A writer will write a script. Most scripts I’ve seen are written like a short story or a play, with the dialog broken out from the action. This gives some idea of the pacing of the story.

The writer and artist will then compose a storyboard, which is a very simple version of the comic. Not a lot of detail, maybe arrows drawn to signify the direction of movement or where to focus the reader’s eye. This is almost exactly how movies do it. This stage is not necessary, but I find it to be the best process for allowing the writer to get some of their vision of the action into the visuals of the page

property SMR-Comics on deviantART

Then the artist, at this point we call them a Penciller
, will start drafting out the sketches of the page that will be the final product. Some comic creators use this as an extension or replacement of the storyboarding phase. The penciller is responsible for defining the cell boundaries (called “gutters”), and the word bubbles.

property Carl Peterson

Traditionally, the penciller creates space for the word bubbles, and allows for a Letterer

(literally someone who writes in the speech bubbles) to fill in the words.

More frequently now, this process is being performed digitally; with a typed font replacing the lettering and the bubbles being added ‘on top’ of the original artwork. Either way, room for the bubbles must be accounted for.

When the pencil art is finished, it is handed over to an Inker
who, you guessed it, inks over the pencils. We love making the old ‘tracer’ joke in the industry, but even someone who inks their own pencils knows that there’s a great deal of finality that happens to the art in this process. Line thickness, blackened space and depth are all solidified during the inking phase.

property Joe Weems

Next comes the Colorist
, who adds colors, shading, shadows, and effects to the artwork. Sometimes the colorist will take advantage of definitions created by the inker, and overlay colors to turn black space into a more vibrant area. Again, this process is getting more complex with the introduction of digital coloring tools.

Penciller – $160 per page
Inker – $120 per page
Colorist – $80 per page
Letterer – $20 per page

(these dollar amounts can vary widely among talent)

So—after writing—each page would cost about $380 per page. Most comics stories are about 22 pages—so that’s $8,360.

From there, you’d have any production costs (I do pre-press, too—putting the comic book together for the printer)—a comic book is 36 pages—so you have 4 covers and another 8 pages to fill with non-comics content…

…letters pages, art gallery, an article about the creators, etc.

You have to pay for these pages to be designed.

And of course the printing—unless you plan on digital-only distribution.

A whole comic book—including the writing—could be as much as 10 to 12 thousand.