Page 2 and the Science of Speech Balloons

Here is Page 2 of LiaDR, complete with text balloons, and just awaiting colouring:

I'm still not completely sure about the format of the balloons or the font - rounded rectangles appealed to me slightly more than the more common elliptic balloons, and I put everything in standard case font (lower and upper case) before I realised that most comics favour capitals. Anyway, it's all still open to revision at this stage. One downside with rectangular balloons is that you get some wastage in the corners when the text is centred (covering more art than it should). A compromise might be to do 'stepped' balloons (overlapping rounded rectangles for each line?) - which I may try at some later point.

While I'm on the topic, here's what I've learned about speech balloons:

• You shouldn't draw them at the same time as the line art. In other words, draw all your art then add the speech balloons later (digitally). This allows you to do things like change font, alter text, reposition stuff - in short, it just gives you more flexibility. The only reason not to do this would be to save on drawing the areas that would be behind the balloons - and we're not that lazy, are we? :)
• There's a rhythm to where they should appear, and how much text there should be. They are as much a part of the composition as the art. Obviously, it's not always easy to serve both masters (text and art), but ideally they should complement one another. This said, I'm worrying a little that there's too much text on this page - especially panel 5.
• It is governed by complex conventions. Have a look at this lettering guide on Blambot. I realise that not all these conventions are strict - I've already broken some - but conventions also provide a common language that is important if you want people to understand you. So, much learning to be done still.

For anyone interested, my method for producing the word balloons was to use Photoshop's rounded rectangle tool, then to make paths with the pen tool to join balloons and make tails. Then it can all be turned into a selection and filled with white and the edge stroked with black. The rounded rectangles are also good in that they automatically wrap text.

Anyway, comments welcome. You may notice I got a bit carried away with the cigar smoke in panel 2. :)