These rough sketches are the most important stage in creating strips in my view: they are great for seeing if a strip idea is viable, or worth scaling up into a finished drawing. I am on my fourth bulging binder of these roughs: well over 1000 ideas on file, most of which haven't been drawn up yet.........naturally, all ideas won't be getting used, but even if an idea doesn't work, it can always be strengthened later, and if it's no use at all, well, I've only spent a few minutes on it.
This method is also fine for working out drawing problems/ composition/layout etc [any decent idea will usually mean the cartoonist tackling unchartered territory] and saves a lot of time working out the finished penciling.
Advantages: great quick way to see if an idea is worth inking up properly:
Disadvantages: often, the spontenaeity of the original can never be recaptured during penciling and inking the full-scale drawing.
