Daphne's Rules for Writing Comiics

“... the Code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.” — Captain Hector Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

This is kind of a grab-bag of both storytelling suggestions and practical suggestions, aimed a writer who is going to be working with an artist who is not them. Of course, like every set of "rules" in art, you can break them if the result is better than following them, but it's a good idea to know what paths have been trod on to avoid obvious bad directions.

The essential grammar of sequential storytelling has been around for nearly 200 years (and, of course, people were telling stories in art for millenia before that). It's a good idea to know that grammar, because comics readers are highly acclimated to it, and they don't have to work as hard if you are following it. (Of course, break it if it works better.) Understanding Comics is the first place to start to learn about how to tell stories with pictures, but there's a universe of stuff out there.

You can tell a story with pictures in a thousand ways, of course, and if you want to do something other than traditional comics style, go for it! The best teller of illustrated stories alive today (IMHO) is Chris Ware, and his work is nothing like a Marvel comic.