Writers, toe-dippers, etc

jusk

Hi,

I was wondering what any of you guys, who know more about these things than I, think of potential comic writers who aren't necessarily comic buffs -

I've read a handful of excellent comic series / graphic-novels, and as a kid I read and loved comics - it's a medium I enjoy, but one that I don't necessarily live and breath. (For what it's worth - my knowledge does not extend much further than (don't laugh) Watchmen, Preacher, Y the Last Man, DMZ, 100 Bullets, Charlie's War, Tintin, Roy of the Rovers (I said don't laugh) and various old war annuals, like Victor/Battle/Warlord. That's it.) I write stuff, short stories, etc, and sometimes I think they would be more suited to being films, and in some cases I think they'd make great graphic-novels / comics.

So basically, is there any precedent for writers, as opposed to comic-writers, creating great stuff in this medium? As a lapsed / non-artist, drawing my own ideas is somewhere between pointless and impossible, but I'm curious - would any artists give a 'non-comics person' the time of day?

Maybe that's a stupid question, but what better way to introduce oneself.

livingtargets

Well so long as you bear in mind that you have to give the artist some clue as to things like "camera" angle and lighting and stuff(like a very detailed movie script).
I usually draw my own stories so I don`t really bother with a script normally,but I have worked off them before.

What kind of comic are you looking to do?I`m assuming an action comic from the stuff you`ve listed.
An action comic would normally be paced kinda quick with a fair bit happening on each page(I`m being very general,but you catch my drift)while a "slice o`life" story tends to have a more relaxed pacing(again I`m generalising)

Hope that helps(I don`t know really if I`ve answered your question,though...)

Fysh

There's not really any reason why you couldn't produce good writing work for comics, so long as you've written it in such a way that your artist can turn it into a series of panels

It might take a while to adjust to the writing style required for comic scripts (not unlike screenplay-writing, I'd imagine) but the thing to remember is that the artist is the one who's going to figure out how best to handle the visual storytelling. So you can write a script where you specify every camera angle, panel layout and detail of the visuals - or you can write a script that describes what needs to happen in each panel, and rely on the artist to figure out how best to convey that visually.

I draw my own stuff but I tend to like scripting stuff out for myself. I don't usually go into any detail, just the basics of what happens and camera locations/angles. You might find it worth your while looking at some scripts from the likes of Moore, Gaiman etc - there's a script for an issue of sandman in one of the Absolute Sandman volumes and it's really interesting, not just for how it's done and how he involves the artist creatively but also for the sheer bloody length of the thing. But then if you're trying to accurately convey a very specific idea of story and atmosphere, longer is probably better...

jusk

Cheers for the replies folks -

livingtargets wrote: »

...I`m assuming an action comic from the stuff you`ve listed...

Yeah, I guess it would be classed as action. It's quite a.. grand idea (hilariously/ridiculously grand perhaps), so there's a lot to it, but yeah, it would be quite fast paced.

Fysh wrote: »

...You might find it worth your while looking at some scripts from the likes of Moore, Gaiman etc - there's a script for an issue of sandman in one of the Absolute Sandman volumes and it's really interesting, not just for how it's done and how he involves the artist creatively but also for the sheer bloody length of the thing. But then if you're trying to accurately convey a very specific idea of story and atmosphere, longer is probably better...

I looked up some Moore scripts, and they're very interesting, hugely detailed - gave me a really good idea of how you might communicate your ideas to an artist, while still leaving the artist room to be an artist, as it were - thanks for the tip.