question for creators: how do you usually plan your comics?

I have a pretty convoluted system actually! lmao I have an entire google spreadsheet that I use for the planning of Godsbane, that way I can look at the page, chapter, volume, and arc layout. I have about 1200 pages planned, and using that document helps me stay on track and make sure the story doesn't wander too much. I blend the 4part act Kishoutenketsu with the 8part Harmon cycle, so using a document like that helps a lot managing all the small parts.

From there, I'll plan out (or estimate) each panel for each page in a word doc, and then I'll start drawing the page in Clip Studio.

@ArtCrumbs thats cool! way more organized

So what I usually do is take a lot of notes and jot down all the ideas I have for the story or series. I usually make a few guides or scripts to work from to help give me an idea to how to illustrate and tell the story. But the plan mostly lies in the rough sketches of every single page. In short, my plan is a bit all over the place but I somehow manage ^^;

@Tofutush I pretty much plan my comics out like you. i always have the germ of a idea in my head for a comic story so i write it down on a word document. i'm trying to get better at developing a real system

I think about how I want it to end, then I think about what would be the most opposite situation for that, and that is how it begins. When I know the ending, it's easier to start building stuff like foreshadowing and character motivations and relationships.
Every good story is about change, but if you don't know how your story is going to end, it's harder to create change without it coming off as forced or too sudden or feeling to mild.

Theme is also important. I simply think about what do I want to convince my reader off, then I make that argument into a character. After that the scenes almost write themselves because I know what every character in them must want and how they are going to pursue them.

I drew episode one on a whim. I didn’t do any planning other than the dialogue, making up character designs and poses/panel layouts as I went. After that I decided some planning was important, so I wrote the dialogue for the first 20 episodes in script form and loosely planned out all three arcs on google docs. Still don't have some character designs (like the main villain) and I still don't plan comic layouts beforehand. This method has worked pretty well for me.
But having some direction is really important in my opinion so you don't drag anything out or realized that something doesn't work and have to redo everything

I have a giant outline of the entire story written out already. It's a big mess and really needs to be organized but I can still read it.

From there, I write a detailed outline and script for one volume at a time. That way when I start the art part of things, I don't have to think about what the characters are saying or text. JUST art.

Would you believe me If I say i didn't write a script before my comic? Because that's how I do it and it also explains why I have done so much exposition dump, lore, and world-building on my comic before meeting the main protagonist. I have so much idea on my head that I already know where the story is going. I just want to make sure I didn't break any established ground rules, put myself into a corner, ass pull, plot-holes, and mary sue moments.

Right now, I am planning a second sci-fi comic still related to my first fantasy comic and I am making sure that such lore, world-building, and exposition dump only appears among the characters discovering it to make it short and brief. I learned my lesson that readers are more interested with characters than Lore. they only read the lore right after they are interested on the content.

I'm a bit late to the party here, but I'm the same, more or less, as Fassoul above. I have the rough story in my head. I know where it wants to go and I just create it. It's all in my head. I know the characters and how they interact. I know the good guys and who's evil. Sometimes as I work, the dialogue drives the graphics. Sometimes the opposite, the graphics drive the dialogue. About 50/50. Often the comic sort of writes itself. Sometimes I "listen" to the characters in a situation and I "hear" what they want to say. That sounds loony, but sometimes characters come out with dialogue I would never have thought of. I love doing it.

I have been scripting my comic for years and have a library of journals dedicated to its ideas, concepts, scenes, dialogue, settings info, etc. But when I opened my Instagram around 2017, I decided to upload my comic's rough sketches for myself (officially around 2018). Then I found readers who liked my drafts, were actually following the story, as haphazard as the order is, and character designs. So far, my output is an episode, or 2, monthly, but I have peace of mind that I can use the Instagram rough drafts and journals to plan out the webcomic series.

I Write the whole story out and break it up into proper chapters. Takes a lot of writing and planning before I even draft the first thumbnail. Then again, I barely started this journey lmao.

I have a draft laid out of how the chapter is going to go. As for a script, I set up panels and get the characters talking, as well as jot down any events that will happen in the panel. It gives me a better idea on how the panels will look once I start drawing.