Musing? DC's Countdown

DC Comics amazes me. Seriously.

Newsarama link.

So you know 52 right? The weekly comic book that works in real time that DC is publishing 52 issues of? Yea, that one. Well, it seems they think it's a great idea (which it is, but that's a digression).

DC Comics is going to be releasing a book called Countdown. A year long comic book that starts at issue 51 and will be counting down to what I assume will be issue 0.

The book is being written by Paul Dini and others. It seems like Dini might be doing most of the plotting, though, that's speculation on my part. Like 52, Keith Giffen will be providing art breakdowns, not that I know what those are, but I can guess.

I love Dini, and I think it's certainly interesting that the creative teams will be switching on and off, but I have to wonder why DC didn't go with the brain trust type creative team that they did with 52. No matter, 52 has been wonderful and I can't see this being much different in terms of quality.

My immediate reaction: HOLY CRAP!

I'm all for innovation in comics. I want the medium to succeed. I can't decide whether this is genius or just smart business. I'm leaning towards insane genius though.

Not only does a venture like this create enormous buzz within the comic industry, it might have some spillover outside of the industry. It's fantastic and newish conceptually.

52 was one thing DC doing this again, so soon, is just something else entirely.

Musing: Do you need to know your comic book history?

Do you really need to know everything about a character’s history to enjoy one issue of that character’s book?

A lot of people I try to get into comic books complain about this; that they don’t know the back story of say… the X-Men. They have a crazily convoluted history with all kinds of twists and turns and retcons, that, yea, if you were trying to write a history book on Marvel Comics and came to X, you might have a hard time keeping everything straight.

For instance, Scott Summers was in love with Jean Grey who died after being possessed by the Phoenix Force. Scott married a woman named Madelyne Pryor who bore a creepy resemblance to Jean Grey. Scott and Maddy had a child named Nathan. As it turns out, Jean never died as the Phoenix Force only used a facsimile of her body and kept her preserved in a cocoon. Also, Madelyne was a clone of Jean Grey. That’s three Jeans! Then Nathan is sent to the future to cure a virus given to him in the present. In the future Nathan is also cloned. So that’s three Jeans and two Nathans.

More stuff happened, Madelyne became the Goblyn Queen when Scott went back to Jean, but that in no way affected my enjoyment of the latest issue of X-Men. In fact, I wasn’t even thinking of Nathan’s long and confusing lineage (his full name is Nathan Dayspring Askani'Son Summers), when I was reading about him. It wasn’t all that important at the time.

The X-Men books are, I think, at an all time high. Granted, I’ve become a sucker for the work of Mike Carey thanks to his amazing run on Ultimate Fantastic Four.

I don’t think a new reader would need to have any real understanding of the issues, the hundreds of issues, of X-Men written before Carey started his run. All you really need is a basic understanding of the characters powers and motivations, which become pretty clear as you read the comic book.

I think if you pick up a book in the middle of a story arc, then yea, you’re going to be a little bit confused, but that’s really your fault for starting a story in the middle. Due to the monthly nature of comic books it’s an easy mistake to make, but I don’t think it’s so hard to ask your comic book shop guy where the story actually started.

That right there is the end of that little essay, however, I’ll say something about trade paperbacks and how they fit in at some point in the future.

(Do you know notice how I’ve been teasing that? It’s exciting isn’t it? Makes you want to keep coming back to my blog even though I’ve been bad about updating it doesn’t it? You like the questions don’t you?)

For further reading on this subject please go to Bactroid.net and ComicFodder. They inspired this post.

A Pro Speaks: Scott McCloud on the internet

Scott McCloud gave an interview to Statesman.com discussing how the internet has changed comic books.

They certainly have transformed comics on the Web. By conservative estimates, I think we have at least 10,000-20,000 people making comics on the Web, which is a lot. Some of those are pretty bad — probably most of them — but there's a lot of really great work going on on the Web as well. So the degree to which Web distribution has changed comics culture is enormous.

I’ve been thinking about starting up my own web comic for a short while now. It would be almost purely self indulgent, but I think it would at the very least keep me writing, and more specifically, keep me writing in the format I wish to break into.

Web Comics, in my experience, aren’t about super heroes, they’re about more normal people. Which is fine. A large part of me thinks that writing about normal people will appeal to the public more than the traditional super-hero genre. Just look at Heroes.

Yes, I’ll mention Heroes as long as I think it’s amazing, which should be a good while if Tim Kring keeps stuff together. Seriously, the man was at (and still is at?) the helm of Crossing Jordan and I still love that show.

