Wednesday 31 December 2008

New Year’s Resolutions

This year’s are going to be pretty simple and straight forward I think, they look like this:
  1. Talk less
  2. Work more
  3. Get into print
I like talking about comics, I like thinking about comics, particularly my own, but it takes up time that I could be using to MAKE comics. Clear enough distinction I believe. ‘Work more’ is simply a case of keeping my nose to the grind stone, making sure that I do work for the two hours a day I set aside for comics. Anything less means resistance is winning big time. Everyone wants to get into print, add me to the list! I love seeing art appear from the scripts I’ve written, finished pieces even more so, which means having something to hold of my own is the major goal for this coming year.

Happy New Year to you all, let’s make it a good one.

Saturday 27 December 2008

Heartless

Inspiration strikes! Went on a complete writing spree today. I wrote roughly fifteen pages of a first draft for a story idea, called Heartless, I thought I’d have trouble getting off the ground. Have to give some credit to Jimmie Robinson whose workblog at Panel and Pixel was a genuine kick in the pants. Hanging around ideas for ever and a day isn't healthy, get them down, get them out and move on to the next one. The fact that he could put a good part of the idea together so quickly smacked the hell out of a serial procrastinator like myself and, suitably admonished, I started researching the difficult idea. Unlike other misguided forays, ‘research’ this time around meant locating some valuable information, not boobies, though the science for it is still melting my brain cell – anyone know a good physics teacher?

From the success of the research and some quick structural wins, rare enough to warrant a suitable pause should celestial bodies then wish to dump on me, my fingers tapped their way happily into several fun pieces of dialogue and a finish I’m well chuffed with. Though I still find myself fighting not to use dialogue as an ‘in’ to a scene, which often leads to the inevitable act of getting carried away writing he-said-she-said, today I managed to strike a decent balance. More than that I have an estimated outline of five issues, possibly four given the one issue seems to be a little vague, the beats for each issue and almost a complete draft for #1. Plus I watched a bloody great rugby game. Today was a good day.
I’m off down the pub.

Thursday 25 December 2008

Blogging from my christmas pants

With apologies to Matt Fraction for the title :)

Christmas Comic Goodies!




Wednesday 24 December 2008

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas to one and all.


Sunday 21 December 2008

The Economy Bites

A preferred comics retailer has this sign up.

As of today (December 8th 2008) our comic supplier has increased their prices, as such we have had to review and raise our prices accordingly.
As a gesture of goodwill to our customers, anyone who has pre-ordered their comics and graphic novels at the previously listed price will have their orders honoured at those prices, this applies to all subscription additions and advance orders placed before the 8th December.
The price increase will not be applied to existing ongoing subscription comics until March 2009, but any new titles added from now on will be charged at the new price listed.


I managed to read it AFTER buying my comics, my own stupid fault no doubt and credit to them for being good to their regular custom. But it does make you wonder when DVDs and books are becoming ever cheaper, even the new releases, and you can pick up quality trades for around £5, Brian Wood’s Northlanders for example, what will happen to the general interest in comics. I haven’t seen any figures but I’d think with the success of recent comic book movies now would be the time to capitalise on it through the floppies. Except for that pesky recession.

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Ideas

The problem with being able to choose any idea from all the various ones percolating upstairs, is that you can get caught finishing exactly none of them. Focus is a word bandied around often without any real thought to the specific types of application in which it should be used. As regards ideas for myself, it means not being distracted by the latest shiny eureka-moment that comes along, because it may or may not be an idea worth pursuing.

Egotistically I believe many of my ideas are worth using but in reality, and in time with experience, it will no doubt prove to be narcissim. Until I reach that point though it is a challenge to avoid the siren call of possibilities. Yesterday, for instance, I had a quick flash image for a type of story I wouldn't normally consider. The hook, which came to be instantly, is unique as far as I know (which admittedly doesn't say much) and offered several further ideas that really got me thinking. But therein lies the problem, I should have been putting the finishing touches to an 8 page anthology piece. Not a hangable offense certainly, however it is something that would cause problems when I do end up against a deadline. Sorting out how I want to approach new ideas now will hopefully help me further down the road. You can't pitch unfinished ideas after all.

