After you’ve written the script for a comic book page, I would recommend doing a rough sketch of the page before you give the script to your artist for pencils.  That will help you identify staging problems early.  Here are a few examples. 

1.  Are the panels big enough to comfortably fit the content? 

2.  Will the panel’s perspective portray everything you want to show?  One common problem here is that it can be a bit tricky to show the expressions for two characters that are facing each other, particularly if you’re trying to emphasize one face in particular.   90 degree side-shots get boring fast and have trouble emphasizing either face.  

Another perspective problem is that sometimes the writer scripts the page thinking that he will be able to show several things in a panel that just can’t be shown well in a single shot.  For example, check out this sample script excerpt.

Panel 8.   Mary looks down at Brian’s shoes, which are spattered with blood.  Brian grins sheepishly at her. 

It would be quite difficult to get Brian’s face in a panel that shows the shoes in enough detail to capture the blood, particularly if you’re trying to squeeze eight panels onto the page. I’d recommend either splitting this into two panels or using an insert panel. 

3.  Is each panel emotionally coherent?  An artist can only give each character one expression per panel.  Your artist would be completely screwed if you gave him a panel like the following. 

Panel 1. 
JOHN:  I love you. 
ALISA:  I think it’s time to start seeing other people. 
JOHN:  You filthy whore!

Obviously, there’s no way to make John look both doting/loving and outraged in the same panel.  You need to split this into two separate panels or at least use an insert panel to separate the two emotions.  It’s better to figure out whether your panels are emotionally coherent before a rewrite will blow your schedule.  

A parting thought: once you’re convinced that you’ve given the artist a script that is physically possible, I’d recommend giving him a lot of latitude to set up the panels on his own.  You might have envisioned it one way in your storyboard but I’d recommend a bit of deference to the guy that’s actually a professional at visual arts.  Writers aren’t quite as good at setting up interesting poses– in particular, I think we tend to overrely on shots that are head-on and level or 90 degree sideshots.  A head-on shot is almost never the most interesting way to portray something.   See this article for more details on staging interesting panels.

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