Penciller
A penciller is the artist who draws the first full version of a comic's pages — layouts, figures and backgrounds — in pencil, before inking and colouring.
In depth
In the traditional American workflow, the writer produces a script, the penciller turns it into pages — choosing the layout, staging each panel and drawing the figures — and then hands the pages to the inker. Today many artists pencil digitally, and many ink their own work, but the role remains the first stage of the art.
Credits
American comics credit each stage: writer, penciller, inker, colourist and letterer. When one person does pencils and inks, the credit is often simply "artist". In manga, the mangaka usually does all of it with assistants.
From script to page
A penciller works from the writer's script, which may describe every panel in detail or simply give the events of a page and leave the staging to the artist. Deciding how many panels a page has, where the camera stands and how the figures act is called breakdowns or layouts, and it shapes the pacing as much as the script does.
Finding artists you like
Credits inside a collected edition list every artist who worked on it. Because collected runs sometimes change artist midway, checking the credits explains why the look of a series can shift between volumes, and helps you find more of the artist you liked.
What it means today
Following a favourite penciller across series is one of the best ways to find new comics you will like.