Monday 15 December 2008

Learning to write, Writing to learn

Carrying on from the talk of process and applying it more directly to a piece of work, here are the first two pages from the final script of ‘Oh Only a Miner Killed' to compare with Chris’ pencils I posted a few days ago. Below I’ve also added my very shoddy thumbnails for the two pages, to help whoever the artist was going to be to get a vague idea of what I was looking for. Luckily for Chris :) he never got to see the thumbnails as Tim told him to just go for it and draw the hell out of the script. Great editor’s decision right there! Because this was where I learnt just how good an artist can make you, as a writer, look. It also shows the enjoyment gained from the collaborative process, of seeing your script in ways new and exciting. For me personally it was a real buzz to see the pencils, recognising many of the small details in the script Chris nailed and also seeing how his change of angle in particular made the story far more visually interesting than I had originally imagined.



Oh Only A Miner Killed

Page 1

All the external shots take place on a typical Welsh winter morning, which is to say dark, gloomy and raining heavily enough to give Noah the yips. It’s harsh and unrelenting, symbolising the miners’ lives. First page is seven panels, a row of two then a row of three, then another row of two. (see thumbnail page 1)

Panel 1:
Exterior establishing shot of a Welsh mining town in the early 1900’s. I’d like something like this http://www.data-wales.co.uk/valley1.jpg with the terraced houses on the valley side close to the plant, but feel free to use this list of Welsh coal mines http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/Photo.htm or any other image if it works better. I’m not too bothered by a specific location as most of the story takes place in the mine.

[no dialogue]

Panel 2:
Interior shot of a small bedroom where Mrs Jones, a beaten-down-by-life mother in her mid-thirties is waking two young boys (Michael 13 and Jonathan 11). Michael is a stern looking, dark-haired young man. Jonathan is the happy, younger son and apple of his mother’s eye. They are to look at polar opposites. The boys are sharing a bed and there is a large grandfather type clock in the room showing 5am. Jonathan is our protagonist.

[no dialogue]

For the next horizontal row I imagined panels 3-5 as a single image split into three with the boys moving along it. The single image is of the first four houses of a terraced row, called Mill Lane, descending numerically left-to-right, which is next to a road. The Jones’ live at No 4, No’s 1-3 are also visible with the road on the very right hand side of the image. Lots of miners use this street to get to work. [I’ve highlighted the boys in yellow in the thumbnail to try and show what I imagined in case the following description isn’t clear]

Panel 3:
I want to show their mother seeing the boys off in this panel. So in the centre of the panel the boys are standing outside their front door in the rain, breath visible in the cold morning air while Mrs Jones stands in the doorway, door only slightly ajar (make sure the number 4 is clear on the door please), handing them both their lunches in brown paper bags. They’re dressed like this:
http://static.flickr.com/81/256947931_620909a226_o.jpg only with the heavy coats seen in the top picture here: http://www.snolabor.org/images/coal2.jpg
At the very left of the panel are three miners also on their way to work


MRS JONES: “MAKE SURE HE KEEPS HIS HEAD DOWN MICHAEL.”



[Page 1 continued]
Panel 4:
In this panel we see Houses 3 and 2 as the boys walk past House 2. From House 3, behind the boys, two men (again miners) are getting out the doorway to go to work.

[no dialogue]

Panel 5:
House 1 is the last before the street corner and is visible on the very left of the panel along with a sign for the street name. The boys are beyond House 1 and are crossing the road with several other miners, down toward the bottom right of the panel.

[no dialogue]

Panel 6:
Large flow of workers at the entrance of the mine complex (not the mine itself) trudging to work. I don’t have a fixed image for this panel but I want it to show how reliant the area had become on the coal mine, as many of the Welsh mining areas were, and how many people it employed. It’s my way of saying ‘See, look how many people did this shit.’