Normal people tend to relate better to normal people. I read somewhere a quote that I’ll paraphrase poorly and apologetically not attribute:

American people don’t want symbols. They want things they know.

Web Comics give people what they know. At the very least, they give people things they could know, which is almost the same thing.

Of course, my idea for a Web Comic is a fantasy story that I started with my best friend when we were in early grade school, but whatever.

Musing: Comics and Manga

This will be short.

Manga is really popular in America. American Comic Books, they don't have a fun name, are a smallish niche market which ironically harbor some of the most iconic figures in America.

Why aren't Comic Books as popular as Manga? Well, there are two very good blog posts discussing the reasons with much more knowledge and insight that I currently have into the situation.

noflyingnotights

So please, comics industry folks? Get it into your heads that manga works more because of the stories than anything else.

And a very long post from Halifax_slasher on Facebook:

The reasons for this change are due for their own essay (tentatively titled "What Went Wrong"), but for now let us note that while there was a time when a single issue of a comic would have Spider-man meet a foe, get defeated by the foe, mope around, become inspired, track down the foe, fight him again, defeat him, and then wrap up a subplot involving Aunt May--in other words, when an issue would contain a complete dramatic arc--nowadays Frank Miller can write entire issues in which Batman never leaves the car.

I'll write a long-winded post about the styles of early comic books vs. modern comic books and writing for the trade vs. writing a done-in-one another time.

Musing: How Comic Books are Treated in the Media

I know a few things about comic books.

I know that comic books are stories with sequential art. I know that comic books tell a wide variety of stories and work in many genres, both in fiction and non-fiction. I know that there are comic books geared towards children, there are some geared towards adults, and some that try and be all ages.

I know that the general consensus is that comic books are for kids or nerds, and I know this isn't true. I know that it will be a hard fight for the industry and it's fans to gain respect. I know when people mis-characterize comic books it irritates me a mite.

I've never read BuddyTV before. I have comic books in my google alerts so I've become aware of them. I'm just curious is to how influential they are. Especially when they write things like this:

I raise this question because the comic book industry is a breeding ground for the “knock-off”. I'm no comic book expert; I dabbled when I was younger, have enjpyed a couple graphic novels, but haven't read or owned an actual comic book in over a decade. Comic books, to the best of my knowledge, have grown stagnant.

Oscar Dahl, the writer of this piece, makes several claims about comic books in his discussion of the hit (and fantastic) TV show Heroes. There's nothing wrong with that, Heroes is very comic booky.

However, to say that the comic book industry breeds knock-offs and has grown stagnant is, if not out right false, very mis-leading as to the reality of the situation. Comic book writers can be, and are, amazingly creative and push through a lot of new ground in exploring the world and the human condition. If I had one available I'd pull up a very well said Grant Morrison or Alan Moore quote to refute this assertion.

The New York Times, again, in reference to Heroes, makes an error in regards to comic books.

“Lost” is at heart a science-fiction thriller, while “Heroes” is more of a comic book, but both genres have a similar appeal: they provide an alternative society for those who don’t fit comfortably into their own.

Aside from the unnecessary slamming of Science Fiction and Comic Books, there is the mistake in language. This is a minor gripe, but it's one that I think leads to a large misunderstanding between comic book fans and everyone else.

Comic books are not a genre. Comic books are a format. Science-Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Romance, even Super-Hero; are all genres. Comic books are more like books, plays, movies, or radio. Comic books are most associated with the Super-hero genre, but I can't imagine that the Times was referring to that in regards to Heroes, which is a drama.

I think if the media were educated as to the material, especially now that's becoming more of a presence in the public realm, certain biases could be eroded.

Let's Get Published! Young American Comics Part 3

Editing was less painful than I thought it would be.

I was fairly amused at how bad my punctuation and grammar can get when I stop paying too much attention to it.

It was super helpful to get a few different pairs of eyes on my script. A few important parts were not as clear as they should have been, and I had a couple good people give some ideas on how to make those parts work. I'm really happy with my script.

Off to the artist.

Now I just need to figure out how to add captions and word balloons. I have a little less than a month for that, and I'm sure I can figure something out in some program or another.

A Pro Speaks: Adam Beechen on co-writing Teen Titans

I've always been interested in how writers share writing duties. A good number of my favorite comic books have been written by two people. David Goyer and Geoff Johns on JSA, Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker on Iron Fist, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (or as I knew them on their Legion of Super Heroes run, DnA) on just about everything they write and Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti on just about everything they write.

