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A comic strip fails for one of three reasons: the script describes what the characters feel instead of what the panel shows, the balloons are read in the wrong order, or the lettering was added last and now sits on top of a face. All three are layout problems, and layout is decided before anything is drawn.

This skill takes a paragraph of script and produces a finished strip: a beat sheet of 4-8 panels, a grid chosen for the reading rhythm, thumbnails that fix the eye path, dialogue cut to fit a balloon, and an export at print resolution. It works in a drawing app, on paper, or with a vector tool, because the method is about order, not software.

The one rule that fixes most strips: one idea per panel, and the reader's eye should never have to ask where to go next.

When to use this skill

• You have a script or a story beat and need it as a visual strip, not prose.
• Your panels look fine individually but the strip reads as a jumble.
• Dialogue does not fit and you are shrinking the font to make it work.
• You need a print-ready or web-ready file at a specific size for a zine, a poster or a social carousel.
• Do NOT use for: writing the underlying story, animation or motion comics, or reproducing an existing artist's characters and layouts - this ends at a finished static strip.

Stage 1 - Convert the script into beats before drawing

Prose hides structure. Beats expose it. A beat is one change in the scene: a decision, a reveal, a reaction, a turn.

1.1 Read the script and mark every moment where something changes. Those marks are your beats.

1.2 Write each beat as one line with a subject and an action: "she opens the envelope and stops".

1.3 Merge beats that happen in the same instant, and split beats that contain two changes.

1.4 Aim for 4-8 beats for a strip. Fewer than 4 has no turn; more than 8 will not fit a readable page.

1.5 Write what the reader must see in each beat, not what the character feels. "Hands shaking" is drawable; "nervous" is not.

1.6 Mark the turn - the beat where the meaning changes. It gets the biggest panel or the widest silence.

1.7 Cut anything that is not a beat. Description and backstory belong in the reader's imagination, not in a panel.

# Strip: The Envelope

1. Desk at night. A brown envelope under the door.
2. She picks it up. No stamp, no name.
3. TURN - she opens it and stops mid-motion.
4. Close on the letter: one line, her own handwriting.
5. She looks at the door. It is open.

Gate: 4-8 beats, each drawable, with the turn marked.

Stage 2 - Choose the grid from the rhythm, not from habit

The grid is pacing. A 3x3 grid reads evenly and slowly; a single wide panel reads as a held breath. Choose per beat, then make the grid consistent.

2.1 Decide the total page shape first: a 1:1 square for social, 2:3 portrait for print, or a 4:5 carousel.

2.2 Map the turn to the largest panel. Size is emphasis and readers feel it before they read a word.

2.3 Use equal panels for equal weight, and one big panel for one big moment. Mixing sizes without a reason reads as an accident.

2.4 Keep gutters consistent - 8-12 mm at print size - so the eye moves at a steady pace.

2.5 Put the panels that share a moment on the same row, so a reaction sits beside the action.

2.6 Check that no panel is so narrow that a face cannot be read at thumbnail size.

Gate: every beat has a panel, the turn has the largest one, and gutters are uniform.

Stage 3 - Thumbnail the eye path before drawing anything

Thumbnails cost 3 minutes and save an hour. The only job of a thumbnail is to prove the reader's eye moves the way you intended.

3.1 Draw 6-8 panels as rough boxes at 5 cm wide, in one pass, with stick figures.

3.2 Mark the eye path with an arrow: where does the reader look first, second, third.

3.3 Check the reading direction against your language: left-to-right and top-to-bottom for English, and mirror the whole grid for a right-to-left language.

3.4 Check that no two faces in a row look the same direction, or the row will read as one image.

3.5 Check that speech balloons do not cross the eye path. A balloon in the wrong corner breaks the sequence.

3.6 Reorder panels rather than redrawing them; sequence problems are order problems.

3.7 Redraw the thumbnail once, then commit. A third thumbnail is procrastination.

Gate: one thumbnail per strip with a marked eye path and no balloon crossing it.

Stage 4 - Stage each panel for a single idea

Each panel is a shot, and a shot has a distance, an angle and a subject. Deciding all three before inking prevents the most common beginner panel: a wide shot where a close-up was needed.

4.1 Choose the distance: wide for context, medium for interaction, close for reaction, extreme close for detail.

4.2 Choose the angle: eye level is neutral, low angle gives power, high angle gives vulnerability.

4.3 Put the subject off-centre on the thirds, facing into the frame rather than out of it.

4.4 Keep the background simple in close-ups and detailed in establishing panels, so attention lands where the beat is.

4.5 Vary the distance across consecutive panels; three medium shots in a row flatten the page.

4.6 Leave a quiet area for the balloon before you draw the subject - usually the top third or the side the character faces away from.

4.7 Check silhouette: fill the panel black and confirm the pose still reads.

Gate: every panel has a stated distance and angle, and its silhouette reads as a filled shape.

Stage 5 - Cut dialogue until the balloon fits

Balloons are a size budget. Text that does not fit is text that should not be there, and shrinking the font to fit is how a strip becomes unreadable on a phone.

