You guys this afternoon I wrote some stuff based on All-Star Superman.
PAGE ONE
1st panel/Lex Luthor floats in mid-air, an evil grin on his face
Caption: Evil Genius
2nd panel/Superman, his skin crackling with white energy, flies towards the sun
Caption: Dying Hero
3rd panel/Lex Luthor, in his jail cell, passes Quintum his notes
Caption: Last Redemption
4th Panel/A pregnant Lois Lane, surrounded by Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman and Quintum
Caption: New Hope
PAGE TWO AND THREE
A double page spread of the new Superman, flying across the surface of the moon, glittering stars of all colours in the sky above, the symbol on his chest glowing with yellow light. It's not the old Superman this is the new Superman, a teenage boy of about 16.
Caption: Superman
PAGE FOUR
1st panel/Quintum's lab shows the Doctor gripping onto a metal spar, his body being lifted off the ground and pulled towards a spinning, glowing portal of
energy in the centre of the test chamber.
Quintum: Re-try the lockdown procedures! We have to get this Quantum Singularity under control, or it's grwoth with be exponential and unstoppable!
2nd panel/A man and woman at a control panel are trying to activate it's controls even as the singularity drags them off their feet.
Assistant 1: It's no use Doctor! The dampening fields seem to be unable to correct the power surge! We can't...
3rd panel/The assistant is knocked free from the panel by a flying piece of equipment, is is sent flying towards the singularity
Assistant 1: Argh!
Assitant 2: No!
PAGE FIVE
1st panel/A small shot of a hand reaching out and gripping the gloved, flailing arm of the assistant.
2nd panel/Superman has grabbed the man, and is hauling him backwards, away from the singularity
Superman: I've got you!
3rd panel/The man has regained the hold of the control desk
Superman: Turn on the dampening fields to maximum level, set them to kinetic wavelengths.
4th panel/ Superman dives towards the singularity
Quintum: You've only got moments before the singularity goes critical and detonates Superman!
PAGE SIX
1st panel/Superman grabs the singularity, crackling arcs of lightning bouncing off his invulnerable form
Superman: Don't worry doctor...
2nd panel/Superman has rocketed out of the lab itself, through the life support fields and roof, shooting into space itself
Superman:...A few seconds is all I'll need
3rd panel/A massive detonation of crackling energy in all colours and wavelengths lights up the sky, outshining the stars as energy from other dimensions
momentarily flows into our own.
PAGE SEVEN
1st panel/Superman floats in space, the last remnants of the energy flowing around him
2nd panel/Sunlight, warm and yellow, floods over the slowly turning moon as Superman drifts out of it's shadow, lighting his body.
3rd panel/Superman is smiling as the full sunlight shines onto his body
Superman: Hey Dad
PAGE EIGHT
1st panel/Quintum is standing in his lab, directing assistants as they move in to repair damaged equipment.
Quintum: We'll have to modify the dampeners to compensate for further power fluctuations of that level, please have the readings analysed as soon as possible
doctor Auranova.
Auranova: Yes sir, I'll get right on that
2nd panel/Superman floats down to meet Quintus as he works
Superman: You've already got back on track then Doctor.
Quintum: The potential of power sources based of singularities built from the Quantum level is simply to exciting to stop due to a little accident, Superman.
And please, for the last time, call me Leo. Doctor is such an impersonal term.
3rd panel/Superman helps an assistant move aside several chunks of debris
Superman: Right. Sorry about the roof, by the way. Just seemed like the best choice at the time.
Quintum: Hah! a broken roof is nothing compared to the crater that would be where we are standing had that thing exploded on the surface. Besides, with the
life support fields, things like roofs are more an aesthetic choice than a necessity.
PAGE NINE
1st panel/Quintum watches as Superman loads debris onto a floating lifter platform
Superman: I guess you're right Doct... Leo. I hope your experiment works out, those hydroponic farms in Africa are going to need the power.
Quintum: Mr Wayne has sent me a number of messages suggesting as much. To be honest I enjoy working with Quantum fields, there's an element of improbability
to it that is usually missing from my life.
2nd panel/Superman has turned away from the loader, looking somewhat concerned, as Quintum continues to watch him, a strangely sad expression on his face
Superman: Doctor, are you alright? Your heartbeat just did a little jump.
3rd panel/Quintum looks aside.
Quintum: It's nothing. Just thinking about further testing perameters, I'm excited about the possibilities which this event could have unfolded.
4th panel/Superman lifts off, heading towards the hole in the roof
Superman: Ha, You're always working, Doctor. Let me know if you need any more help!
Quintum: I think we can handle it from here, but if we need another highly dangerous objects flown into Lunar orbit, I'll call your mother.
Superman: See you later then Doctor.
PAGE TEN
1st panel/Superman flies out of the top of the lab, while Quintum stands looking up at him.
2nd panel/Quintum is smiling as the sunlight falls through the roof onto him
So I've recently been working with a good friend on a graphic novel (he as the artist is also a tattoo artist)
We're just flying, he's laying down art, I'm crafting the story and plot, etc.
Couple of things I'm worried about.
-I have never in all my years seen a comic that looks like ours. Except maybe Heavy Metal. Is this a bad thing? All the art is heavily inspired by flash style tattoo work.
