How to write a comic

I couldn't manage being you. I can barely find my tea, for Pete's sake...

All right, what subject shall we talk abuot next? Pacing? that's a common newbie problem...

Pacing.

OK, now we're moving on to the advance part of our program.

And I think you have to split it into big league books and peewee league books. For the sake of this, I'm including minors in with the bigs.

I'll start with peewee. This is the kinda thing you do, POD and doesn't have adverts. This makes it easy. All you gotta worry about is aiming for page 22 and either winding up all the loose ends OR making a nice juicy cliff-hanger.

Now we touched on panel layout for pacing, but you can kinda break this up a little bit further. Lots of action, speeding up the pace, little panels, lots of panel, stacato pacing, all good, right? But I've also used those same small panels (I even wrote a script with 16 panels 4 x 4) to do the complete opposite and drag out a "waiting for the attack" scene.

Same goes for Splash Pages, or Double Page Spreads. One big picture, relative to that 16 panel page, it's a much faster read. But what if I load that SP or DPS with tons of background detail? And I mean specific detail to the plot, not just pretty pictures.

Now when it comes to dipping for the wire, on several occasions, I've actually started planning my book (with the thumbnails), gotten about halfway through, then jumped to the last page and planned that, then page 21, then 20, then 19 and even as far back as 18. Then gone back and joined the two points. This is one of the reason I use the thumbnails.

I always aim to do a change of scene on an EVEN page number. Reason is obvious. It's a page turn and a natural break. Think of it like a wipe edit in a movie.

And here is where we move to the big leagues. Books that sell advertising space.

No matter how I plan it, as soon as you throw adverts into the middle of a book, the page layout is screwed. Because if I write page 1, then do a DPS on 2 & 3, if there's an ad on page 4, MY page four is suddenly an ODD numbered page in the book. Remember, an average 22 page story is sold in a 32 page book. Ten pages to screw your pacing.

I sat in on a talk by a Marvel writer who aims to have a start, middle and end on EVERY page. I can't do that, but it's something I'm aiming for.

However, when you consider ALL of the above, you gotta remember that the artist can come in and change the pacing. I wrote a book that had a big splash page. It was big because it was the hero's grand entrance and a good chunk of the book had been leading to this point. It was gonna be an awesome spalsh. And then when I saw the pencils, he split the page into three vertical panels with the hero, full-on manly heroic pose, floating, the three panels behind him. Changed the entire dynamic of the page, but it worked. And it worked better than my idea.

I'm just curious, what Marvel writer are you referring to? I can thnk of a couple that sounds like...

Ultimately, I don't worry about whihc page my pacing falls on, because as is pointed out, ads will screw it up. And if you somehow plan for ads (some comics used to, in the 90's) then it screws up again if it's collected into an ad-free graphic novel collection.

Pacing can be tricky, especially for new comic writers, who aren't used to the format. What I see happening, many times, is that they are worried they'll lose the reader, and thus they show every movement in a panel, and each character in a different panel, because they worry it won't make sense if two characters do two things and say different things all in the same panel.

And really, you won't lose them.

Pacing, in comics, is not the same at all as pacing in a novel. In a novel, it's the speed and flow of the story, but comics are a different instrument, in that they don't flow. You may be about to argue, but bear with me, they don't. A novel can flow the story from paragraph to paragraph, pag to page, a comic is split into panels, and that's to its benefit. It means you have a "Beat" between each panel. Think of a comic as a drum kit, instead of a trumpet. No long notes, just fast notes, slow notes, rapid-fire rolls on the snare, thumping of the bass, cymbal crashes. A drum kit is a perfect metaphor for a comic book.

Writing drums is different than writing trumpets, and it's important to know that while they both share similar traits -- and you can tell the story of one in the other format, usually) they are their own animals, and looking at them that way will help you out no end.

OK, I was going big picture and you went a little more subtle and I think we're moving away from pacing and into structure and (self) editing.

That said, what you say is again, bang on the money.

As you say, in prose, you write and you write everything that needs to be writen and no more. Think of that like a symphony.

With comics, it's often about what you DON'T write. Like PeeDee says, between each panel is a beat, but I don't think it's a "pause" kinda beat. Think of this like Jazz.

