How to Make a Style Guide for Your Comic

How much of a successful comics career depends on being temporarily delusional? Brad and Dave suspect it may be more than anyone wants to admit.

Then, a listener asks about creating a style guide for a comic. Brad and Dave discuss the small decisions that help lettering remain clear, consistent, and easy to read — from spelling out numerals and avoiding hyphenated line breaks to shaping word balloons, using all-caps lettering, and deciding whether “livestream” is one word or two.

Finally, they look back at the pivotal “sliding doors” moments that could have sent their careers in entirely different directions. Dave talks about leaving Mattel, choosing webcomics over syndication, and the friendships that helped him become a better cartoonist. Brad remembers the collapsed newspaper job offer that sent him back to comics, the syndicate pitch that deserved to fail, and the leap that finally made cartooning his full-time career.

ON THIS WEEK’S SHOW...

• Why every creative career requires a little temporary delusion
• What belongs in a comic-specific style guide
• Why Brad spells out numbers in Evil Inc
• Punctuation, abbreviations, and the Oxford comma
• Why hyphenating words inside balloons hurts readability
• How line breaks affect the shape and flow of a word balloon
• All caps versus sentence-case lettering
• Using colloquial spellings without making dialogue difficult to read
• The pivotal decisions that changed Brad and Dave’s careers
• Leaving a secure job to become a full-time cartoonist
• Choosing webcomics over newspaper syndication
• How a community of fellow cartoonists can accelerate your growth

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Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.