Question:
In order to understand comic book writing I have started to rewrite golden
age comics. By placing the the stories back on a blank page helps me to see
how the stories were constructed. Is it a good idea to write short stories
and then make them into comc book scripts, your input in very important to
me. I understand that MARVEL wants plots written with little or no dialogue
or artist instruction, is this true?
Answer:
Check out the book: "Comic Writers on Comic Scriptwriting" for examples
of some styles of writing. Also, the writer doesn't do his work in a
vacuum, but cooperates with editor(s) and artists to greater or lesser
degree, depending on what comic it is. Licensed stuff like Marvel and DC
publishes usually demands more contact with others, independants like
Cerebus and Bone none.
Also, in the fifties and sixties, many books were outlined on one to two
pages (synopsis), then drawn, and dialogue added afterwards. This is
called "Marvel style", as this company used this method a lot, to
produce comics faster.
Also, editors could say: Give me a story about XXXX fighting YYYY (or
doing something-or-other. Then the writer had to come up with a story in
those terms. In DC, a lot of stories could get built around a cover
image, see the "DC Comics Present" Juius Schwartz tributes out now for
examples of this.
