Creating a comic book requires different expertises, which often means a full creative team: Writer: the writer is responsible for the script. It starts with the overall scenario / plot of course but may also include panel description, dialogues, captions, and any other notes that will help the artists to bring the story to life. Penciller: the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form. Pencillers work with different tools, traditionally or on computer. They interpret the script and layout the story in pages and panels to showcase steps in the plot. The pencils tend to be a looser version of the final product. Inker: the inker outlines, retraces and finalizes penciller's drawings by using pens or brushes. Inking can be made directly on the original page on which the penciller worked ("inks over pencils"), on a copy of this page (see Inks over blueline), or digitally on scanned pencils. Colorist: the colorist is responsible for adding color to inked (black-and-white) art. It used to be done by hand, using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates (see Color guides). Now it is most often done digitally. Letterer: the letterer is responsible for incorporating all the dialogue, captions and sometimes sound effects onto the page. Typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout contribute to the impact of the comic. This step can also be done digitally. Painter: rather than coloring on computer or as a separate layer, some artists (such as Alex Ross, Juanjo Guarnido, Enrico Marini, Bill Sienkiewicz on Elektra: Assassin) hand paint their pages with no intermediate pencils and inks. A picture being worth a thousand words: Please contact us if you know who deserves the credit Note that, in Europe, penciller and inker (and sometimes colorist and letterer as well) are usually a single person, which explains why an album usually takes between 6 months and one year to create. Some related videos: The Comic Book Development Process (Prop Store) - Phil Jimenez shares his page layout process - Batman Damned cover #3 Pencils and Inks by Jim Lee - Alex Ross Talks Painting & Comics - Jean Giraud drawing Blueberry with pencil, pen and brush - Scott Williams speed inking - Sandra Hope inking Jim Lee - William Vance at work - Wolverine Logan traditional inking by Walden Wong - Hermann at Work - Steve Mannion shows off his Fearless Dawn process - Le Projet Bleiberg par Frédéric Peynet - Naissance d'une affiche par François Schuiten - Inking Demo by Paolo Rivera - Stan Sakai step-by-step process - Hand lettering And a few other resources: Coloring Comic Books Before Computers - Dan Jurgens process on Superman, Final Crisis and Booster Gold