Table Of Content

WRITERS ON COMICS SCRIPTWRITING MARK SALISBURY TITAN BOOKS Acknowledgements Anybookofthiskind isonlyasgoodasitsp<frticipants.Jam thereforeindebt ed toall thewritersandcreatorsilllerviewedherein,whograciouslymade time during their busyschedules to be quizzed, probed and scrutinised, as well as providing sketches, scripts and other wrillen material for use in this book, which ultimatelyisasmuch theirsas itis mine. Ofequalimportanceismyedi tor Simon Furman, who valiantlysteered the ship through a difficult period, and for the duration ofthejourneywas aconstant providerofinvaluableand enthusiastic suppon, knowledge, advice, encouragement and, of course, comics.And thanks to the restofthe team atTitan Books: David Barraclough, GillianChristie,VanessaColeman, Bob Kelly,Adam ewell,ChrisTeatherand Kat)' Wild. Thank you also Sheila Eggar and Melanie Simmons at Todd McFarlaneProductionsInc,Michael MartensatDarkHorseComics,CarolPlatt at Marvel Entertainment, Joe Yanarella at Wizard, Lorraine Garland and RichardStarkings,allofwhominsomefashion helpedoutalongtheway.Aspe cial note ofthanks to Dan Brooke: ifanyone's to blame for kick-starting my illlcrestincomicsagain,it'syou.Andfinallymyloveandheartfeltappreciation to Mumand Laura, myveryown WonderWomen... CONTE TS Inlroduclion 6 KurtBusiek 10 PelerDavid 28 ChuckDixon 42 Warren Ellis 58 Canh Ennis 74 eilCaiman ................................ 94 DevinCrayson 110 DanJurgens 124 Joe Kelly 140 Jeph Loeb 1.52 Todd McFarlane 166 FrankMiller 186 CrantMort-is0J1 204 MarkWaid 226 INTROD )CTION Inthis multimedia-saturated,digitaltelevision-watching, Nintendo playing,internet-fuelledage, comicbooksalesare, perhaps inevitably, declining. And, ifthesoothsayers' predicationsaretobe believed, theprintedword- beitthe novel, the newspaperor indeedthecomic- willsoongothewayofthedinosaursandthe dodo. Butinamongstthedoom and gloom painted bycomics industryanalysts, there beats,ironically,the heartofamediumat the peakofitscreativepowers.Whilethe Hollywood moneymen haveturned moviesintoahomogenised, mass-marketedconcern, comicsarecurrentlyattheirmostinnovative,coursingwitha limit less, visionarypromiseand acapacityforinvention, intelligence, action, humourandwitthat'ssecondtonone. Unlike moviesor television, comicsarenotbound bybudgetorconvention, a writer's creativityrestrainedonlybyhisorherimagination.At theirbest,comicsdaretoexplore new, undiscovered, uncharted realmsoffantasyand fiction, tearing backthelimitsofthefantasti cal,thepoliticalandthesocial,daring toquestion even thevery threedimensionsthatbindourworld. Itwasthemid-eighties'trendtowardsgritty,denselyplonedandcharacter-driven stories aimed at adultsensibilities - typified by Alan Moore's Walclmum and FrankMiller's Balm/m: "I71eDaTkKnighll?elums-thatsparkedapubli hingrev olutionandreintroducedcomicstothemasses. Inthisnewandenlightenedera, comicswerecool,the)'werehip,theywererequiredreading.Forbothsexes.The riseofthegraphicnovel- collectionsofcomicsU'ip material in bookfonn meantyoucouldreadacornieon thetrain,free from embarrassment. aturally, some ofthe public's newfound intere twaned, the media spotlightmoved on, butsomehowcomics neverquite wentback to beingfrowned upon as thecon cernofawkward,maladjusted teenageboys. Introduction 7 The role ofthe comics writer has long been a, misunderstood as the medium itself.Acommon misconception isthathe,orincrea,inglyshe,simplylillsin the word balloonsthatcomeoutofthecharacters' mouths, insertingdialogue into astorycrafted by the tntly lalenled indi\-idual (ie theartist). While there are a number ofwriter/artists operating in the medium, three ofwhom - Frank Miller,Todd McFarlaneand DanJurgens- areimerviewedwithin these page" themajorityoftoday' comicbooksCI-ibesarcfirstandforemostwriters,blessed with remarkablestorytelling kills and boundless imaginations. It's notwithout reason thatHollywoodiscominuallyturningtocomic andcomiccreators'ideas for movies. There are more fantastical ideas, cientific conceits and quantum leaps ofstorytelling in Cram Morrison'sJlA or The Illvisibles than in a dozen Hollywood blockbusters put together. If you're looking for deathly black humour, droll dialogue and riOtollSviolenceas good as ifnotbetter than any thingco,"UuredupbyQuentinTarantino,checkoutCarth