Go listen to the song from Porgy & Bess, "Summertime." Pick a version, something like a cast recording, or go for a Gershwin version. That's the novel. Now go listen to Miles Davis' version of Summertime. Davis picks out notes, the important ones - this is what you need to do.

Those beats, if you're doing your job right, will be filled in by the readers' imagination. Just like the listener fills in the blanks when listening to Davis.

This kinda leads into narrative drive. How do you lead the reader through your story, cutting across pages, scenes and even issues? How do you maintain a readers interest when it will be at least a month (maybe more) before they get to see the next installment?

What? Nobody wants to take a run at that question?

The Marvel writer BTW, I forget his name, but he's been working on one of the Spidey titles. Man I am terrible with names. Faces, I remember faces. But names?

wordmonkey said:

What? Nobody wants to take a run at that question?

The Marvel writer BTW, I forget his name, but he's been working on one of the Spidey titles. Man I am terrible with names. Faces, I remember faces. But names?

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Joe Straczynski? Brian Michael Bendis? Those are the two big names on Spidey right now, at least, the ones I can remember. From what you're talking about, I was thinking Brian Bendis.

(and it is a good question that I will take a stab at, but I haven't had the time to write an article on it yet... sorry. )

Paul jenkins.

You would think I'd remember that. He wrote a book for Image which has the same basic idea as one I did for Viper.

Peedee said:

Back to comic scripts.

My default method of writing a script is pretty basic. Here's a rough idea:

...

PAGE ONE (nine panels): Three panels on top, one long strip panel, three panels below, two panels below that.

PANEL ONE: A shot of our man walking down the street, hands in his pockets.

NO TEXT.

PANEL TWO: A shot of our man, same as before, but shadowed heavily.

TEXT (People shouting, off-panel): Oh my God! What's THAT!? Look out!

PANEL THREE: Our man looks up, startled.

CLARK(thought): This is how you know the day's going badly.

PANEL FOUR: A robot lands on top of CLARK KENT, scattering bits of road and cars all around it in a heavy, heavy shock wave. We see a bit of John's hand and foot sticking up in the panel, out from under the robot's big feet.

PANEL FIVE: Complete blackness.

CAPTION: "That really hurts. I don't care how invincible you are, big robot landing on top of you equals pain."

PANEL SIX: A side shot of the robot's big leg. It's raised up out of the hole in the ground, CLARK's hands pushing it up. His skin is intact, his sleeves are tattered and filthy.

CAPTION: "And honestly, a big robot? Who wakes up and thinks 'golly, today I will build a big robot, what a great idea.' Seriously?"

PANEL SEVEN: CLARK sitting all the way up, arms over his head, still holding up the robot foot. His teeth are clenched. He's filthy and his clothes are shredded and dirty, but his skin is intact.

CAPTION: "If that's how they think, I don't know why I even need to stop the bad guys and save the world. They aren't getting out their front doors this way."

PANEL EIGHT: A shot from behind CLARK, who is now standing up in the hole. His arms are back, he's just flung the robot off him and despite being six stories tall, it's gone sailing away from him.

CAPTION: "Still, I don't get on the front page of papers by looking good in tights, which is a shame."

PANEL EIGHT: A shot of CLARK'S chest, where he's just ripped open his tattered shirt and jacket, to reveal the SUPERMAN uniform underneath.

CAPTAIN: "Guess I'd better get on with it."

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Now, you're probably wondering why i've just quoted myself.

After posting my example page of script, I went and dropped an e-mail to the artist I'm currently happily working with. I sent him the one-page of Superman script and asked him if he wouldn't mind drawing it up.

The point being, so you can see the translation between what's a fairly basic page of comic script, to a rough sketch of the comic page itself.

His name is Chris Saar and he did, as he does every time, a damn good job.

Here's the sketch.

PeeDee said:

Now, you're probably wondering why i've just quoted myself.

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I was.

Couple of interesting things about this.

First off, when I read the script, I imagined that the robot had fallen on Clark. So seeing what the artist draws as a very deliberate STOMP is something to consider. the way you write and imagine, might not be what the artist sees and draws and, if you're working on something other than your own project, it might not be how the editor who approves the script before it's passed on to the artist, imagines it.

Of course, I could have just misread it, but the point is the same. Don't get locked into one ideaof how a page should be.

Second. There could well be someone looking at that artist's version and thinking, "Man that looks rough!"

