In case you missed it in the opening of my article Screenplays ain’t Comic Scripts, I explain that live action (screenplays) use as much as 4 times (or more) as many visuals than comics.

One thing I’ve noticed in recent years is that many modern writers try to mimic film in their comics. 

A really big pitfall of this, is the fact that Action in the moment, eats up comic page real estate faster than a fat man at an all you can eat buffet.

In other words, real-world continuity of action uses a massive amount of panels.

Pull up this video in another window and watch the first 60 seconds. We’re gonna look at the opening to one of the main car chases in Ronin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m-ofGDLNlM

This first minute of this action sequence has a whopping 52 camera shots which equates to at least 57 comic panels captured frame to panel:

1. Cars approach
2. Close on DeNiro
3. Medium Jean Reno
4. Extreme CU street light controller
5. Overhead light change (really 3 separate comic panels)
6. Cars approach
7. Int. Car – DeNiro pulls grenade launcher
8. Ext. Car – DeNiro aims and fires (really 2 separate panels)
9. Impact of grease on car Angle 1
10. Impact of grenade on car Angle 2
11. Int. Car – Reaction shot – The Target (bald guy with briefcase)
12. Crane shot – focus on lead car explosion
13. DeNiro pulls machine gun
14. Bad guys emerge from car
15. Close on Jean Reno
16. Extreme close Controller device
17. Extreme close on fake gun shot gadget in planter, which fires (2 panels)
18. Ext. Bad Guy Reaction shot – distracted by gunfire
19. Long shot – Bad Guy Reaction shot second Angle
20. Bad guys shoot at planter
21. Denior fires gun
22. Medium on The Target screaming in car
23. Wide shot DeNiro firing on bad guys
24. Reaction shot, bad guys being shot
25. Int. Car – The Target nervous holding McGuffin
26. Car speed away
27. Bird’s Eye Car chase
28. Bad guy gun fire
29. Jean Reno shoots pistol at bad guys
30. New Bad Guy Car pulls up with bad guys shooting
31. Jean Reno shoots pistol at bad guys
32. Reaction shot bad guy hit
33. DeNiro fires
34. Bad guys in car return fire
35. Jean Reno ducks for cover
36. Bad guys continue shooting, 1 killed
37. DeNiro shoots while taking fire
38. Denior takes cover behind car
39. Crane shot of gunfire exchange
40. Jean Reno pops up and shoots
41. Close DeNiro shooting rifle
42. Bad guys in car return fire
43. Bad guys in car speed off
44. DeNiro yells to ally
45. Jean Reno reaction shot to DeNiro
46. Bad guy car #2 speeds away shooting
47. Close on DeNiro returning fire
48. Jean Reno sweeps across fruit stand under fire
49. Fruit stand and civilians shot up
50. Close of DeNiro pulling back
51. Jean Reno and DeNiro get into car
52. Int. – Jean Reno gets into the Driver’s Seat

57 comic panels in 1 minute of movie sequence equates to 11-19 comic pages, not including any full page art highlights!

If you were to script this in a comic with a lot of room to breathe, at the 3 panel per page rate (which you really wouldn’t do, but let’s say you did), that’s practically an entire one-shot issue, from 1 minute of real-world action.

Even playing devil’s advocate, if we went the other way a scripted this as 6 panels per page (again, which you would never really do), that’s still a whopping 10 pages of real estate–nearly HALF an entire one-shot, and don’t forget… this single minute of Ronin showcased here is only 1 out of 7 total minutes of the action sequence!

This one action sequence scripted image-for-image to the comic medium, would be 4 or 5 issues of comic real estate.

While nobodies converting Ronin to a comic, a lot of modern comic writers fall into this same trap, of trying to convey too much action continuity in their scenes… just like film does… These cats often deliver bigger scenes that just don’t have a lot of narrative weight to them.

I guess it makes sense for me to point out exactly what I mean by continuity of action… 

If we look at one of the first shots in this sequence, Jean Reno standing underneath the street light as he controls it, making it go from green, to yellow, to finally red, to stop his target car. These images have narrative purpose. Narrative weight, or Narrative Drive. They are a specific visual moving the story or plot forward.

Compared to the shots where Jean Reno and DeNiro get into the car, or just after this sequence, when their car peels out of the parking space.

Getting into the car and the car peeling out, have no narrative purpose, weight or drive.

If one moment the two shoot bad guys and the next moment they appear in the car giving chase, the narrative hasn’t lost anything. It may be a bit jarring, because we’ve broken the continuity of action, the real-world sequence of events, but again, the story itself doesn’t suffer.

What other shots/panels can you spot from the video and list above that are merely continuity shots and have little or no substance to them?

Obviously, a comic NEEDS to stew in the present moment… and sometimes “superficial” continuity of action panels are exactly what the story calls for at a specific moment.

While you’re really not likely to convert anything live-action directly to a comic over the course of your career, hopefully this article emphasizes the monumental need of the comic medium; to choose the vast majority of the imagery not for continuity of action, but for very specific narrative purpose. A shorter scene with more narrative weight is far more effective than a longer, more “realistic” scene, that captures continuity of action. ▪

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Nick Macari is a full-time freelance story consultant, developmental editor and writer, working primarily in the independent gaming and comic markets. His first published comic appeared on shelves via Diamond in the late 90’s. Today you can find his comic work on comixology, Amazon, and in select stores around the U.S.