Ennis'sPreacher.Orif it'sliteratefantasyasrichandprofoundandinvolvingasTolkien thatyoucrave, delve into Neil Caiman's epic Sandman saga. For crime noir to rival Ellro)', HammettandChandler,looknofurtherthan FrankMiller'shardboiledSinCi/)' series. And ifit's widescreen superheroaClion/adventure with biteand intelli gencethatyou'reafter,you'lldonobellerthan KurtBusiek'sAslroCilyorMark Waid's Gap/ainAmerim.Sothelistgoeson. We liveinasocietywhereaspiringtobea novelistora playwrightisconsidered a noble pursuit, where anyone's burningdesire to discover howto write a film screenplay is easily appeased by a browse through the cinema seClion ofany bookshop. Butifyou'vealwayswantedtowriteforcomics...well,forgetit.AsNeil Caiman pointsoutlater, he mightaswell have told hi careersadvisoratschool thathewantedtobeanastronautwhen hemooted hiscareerofchoice.Atleast that way the guywould have known how to respond. Indeed, ule art ofcomic sC"iptwriting has, up until now, been an almost top secret craft, a mysterious, magician'sstylecoderevealedtothechosenfewbythosein uleknow.If,likeme, you want to write comicsyourself, then maybe,justmaybe, theviewsand opin. ionsand tales and scriptextracts that follow \\-ill help you realise your dream. Becausein thecomics,anythingispossible. The rationalebehind ulisbookwas togetsomeofthebestcreatorsin ulebusi· nesstoopenupandtellall. Inpan,Iwantedthemltsandbolts;the'howto'pan oftheircraft.Howtoconsu-uctascript,thedifferencebetweenwritingfullscript or Marvel plotstyle, the key element' of torytelling, the beatand now and visual sense necessary to constructa comic book. Thedos and don'ts in other words. Butmore than ulat, Iwanted togetinside theirheads toseewhatmade them tick,whatgotulosecreativejuicesIlowing. Bccause,asI'vesaid,comicsarc only limited by the imagination, and the imagination of these individuals is boundless. Candourwas ncouraged. Ididn't\,,"dlllclipped,measured, politically> correClcomment,Iwanted theIloodgatcstoopenand foritall topourout;the good, the bad and the ugly. Theseguys (and gal) wrmledto talk, and talk they did, frankly and often explicitly. Ofthe interviews thcmselves, these were only cut for length (I had only so many pages), and are otherwise unexpurgated. There'sasmalleringofstronglanguageandan opendiscourseon theeffectsof BIntroduction certain cOnLrolled substances,"buLas Isaid, this is warts 'n' all stuff; a ground Ie,·el poruaitofhowthewriter' mindworks. ForgeLcomicsforamoment.This isa book about the imagination and creation offantasy, and itdemand your aLLention. PerhapsthemOsLdifficulLthingofallwastheselectionprocess.Whotoinclude? TheinitiallisLofcandidateswasenoughforthreevolumesthissize,andsoprun ing had to be done. It was, in no uncertain Lerms, impossible. How do you choose between the creativegeniusofonewriLerand another?Thereissimply somuch talentOULthere. Intheend,itcamedown tocoveringallbases. IwanL ed aswidea langeofstyles,approachesand workexperience (orlack thereof) as possible, and so looked for specifics, something different that each wriLer would bring to the book.Therewere, ofcourse, Lhose Iwanted to include bUL who couldn'Lspare the time from their hecticschedules. IdesperaLely wanted inpuLfrom Alan Moore,simplybecausesomanycomicswritersciLehim and his workashavinginfluencedthem,andbecausetodayhisnamestillcommandsthe sortofattention iLdidattheheightofthecomicsrevolutionofthemid-eighties. BUL Alan, weighed down by sheer volume ofwork, couldn't commit. Maybe anothertime, maybe involnme two. MarkSalisbury London, 1999 Editor's note: Throughoutlhe book, referencesare made to twodistinct<t}lesofcomicbook writing,fulls riptand (Marvelstyle) ploL. While the linebetweenthetwooften blurs,it'sworthboilingeachdownintoitssimplestformsothatthosenotalread~ in theknowaresuitablyprepared. Fullscript: Each page (asitwilleventuallyappearin thefinished comi ) isbroken down panel-by-panelbythewriter,and includesadescription01theactionwithall thedialogueindellledasonewouldinaplay. In thiscase,thewriteriscalledupon tojudgehowmanypictureswillfitoneach page,andhasmuchmorecontrolover the dialogue-to-pictured)11amic. It isincumbelllupon the artist toallowenough room fordialogueand topositioncharactersappropriately. Plot:Inthiscasethewriterdescribes- invaryingdegreesofdetail- theaction