Heck, DC's 52 has four writers (Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Greg Rucka) and they have Keith Giffen to, as I understand it, handle the panel breakdowns.

Currently DC also has at least two books (Atom and Freedom Fighters) being written off of Grant Morrison's notes for new(ish) characters.

But how does one collaborate with someone else on writing? Adam Beechen gives a clue in an interview with Newsarama(don't you love them?).

Actually, I come in on the second part of the arc. Issue #43 is all Geoff. He had #44 mostly plotted, and then I came in and we finished the plotting together and split up the pages for scripting. He had a pretty good idea of what he wanted for #45, we plotted it together, and then I handled the script. On #46, I’m plotting and scripting from his general story idea. He had the overarching idea for the story arc that was to follow “Titans East,” and I’m going to be writing that as well, but because of other considerations, that’s been pushed back a few issues. So Geoff will continue to be a presence, as far as the book goes, for a while yet. After that, I’ll be on my own for real.

Interesting. But it's a good idea, I think, for a new writer taking over an ongoing book to have some time with the resident writer as it were. It can't hurt to have another writer that you trust (I'm looking at you DnA and Palmiotti & Gray) to build on your excitement and to double check your ideas. Two heads can certainly be better than the one.

A Pro Speaks: Gail Simone on Gen13

I'm sorry I post so much about Gail Simone, but she is really awesome, and Newsarama is putting out this series of interviews with her where she keeps saying insightful things.

Blame her, not me.

So the G13 kids started to seep into my brain, and ideas started coming, and thoughts started to seep in, and I decided to do the book. Funny thing is, I don’t think I ever actually said yes...suddenly I was just plotting issue one with no idea how I got there.

That’s big time comics, friends! One day you have a clue, and then BOOM! You’re finding clever ways to rip clothes off teenagers!

I've had this happen to me more times than I can recall. Inspiration can strike any time, anywhere. Though, I have it happen to me more in certain situations than in others. I think I read somewhere that Stephen King had a lot of his ideas come to him in the shower, happens to me all the time. Riding the train helps too, because I see all these people and my mind wanders and starts telling stories about some of the more interesting people.

Though, there is the other half of writing, where you have to create your own inspiration. This can be difficult and frustrating, but is also totally worth the effort. I find it's best to sit down and meditate on the story told thus far. There are always elements of your own story that you can use to drive the story, I think. I think it's always important to introduce lots of plot elements at the start of a tale, so you can work with them later on, and to draw interest. It's by no means an easy thing to do, but neither is writing a story, and that's what we're talking about here.

Let's Get Published! Young American Comics Part 2

I have to apologize for my recent lack of updates.

You see, I've been busy.

I just finished the rough draft of my script for the Young American Comics anthology last night. That was exhausting work. Let's talk about it though, that's what this blog is here for, right?

The script came to 7 pages. I even got to include a gratuitous full page splash that I had in the outline, but wasn't sure if I could include condensed version of my tale. My pages are going to be pretty packed. Very dense. Stylistically I'd compare it to old Marvel comics issues by Stan and Jack mixed with modern dialogue styles. Let's not compare it though, I don't want to come up short.

Since I had to pack so much into so little, I had to make sure that every bit of dialogue counted, that every panel did what I wanted it to. I found it very helpful to take my outline and then make a goal for each page. With each page serving it's own purpose, I did a panel by panel breakdown and made sure each panel served the larger purpose; both in terms of that page and the larger story.

What has always struck and influenced me was a interview I'd read with Mark Millar about Ultimates v1. Millar was working with an entirely new cast at this point, sure, they were based off of familiar characters, but the differences were certainly there. Everyone is pretty familiar with Captain America's prowess in shield throwing, but no one knew if Ultimate Captain America could do the same thing. So Millar had him do that in a minor fight early on in the book's 13 issue run. Millar stated he did this so when Cap performed a similar feat in a later, more important, fight, it would come as being more believable.

That kind of thinking goes for any good writer, be they in comics, novels, or film. Establishing what a character can and cannot do is critical. I've had teachers discuss the notion of symmetry in writing and I find that it not only leads to good storytelling but also to a satisfying read.

I was careful in setting up some of the things that my characters do. I have at least two things things that characters do that are a little unbelievable, so I established, in slightly minor spots, that they could do these things.

I think good symmetry is accompanied by a very careful breakdown. You really need to understand what it is your characters are doing, what their abilities are, and what their goals are, and make sure that you establish those things early in the story, so the reader can connect.

That's what I can for sure say I've learned from the experience thus far. My script is off to a few friends for editing, stay tuned on for my thoughts on that painful process.