[no dialogue]

Panel 7:
The two boys are lowered down a hole into the shaft, looks like this: http://www.hoodfamily.info/coal/graphics/ginpit.jpg

[no dialogue]



Page 2

Six panel grid, three rows of two. (see thumbnail page 2)

Panel 1:
The two boys separate at the bottom of the hole, going in opposite directions. This area is a hubbub of activity; men with tools are walking toward tunnels – the occasional miner is carrying a lamp; there are rails on which boys are pushing carts full of coal. This is also shift change so many grimy, soot-covered men hurrying to leave. Michael is looking stern, Jonathan is smiling and rolling his eyes, this is something they go through every day.

MICHAEL: “DON’T FORGET TO …”

JONATHAN: “KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.”

Panel 2:
Jonathan crouch-ducks past several men on their knees (ref: http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/tmorris/elements_of_ecology/images/coal_miners.jpg) and two boys pushing a cart full of coal, down into a darkened side tunnel.

[no dialogue]

Panel 3:
Jonathan is attracted toward a natural narrow passage in the rock with a dim light whose source is off panel. He has to crouch quite low to get through the entrance.

[no dialogue]

Panel 4:
Zoom in. Jonathan is almost flat on his stomach, crawling toward the hole, now visible, where the light is coming from. The light is now brighter but the panel is otherwise almost completely dark.

[no dialogue]

Panel 5:
Zoom in really close. A hand reaches out through the hole of light, extended toward Jonathan who is recoiling slightly in fear.

[no dialogue]

Panel 6:
Jonathan is right by the hole now and tentatively takes the offered hand.

[no dialogue]


As I’m sure you’ll notice, because I did, the panel descriptions aren’t as developed as they could be and for a few panels I didn’t know exactly how to describe the shot, knowing what you want from a panel and actually giving solid, understandable descriptions is one of the first lessons I’m coming to grips with. To be fair to Chris he took on the challenge with some great choices and made the story flow smoothly where my poor writing could have caused a problem. As I said in an earlier post, you can’t beat actually writing – and getting a chance to see it drawn up – to learn about your weaknesses and how you can improve. In that regard Tim and Chris were also very good, giving me their insights and feedback so my next effort will be better.

Sunday 14 December 2008

Showcase

Following up on the Work! Anthology, here are art excerpts from some of the other stories in various stages of production. I think it very clearly showcases the variety and talent the anthology brings to the table. Enjoy.






Thursday 11 December 2008

Process

This is one of the most interesting aspects of comics for me, how do x number of creators get to the same point – finished comic – from so many different approaches. From a writer’s viewpoint I’ve been refining my process almost constantly as I learn new things and try to feel out what works for me.

At present my process currently looks like this:
  1. Idea – could be anything from a character name to an almost complete story.
  2. Explore idea – keep writing down anything that comes from the initial idea.
  3. Write the story in full – once critical mass is reached on the idea, write down the story in shortened prose, hitting all the major beats where possible.
  4. Break down the story into the major beats, giving you a rough idea of what form the comic will take – one-shot, mini/maxi-series, OGN etc
  5. Issue paragraphs, one paragraph explaining what happens for each issue.
  6. Single issue beats – can be as many as six or seven or as few as two or three. This also gives me a rough page guide.
  7. Pages 1-22 (or whatever you decided after the above) – what information you want to get on each page.
  8. Write it!

The first two parts are self-explanatory. For part three – what is critical mass? For me the simple answer is whatever you decide it to be, if you can see a story or a brief part of one at any given point, write it down. As this develops you will see how the story shapes up in general and that’s when I would commit to writing as much of it down as possible. What this does is give you a framework from which to delve into what exactly it is you have and whether it is enough to warrant going further. However this will depend on your intent, comics doesn’t put a roof over my head or food on the table, so writing comics to make money is different to writing comics for experience and to build a CV.

Shortened prose isn’t the best of descriptions but it is how I think of essentially getting the skeleton or synopsis of the story down in words. Basically, a few paragraphs that explains the whole story. For instance, here’s a great example from Justin Jordan who gave me a lot of good advice and from whom I’ve adapted several parts of this way of working.

Citizen
After a reporter’s wife kills herself and their young son in a bizarre act of social defiance, he is driven to explain what happened to her. He finds strange things on her hard drive that he can’t explain, and his investigation leads him to a series of similar acts all over the country, all connected by one word: Citizen.

