagine doing the same panels day in and day out.

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20050815.html

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20050912.html

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20051007.html

I agree; changing up the panels keeps things interesting. Although it's easier to say that when working with a full-page like this and mine than with a banner-shaped strip. Changing panels is also necessary for strips with action.

My early strips were very experimental with the border layout. I meant for that to continue through the strip, but it didn't really work for conversations and by the time the next action sequence came up, I'd lost touch with it. I think for the next one I'll try to get back to being experimental.

As for borders being borders, sometimes it can be interesting to just have segments of the characters or action pop out of the borders, like a sword or explodying stuff; things like that.