overa whole page orsetofpages, with lillIe in tJ,e way ofdialogue. Theartist thereforedecideshowthepagebreaksdown illlopanelsandthewriteraddsdia logue in nce hesees theartwork. Thisway the artist hasgreaterfreedom and theonusison thewritertomake thedialogue fitwhathasbeendrawn. KURT USIEK Itwas Marvels, KurtBusiek'smasterfulcollaborationwith painter AlexRoss,thatelevatedbothajobbingsuperherowriterandaIittle known artistintofan-favourite, comicsindustryheavyweights. A densely-plotted, richlydetailed and beautifullyobservedfour-part mini-series, MarvelsearnedBusiekwidespreadacclaim. Ironically, the Boston-bornwriterhad beensteadilyplying hiscraftfor more than adecadepreviousto Marvels, aswellasworking onstaffat MarvelComicsasbothanassistanteditor(on MarvelAgemagazine) and DirectSalesManager(responsibleforthesciencefiction series OpenSpace).As Busiekhimselfputsit, hewasan overnightsuccess aftertwelveyears in the business,andfrom humblebeginnings- a back-upstoryin GreenLantern- he nowwritesseveralofMarvel's flagshiptitles, including TheAvengersandIronMan. Busiek'stag asa retro-writer- duein nosmall partto Marvels- isamisleading one. Forwhilehisworkisthoroughlyresearchedandsteeped in comicshistory, herefrainsfrom wallowinginthe past,offering instead newandcreativetwistson thesuperherogenre.Thistraitis particularlyevidentinhiscreator-ownedAstraCity,aseriesthat simultaneouslymanagesto be both referentialand rejuvenating, breathing inspiredlifeintowell-wornstereotypesandsituations. Wereyou, asyourworkseemstosuggest, a big comicsfan as a kid? As a child Iwasn't allowed to read comics. With the exception of the Pogo comic-stripcollectionsbyWalt Kellyand As/prixand Tin/in books, myparents didn'tallowthem in the house. Mostly Iwould read comi sat f,-iends' houses orat the barbershop. Iwasfouneen when Ipicked upan issueofDarnlevilat the drugsLOre; itwas panoneofa four-pansLOryand Iwas intriguedenough towant to see the rest. BY,.the Lime three momhs later had rolled round and Ihad the rest, I'dfoundaspecialitycomicbookstoreandwasreadingalotof different Marvel comics on a regular basis. It kind ofsteamrollered from there. BUSIek 11 The Marvel books were the one that hookcd me. Specifically, it was their cross-continuity, thc interconnections, thatjust hit me like a ton of bricks. When Iwas younger, my favourite nove" were the series titles like L. Frank Baum's Oz books, Lloyd Alexander' Prydain Chronicles and Enid Blyton's Famous Five. Ialways liked the kind ofbook thatifyou read itand enjoyed it you couldgo back to the libraryand find more.Sothatfirst issueofDaredevil Ibought, which referred back to earlier DO histol)' in asignificantway, sug gested therewasawhole universeouttherewhere all ofthisstuffcontinued. That was what gOt me I oking for the next issue more than anything. Even now, my favourite television shows are stufflike The Practiceand NYPD Blue, shows that have a strongsense ofepisode-to-episode continuit),. They're not isolated stories, they're stories in an ongoing continuum, and that's some thingthatappeals to mevel-y,verystrongly. Werethere anycomicswriterswho influencedyou backthen? Iguess 1knew that people worked on the comics, even though 1didn't pay attention to thecredits. In oneofthoseearlyDaredevilstherewasa reallysilly exchange within the footnotes, centring on some piece ofHydra weaponry from yearsago thathad reappeared. Therewasa note as towhattheweapon wascalledandafool11otefrom the writersaying, 'Okay,it'sasillyname blltI didn't make it up', and there was a further footnote from the editorsaying, 'Stop itwith all the footnotes'. Thatdefinitcly [helped me understand] that there were people working on these comics, but I didn't really distinguish between them until I realised there were certain books - anything Steve EnglehartorSteve Gerber wrote, prelly much - 1always liked better. Ifig- Placeofbirth: Boston,Massachusetts, USA Dateof birth: 16September1960 Home base: Vancouver,Washington, USA First published work: Green Lantern#162 (back-upstOI)') Education: SyracuseUniV'ersit)' Careerhighlights: As/roCity, 71,eAvengers,Avengers Forevn; Iron Man, Marvels, Power ManandIron Fist, RedTomado, ShadowHawk, 77ll1.lIderIJolts, Un/old Talesa/Spider-Mall, Vompirell.a