Nancy Drew Clue Crew Graphic Novel Step-By-Step

Papercutz shares with us a step-by-step for putting together Clue Crew #3!

STEP 1 - SCRIPT

This is Sarah Kinney's script for this page. In this scene, the girls are trying to decide which class pet to bring home and pet-sit while school is out. Sarah gives Stan some "acting" guidance for the characters as well as scene descriptions and dialogue. It's important for him to know how everyone is feeling and what they're thinking since he's actually telling the story in pictures rather than just illustrating it. Sarah spends a lot of time describing the note flying out the window as that's a main clue in the mystery.

Page Three

Panel 1: Just outside their closed classroom door, annoyed George scolds sheepish Bess. Nancy is catching up with them, as she looks at the back of Principal Newman walking farther down the hall.

GEORGE

Oh, Bess! Finally a chance to get Rizzo all to

ourselves, and you’re going all rat hater on us?

BESS

I don’t hate Rizzo!

Panel 2: Close on Bess who scrunches her nose and shivers in disgust.

BESS

I just can’t stand to touch him… or look at him… or

think about him…>jjrrrvv<

Panel 3: Slightly harried Mrs. Ramirez joins the girls, holding a key to the door.
Nancy looks at her, concerned.

MRS. RAMIREZ

Sorry I’m late getting back from lunch. I was

arranging a ski trip this weekend. Hate to waste

fresh snow!

NANCY

You’re not late. We’re back early to pick a pet to sit

for. But, we’re not in total agreement.

Panel 4: Looking through a half open window, past a long, large aquarium tank on the shelf, we see the classroom door starting to open. This tank is larger than any we’ve seen, and we cannot see what it contains. A folded note on the shelf beside the tank is caught by a cross breeze from the opening door. We only see Mrs. Ramirez’ name handwritten on it. Balloon from off-panel Nancy behind opening door.

HANDWRITING ON NOTE

MRS. RAMIREZ

NANCY (OFF PANEL)

George wants Rizzo, but Bess is… well, not as

thrilled about a sleepover with the rat.

Page three continued

Panel 5: As the door opens wide, the note is aloft and starts to fly out the window. The girls enter, looking back up at Mrs. Ramirez coming in behind them. Mrs. Ramirez takes the key from the lock as she opens the door. No one notices the large tank, or the flying note beside it.

NOTE (HANDWRITTEN)

MRS. RAMIREZ

MRS. RAMIREZ

Well, since it’s your turn to pick, Nancy. You have

to be the tiebreaker and do what you think is right.

NANCY

>Sigh< But, like my dad always says; the right

thing to do isn’t always the easy thing.

STEP 2 - PENCILS

Stan's pencils are really tight and almost look like the final art. He's been doing this for a while! There's a lot of action and meaning in George's facial expressions (she really wanted the rat!) and Mrs. Ramirez calms things down just by showing up. The note at the bottom of the page is from Papercutz Editor-In-Chief Jim Salicrup. It looked like the paper already blew out the window in Panel 4, so he thought Stan should show it floating outside the window in Panel 5. There's a photo of this page on Stan's drawing board, as well!

STEP 3 - FINAL

Once Stan got approval on the pencils, he went over it with an ink brush to clean it up and make it ready for print production. When you compare it to the pencils, you can see that he made some decisions about line thickness, to emphasize the important features of certain characters and de-emphasize background elements. In Panel 1, Nancy now has a much more defined outline than she did in the pencils. Colorist Laurie Smith and Letterer Todd Orzechowski then take the inked art and add color and word balloons on the computer.

Jenn:)