What would you ask your favorite comic writer/creator or editor?

[Kfu3000]

What comic writer/creator or editor would you be interested in hearing from?

And what would you want to ask them?

Some of you may know I have a podcast called Scripts & Scribes where we interview comic writers/creators and editors. If you don't, you should check it out! http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/

Anyway, we're looking at booking new interview guests and I wanted to know who YOU, as comic book writers and fans, would like to hear from and what you would like to ASK THEM.

So, if you have questions for your favorite writer/creator or want to get some inside info from a comic book editor/publisher, please let me know so we can try to track them down and get some ANSWERS for you.

Thanks for all the support!

[SuperMonkey]

Track Axel Alonso down and ask him why he hasn't hired me yet.

No. Really.

[Kfu3000]

Originally Posted by SuperMonkey

Track Axel Alonso down and ask him why he hasn't hired me yet.

No. Really.

Axel said Joe simply won't let him hire any monkeys... even one who claims to be "Super". Sorry. Bad break.

[Colby]

I would ask why is the new standard of comics 4 - 6 panels instead of 7 - 9 panels per page.

[CHWolf]

"What's your bank account information?"

[Kfu3000]

@Colby - Will be sure to get an answer for you. Thanks for the Q.

@CHWolf - 9203826922789 (It might be a digit or two off, but I think that's what Axel said. He was mumbling a little.) Now as far as the "routing number", you're on your own.

[chris2.0]

Originally Posted by Colby

I would ask why is the new standard of comics 4 - 6 panels instead of 7 - 9 panels per page.

Didn't that start in the 70's when Marvel forced Jack Kirby to draw bigger, but fewer panels, so that he could complete pages faster?

[Colby]

Originally Posted by chris2.0

Didn't that start in the 70's when Marvel forced Jack Kirby to draw bigger, but fewer panels, so that he could complete pages faster?

Hellblazer had a lot of panels, I think the eighties X-men stuff also had a lot of panels. I want to say that it started in the nineties, my theory is that it stemmed from Image with their more expansive art. But we'll see. I feel that the perfect number is seven per page, four is bullshit.

[Sarah]

Kind of a serious question, how do you avoid a phenomenon in a flashback, where for a brief period of time, that character who may have died, suddenly has a brief moment when they are still alive, only to die later when the flashbacks over? It is obvious to the writer it's a flashback, but to the reader it might seem like the character is a temporary necromancer. I seem to have this trouble a bit when I write my own scripts.

Should I just say a general American artist, or is Japanese ok? I admit I only just recently got into reading American comics.

[Steven Forbes]

That's really a pacing question, Sarah, as well as how the art itself looks.

Basically, there should be two modes where the art is concerned: the regular timeline, and the flashback timeline.

Artistically, these should look different: either the panel borders are different, or the coloring is different, or both. For instance, let's say that it's an extended flashback that takes up most the book (not something I recommend, but this is just an example).

For the regular timeline, the panel borders could be thick and black and scratchy, with stark colors to match. We show John has been shot and is bleeding out, and we close in on an eye, again with that thick, scratchy border. We then turn the page...

And we have a regular border with regular coloring and we're in the flashback, showing John being intimate with a baloney sandwich, then Jane comes in, finds his face covered in mayo, and shoots him! We then turn the page...

And we're back to John dying, the thick, black, scratchy border is back, and we're pulling back from his eye, and see Jane standing over him, saying that now she's going to run off with a hot link.

Pacing and art. You have to know where to place the flashback, how to get into it, and how to come out of it, and you also have to decide how the two timelines are going to look.

Hope that helps.

-Steven

[Sarah]

Oh, do editors and artists like it if you give them reference material? I can't draw real well, but I can draw a rough general idea of the locations. People art not so much. I often have to draw my own maps just because the general landscape is a much different world.

[Comics Commando]

As usual, Steven gives good advice...

The idea is that the flashbacks look visually different in the comic book---as in a movie the flashbacks would look different.

I'd switch his visuals examples, though--the Now timeline would be regular straight borders...the flashback's borders would be scratchy or otherwise ethereal [color, etc], to denote an unnaturalness about the pages and panels--Plus the overall colors may be muted or even in stark black and white. Maybe even denote a different style of art altogether.

To answer your question about the script, though...all this should/would be spelled out in the script, so that the artist and colorist are on board with the visual approach [Artist may need to draw the characters younger, for instance...colorist would need to know about the color shift, etc.].

The script should be part entertainment--part blueprint--it's part storytelling, part instruction to the other creators. Not intended for the comic reader.

I don't actually cover flashbacks in my script guide--[thanks for the idea]--but I do cover a ton of other script writing format in my script guide.

everyone can download it at:
http://rapidshare.com/files/37633504...ipt_Format.pdf

I've been in the comics freelance biz for--yikes--almost 30 years--for just about every publisher out there--and I've seen thousands of scripts cross my desk/drawing board. Many are successful in conveying their ideas--but too many are downright clumsy and confusing to those who need to use it to get their work done [like me]---this is why I wrote this guide.

Check it out--guaranteed you'll learn something.


Kurt Hathaway
khathawayart@gmail.com
Cartoon Balloons Studios

[scott_dubin]

Originally Posted by Sarah

Kind of a serious question, how do you avoid a phenomenon in a flashback, where for a brief period of time, that character who may have died, suddenly has a brief moment when they are still alive, only to die later when the flashbacks over? It is obvious to the writer it's a flashback, but to the reader it might seem like the character is a temporary necromancer. I seem to have this trouble a bit when I write my own scripts.

Should I just say a general American artist, or is Japanese ok? I admit I only just recently got into reading American comics.

You can use a caption such as "three years earlier."

But actually, the real answer is there's more than one way to do it. Read more comics, study them as you read them, and you'll pick up different techniques. You can then decide which you like and don't like.

The Image comic Morning Glories does a lot of flashbacks. Here's a preview online that shows how that book does it http://www.comicbookresources.com/? page=preview&id=12328 Here's another Morning Glories preview showing a flashback: http://www.comicosity.com/preview-morning-glories-19/