And it does. If that were all there were to it. But this is a thumbnail. It's a test to see how the page dynamic plays out. This is the test version. Does the script translate to the art? Is there a better way to represent the action? Is there room for all the dialog?

That first long wide panel is difficult to pull off, because it requires height and the panel doesn't have it, so you need to rotate, but if you rotate too far it's a mess, because unlike a Playdude center-fold, you really DON'T want to have to turn a comicbook 90 degrees to check out a panel. If this didn't work, then we'd need to sit down again and rethink the script. But it's better to discover that NOW than if our artist had simply started doing the really polished version.

(NOTE TO ASPIRING WRITERS - If your artist doesn't do thumbnails, odds are, they are either awesomely talented OR they don't really know what they are doing. You can probably guess which is the more likely of those two scenarios.)

The artist breaks out of the confines of the panel as well, which adds to the dynamic of that panel. It simply can't contain all the action.

Once this gets the go-ahead, our friendly neighborhood penciler will get out the Bristol Board, maybe the color-safe blue pencil, and start working on the real pages.

wordmonkey said:

I was.

Couple of interesting things about this.

First off, when I read the script, I imagined that the robot had fallen on Clark. So seeing what the artist draws as a very deliberate STOMP is something to consider. the way you write and imagine, might not be what the artist sees and draws and, if you're working on something other than your own project, it might not be how the editor who approves the script before it's passed on to the artist, imagines it.

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I also imagined it as the robot accidentally stepping on Clark. The robot is stamping through Metropolis, it crushes a citizen impassively....but that citizen is the last son of Krypton, who throws him away.

BUT, if I got this thumbnail, I would rethink the entire script based around the fact that the robot STOMPED on Clark maliciously. What does this mean? Does the robot know that he's Superman? Moreover, what about the crowds who, panicked or not, did see him pick up and throw a robot? How does this affect things?

AND...if this were real, he would have more than just one page at a time, and I would have told him the story already. So if the robot passively stomped on Clark, he would have understood that from the rest of the script and my storyline synopsis. But as it was, all I gave him was one page of script and nothing else.

Of course, I could have just misread it, but the point is the same. Don't get locked into one ideaof how a page should be.

Second. There could well be someone looking at that artist's version and thinking, "Man that looks rough!"

And it does. If that were all there were to it. But this is a thumbnail. It's a test to see how the page dynamic plays out. This is the test version. Does the script translate to the art? Is there a better way to represent the action? Is there room for all the dialog?

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Exactly, and Roughs are vitally important. It tells me if the shot works, or if it botches an emotion. It tells me if what I wrote actually beats out well, or if I've made it too fast, or too slow, or it doesn't flow smoothly from one panel to another.

One thing that Archie comics and Sonic the Hedgehog comics (weird mixture; bear with me) did when I was a kid was, on action pages, they would have arrows going from panel to panel, to make sure you read the right order.

You shouldn't have to do that. You don't have to stick to a set layout, you can have panels moving differently around the page, but the reader should flow between 'em without arrows, you see.

AND it tells me: do I have too much dialogue in a panel? Do I have too many panels without dialogue? Do the panels get the point across?

That first long wide panel is difficult to pull off, because it requires height and the panel doesn't have it, so you need to rotate, but if you rotate too far it's a mess, because unlike a Playdude center-fold, you really DON'T want to have to turn a comicbook 90 degrees to check out a panel. If this didn't work, then we'd need to sit down again and rethink the script. But it's better to discover that NOW than if our artist had simply started doing the really polished version.

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This is a fascinating point that I wanted to make too. When I envisioned the panel, I pictured just a level shot of the ground, as if the camera were still looking right-on at Clark, just from lower. We see the foot coming down, and maybe Clark's hand sticking out. That's why I talked about cars flying. Because I was thinking we'd bee able to see straight on down the street.

BUT, he did it differently, (and in his e-mail, he confessed he didn't know what I meant by flying cars, and so he did flying people) and I think he did it better. AND, the fact that he broke out of the panel works extremely well.

But what if it wasn't better? What if it completely blew the point I was trying to make, or ruined the tone I was trying to set? Then this would be where we find out and correct it, when the page consists of some nicely-done scribbly bits and not heavy inking and completed drawings.

