Guest blogger: WIll Bingley on comic writing
Now that COMICA 2010’s in full swing I thought I’d take a break from Hunter S Thompson related blogs to give you an insight into composing comic books. To start off here’s a working page from my Gonzo script:
It’s a pretty basic three panel page. The first two panels continue our action from the previous page and a third large panel acts as a reveal and wraps up a story point. I’ve included this extract as an example of a script page and as a foil for the rules that I try to adhere to when I’m working. These rules are by no means fixed, they’re more a bunch of general and specific guidelines that I turn to if I’m ever having trouble nailing a page. Have a look at the rules below and maybe you’ll see where I’ve broken them in the script above.
9 Rules for writing comic books
1. Never give your artist a single panel description that specifies two distinct actions.
eg: “Commissioner Gordon pulls a pistol from his holster and shoots.”Firstly, you’ll confuse the hell out of your artist. Secondly, you’ll compromise your storytelling in previous and subsequent panels/pages. If an action requires two, three panels or even a nine panel page to occur, then give it the requisite space.
2. Try to stick to a 30 word per panel limit for dialogue and captions. Your dialogue may be perfect, beautiful even, but if it obscures all the artwork in a panel then you’re writing a novel not a comic. Comics are a visual medium. Let your images tell the story.
3. When approaching panel descriptions remember you are writing for your artist. Remember that he/she will be spending a vast amount of time with your script, so be considerate. Think of it like a rather one-sided conversation. Use references and language he/she will understand and relate to. Warn him/her about problems you reckon he/she might encounter. And, above all else keep your tone light and accessible.
4.Understand the benefits and pitfalls of script formatting. There are few absolute rules for this and no general industry standard. But if you want an insight, some writers put scripts up on the internet and I think Dark Horse have a formatting guide on their website that’s worth a look.
5. Know your layouts. You don’t have to specify a page layout to an artist. But make damn sure you’ve figured out the practicalities of each and every panel/page before you mail out a script. If a page doesn’t work as a composite of panels it is your fault. Added to which nothing is more frustrating for a tired artist than being presented with the unnecessary task of re-telling your story for you.
6. On a less technical note. Don’t write for a perceived demographic, don’t write for a presumed publisher mandate or editor’s preferences. Always write for yourself. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut
“If you open a window and make love to the world, your story will get pneumonia”.
7.Never be afraid to make a total ass of yourself. No one starts out knowing how to get it right. If you want to improve, you’re going to have to make mistakes. So make them. Just be sure to learn from them later.
8.Work like a dog.
9.There are no easy answers and most definitely no hard and fast rules. So you’re probably best off ignoring mine and making some up for yourself.
On that final note, here are some examples of great comics that break at least one of the above rules.
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| Watchmen #1, Page 1 (c) DC / Titan |
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| It Was The War of The Trenches (c) Fantagraphics / Casterman |
Above is Jaques Tardi again breaking my 30 word per panel limit, and to devastating effect.
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| Strange Tales: Wednesday Comics #6 (c) DC Comics |
Here Paul Pope engages in spot of brilliantly compressed storytelling. Clearly flaunting the addendum to my "rule number 1" (as almost all Golden Age comics do), and cramming a huge amount of story into a single page. So... hmmm.... I guess there’re some pretty good examples of why you shouldn’t pay too much attention to my rules. Regardless, I hope this was useful to someone. If you want to see Anthony Hope-Smith’s artwork for my script page at the top then it’ll be on display (with a couple of others) as part of the Comica “That’s Novel” exhibition at the London Print Studio from today until 18th December.
Gonzo: a Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson by Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith is available to order from the SelfMadeHero store for £11.29
Labels: 9 Rules of Comic Book writing, Anthony-Hope Smith, COMICA, Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, SelfMadeHero, That's Novel, Will Bingley
posted by SelfMadeHero @ 15:07
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2 Comments:
An excellent article. I'd dispute Rule 1, though - Paul Neary taught me the trick of having one 'action' finish in a frame and some characters beginning the next scene in the same one. So you'd have some characters to left of frame discussing what just happened, say, and two characters walking off into the next sequence, moving the story along. Useful shorthand if you are writing a short strip. Hope that makes sense!
As John says there are ways this can work for you. Certain cartooning techniques allow you to get the feel of movement within a panel and/or a feeling of time passing across one. Motion lines will show you were it came from, so in the example an undercover cop could be holding his jacket open to reveal the holster and the lines connect to the gun his is firing showing he has drawn it smoothly and fired it (I know because I once said it was unwise to try and fit too many actions into a panel, like a man walking into a room, grabbing a chair and hitting someone with it - someone then went and drew just such a scene). In a fast-moving fight scene you can also "ghost" the figure (not sure if that is the right word) showing a kind of residual image where they just were - it comes up in martial arts comics as well as with superheroics (especially for speedsters like The Flash).
The pity is that modern superhero comics seem to be pushing the realism angle as they miss out on a few visual storytelling tricks and shortcuts.
Also I'm sure Moore's version of rule #2 is 25 words, which makes the exceptions even more interesting - one of the important thing about rules is knowing them so you can subvert them for added effect.
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