The Writer: Part I
By D. Lynn Smith
Many people think that reading a comic book or graphic novel is a lesser experience than reading a novel or even a short story, but those people have not picked up some of today’s independent comics. Reading a comic book or graphic novel can be as compelling, immersive and rewarding as reading other kinds of prose.
However, it IS a very different kind of reading. A comic book is a visual experience. You can’t rely on the words to tell the story. As a matter of fact, you might have a page or two without any words at all! So the reader has to slow down, take in each panel and let the art tell the story. Even when there are words in the panel, they are not enough. The combination of word and art—that is the experience of the comic book.
So what does this mean to the writer?
Writing for television and writing for comics is similar in some ways, but vastly different on the whole. In a teleplay, you write a scene by briefly describing the setting and the characters in the scene. Then you go into dialog. The director and actors take care of blocking the scene, meaning who stands where and what angle will be shot. The costume people dress the characters, the set people dress the set, the location people pick the location.
In comic books instead of writing scene by scene, you write panel by panel. These panels then make up one scene. How is this different?
Let’s take a partial scene from my television pilot of Gates of Midnight.
INT. LIVING ROOM-MORNING
Where RAVEN, Eddy’s 20ish daughter, is sacked out on the old but comfortable couch. The other furniture is littered with her clothes: a designer gown, glittering sapphire and diamond necklace, Prada stilettos. Eddy walks in from the bedroom, sighs and chuckles, shaking his head and looking affectionately at his daughter. Raven starts awake, eyes wide as she automatically throws a dagger directly at her father.
Now let’s look at the same scene from the comic book script.
The overall look of the novel should be gritty urban in sepia tones, using shadowing to create mood and depth. There will be times when color will be used as emphasis. These moments are marked in the script.
PAGE 1: Six Panels
Panel One:
INT. EDDY MOON’S APARTMENT – BEDROOM:
Morning light streams in through the window. EDDY MOON, about 50, very fit with black hair, square face, strong jaw, is in his police uniform and in the process of strapping on his gun belt. (See Image for Eddy reference)
Panel Two:
INT. LIVING ROOM:
RAVEN MOON, Eddy’s 20-something daughter, is sacked out on the old but comfortable overstuffed couch, everything except her head is covered.
Panel Three:
CLOSE ON RAVEN. She has shoulder-length hair as dark as her name suggests and looks like an angel in her sleep. She’s exotic looking, a bit on the petite side, strong and agile. (See Image for Raven reference)
Panel Four:
Show entire scene. Eddy stands in the room, surveying the mess. A blue designer gown is draped over a leather lazy boy, the coffee table sports a pair of silver Prada stilettos, a sapphire and diamond necklace hangs over a lamp shade on an end table. A black lacy bra lies on the floor close to the couch along with a pair of stockings.
Eddy:
(O.S.)
Rav.
Panel Five:
Before Raven is actually awake, she is sitting up and throwing a large knife at Eddy.
One paragraph in the teleplay becomes one full page in a comic book. Truth be told, since this was my first comic book script, I could have been more detailed in the script. I did rely heavily on images I provided my artist of people I imagined my characters would resemble.
The point is, writing comic books requires the writer to be a director, set dresser, costumer, location scout… you get the idea.
Here you can see how the script above translates into one finished page.
Come back next week as I write more about the role of the writer in creating a comic book.
If you’d like to purchase a copy of Gates of Midnight, please visit ComiXology at http://bit.ly/1wK1f8b.
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