-We are crafting a story leading to tragedy. Is there really any commercial appeal in the industry for a tragedy were the hero dies and the villian comes out on top?
-Finally, we're not using panels at all. Everything is wide open, free flowing. For example, one page has a character who is lighting a smoke, fedora pulled down low, and the narrative of the page is multiple thought bubbles containing words and images.
Sorry to just bust in the thread with intense questions, but I'm hoping to find out if we are breaking some industry rules that would keep us from being published down the line.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
As far as your questions,
-Heroes dying and villains winning has actually been a common theme in comics the past few years, so there is a market out there for it.
-Pages without panels has been used before, as long as the eye can still follow the usual left to right approach you'll be fine (Elektra: Assassin by Bill Sienkiewicz is a good example of using little to no panels)
We're mostly taking the approach of using an investigator reacting to the events to tell the story. The main character has no powers, but he is seeing everything play out. It's a real blast to write and we get to do some really fun art scenes using the storytelling approach.
Like for example, one scene is him looking through a keyhole, watching a hero and villain fight. We have pages from his notebook taped to polaroids detailing the action, but the whole page is the keyhole. Real second and third hand stuff to build a story.
No matter what happens monetarily, this is the most exciting writing I've ever been involved in.
My practice Man-Thing from work today. Might have him standing with the M'kraan crystal behind Starlord and Nova.
And I read it Solar, but my opinion means little in such matters as I don't know diddly about comic script structure. Intro was cool, I could actually picture it in my head, Quitely and all.
I'm fairly new to the Penny Arcade forums, but I am a long time reader.
A friend and I occasionally doodle back and forth eventually coming up with a funny idea and making a short comic about it. Often just pointing out things we think are funny or flaws we see in things. (Often relating to games, music, movies, etc.) I can barely forge a stick-man with a pencil in my hand but my buddy can draw pretty damn good, so I'm usually the one who comes up with a basic story. We've made comics since we were about 13, just for fun. To tell jokes in a way that only a comic could portray. A lot of my inspiration comes from Bill Watterson, read almost every Calvin & Hobbes comic as a kid. Calvin & Hobbes sort of shaped my sense of humor along with influences from South Park and other cartoons.
I've never really lost interest in comics or writing for the most part. And making/reading comics is probably my favorite thing to do aside from gaming.
I don't know exactly why I decided to make this post but I figured I'd share my small story with the fine people of this thread.
Thanks! And yeah, I only noticed the eye problem after I coloured it. Hate not seeing something that obvious til its waaaaay too late. I'm gonna re-draw the whole thing from scratch for the final image anyway, which is this weekends project!
Brandon and Ross and James and Harvey and some other guys are arguing about comics over at Brandon's Not Safe for Workblog
I really need to sit down and tie all of these scenes I have half-scripted in different documents and notebooks into a comic. I need to stop wasting time overly explaining minute details and just get the thing in order.
I've been going back and forth on the thing too. Should have it meaning or moral? Or should it just be a screwed up guy in stolen, vandalized power armor fighting a thinly-veiled power ranger?
i have a bunch of scenes i am scripting, but it is hard
i really struggle with scripting. my brain doesn't work that way for some reason
i admit i spend way too much elaborating about illustration details
Honestly dude, if you're having so much trouble thinking visually that it's ham-stringing your productivity, then just use a simpler scripting style, and leave the execution to the artist. All you really need is Character X + Object Y + Area Z, for each panel. Sometimes, you don't even need that much!
I mean, I tend to visualize stories as I write them, so I'll give myself little reminders in the script, like that the POV should be higher or lower to emphasize the mood, or that one character needs to be in the foreground and another element in the background. But really, shit gets changed around so much from the script stage to the drawing stage, that it's not worth obsessing over minute details. I mean, compare what I wrote here, to what ended up on the page.
This page is a montage/time compression page, designed to act as a short interlude after the opening expositional scene, and before the big fight scene. It's arranged in a simple grid, with the last panel taking the space of two squares, to give it a little more oomph.
Panel One: Kookaburra walking up a steep hill. A simple profile shot, the sun hanging high in the sky, his shadow cast out on the ground towards the viewer. Some cacti and native Australian scrub brush dots the area.
Panel Two: Low POV shot. A fat toad sits in the foreground, and Kook's legs in the background, walking away from it. Reminder: Get reference for actual toads that live in the Australian outback. Don't fake it.
Panel Three: Kook holds a frayed map up in front of him, blocking his torso and most of his head, only his frizzy braids poking up over the top of it.
Panel Four: High POV shot. Kook stares irritatedly at a few Australia Ravens sitting atop a cactus.
Panel Five: Close-up on Kook as he holds a scorpion up in front of him by the tail.
Panel Six: Kook reclines in the shade offered by a large rock, eating some dried fruit.
Panel Seven: Kook looks up, with an expression somewhere between exasperation, curiosity, and boredom.
KOOKABURRA:Huh.
Panel Eight: Long-shot. Kook stands staring at an oasis that's clearly out of place in the desert. Above it hovers a giant orb of water.
KOOKABURRA: Now that's somethin'.
But, that page could have easily been written like this:
This is a montage/time compression page, with several scenes taking place, across the span of a few hours.
Panel One: Kookaburra walks up a hill in the Australian outback, not much besides scrub brush and small cacti dotting the land. The sun hangs high in the sky.
