A Panel Shaped Screen is a monthly column where Giada Zavarise explores how comics and video games inspire each other (and is supposed to be on a Thursday, my bad. This week Giada is looking at the games that are actually comics.
Drawing a comic book is like playing Tetris with narrative beats. You have to somehow put on a page everything the script requires you to draw, give the right amount of space to important moments, make sure the reader s gaze flows naturally from panel to panel, and all your panels must look nice and clear but also in harmony with each other.
So you, the artist, sketch little layouts first. You shuffle and rearrange the panels, trying to find the right combination before drawing the page. It s a difficult process, but it can give you the same satisfaction of playing a puzzle game — so it s no surprise to see developers turning this process into a literal game.