Citizen is a living ideology, a group reaction to the corruption inherent in modern American society. It takes over the minds of people who read it, turning them into citizen and using them to strike against the government. In the end, the reporter is unable to convince anyone of the existence of Citizen, and frustrated by society, he kills himself in a public act of defiance. He has become a Citizen.
© Justin Jordan 2008

From this you should be able to define the initial important events (any story will be subject to change, sometimes on a large scale) and, depending on what events you wish to highlight, give you a basic walkthrough from beginning to end. These events or beats should also give you some thoughts as to what format best fits the story – is it an open-ended story that warrants an on-going series? If it has a clearly defined ending is it a mini or maxi series? How many issues will that take? Should it be served up all at once as an Original Graphic Novel? What about small instalments as a web comic? There’s a lot to consider about what form allows you to best tell your story.

Once you’ve decided on a format and are happy with the general story beats, you can break it down into successively smaller parts that should make the story a more manageable, enjoyable process whilst giving you plenty of freedom to explore. Deciding on a starting point will be a major component of this section. I read this incredibly informative article by Steven Grant recently, which may help you understand the benefits of really thinking about where you want the story to begin.

Dependent on what format I’ve opted for then, I can break the story down into whatever size pieces I feel comfortable with. You can do it by issue, giving you what part of the story each issue is going to deal with. Breaking it down further to see how each issue is tailored to serve that part of the story, right down to the 1-22 on a piece of paper to decide what each page, or even panel, should look like and how it builds the story.

I know this can be seen as a very drawn out and mechanical process, plus it hasn’t lead to me writing anything of note yet, but I find it gives me a lot of smaller goals to achieve and a very clear idea of every part of the story. This helps me to keep chipping away at a story each time I sit down to write. Ultimately though, there is no substitute for writing and gaining practical experience of what works for you. Hopefully this will have helped some but I’d love to hear from anyone with a different method

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Presents

Christmas is a time of giving and being the kind-hearted loon I am, here are two comics that should give your holidays that extra added warmth.

First up is the long awaited conclusion to John Paul Leon and Brett Lewis’ The Winter Men. A fantastic mini-series throwing the reader head long into modern Russia and all its complexities through the journey of three former Soviet super-soldiers who have become ‘other things’. Though there is the smallest nod to superheroes in The Winter Men it is merely in passing, an affectation to couch the story initially on familiar ground for the reader, before shredding it amongst the intrigue and double-dealing the story sets up. The dialogue is nothing short of superb, the characters three dimensional in a way very few comics manage to achieve, particularly in such a short space of time and Lewis’s ideas shine through the script. Equally Leon’s artwork is gritty and harsh, a fitting mirror for the world being portrayed and the quality ensures you’ll quickly become engrossed. Unfortunately the series ground to a halt at #5 two years ago, so getting your hands on copies may be difficult. Hopefully with this concluding special either a trade or a re-printing will happen. Try to find them, The Winter Men is several levels above good, verging on classic under the radar.


My second secret santa tip to you is Incognito. The unstoppable duo of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips temporarily put Criminal on hold to bring us an unusual slant on a superhero story – an ex-super villain hiding out in Witness Protection, living an average, mundane life. Or in Brubaker’s own words from a September Newsarama interview:

Incognito is a dark exploration into the nature of good, if that makes any sense. It's about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection, and how that shapes what he becomes. It's also a brutal noir twist on the super-hero/super-villain genre that delves more into their roots in the pulps, and it's going to be pretty over-the-top and action-packed.

Not only does this seem like a really interesting idea with an incredible creative team, but just the simple mention of Sleeper should be enough to raise expectations. Sleeper, in some respects like The Winter Men, was a fingertip burning espionage tale that just happened to involve superheroes and villains. If Incognito is anything close to as good, it may blow your stockings off :)

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Actual Comics

So I guess one of the questions you’re asking yourself upon reading this blog is: does this guy actually write anything? I do and although as the blog title suggests I am some distance from being somebody, or anybody for that matter, I recently had a short story accepted for an anthology called Work! An interesting mix of the workers movement and its music, Work! couldn’t be more relevant than in this current climate of financial turmoil, where the fat cats get paid off while the workers join the ever lengthening dole queues.