Panel Two: We see Kookaburra walking off into the distance, a fat toad on the ground, featured prominently in the panel.
Panel Three: Kookaburra reads a large, awkward-looking map.
Panel Four: Kookaburra looks at some Australian ravens perched on top of a cactus, wearing an irritated expression.
Panel Five: Kookaburra looks a bit miserable, coated in sweat, and perhaps re-thinking this whole quest.
Panel Six: Kookaburra lounges in the shade provided by a large rock, sipping a bottle of water.
Panel Seven: Kookaburra, looking at something we can't yet see, appearing a bit bemused, and a bit bored.
KOOKABURRA:Huh.
Panel Eight: We see Kookaburra, staring at a large oasis, lush with vegetation and animal life, contrasting sharply with the largely barren outback we've seen for the past six panels.
KOOKABURRA: Now that's somethin'.
They both convey the same thing, but one leaves a lot more of the visual interpretation up to the artist, as far as choosing "camera" angles and such.
Also, all of what TLB said. That's always good advice.
To be honest, even though I can see why Munch does it (as he is the artist) I wouldn't even include things like "long shot" or anything like that. Just "Characters X runs into the room, Character Y spins in shock," and then the dialogue.
You don't want to be overly descriptive with your panels, dialogue and plot is your job, the panel layout and so on is the artists. Hell, a lot of the time you can probably say "on this page this happens" and let the artist split into panels as they see fit.
The script I posted on the last page has the right about of description, I think. Enough so that what is going on is clear, but not too much to be stepping on the artist's toes.
here is the hierarchy of things that need description:
1. Characters - this is number one, because this is not changing for the entirety of the story. If you, the writer, have a very distinct look for a character, you best convey it in painful detail. It will only take a paragraph, tops, and only has to be done once, but trust me, you will need to do this. Things can slow to a crawl if you make your artist have to go through about 50 different character designs because you ain't know which color of hair really works.
2. Setting - Two to three sentences, unless you have a certain thing that just has to be there. And, again, a setting only has to be described once. Your artist is not a moron.
3. Actions - actions can literally be a single word and be fine.
The most you will ever want for a panel is 3 paragraphs of description, and those should only exist in the very beginning.
By the end, you should be able to get away with quick, 1-sentence panels.
the number one problem a lot of people have when they start trying to write a comic is they have no idea how to tell a visual story. camera angles and panel layouts help fix this
do you have to do it for every panel?
no.
but if you do it for enough, the artist will get a sense as to how the story is told
is it in all wide angles?
is it all talking heads?
things of this nature
See, a script is a blueprint. You don't hand a dude a blueprint that just says "the toilet goes in the bathroom" without first saying where the bathroom is.
it is not stepping on the artist's toes to have a panel completely lain out in your script
To be honest, even though I can see why Munch does it (as he is the artist) I wouldn't even include things like "long shot" or anything like that. Just "Characters X runs into the room, Character Y spins in shock," and then the dialogue.
You don't want to be overly descriptive with your panels, dialogue and plot is your job, the panel layout and so on is the artists. Hell, a lot of the time you can probably say "on this page this happens" and let the artist split into panels as they see fit.
The script I posted on the last page has the right about of description, I think. Enough so that what is going on is clear, but not too much to be stepping on the artist's toes.
Some of the best comics ever made were done "Marvel style" - trust your artist to do their job. Once you're a bit more comfortable with plotting/scripting, then maybe you can start worrying about camera angles and all the other shit.
Just to throw in a note about art direction, you really have to develop a feel alongside your artist. Different artists need different degrees of setup.
As an example, here's one I used for a commission for an image from Old Man Hero:
Afterbirth - little bit hard, but: His mom, just having given birth, flying, The Infant in her arms. She has had her child's powers for the duration of the pregnancy. She is excited and happy and pretty/ugly in a blotchy, sweaty, glowing, just-had-a-baby kind of way.
Context: The novel centers around a superhero. In the scene in question, he has just been born. His mother has had his suite of powers (flying, invulnerability, strength among them) for most of the duration of her pregnancy, and this is the last moment before she loses them.
It is twilight. The Mother is hovering high in the air. Behind her and far below we see a hospital and beyond that a small town, both covered in deep snow. The Infant Hero in her arms. The umbilical is still intact - this is immediately after the birth itself. She is excited and happy and pretty/ugly in the blotchy, sweaty, glowing, just-had-a-baby kind of way.
The year is 1975. The scene takes place near a small town situated between a highway and a river. The hospital, a 4-story, brick-exterior building, lies beside the highway on the town outskirts. The Mother is 22 years old. She is about 5'4" tall, fit but slightly plump, has back-length straight brown hair and glistening grey-blue eyes. She is naked, and we see the marks of pregnancy on her body.
The baby is a normal newborn (maybe 8 pounds, 19 inches long with legs outstretched), not extraordinarily tiny or large, pudgy but not fat. He has a thin sheen of blonde hair and the same eyes as his mother. His eyes are wide and his gaze steady on his mother's face.
