Where to Find Comic Book Scripts

So, you wanna write a comic book, but you don't know where to start. I recommend checking out: http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/

Their tag line is, The Largest Collection of Pro Comic Book Scripts on the web! Seems like they, not only have reviews of stuff, but they have a lot of links to the PITCH and then also to the SCRIPT of various comic books.

Check it out!

Writing, Writing, Writing

For me, writing is like having a relationship. Sure, you can pop the occasional quickie, but for the most part, it's a lot of time, a lot of attention, a lot of listening... How many relationships would last if you were always thinking about the other stuff you had to get to.

I'm always rushed to get a certain number of pages done a day. For the most part, this is a frustrating act. I came close to abandoning several ideas, and then this guy at my work, Erik, he starts talking about his kids, and spending time with this kids, and how you have to do that. How kids remember what you do with them, not what you say to them. And I got to thinking about creativity... as a little kid.

I mean, the last thing I want is for my creative kid to grow up with issues, abandonment issues, you didn't love me as much as you loved your TV or your pornography. And me sort of shyly going, uhm, well -- yeah, I love you both the same. But, really -- you are what you do.

So, I've been focused on carving out a certain amount of time every morning -- the most precious time of the morning -- to spend time with the kid.

Screenwriting Vs. Writing a comic

Alright, this is my first venture really into the comic world. I've written other scripts and drawn clumsy knock off comics of my own in Junior High (you know the kind where it's not Spider-Man but it sure looks like him).

But, comic script pages are a lot leaner -- not much happens on a page. I was at a dinner party recently where one of the producers of Afro Samurai was there. We started talking about movies and comics, evidently he's launching a new title with Samuel L. Jackson. You can check it out here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24892

And he was talking about how you don't need that much on a panel. He mentioned four or five being a little crowded -- and as I continue to develop the script, I agree.

If you start putting more than five panels on a page, the thing's going to get crowded (Ahem, Alan Moore).

We've got a page here from Jim Lee's work on the "Hush" story-arc. And then below we've got a example from the Watchmen.

Both by great artists, both great, blah blah blah -- but you can see the difference. When I wrote my first comic pages, I showed them to a comic artist friend of mine -- you can check out his work here (http://www.nick-nix.blogspot.com/)

I think I was writing for twenty panels. I just had waaaaayyy too much going on. Things take longer in a comic.

Look at the batman page -- there's like two things that happen -- they look at each other... and that's about it. Now, in Watchmen Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons cram as much as they can on there -- he jumps, he lands, there's a kick, he's umasked...! Whew!

So, as I write the pages I'm trying to leave as much air on the page as I can -- even more white space than a screenplay!

In the next few posts we'll have some examples of comic scripts and screenplays.

How to Write a Comic Script

Warren Ellis. The man who has written, well a ton of comic stuff, has some thoughts on pitching. If you like him, or you want to check more out on pitching -- here you go: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=10319

More Character Designs

More updates on the character design. The setting is slowly shifting to something more in the 20's or 50's. Thinking Maltese Falcon meets 28 Days later...