5.1 Count words per balloon. Aim for 12 words or fewer; above 20 it will not fit legibly.

5.2 Cut to the sentence that carries the beat. Delete greetings, names and anything the image already says.

5.3 Split a long line into two balloons across two panels rather than one dense balloon.

5.4 Use a caption box for narration and keep it visually distinct from dialogue.

5.5 Keep lettering size constant across the strip, at a size that reads at 50% zoom.

5.6 Set balloon tails pointing to the speaker's mouth area, never to the back of a head.

5.7 Read the strip aloud. Any line you stumble on is a line to cut.

Gate: no balloon exceeds 12 words, lettering is one size across the strip, and every tail points at a mouth.

Stage 6 - Ink and letter in the right order

Order matters: art first, lettering second, effects last. Lettering first means the art has to dodge the text instead of the text sitting in the composition.

6.1 Ink the panels at 2x the final resolution so line weight survives export.

6.2 Add the lettering after the art, in a single layer, using the quiet areas you left in Stage 4.

6.3 Keep line weight consistent: thinner for background, thicker for the subject, heaviest for the panel border.

6.4 Use one lettering style for dialogue and one for sound effects, and never a third.

6.5 Add sound effects inside the panel, not in the gutter, and keep them behind the balloon layer.

6.6 Check contrast: the lettering must read against the darkest area behind it - add a white balloon fill rather than a drop shadow.

6.7 Number the panels in pencil before inking if the strip will be assembled digitally; numbers are cheaper than re-drawing.

Gate: art, lettering and effects are separate layers, and all lettering sits on a light fill.

Stage 7 - Assemble, export and check at the sizes it will be seen

The strip is finished when it reads at thumbnail size and at print size. Both checks take a minute and catch the failures that matter.

7.1 Export at 300 DPI for print and at 1080 px wide for a social carousel; do not upscale one from the other.

7.2 Check the thumbnail at 200 px: if the turn panel does not dominate, the sizing is wrong.

7.3 Check the print file at 100%: line weight should be at least 0.5 pt or it disappears on paper.

7.4 Use CMYK for print and sRGB for screen, and keep the layered source for both.

7.5 Flatten a copy, never the master, and keep the master with its layers.

7.6 Name files with the strip title and the size, so a later upload does not pick the wrong one.

# assemble a 2x3 grid from individual panels at 300 DPI
magick montage panel-*.png -tile 2x3 -geometry +240+240 \
  -background white -density 300 strip-print.png
magick strip-print.png -resize 1080x strip-web.png

Gate: the strip reads at 200 px, line weight holds at print size, and both exports exist with distinct names.

Stage 8 - Test the read on someone who has not seen the script

You cannot unsee your own script. One reader who has not seen it will find the panel where the sequence breaks.

8.1 Show the strip with no explanation and ask what happened, in order.

8.2 Note the panel where they hesitate - that is the broken joint.

8.3 If they misread a character's identity, the silhouette or the costume is not consistent enough.

8.4 If they read the balloons out of order, the tails or the placement is wrong, not the dialogue.

8.5 Fix the one joint that broke and re-test with one more reader, not five.

8.6 Keep the note: the same joint breaks in the next strip if the habit is not changed.

Gate: one reader can retell the strip in the intended order without prompting.

Stage 9 - Archive the strip so it can be reused

A finished strip is an asset: a zine page, a carousel, a print, a portfolio piece. The archive is what makes reuse cheap.

9.1 Keep the layered master, the panel exports and the print file in one folder per strip.

9.2 Keep the beat sheet and the thumbnail with the art; they are the explanation of every layout choice.

9.3 Record the grid, the lettering font and sizes used, so a sequel matches without guesswork.

9.4 Note the reading direction and the target language, in case the strip is translated later.

9.5 Add the strip to a contact sheet of all strips, so the visual consistency of a series is visible.

Gate: one folder holds master, panels, exports, beat sheet and thumbnail, with settings recorded.

Quality checklist

• The script was converted into 4-8 drawable beats.
• The turn is marked and has the largest panel.
• The grid shape matches the intended page format.
• Gutters are uniform across the strip.
• A thumbnail exists with a marked eye path.
• No balloon crosses the eye path.
• Every panel has a stated distance and angle.
• Consecutive panels vary in distance.
• Every panel's silhouette reads when filled black.
• No balloon exceeds 12 words.
• Lettering is one size across the whole strip.
• Every balloon tail points at a speaker's mouth.
• Art, lettering and effects are on separate layers.
• The strip reads at 200 px thumbnail size.
• Line weight holds at 100% in the print export.

Failure modes

Copy-ready agent prompt

Read the skill at the URL above and turn my script into a comic strip. Ask me for the script, the target format and the reading language, then produce the beat sheet with the turn marked, a grid choice with a reason, a thumbnail layout with the eye path, and per-panel notes on distance, angle and where the balloon sits. Cut my dialogue to 12 words per balloon and list what you removed. Finish with the export sizes and a three-question read test. Do not write the story for me or copy an existing artist's style.