Admittedly, a commission is a different prospect than a panel in a long-run book, but I commissioned a bunch of pieces and most of them ended up more or less at this level of detail. I would consider this to be maximum detail. Contrast with my original "guiding image" setup style for an artist who I hoped was going to do the whole book:
5. Tantrum - as a very young child, his occasional fits sometimes lead to very serious injuries to his parents. I imagine an image where he has been dropped after squirming out of his mother's grasp, kicking her, and causing massive fracturing to her hip/pelvis. She's lying on the ground in extreme pain, and he's lying on the ground, unhurt but scared by the whole sequence of events. He's not yet a year old.
I got good stuff from both approaches, but the people who were serious, the people I was paying to do the work, seemed to use the higher detail the way I wanted them to. For iconic moments, at the very least, the more you can spell out, I think, the more you're going to get.
The real question is how much investment you're able to get from an artist. My feeling at this point is that if you're paying for piecework from someone who has no interest in further involvement, then you need to put whatever you can on paper. If you've got an actual partner on the project, however, it would be counterproductive to do detailed descriptions, because you want the visual style of the book to be signatory to the artist. Maybe you do some layouts, certainly you still do characters and settings, but at the end of the day if it's a team you have to work as a team and concept art is where you work out questions of commonality of vision.
That's all for a longer project, of course. For a short piece, it's entirely down to the artist and the piece itself.
So, while my computer that I do all my scanning/corrections/toning/coloring stuff on is in the shop (for another 2 weeks or so, urgh), I've been diddling around with writing some short scripts, doing character designs for Chupacabra stuff, working on art for some blog posts I want to do, etc. I also put on my imaginary-editor hat, and started thinking about the big DC relaunch in September. I was pretty vocal in my disappointment at seeing the same old faces, working on the same old characters, and started putting together of list of stuff I'd have liked to see with the relaunch.
Wrath of the Spectre; I've always had a problem with the Spectre, that boils down to the fact that he, as an omnipotent construct, just isn't very interesting when used in a traditional, superheroic role. He's basically become DC's Galactus, the guy who gets chumped in order to show how tough a bad guy is. To change that, I'd see him brought back to what he always should have been, a horror character. And to achieve that, and create a genuine feeling of suspense in the stories, I'd keep the Spectre at the edge of the stories, making them not about him, but whatever collection of unfortunate people have caught his attention. Imagine something like Mail, or the first story from the TPB of Punisher: Full Auto, that's all about the Punisher shadowing two corrupt cops, and watching them spiral towards a bloody conclusion.
Each arc would be able to focus on new and interesting protagonists within the DCU; regular civilians, criminals, supervillains, superheroes, whatever. In the end, it's all about how they wind up face-to-face with the Spectre, either as the innocents he's forced to avenge, or the guilty he dispatches. While there are a few writers I'd love to see tackle this concept, most of them are Marvel-exclusive. But, Cullen Bunn's definitely shown the ability to weave a tense, supernatural tale, and I can think of no one better to draw it than Jefte Palo, who I think does truly creepy stuff, better than almost anyone else in the business.
Oracle and the Batgirls; When the most recent iteration of Batgirl was primed to be launched, a lot of people were hoping that we'd see multiple Batgirls, all operating as a unit. It's an idea I loved then, and love now. I say you throw Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Bette Kane in the same book, play up their complimentary strengths and weaknesses, and have the whole thing overseen by Oracle, who's determined to make sure these young heroines don't encounter the same pitfalls she did. Give art and writing duties to Ted Naifeh, who's proven he can write and draw strong, young women with Polly and the Pirates and the Courtney Crumrin series, and who has a well-documented Bat-Boner, and you've got a winner.
I'm not sure if Naifeh's really a monthly artist though, so you could put him on alternating arcs with Dustin Nguyen, who has a similar, complimentary style.
Captain Thunder; Look, DC's never getting "Captain Marvel" away from Marvel Comics, so let's accept that right now. However, the core concept behind Captain Marvel? Nothing wrong with it. Three young people, blessed with great power and the ability to instantly become adults, fight monsters, robots, and mad scientists, at the behest of an all-knowing Wizard. That's beautiful in its simplicity. All you need is the right creative team.
While I think Mike Kunkel came closest to doing it right (at least recently), I'd love to see Roger Langridge and Evan Shaner tackle it. Langridge proved he can write a compelling story, that would appeal to all ages, with Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and Shaner A) has a tremendous love of Captain Marvel, and has a style that I think suits the character to a "T." It's just retro enough to sell the Big Red Cheese aspect of the character, and just modern enough not to turn off today's readers.
Metamorpho; I think this character's become so screwed up over the past few decades, it's not even funny. So, I say just reboot him to his original status quo; Rex Mason, the Indiana Jones of the DCU, becomes a freak that can turn into any element found within the human body. He's then forced to globe-trot around the world at the behest of his crazy-hot girlfriend's mad industrialist father, who promises to devise a cure for his condition. Also, there's a caveman.
Then, I'd just give it to Benito Cereno, who's proven he can do humor, high adventure, and horror, all requisite elements for any Metamorpho story, as well as artist Nate Bellegarde. In addition to both being talented, and having a great creative rapport, they both love Metamorpho. Why not?
