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I decided to write The Proofreader’s Guide to Comic Book Style for a simple reason: there wasn’t an existing reference book dedicated to editorial style and mechanics for North American comics.

There are great books out there about other comics writing, editing, and publishing topics. But there wasn't one covering all the nitty-gritty elements of editorial style that copyeditors and proofreaders should know—like the dashes, the crossbar I’s, the bold italics, and how to spot problems with caption boxes and speech balloons.

There are few, if any, absolute rules in publishing, and it would be impossible to cover every possible situation. But I’ve laid out the conventions that comics writers, letterers, and publishers tend to use, noting when one style is dominant and when approaches are all over the map.

In addition to punctuation, capitalization, numbers, emphasis, special symbols, sound effects, balloons, and more, I cover the mechanics and workflow of copyediting and proofreading, from scripts to lettered panels. Whether you work with big superhero series, indie graphic novels, or webtoons, there will be something here for you.

—Madeleine