Work! is the brainchild of Tim Twelves and Eric Palicki, bringing together a number of short stories based on the songs and anthems of the workers movement. From John Barleycorn to Sloop John B, the songs are used as the base for creators to interpret and re-imagine into stories that are relevant and interesting. Being Welsh my contribution focuses on the coal mines. Coal mining was a huge part of Wales at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth century, employing anywhere up to a fifth of our total population. My great-grandfather was a miner, my grandfather was a miner and so many friends and family from the area at the time were miners. As such it has had a huge effect on the national consciousness and it’s landscape. But it was dangerous, very dangerous at the start of the coal boom. So I wanted to write something a little bit sobering and relevant to the tough conditions everyone, young or old, worked under. In a list of suggestions Tim posted, I came across this: http://www.bobdylanroots.com/miner1.html which gave form to an idea I’d been chewing over since I read about the anthology.

Obviously I’m not going to give the story away, I’d rather you read it and all the other stories in the anthology the way we hope you will, book in hand. But I can give you a decent idea of what’s to come from myself because a few weeks back Tim e-mailed me the first images of the pencils for the story, by a talented artist named Chris Fenoglio. So here are the first two pages of pencils with more about the Work! Anthology to come later in the week.

Page 1




Page 2


Sunday 7 December 2008

Tripping to the LCS

I don’t buy a lot of comics at the moment but I did dabble a bit this week. I tried a couple of new titles I thought I might like, to go with my few regular fixes, and for the most part was pretty pleased with what I picked up.

X-Men Noir #1

I’m not an X fan but it seemed like this might be an interesting slant on a tired formula. It was never going to be a cross between Alias and Criminal but I didn’t expect the at times unnecessarily dark artwork, mildly confusing plot and slashing transitions. It felt like everyone involved was trying just a little too hard to make the concept work, losing an essential ingredient in strong noir writing, subtlety. It wasn’t all bad to be fair, the initial introduction to ‘Noir Xavier’ :) with a conversational nine-panel grid was a decent beat and the Sin City-esque glass colouring was evocative, if very familiar. Not for me alas.

Immortal Iron Fist #20

I didn’t know who or what the Iron Fist character was until I accidentally stumbled across Brubaker and Fraction’s #1 a few years ago. The obvious love of martial arts movies combined with an interesting mythology, some top-draw writing and artwork plus a title that didn’t take itself too seriously, made this my one Marvel spandex fix. With the change of writing duties and a few average one-shots to buffer that change, I wasn’t sure if the quality would be sustained. Gladly, I was proved wrong as Duane Swierczynski has continued in the initial tone admirably whilst expanding the scope and appeal of the storyline. This issue sees the three main story threads merge as the Iron Fists’ past and future catch up to Danny, setting the scene for what will hopefully be an Immortal Weapons extravaganza in the secret eighth city. Needless to say I enjoyed it.

New Avengers #47

Secret Invasion? Sorry haven’t a clue. New Avengers? Nope, got nothing. But I was told that this was a tie-in issue with a distinct Alias feel. I thoroughly enjoyed Bendis’ Alias and to a slightly lesser extent The Pulse, so even a single-issue chance to revisit that storyline was worth the outlay. Which proved to be the case as we were treated to a little trip down memory lane, albeit a pg-13 sanitised lane, with the Cages. It was a quick but enjoyable read, the transition via flashback between the current art style and Alias’ original thicker lines and less flattering, more realistic body shapes was good to see. Likewise the quick banter and humour that made Alias so strong is evident and the bookend relevance to Secret Invasion seems to suggest the possibility of more such stories to come. Fingers crossed.