Blue Beetle; While I think the way Jaime Reyes was initially promoted, as a hero with a weird power who deals with creepy stuff, was interesting, that never really materialized in the Rogers/Giffen run, and he instead took on the role that usually falls to teen heroes, as the guy that's in over his head, and has to learn how to be a hero, eventually making good. That was fine for what it was, but I'd really like to see someone play with the idea of Jaime as the guy who's forced to fend off weird, supernatural threats to his hometown. To that end, I'd like to see Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn[, take the book on. In addition to already being collaborators on the fantastic Firebreather (a book about a teenager dealing with weird crap and great expectations in his hometown), I think they're both uniquely suited for the kind of book I see Blue Beetle being.
Hester's well-versed in writing clever weirdness and stuff with a supernatural bent, as seen in Golly! and The Wretch, and Kuhn has a masterful control of heavy blacks and exaggerated figures, that meshes into a style that can be either really funny, or terribly creepy. Plus, he's already drawn an issue of Blue Beetle, so we know he can draw the character, which isn't easy. Put Bill Crabtree on colors, and if nothing else, it'd be a beautiful-looking book.
Blue Devil; Kind of a weird choice, but I always thought this character could be DC's answer to Hellboy. He's a dry, acerbic kind of character, who had a great gimmick as a techno-magic "weirdness magnet" in his original series, which could serve to throw him into any kind of story you'd like, no matter how strange. Aliens? Ghosts? Pixies? Bigfoots? Whatever, it's all fair game for Blue Devil.
Then, I'd give him to Matthew Sturges, who I think nailed the character's voice during his Shadowpact run, with art by Declan Shalvey, whose heavy-contrast style would play great on a supernatural book.
Which reminds me, I may be doing some commissions on the cheap ($10-20 per 9x12, inked single character + simple background on Bristol board) to help replenish my bank account a bit, if anyone's interested in that kind of thing.
Which reminds me, I may be doing some commissions on the cheap ($10-20 per 9x12, inked single character + simple background on Bristol board) to help replenish my bank account a bit, if anyone's interested in that kind of thing.
Cool. Tim Seeley did this for $20, so ... Gauntlet. Thrown.
Seriously, though. I'll e-mail you. I'm not sure what I want, but I know it'll be something different.
Just have to say that this thread? Is genius. I wish there was something like this back when I started writing at 14 (twelve years and £52 writing pay later.) So great to see you cats creating and coming up with ideas and the like.
Writing wise, the best advice I can offer (as co-creator of Death Boy) is to go out and plot the most insane, brilliant, greatest comic of all time. Believe it's a masterpiece until you've written it, and then leave it for a day. Go back to it, and gasp at how it isn't that great. Then rewrite it, and repeat until you have something truly excellent.
Then put it online and have people react with Batgirl style rage.
Batgirl style rage is key. There's nothing like a total stranger destroying your work to teach you two things. Namely:
1) A thick skin to criticism.
and:
2) The knowledge that whatever you do, no matter how good it is, will be criticised by someone in a stunningly harsh and rather childish way.
Re: writing a comic... the way I do it is to start with the last beat, then double back and do the beginning, then write everything but the last beat of the last scene and fill in the middle once I know the end and the beginning fit.
Posts
1st panel/Lex Luthor floats in mid-air, an evil grin on his face
Caption: Evil Genius
2nd panel/Superman, his skin crackling with white energy, flies towards the sun
Caption: Dying Hero
3rd panel/Lex Luthor, in his jail cell, passes Quintum his notes
Caption: Last Redemption
4th Panel/A pregnant Lois Lane, surrounded by Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman and Quintum
Caption: New Hope
PAGE TWO AND THREE
A double page spread of the new Superman, flying across the surface of the moon, glittering stars of all colours in the sky above, the symbol on his chest glowing with yellow light. It's not the old Superman this is the new Superman, a teenage boy of about 16.
Caption: Superman
PAGE FOUR
1st panel/Quintum's lab shows the Doctor gripping onto a metal spar, his body being lifted off the ground and pulled towards a spinning, glowing portal of
energy in the centre of the test chamber.
Quintum: Re-try the lockdown procedures! We have to get this Quantum Singularity under control, or it's grwoth with be exponential and unstoppable!
2nd panel/A man and woman at a control panel are trying to activate it's controls even as the singularity drags them off their feet.
Assistant 1: It's no use Doctor! The dampening fields seem to be unable to correct the power surge! We can't...
3rd panel/The assistant is knocked free from the panel by a flying piece of equipment, is is sent flying towards the singularity
Assistant 1: Argh!
Assitant 2: No!
PAGE FIVE
1st panel/A small shot of a hand reaching out and gripping the gloved, flailing arm of the assistant.
2nd panel/Superman has grabbed the man, and is hauling him backwards, away from the singularity
Superman: I've got you!
3rd panel/The man has regained the hold of the control desk
Superman: Turn on the dampening fields to maximum level, set them to kinetic wavelengths.
4th panel/ Superman dives towards the singularity
Quintum: You've only got moments before the singularity goes critical and detonates Superman!
PAGE SIX
1st panel/Superman grabs the singularity, crackling arcs of lightning bouncing off his invulnerable form
Superman: Don't worry doctor...
2nd panel/Superman has rocketed out of the lab itself, through the life support fields and roof, shooting into space itself
Superman:...A few seconds is all I'll need
3rd panel/A massive detonation of crackling energy in all colours and wavelengths lights up the sky, outshining the stars as energy from other dimensions
momentarily flows into our own.