(NOTE TO ASPIRING WRITERS - If your artist doesn't do thumbnails, odds are, they are either awesomely talented OR they don't really know what they are doing. You can probably guess which is the more likely of those two scenarios.)

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Even if the artist is awesomely talented, even if you're working with Jim Lee (when he's on deadline) or Todd McFarlane (before he was an asshole) then do your thumbnails. Insist on it. Because it's not only telling you if the ARTIST has a problem, it's telling if YOU have a problem. This is the best, best way to check your script and see how it's flowing. If you have the artistic ability, do them yourself, I guess, but I would rather your artist do them. It helps to build your working relationship, it helps get you on the same visual page if you aren't already, and it means that if things need to be changed, you and the artist can argue about it and change it before too much work has been done. That helps keep tempers cool and egos down.

The artist breaks out of the confines of the panel as well, which adds to the dynamic of that panel. It simply can't contain all the action.

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Exactly. And it's something I didn't mention in my script, and the artist did it anyway. If I didn't already know that Chris Saar and I were extremely well-meshed (and I do; visually, we are dead center with each other) this would be the sort of detail that gives it away. This is the sort of important thing to look for.

I didn't tell him to break out of the panel, didn't think of it at all. But after seeing it done, I realize that it's better than what I meant. It serves the comic much better, and I can't imagine NOT having it, now that it exists. That's a good thing. You don't really want an artist who does nothing but copies you, it's good when the artist shows you what you meant, sometimes better than you did. You're a team, after all, not a leader and a follower.

Once this gets the go-ahead, our friendly neighborhood penciler will get out the Bristol Board, maybe the color-safe blue pencil, and start working on the real pages.

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And while he's doing that, I'd be off writing more comic script. Which is, in fact, what I'm doing. Chris Saar and I are working on a one-off comic issue. After seeing his superman page come back, I happily went back to work on the one-off issue, though I'd stopped for a couple of days. It reminded me that we work well together, that it's amazing fun, and....er....that I'm over deadline, but nevermind that...

I think this is a really useful thing for this thread (actually, I just think this is a damned useful thread) in that it's important to know how your script translates, what to fight for and what not to fight for.

Plus, there's a thrill of giving the script to someone who gives you back not only what you wrote, but what you meant that's undiscribeable, and one of the reasons why I keep working on comics, even though I could probably get richer and have less stress if I picked my nose on a streetcorner for money.

This is a good thread, wordmonkey, even if we're the only two reading and replying.....

What a great insight into the creation of comics. I already had some basic knowledge, but I find the differences between Western and Eastern (what I know of it) comics creation fascinating.

Thanks, PeeDee, Wordmonkey.

No, you aren't the only ones reading this thread!

I was told, though, that most writers try to get one scene per page, or at least end each page at a natural break--a dramatic statement, an ultimatum, a question, whatever. That this was a good guideline to make sure your pacing is on target, and while it wasn't possible every page it was something to shoot for.

DecemberQuinn said:

No, you aren't the only ones reading this thread!

I was told, though, that most writers try to get one scene per page, or at least end each page at a natural break--a dramatic statement, an ultimatum, a question, whatever. That this was a good guideline to make sure your pacing is on target, and while it wasn't possible every page it was something to shoot for.

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I think that, if it doesn't damage the tone and rhythm of your comic (which, most of the time, I just don't see doing (there's nothing at all wrong with working like this. I mean, it's not like you're ending each page on a super-dramatic cliffhanger, you're just quietly leading from one page to another.

Sometimes, it's more subtle than anything. I've got Neil Gaiman's Sandman: The Doll's House on my lap right now, and I opened to a random page. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be any 'ending' to each page, they just flow naturally together.

The reason for this is that it's so subtle and well-done. Each page, or most of them, do indeed end with some kind of 'moment.' Even if it's nothing grander than the scene ending and the next scene beginning.


So, yeah, I don't see it as a bad idea at all.

Welcome back to the PeeDee and Wordmonkey mutual appreciation show!

First off, a couple of viewer questions we need to answer.

East vs. West. I don't know that really there is any difference in the way you would tell the story. I don't tend to read a lot of manga, but the principles are the same. It's visual storytelling and the rules/suggestions we've thus far discussed all apply.