Punisher MAX X-Mas Special

Jason Aaron is one of, if not THE, hottest writers around at the moment and this is a fair indication of why. After several so-so Punisher MAX one-shots and the end of Garth Ennis’ genius run with the phenomenal 'Valley Forge, Valley Forge', Aaron, having never written the Punisher before, nails it with a MAX Christmas special. The MAX run is harsh, brutal and unrelenting, all of which this one-shot has in spades. Starting with a sickening hospital incident that forces the Punisher into a series of unlikely actions, seemingly due to the festive season, the world is put back to wrongs when everyone catches up to the fact that believing the Punisher will ever waiver from his modus operandi is just plain dumb.

I also bought The Boys #25, The Sword #13, Crossed #2 and Criminal v2 #7 but haven’t got round to reading them yet.

Friday 5 December 2008

Dreaming, only dreaming

The big one. The project that starts you sweating heavily, that plays both hemispheres of your brain like a goddamn Thunderbird. The one that Hollywood will lap up and there’ll be a movie and merchandise, bubbly and broads and awards out the wazoo. Don’t lie, you know exactly what I’m talking about. THAT story. Trouble is you haven’t written it, you don’t know if you have the ability, the tools, the know-how. In fact, the more you write on other projects, the less sure you become. The dream shrinks until you’re sitting on the end of a motel bed with a gun in your mouth and the cockroaches are calling you a pussy. Guess what, you can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket, so get writing already.

Thursday 4 December 2008

Darkened corners

Paranoid is being in possession of all the facts. Great bumper sticker and no doubt a legally justifiable reason for setting a private eye on the neighbours, question is how does this fit into comics? Try this one; first to print wins. The web is not a happy kids room full of soft toys and warm blankeys, it is a jungle teeming with the most voracious, nasty, godforsaken creatures ever to be birthed. All of this leads to my question for this post: What is safe on the web?

If I post an extract of a comic I’m writing along with a brief synopsis, which turns up in a similar but altered form in a big two title a few months later, besides being an idiot where do I stand? The principle of communal ideas means in all likelihood someone else has thought of the idea you just had an orgasm over, and also probably came. So is how you tell it important, will the story still have value or will the accusations of copycatting flow freely? Most importantly how do you cover your arse in a space with no walls. I don’t honestly know. Are you paranoid enough?

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Chinks in the armour

Structure scares me. Sometimes I can nail it to the wall and tell you exactly how it should work. The rest of the time, up is down and black is white. Personally it seems like the hardest part of getting started. I can almost imagine established writers hoarding their golden formulas, locking them away on ninja trained, death skunks. I’ve read some very good articles, my sincere thanks to Caleb Monroe particularly for one of the best resources on comics and their creation, and read avidly the words of top writers. Ultimately though there’s a path I need to find, one which I can label ‘mine’. This isn’t to be unique or anything quite so precious, but simply to allow my ideas to come out in the way I see them. Otherwise there isn’t much point to all this is there?

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Just Do It

When someone asks who inspires you, there are easy answers. I can reel off a list of creators whose works I enjoy and populate my sagging book cases; Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker, Bill Willingham, J. Michael Straczynski, Brian Wood, Hickman, Kirkman, Giffen, Abnett, Rucka – the list is very long. However, those are, for the most part, bright lights on far away mountain tops. They’re in a position I would like to be in, but the climb is long and arduous. More to the point it’s easy to get lost on the way or simply give up and turn around.

At the Engine, where I lurked for eight months aside from a few dumb posts, I saw a lot of talented people at different stages on the climb. Professionals who had found their niche, beginners like myself full of bluster and big ideas, but above all creators who just did it. Whatever ideas they had, whatever talents were at their disposal, they used. They didn’t look up for the lights nor back at the starting point, neither mattered. If there’s one thing that has really motivated me, it’s getting the chance to see some of those people show off their abilities. Whether it be through a Marvel comic or a Panel and Pixel workblog, these are the things that inspire me now. Getting to ‘see’ someone turn a corner, come up with a mad idea and ride it cackling into print or simply throwing shit at the wall and drawing smiley faces in what sticks. All the spaces in between, everything in the gutters, that’s inspiring.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. It may not be much at the moment but hopefully a few posts, a few links to published works (working on it honest), some other interesting information about myself, which I will in all likelihood need to make up, and who knows what it will become.