PAGE SEVEN
1st panel/Superman floats in space, the last remnants of the energy flowing around him
2nd panel/Sunlight, warm and yellow, floods over the slowly turning moon as Superman drifts out of it's shadow, lighting his body.
3rd panel/Superman is smiling as the full sunlight shines onto his body
Superman: Hey Dad
PAGE EIGHT
1st panel/Quintum is standing in his lab, directing assistants as they move in to repair damaged equipment.
Quintum: We'll have to modify the dampeners to compensate for further power fluctuations of that level, please have the readings analysed as soon as possible
doctor Auranova.
Auranova: Yes sir, I'll get right on that
2nd panel/Superman floats down to meet Quintus as he works
Superman: You've already got back on track then Doctor.
Quintum: The potential of power sources based of singularities built from the Quantum level is simply to exciting to stop due to a little accident, Superman.
And please, for the last time, call me Leo. Doctor is such an impersonal term.
3rd panel/Superman helps an assistant move aside several chunks of debris
Superman: Right. Sorry about the roof, by the way. Just seemed like the best choice at the time.
Quintum: Hah! a broken roof is nothing compared to the crater that would be where we are standing had that thing exploded on the surface. Besides, with the
life support fields, things like roofs are more an aesthetic choice than a necessity.
PAGE NINE
1st panel/Quintum watches as Superman loads debris onto a floating lifter platform
Superman: I guess you're right Doct... Leo. I hope your experiment works out, those hydroponic farms in Africa are going to need the power.
Quintum: Mr Wayne has sent me a number of messages suggesting as much. To be honest I enjoy working with Quantum fields, there's an element of improbability
to it that is usually missing from my life.
2nd panel/Superman has turned away from the loader, looking somewhat concerned, as Quintum continues to watch him, a strangely sad expression on his face
Superman: Doctor, are you alright? Your heartbeat just did a little jump.
3rd panel/Quintum looks aside.
Quintum: It's nothing. Just thinking about further testing perameters, I'm excited about the possibilities which this event could have unfolded.
4th panel/Superman lifts off, heading towards the hole in the roof
Superman: Ha, You're always working, Doctor. Let me know if you need any more help!
Quintum: I think we can handle it from here, but if we need another highly dangerous objects flown into Lunar orbit, I'll call your mother.
Superman: See you later then Doctor.
PAGE TEN
1st panel/Superman flies out of the top of the lab, while Quintum stands looking up at him.
2nd panel/Quintum is smiling as the sunlight falls through the roof onto him
Quintum/See you later.
We're just flying, he's laying down art, I'm crafting the story and plot, etc.
Couple of things I'm worried about.
-I have never in all my years seen a comic that looks like ours. Except maybe Heavy Metal. Is this a bad thing? All the art is heavily inspired by flash style tattoo work.
-We are crafting a story leading to tragedy. Is there really any commercial appeal in the industry for a tragedy were the hero dies and the villian comes out on top?
-Finally, we're not using panels at all. Everything is wide open, free flowing. For example, one page has a character who is lighting a smoke, fedora pulled down low, and the narrative of the page is multiple thought bubbles containing words and images.
Sorry to just bust in the thread with intense questions, but I'm hoping to find out if we are breaking some industry rules that would keep us from being published down the line.
-Heroes dying and villains winning has actually been a common theme in comics the past few years, so there is a market out there for it.
-Pages without panels has been used before, as long as the eye can still follow the usual left to right approach you'll be fine (Elektra: Assassin by Bill Sienkiewicz is a good example of using little to no panels)
We're mostly taking the approach of using an investigator reacting to the events to tell the story. The main character has no powers, but he is seeing everything play out. It's a real blast to write and we get to do some really fun art scenes using the storytelling approach.
Like for example, one scene is him looking through a keyhole, watching a hero and villain fight. We have pages from his notebook taped to polaroids detailing the action, but the whole page is the keyhole. Real second and third hand stuff to build a story.
No matter what happens monetarily, this is the most exciting writing I've ever been involved in.
Sounds interesting, Rubix
as long as it can be understood by rubes
Gonna do a Nova and Man-Thing eventually too. Cosmic Exiles in a Charlie's Angels pose.
I do not know how to cope with not having a reason to yell at him
Whaaaa
Also Gank, that's a promising start, and a neat idea.
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Did anyone read my script?
Any comments?
I'll just go
And I read it Solar, but my opinion means little in such matters as I don't know diddly about comic script structure. Intro was cool, I could actually picture it in my head, Quitely and all.
here is a preview of our work, if u like what u see and would like to see more, head over to http://www.facebook.com/brightsideproductions
only thing I could say is that the right eye is waaaaay smaller than the left, even accounting for the point of view
still great
A friend and I occasionally doodle back and forth eventually coming up with a funny idea and making a short comic about it. Often just pointing out things we think are funny or flaws we see in things. (Often relating to games, music, movies, etc.) I can barely forge a stick-man with a pencil in my hand but my buddy can draw pretty damn good, so I'm usually the one who comes up with a basic story. We've made comics since we were about 13, just for fun. To tell jokes in a way that only a comic could portray. A lot of my inspiration comes from Bill Watterson, read almost every Calvin & Hobbes comic as a kid. Calvin & Hobbes sort of shaped my sense of humor along with influences from South Park and other cartoons.