Next. Scene-a-page. Your average sitcom on TV lasts about 22 minutes (when you've taken out the ad-breaks). The viewers head would be spinning if you made a scene cut every minute. However, the end of page scene cut is the way to go. And like I say, I TRY and go for scene cuts on the page turn, but you can't guarantee that with ads. The plus side is that ad placement CAN provide that extended break between scenes. The down side is you have no idea if or when they wil be placed in the book.

OK, so now I'm gonna address the hook. I'm gonna do it since m' colleague seems to be afraid to tackle it.

That's right, PeeDee. I'm calling you out! You heard me, bub. Afraid.

Obviously there needs to be a hook or cliffhanger ending to issues within an arc. If you're writing a four part arc, you want to make sure that readers who start the story stay with you. Now personally, I don't like to make these hangers REALLY in-your-face, obvious hooks. I want you to come back, but I don't want you to think I am manipulating you with a gun to the puppy's head every issue. It's a delicate balancing act.

Now sometimes I do want to end an issue with the hero facing death. Othertimes it needs to be amore subtle hook. Just leave some questions floating there and one specific question at the end of the issue - like who was Commissioner Gordon taking to on the phone about taking down Batman? And what did we miss at the start of that conversation we just caught the end of?

This brings me to the next part. For my money, you need to have a masterplan. And this can be hard if you're just starting out a comic series. It is also maybe something you don't need in a graphic novel (unless you plan to make your graphic novel a part of a series of graphic novels). The easiest example of this isn't actually a comicbook, but a TV series. And one I suspect m' colleague is VERY familiar with.

Babylon 5.

Maybe by about halfway through season three and all the way through season four you really needed to watch each episode. But prior to that it was a standard episodic TV show. You could watch an episode, skip an episode, and you could still enjoy the show. BUT, if you watched them, there were subtle little throw-away moments, little character development scenes that were rich and nice and really got you into the characters, the series, the universe, the show. Andthen as the major arc reveals itself, if you go back and watch the shows again, suddenly those little moments were ALL hooks for the big arc. Additionally, they were hooks for the series as a whole. The invested me in the series and the characters as well as leaving to meet up with friends the next day and ask, "What did you think THAT meant."

Did that make sense?

Summing it up, I think you need to have a big arc in mind, but you need to have real characters who have a life OUTSIDE the plots. But really, that isn't anything different from ANY form of writing.

Another analogy I like to use is the soap opera element. A good (if there is one) soap opera has you invested in the characters. Regardless of the setting and backgrounds, the basics are the same. Character rules. And in comics, don't mistake character for a costume, or a special power.

I'm not afraid to tackle it! I just got distracted by giving you guys art! Look at the art!

Sheesh.

Babylon 5 is a pretty good example, and it's the one I would've used. Babylon 5 heavily influenced my way of writing, in comics and in everything else.

I think that mostly, if you have a compelling story that you keep going at an interesting pace but that doesn't conclude at the end of the issue, then you've got yourself a natural hook into the next storyline. If the story is enough that the reader really needs to know what happens next, then they'll buy your next issue.

Self-compelled is better, in that it doesn't involve me, the writer, artificially getting them excited about the storyline. Because if I do that, and then a month passes between issues (as it tends to), then the excitement will fade and maybe they won't be so interested.

Whereas, a month-or-so passed between issues of Sandman, and I went ballistic waiting for it. Nevermind when I was following The death of Superman arc, or Knightfall in the Batman comics. You could have stopped mid-sentence and I would have come back for more.

PeeDee said:

I'm not afraid to tackle it! I just got distracted by giving you guys art! Look at the art!

Sheesh.

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DUDE!

Work with me here, I'm trying to build a little tension. Make 'em think there's some friction here, get the viewers clicking in to see what we fight about next! They don't have to know that we seem to agree on most of this.

PeeDee said:

I think that mostly, if you have a compelling story that you keep going at an interesting pace but that doesn't conclude at the end of the issue, then you've got yourself a natural hook into the next storyline. If the story is enough that the reader really needs to know what happens next, then they'll buy your next issue.

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Which I think comes from characters.

PeeDee said:

Self-compelled is better, in that it doesn't involve me, the writer, artificially getting them excited about the storyline. Because if I do that, and then a month passes between issues (as it tends to), then the excitement will fade and maybe they won't be so interested.

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But what makes the reader compelled? I think it comes down to crafting a whole product. Characters, concept, cool plot, great art. All are important, but you need ALL. Only one and you are looking at a dud.

