I get asked of how to write for the comics form a lot, and have put a bunch of advice in a bunch of different places. I want to put it all in one place. This is a work-in progress thing, which I’ll try and add to as things occur to me. Failing that, I’ll be using a Writer Advice tag from now on so you can click that.
This is how I started. Warren Ellis’ seminal - by which I mean in its real sense rather than my usual use of “flecked with semen” (Though with Warren, you never know) - COME IN ALONE column featured a three part sequence on how to write comics.
This was my in. I still think it’s a good in for you.
(For my generation of comic creators, I’d say C.I.A. was enormously influential. If you have any interest in knowing the intellectual soup where a lot of us came from, you may want to read the whole thing. Or don’t, because you are THE FUTURE, remember, and fuck old people like you, Gillen.)
Anyway - the three parts…
Part One - Preparation
Part Two - Script
Part Three - Pitch
This is basically what I paraphrase when explaining comics to people in the pub.
Some of it is dated slightly - especially in the third part, as you almost certainly won’t be pitching like that now (though some core aspects certainly are). The core craft and discipline is 100% on point. Take this, internalise it, make it your own.
Warren writing above said that in his day they had it hard, as no-one wrote about comics craft. My generation had it easy, he noted, as there were some books. Your generation has it easier still, as they’re shitloads of them.
I’ll probably edit in more books here as I progress, but I want to put the core two that I think everyone needs to read.
UNDERSTANDING COMICS - Scott McLoud
COMICS AND SEQUENTIAL ART - Wil Eisner
The former will give you the basic tools to dissect comics. The latter is a master at work. Take them, internalise them, make them your own.
If you’re talking about story structure generally (i.e. not just comics), when asked, I normally recommend reading McKee’s STORY and King’s ON WRITING back to back. They are both true. They are both 100% contradictory. It will teach you the most important lesson in writing - whatever works, works, and the job is building your own toolbox.
(The secret: writing is enormous. We say “writing” and we’re really talking about dozens of skill-sets.)
EXAMPLE SCRIPTS:
The Comic Script Archive is the biggest source of comic scripts online. You’ll see how various people write the form. See what you like. There is no standard method to comic scripts, as you’ll see.
“Where can I find comic scripts” is a question I’m asked all the time. You can find the Comic Script Archive as it’s the top entry on google if you enter “Comic Scripts.”
I’ll say this here as a general thing, as I’ve never said it directly to anyone: if you asked this question, you really need to up your game. If you need mentoring for that, you are not going to make it. Seriously, you can do better. Do better.
If you want to see one of mine, here’s one for Phonogram: The Singles Club. Phonogram scripts are unusual, so perhaps not one to take many lessons from - most artists will club you if you write a script like this. If you want to see me working in a more commercial mainstream stripped-back mode, there was a DIRECTOR’S CUT of DARTH VADER 1, which includes my complete script for the issue. It’s on comixology, but you can probably get it from a shop or Ebay.
Decompressed: my comics craft podcast. I’ll do more eventually, probably. I go into detail with a creator over their choices with a book. “Why this panel? Why that panel?” This is basically the sort of questions you should be asking yourself whenever you read a comic for the next few years or so. As Warren says in his essays, yes, it does ruin your reading of comics for a few years, but it’s the cost of doing business.
How To Write For Space (i.e. How Comics Is Unlike Prose): An off-the-cuff piece about how I write for a set format (A 20 page comic).
Antony Johnston explains how to find artists to draw your stuff.
Some advice I gave on pitching comics.
Kelly-Sue Deconnick on writing comics.
Warren Ellis on writing comics.
The Beat’s big compilation of a mass of resources. There is a lot here, so don’t get overwhelmed. Take your time.
The Big Bang writes on selling your creator owned book to retailers. Obviously, this is high level stuff and miles away from where you are now, but this stuff is the nuts and bolts of how the American comics market operates. Just knowing this stuff will make things which otherwise are bewildering understandable.
Creator At Large seems to be trying to gather a lot of industry-centric resources. Worth keeping an eye on.
IDLE PIECES OF BULLSHIT MAXIM I SAY TO MYSELF WHICH YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY ON
Never forget: you are a parasite. The artist does not need you.
Scripts are love-letters. They are meant to inspire the artist. An artist who is not inspired will create shit work.
Scripts are blueprints. They are not a finished piece of work. They are a design from which one can construct a finished piece of work.
Scripts are not stories - scripts are an explanation of how a story can be told.
When analysing comics, assume the creators had a good reason for making the choice they did. Try and work out why they did. There’s a time you can afford arrogance, and it’s far in the future . For now, assume they know more than you do. Even the creators you hate. Especially the creators you hate.
The last isn’t always true, but you’ll learn more this way. I’m suggesting stances which maximise your chance for growth as a creator at the expense of your emotional well-being.
See also : if someone can’t understand your book, it’s always your fault.
(That one will break your heart, btw)
Bear in mind the Gillen/McKelvie paradigm while analysing comics.
That’ll do to start with.
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