I've never really lost interest in comics or writing for the most part. And making/reading comics is probably my favorite thing to do aside from gaming.
I don't know exactly why I decided to make this post but I figured I'd share my small story with the fine people of this thread.
Thanks for reading.
If/when we end up doing more Chupacabra stories, I may have to bully TLB into using this guy, because he's really fun to draw.
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the poker buddies will always be there
I really need to sit down and tie all of these scenes I have half-scripted in different documents and notebooks into a comic. I need to stop wasting time overly explaining minute details and just get the thing in order.
I've been going back and forth on the thing too. Should have it meaning or moral? Or should it just be a screwed up guy in stolen, vandalized power armor fighting a thinly-veiled power ranger?
write it
stop asking for validation
just write it or I will punch you
i have a bunch of scenes i am scripting, but it is hard
i really struggle with scripting. my brain doesn't work that way for some reason
i admit i spend way too much elaborating about illustration details
you just sit there and fucking write
don't talk about the thing you are writing
just write it
when it is finished, you can talk about it
I mean, I tend to visualize stories as I write them, so I'll give myself little reminders in the script, like that the POV should be higher or lower to emphasize the mood, or that one character needs to be in the foreground and another element in the background. But really, shit gets changed around so much from the script stage to the drawing stage, that it's not worth obsessing over minute details. I mean, compare what I wrote here, to what ended up on the page.
But, that page could have easily been written like this:
They both convey the same thing, but one leaves a lot more of the visual interpretation up to the artist, as far as choosing "camera" angles and such.
Also, all of what TLB said. That's always good advice.
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You don't want to be overly descriptive with your panels, dialogue and plot is your job, the panel layout and so on is the artists. Hell, a lot of the time you can probably say "on this page this happens" and let the artist split into panels as they see fit.
The script I posted on the last page has the right about of description, I think. Enough so that what is going on is clear, but not too much to be stepping on the artist's toes.
1. Characters - this is number one, because this is not changing for the entirety of the story. If you, the writer, have a very distinct look for a character, you best convey it in painful detail. It will only take a paragraph, tops, and only has to be done once, but trust me, you will need to do this. Things can slow to a crawl if you make your artist have to go through about 50 different character designs because you ain't know which color of hair really works.
2. Setting - Two to three sentences, unless you have a certain thing that just has to be there. And, again, a setting only has to be described once. Your artist is not a moron.
3. Actions - actions can literally be a single word and be fine.
The most you will ever want for a panel is 3 paragraphs of description, and those should only exist in the very beginning.
By the end, you should be able to get away with quick, 1-sentence panels.
knowing how to lay out a panel is important
the number one problem a lot of people have when they start trying to write a comic is they have no idea how to tell a visual story. camera angles and panel layouts help fix this
do you have to do it for every panel?
no.
but if you do it for enough, the artist will get a sense as to how the story is told
is it in all wide angles?
is it all talking heads?
things of this nature
See, a script is a blueprint. You don't hand a dude a blueprint that just says "the toilet goes in the bathroom" without first saying where the bathroom is.
it is not stepping on the artist's toes to have a panel completely lain out in your script
Some of the best comics ever made were done "Marvel style" - trust your artist to do their job. Once you're a bit more comfortable with plotting/scripting, then maybe you can start worrying about camera angles and all the other shit.
I'm a bit new here, and I've recently started a web comic. I'd really like it if you'd take a look and tell me what you think.
Its about comics, movies, and tv shows, and supposed to be funny, but hey, I'm new at this.
Thanks! ^^;
As an example, here's one I used for a commission for an image from Old Man Hero:
Admittedly, a commission is a different prospect than a panel in a long-run book, but I commissioned a bunch of pieces and most of them ended up more or less at this level of detail. I would consider this to be maximum detail. Contrast with my original "guiding image" setup style for an artist who I hoped was going to do the whole book:
I got good stuff from both approaches, but the people who were serious, the people I was paying to do the work, seemed to use the higher detail the way I wanted them to. For iconic moments, at the very least, the more you can spell out, I think, the more you're going to get.
The real question is how much investment you're able to get from an artist. My feeling at this point is that if you're paying for piecework from someone who has no interest in further involvement, then you need to put whatever you can on paper. If you've got an actual partner on the project, however, it would be counterproductive to do detailed descriptions, because you want the visual style of the book to be signatory to the artist. Maybe you do some layouts, certainly you still do characters and settings, but at the end of the day if it's a team you have to work as a team and concept art is where you work out questions of commonality of vision.
That's all for a longer project, of course. For a short piece, it's entirely down to the artist and the piece itself.
@oldmanhero .programming .web comic .everything
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THE LAST COUPLE UPDATES ARE FULL OF DICKS AND TITS
This page is amazing
Looking at crazy stuff like that is inspirational.
I really need to get ahold of those Azrach books.
Wrath of the Spectre; I've always had a problem with the Spectre, that boils down to the fact that he, as an omnipotent construct, just isn't very interesting when used in a traditional, superheroic role. He's basically become DC's Galactus, the guy who gets chumped in order to show how tough a bad guy is. To change that, I'd see him brought back to what he always should have been, a horror character. And to achieve that, and create a genuine feeling of suspense in the stories, I'd keep the Spectre at the edge of the stories, making them not about him, but whatever collection of unfortunate people have caught his attention. Imagine something like Mail, or the first story from the TPB of Punisher: Full Auto, that's all about the Punisher shadowing two corrupt cops, and watching them spiral towards a bloody conclusion.