PeeDee said:

Whereas, a month-or-so passed between issues of Sandman, and I went ballistic waiting for it. Nevermind when I was following The death of Superman arc, or Knightfall in the Batman comics. You could have stopped mid-sentence and I would have come back for more.

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So, this might be a side-bar of sorts, though I think looking at a real world example can help. What's the difference between The Death of Superman, or Knightfall and the recent assassination of Captain America? Death of Superman was a massive media event and the whole Knightfall even had maybe a year lead-up. Those were events. The Death of Cap is coming off with a much more "Blah" reaction.

Is it the writing? Is it burnout after Civil War? Is Cap just a weaker (in a literary sense) character? Is it the lack of heroic death (Supes fought himself to death to stop Doomsday - Bats was worn down by an onslaught of villains one after the other then topped by Bane - Cap is shot by a sniper)?

Cap's writer has a good reputation. Batman had the massive lead-up (a la Civil War). Cap did die saving an innocent. What's the difference?

Good stuff, you two. Keep it up.

We lurkers are taking copious notes.

I don't know if looking at Knightfall or Death Of Superman are worthwhile, in any case, because of the huge hype that built them up.

When I was younger, I hardly followed the media, I just read the comics. So I didn't know that Superman was going to die at all. Not even a little. But I knew that Doomsday was the nastiest bad guy I'd ever seen, I was scared of him at the time...and then he and Superman fought to a standstill, and neither one got up again.

It had a big effect on me.

Knightfall was somewhat the same way, though less so. The buildup to Knightfall, with Bane, didn't impress me so much when I was younger, although the actual moment of Bane defeating Batman was very impressive. The fact that both events happened so close to each other made me one screwed up guy for a while...

Civil War, though, ending in Captain America's death is a whole 'nother thing for me. Instead of being a focused storyline, like Knightfall, it's more of a scattershot story done across the whole of the Marvel Universe, rather like Infinite Crisis. I have tried dozens of times and have completely failed to find anything compelling in any of the Infinite Crisis books, at any point./

What Superman and Batman's events had was focus, something that Civil War lacked. I don't generally like universe-wide "events," and while it did alarm and depress me to see Captain America shot -- because, like Superman and Green Lantern, I grew up very fond of Captain America -- it didn't affect me the same way. Whether because of age, or because I knew it was coming, I don't know.

...but I think it's age. At a certain point, you stop believing in Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, and the death of super-heroes. Now, Captain America can die, so can Hal Jordan, and while I can enjoy the storyline and have a shade of emotion, it's not the same world-altering effect that I got from Superman.

I have a lot of catching up to do on this string. Looks fascinating.

Someone mentioned the Dark Horse comic script format -- sounded useful so I went hunting for it. Went to http://www.darkhorse.com and found this under writer's guidelines: http://www.darkhorse.com/company/scriptguide.pdf

Comparing the deaths/destructions of the heroes was really more of a side-bar. And I think you have something, PeeDee. I suspect that for kids reading Cap now, his "death" could well have a similar effect to the way you felt about Supes. But with age and cynicism it's less of an event.

I would also argue that as we are now working in and around that field, our analysis is more harsh. Whenever you see the little man behind the curtain, the all powerful Oz never quite looks the same again.

OK, back to the real meat of this thread. Dialog. Wanna take that and run, PeeDee?

Or are ya scared of that, too? Yeah, you heard me! I said...

oh, hang on...

Didn't work last time I tried it.

Right then... Dialog. PeeDee - batter up.

A Dialogue about Dialog.

Dialog for comic books works mostly by the same very basic rules as regular prose, but it differs wildly enough that it really is worth looking at closely.

The biggest difference is space, and how that changes what you have to work with.

With a novel, or a short story, you can let your dialogue run freely. In fact, that's one of the joys of a really wonderful story, easy-flowing dialog done well. It can effortlessly move you through a good book. Elmore Leonard is a master of it, so is Terry Pratchett, and so is Stephen King. Dialog is very important.

In comics, although it's also very important, you are better to take your dialog (and exposition, and caption) cues not from prose, but from journalism.

This isn't to say you should write your dialog to sound like a newspaper article. Perish the thought. But what you have to understand is with prose, if I have a lot of talking to do, I can do it. I fail if I make it just long paragraphs of unending talking instead of an interesting conversation, but I can still do it.

