Broken Frontier

Creatively, writers often live very solitary lives. Rarely do we deal with anyone besides editors as we craft our manuscripts. The collaborative nature of creating comics is the complete antithesis of word-smithing isolationism and for some writers working in a team is a huge and difficult step to take.

Others approach their role in bringing the comic together along the lines of a Hollywood writer-director; they craft the story and then steer the process as the story moves from script, to pencils, to inks, to colors and to letters. Me? I am more firmly in the second camp.

Working in a team is what makes comics special. Seeing the words from my script turned into pencils and then inked, colored and lettered is undeniably awesome. Yet, there is something terrifying about it as well; handing over your creation to others in the team means that you are ceding control.

As a writer, part of me likes to think that without me the comic could never happen. That is true to an extent, but it is possible to create a comic without a dedicated writer. Many artists simply draw out the story as it appears in their mind and they may bring in a writer to script over the finished art at a later time. Many people call this method of producing comics the Marvel Scripting Method as Stan Lee would tell Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby “I want a five page fight between the Fantastic Four and Dr Doom.” The artist would then go and draw the 5 page fight and Stan Lee would add in the dialogue later. This is a faster way of creating comics, but many writers steer away from Plot Only (another term for this), in favour of the Full Script or the DC Script Method which reads more like a Hollywood script with scene descriptions, captions and dialogue.

Anyway, I kind of got derailed there. So, there are basically four ways that you might find yourself as an artist working with a writer …

Building the Universe
I have started to do this on a project that I am developing for Ronin Studios, although that project is moving very slowly right now; I just don’t have the time to devote to it. So, I won’t go into the details on that, but I will write about a general approach to building your own world.

First up, building a universe from scratch takes a lot of time, which is why it is necessary for both the artist and the writer to be deeply involved in this side of the project.

Presuming you are not setting your story on Earth, or you are setting it on an alternate Earth where magic or super powers or advanced technology or aliens exist, you need to establish how this world works; what are the rules? Can every Tom, Dick and Harry end up with super powers, or do you need to be a multi-millionaire to buy the enhancements, be they genetic or technological, to make your powers work?

Who runs the country? What type of government is there? What types of laws exist? How does society work? You need to consider all of these questions when building your own world.

Of course, once you make the rules, you have to live by them! 

Some of my favourite universes include the Bomb Queen city of New Port, the city of Arcadia as featured in early 1990s Dark Horse Comics, The Ultimate Marvel Universe and Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Universe. Each have their own rules. For example, the regular Marvel Universe (also known as the 616 Universe) is very different from The Ultimate Marvel Universe even though the former was the basis for the latter.

When working with an artist to design your world, there is always a specific look to a universe. Artists should beware that any great writer has a sharp mind’s eye and will have a very specific idea of what their world and its inhabitants should look like. Artists should always be patient at this time in the process because it may take many attempts before your designs on paper match the designs in the writer’s imagination. Of course artists should take the initiative at this time and show the writer why they hired you in the first place; it may be the writer’s world, but they are looking for your spin on their ideas.

Working from Scripture
A writer’s script is a detailed guide to the way the story should unfold. The type of method a writer uses (DC vs Marvel) will give the artist a good idea of how their working relationship will likely pan out.

Me? I prefer to write in a DC Script style. I feel as though it took me many years to get a handle on using this method and now I am fairly comfortable with it. I enjoy using this style as I feel it gives me greater control over story pacing and characterization.

Ha! I sense you are all shouting at your screen after reading that last point. After all, once a writer hands the script over to the artist, just how much control can they maintain? Well, as a writer I find it hard to hand my story over to someone else to interpret. The truth is that creating comics should always be a collaborative effort. You can’t just hand a script to an artist and then … three weeks later the pages appear. Often artists have a more ‘cinematic eye’ and can come up with interesting angles or new ways to present what you have listed in your panel descriptions. Comics are a visual art form. I usually feel that, if in doubt you should go with your artist’s suggestion … even if it may differ from, or contradict, what appears in the script.

Freedom!
Of course you could take that final suggestion to an extreme and hand the script to your artist and say … “Go For It!” The same applies to artists who hire writers to develop their story ideas. Being given total freedom to write a story or to design characters, their universe and draw their adventures is incredibly exciting as it is daunting. After all, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

Alliances
When working with a writer always remember that you are in a partnership; at the end of the day it takes a writer and an artist to make a story happen. Alliances should be equal. Your writer should always remember that it will take you a lot more work to make the story happen than it took for them to write the script. At the same time if you are working with a writer, remember that he or she is likely to have spent hours in front of their computers agonizing over one panel description or one line of dialogue.

Writers can be difficult to work with; we are often away in our own worlds, forever daydreaming. Sometimes we are pedantic over the most minute details of the story and other times we will appear to be complacent about part of the tale that you, the artist, feels is crucial.

Sometimes writers and artists can appear to have as much in common as chalk and cheese; after all, we communicate our stories in very different ways. At the end of the day, no matter how alien to each other we might be, we need each other to create something wonderful; a comic book.

Next: Understanding Artists.