One difficult dance a comic creator must play is determining how much or how little dialog to include on each page and each panel. Conversations that are personal, serious, or more in-depth like the one on this page can be especially challenging. Often, the visual elements on the page, including expressions, scenery, props, and gestures, can do a lot of heavy lifting. With some though, it’s harder to communicate in more than just words. That’s when your editor’s hat becomes even more important.

This conversation between Ine and June about their respective career choices was originally much longer, but due to the constraints of the number of panels on the page and the amount of space in each panel, it needed to be edited down considerably. One thing that can help is to think about what absolutely needs to stay. In this case, I wanted June to mention her CNA class and Ine that he’s studying game design, and then I wanted them to each validate the path that the other had chosen. From there, it’s easier to determine which parts of the script support those key points and which can safely be cut.