With comics, I have 24-pages. If that. Maybe I only have 12? Maybe I have 32? Regardless, unless you've got some gumption with your publisher, or you have a nice publisher, you have a select number of pages to fill.

In filling those pages, you have to tell your story, you have to have comfortable dialog that gets across character and emotion and moves the story along (because dialog, more than anything, advances the story). You have to make sure you don't run on too long, because as much as I love good storytelling and dialog, if all I get are 24 pages of talking heads, I've failed to write properly, and I will let down the reader.

Easy, huh?

Actually, it's not so bad. Think of it as a short story with a word limit, rather than a novel where you can wax poetic if the mood strikes you.

I think Joss Whedon is the current champ of comic book dialog, in that he captures characters perfectly with a minimum of words. Brian Michael Bendis is occasionally very good at it. Most especially in his early days on the Ultimate Spider-Man run, he did a magnificent job.

A MINIMUM of words is important. Comic books, good comic books, are frequently about minimizing things in both the writing and the art, rather than maximizing things.

We can also remember some of those really crummy early nineties (and eighties, come to think of it) comics where every page was FULL of SHOUTING heroes WHO WERE in BATTLE!!!!!! and every other page was a splash, and mostly you had men and women in tight costumes looking very alarmed at things.

With comics, as with good prose, less is really more. I've said it before, young writers spend so much time in their early career learning not how to write, but how to shut up and tell the story. God knows, it's a lesson I wish I'd learned faster.

But it's true. You use a minimum of words (exactly the ones you need, no more) and an economy of pictures (make the pictures work, without exploding messily all over your comic) and you will achieve more than you would with a comic full of splash pages.

...

Dialog is sometimes, in comics, most effective when it's not used. In regular prose, I can easily say He looked away and said nothing, and if I've told my story right, it has a good effect.

But, and here I think the advantage is the comics, I can have a panel where he looks away and says nothing, and I have that BEAT of silence while you read to the next panel. If the artist does his job, then I've not only conveyed that he's looked away and said nothing, but you can see the expression on his face a little. Is he in pain? Is it showing? Does he just look grim? Maybe he looks sad?

Dialog in comics -- and, really, in prose -- is not about accurately transcribing what people say and sound like in real life (or you'd have a lot of dialog exchanges full of "er," "um," "uh," "y'know,") but is more about expressing the idea of conversation in real life. Of making Ultimate Spider-Man and Peter Parker sound like the idea of a young and timid and hopeful teenager, without actually giving us a word-by-word rundown of what it was like to be a young and timid and hopeful teenager.

Good art (be it prose, be it paint) starts on the page, and finishes in the reader's mind.

I think it's in the Dark Horse guide, there's a recommenation for how much dialog to place in a balloon and how much to place in a panel. A danger there is that you stick to it. Don't get me wrong, the advice there (and I'm sure it appears in variations, in other places) is good, but you have to judge each panel in its own context. It takes a while to balance the space vs. bubble ratio.

However, what I think is the real danger, because you're constantly editing yourself down, is the chance of suddenly needing an info dump. A "butler & maid scene," or as The Incredibles call it, having a character "monolog." The risk is that you are very careful with your writing, being spartan and precise, then you get to page 18 and you realize that no-one, beyond yourself, knows why Professor Evil is actually so offended by all things Captain Hero. In your creation of the characters and plot you had all the psychological motivations and backstory worked out, but you pruned it down and now it doesn't make sense. Not without Professor Evil "monologging."

I'd actually suggest that rather than a short story, you think of it like a short screenplay. The journalist idea is also a good one. I forget the movie, but it's an old Clark Cable one where he's a fast talking newsman and he slams an aspiring journo for liking words to much. He says something like, "A journalist should hate words and use as few as possible to tell his story." A bit extreme, but you get the idea.

WOW, this is clearly too early in the morning for me to be doing this, since it's coming off to me as a mess. I hope you're getting the gist of this at least.

One final thing. Remember that you can use the dialog bubbles to add to the emphasis of your dialog. A la:

Doctor Evil: (Electric)
BWAH HA HA HA HA HAR!

Captain Hero:
Not so fast, Doctor Evil!