Each arc would be able to focus on new and interesting protagonists within the DCU; regular civilians, criminals, supervillains, superheroes, whatever. In the end, it's all about how they wind up face-to-face with the Spectre, either as the innocents he's forced to avenge, or the guilty he dispatches. While there are a few writers I'd love to see tackle this concept, most of them are Marvel-exclusive. But, Cullen Bunn's definitely shown the ability to weave a tense, supernatural tale, and I can think of no one better to draw it than Jefte Palo, who I think does truly creepy stuff, better than almost anyone else in the business.
I'm not sure if Naifeh's really a monthly artist though, so you could put him on alternating arcs with Dustin Nguyen, who has a similar, complimentary style.
Captain Thunder; Look, DC's never getting "Captain Marvel" away from Marvel Comics, so let's accept that right now. However, the core concept behind Captain Marvel? Nothing wrong with it. Three young people, blessed with great power and the ability to instantly become adults, fight monsters, robots, and mad scientists, at the behest of an all-knowing Wizard. That's beautiful in its simplicity. All you need is the right creative team.
While I think Mike Kunkel came closest to doing it right (at least recently), I'd love to see Roger Langridge and Evan Shaner tackle it. Langridge proved he can write a compelling story, that would appeal to all ages, with Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and Shaner A) has a tremendous love of Captain Marvel, and
Metamorpho; I think this character's become so screwed up over the past few decades, it's not even funny. So, I say just reboot him to his original status quo; Rex Mason, the Indiana Jones of the DCU, becomes a freak that can turn into any element found within the human body. He's then forced to globe-trot around the world at the behest of his crazy-hot girlfriend's mad industrialist father, who promises to devise a cure for his condition. Also, there's a caveman.
Then, I'd just give it to Benito Cereno, who's proven he can do humor, high adventure, and horror, all requisite elements for any Metamorpho story, as well as artist Nate Bellegarde. In addition to both being talented, and having a great creative rapport, they both love Metamorpho. Why not?
Blue Beetle; While I think the way Jaime Reyes was initially promoted, as a hero with a weird power who deals with creepy stuff, was interesting, that never really materialized in the Rogers/Giffen run, and he instead took on the role that usually falls to teen heroes, as the guy that's in over his head, and has to learn how to be a hero, eventually making good. That was fine for what it was, but I'd really like to see someone play with the idea of Jaime as the guy who's forced to fend off weird, supernatural threats to his hometown. To that end, I'd like to see Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn[, take the book on. In addition to already being collaborators on the fantastic Firebreather (a book about a teenager dealing with weird crap and great expectations in his hometown), I think they're both uniquely suited for the kind of book I see Blue Beetle being.
Hester's well-versed in writing clever weirdness and stuff with a supernatural bent, as seen in Golly! and The Wretch, and Kuhn has a masterful control of heavy blacks and exaggerated figures, that meshes into a style that can be either really funny, or terribly creepy. Plus, he's already drawn an issue of Blue Beetle, so we know he can draw the character, which isn't easy. Put Bill Crabtree on colors, and if nothing else, it'd be a beautiful-looking book.
Blue Devil; Kind of a weird choice, but I always thought this character could be DC's answer to Hellboy. He's a dry, acerbic kind of character, who had a great gimmick as a techno-magic "weirdness magnet" in his original series, which could serve to throw him into any kind of story you'd like, no matter how strange. Aliens? Ghosts? Pixies? Bigfoots? Whatever, it's all fair game for Blue Devil.
Then, I'd give him to Matthew Sturges, who I think nailed the character's voice during his Shadowpact run, with art by Declan Shalvey, whose heavy-contrast style would play great on a supernatural book.
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I NEED WENDIGOS
don't yell at me!!
Which reminds me, I may be doing some commissions on the cheap ($10-20 per 9x12, inked single character + simple background on Bristol board) to help replenish my bank account a bit, if anyone's interested in that kind of thing.
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Cool. Tim Seeley did this for $20, so ... Gauntlet. Thrown.
Seriously, though. I'll e-mail you. I'm not sure what I want, but I know it'll be something different.
Just have to say that this thread? Is genius. I wish there was something like this back when I started writing at 14 (twelve years and £52 writing pay later.) So great to see you cats creating and coming up with ideas and the like.
Writing wise, the best advice I can offer (as co-creator of Death Boy) is to go out and plot the most insane, brilliant, greatest comic of all time. Believe it's a masterpiece until you've written it, and then leave it for a day. Go back to it, and gasp at how it isn't that great. Then rewrite it, and repeat until you have something truly excellent.
Then put it online and have people react with Batgirl style rage.
Batgirl style rage is key. There's nothing like a total stranger destroying your work to teach you two things. Namely:
1) A thick skin to criticism.
and:
2) The knowledge that whatever you do, no matter how good it is, will be criticised by someone in a stunningly harsh and rather childish way.
:whistle:
Re: writing a comic... the way I do it is to start with the last beat, then double back and do the beginning, then write everything but the last beat of the last scene and fill in the middle once I know the end and the beginning fit.