Doctor Evil: (Big Bubble - Small Letters)
...damn...​

This, in the script, can also give your artist ideas on what expressions to draw on the faces.

One final thing, remember that the arrangement on the page of dialog needs to fit in with what's happening in the panel. In the above example, Dr Evil goes through two different emotion and you'd need to make sure that they were in different panels.

One final, final thing. Remember that when you're writing in Special Effect Sounds, they need to fit into the flow of scene/dialog. When your letterer starts work s/he will follow this.

PANEL 1
Captain Hero drops through the skylight and slaps Dr. Evil.

Captain Hero:
Stop right there, Dr. Evil!

SFX:
KER-ASSSSSSH!

SFX:
THUNK!

SFX:
SMAK!​

Doesn't make sense. As written, the flow of that scene is Cap H talks, then smashes through the skylight, lands and slaps. Better would be...

PANEL 1
Captain Hero drops through the skylight and slaps Dr. Evil.

SFX:
KER-ASSSSSSH!

Captain Hero:
Stop right there, Dr. Evil!

SFX:
THUNK!

SFX:
SMAK!​

Better still would be...

PANEL 1
Captain Hero drops through the skylight.

SFX:
KER-ASSSSSSH!

Captain Hero:
Stop right there, Dr. Evil!


PANEL 2
Captain Hero lands, springs forward and slaps Dr. Evil.

SFX:
THUNK!

SFX:
SMAK!

Dr. Evil:
OOOF!​

Best of all would be...

PANEL 1
Captain Hero drops through the skylight.

SFX:
KER-ASSSSSSH!

Captain Hero:
Stop right there, Dr. Evil!


PANEL 2
Having landed, Captain Hero springs forward and slaps Dr. Evil.

SFX:
SMAK!

Dr. Evil:
OOOF!​

With the last example, you'll notice I skipped the part where Cap H lands. That fits into the panel break. I wrote that Cap H is heading towards the ground, the reader can imagine that part of the scene, so I can skip to the next, important part of the story. If there was something important to that landing, like Cap H lands on a pressure pad that will summon Prof E's henchmen, or he lands heavily on an ankle, I include it, if not, cut it.

Some of the above is kinda obvious. Some of it's the same as for ANY form of writing. Some is specific to comics.

Now I'm going back to bed for an hour. I may make more sense later.

Just in case you haven't been put off trying to crack comic-books, and you're still up for joining us on our Quixotic adventure, here's another little kink for you.

You find an artist, they do some concept work and it's all rolling.

And the artist bails on you.

So you start looking again, and amazingly you find another artist who is even better. S/he does some concepts then some roughs, then some finished sequentials. Then s/he disappears. You track 'em down and they apologise and get back on the roll. Then disappear again before sending you an email where they bail on your project.

This has happened to me. And the kicker is, I have a publisher interested in the book if I can only get the artist.

Fun, eh?

It hasn't happened to me, but my relationships wiht artists tend to be fairly friendly things. (Not saying yours aren't, I'm just saying) art gets discussed in its due time, scripts go one way and art comes the other way, but mostly we're just friendly-like. I'm not saying you should instantly be best buddies with all your artists, or anything, because that's impossible. It's just why I've never had the problem.

(that wasn't mcuh help....)

If it helps any, I know another writer who was working wiht an artist on an idea. The artist vanished, and then reappeared....at Marvel, where he was trying to sell the idea as his very own. Right up until the writer made noise about it, adn then he just vanished again.

That's human beings for you.

I may have misunderstood here, PeeDee, so ignore this if it doesn't apply.

I'm actively pushing the comic writing. Trying to get books rolling and as a result, I think I'm maybe going after artists a little more aggressively. I show up with a pitch and an invitation to work on something that I'll then go all out to find a publisher for.

As such, I tend to meet artists via their art, rather than chatting over a beer.

That said, I try and work the relationship with an artist to be as friendly as possible and once I get an artist on board, I am ALWAYS avaialble to make their job as easy as possible.

My attitude is that since this is a collaborative business, if I get any degree of success or longevity in the industry, I'll work with lots of creatives. Since you never know who you'll be working with next, I try to be as nice and easy and professional to work with, so my reputation reflects that. And even as I've been let down, my parting comment will always be "Thanks for the work you did and good luck with your future projects."

You never know what position they might be in at some point.

Even if I have no intention of commissioning that person again.