Comic Writing Class

Recently I was asked to compose a short comic book writing tutorial for a group of writers up in Toronto. I thought I'd share it here with you as well.

Bill’s Letter to you Writers

On Writing Comic Book Scripts

When you’re writing a comic book script you need to be able to do two things simultaneously. On one hand you must write an interesting short play, with (one hopes) compelling dialogue and captions, whose purpose is to tell the spoken part of the story. On the other hand you have to also write a personal letter of instruction to only one person: the artist who will illustrate the comic book, using the information in your letter to him to tell the visual part of the story.

It’s simple: all you have to do is perfect the art of being the ultimate high-functioning schizophrenic. Like Jekyll and Hyde, to do comics well, you need to be two completely different types of writers sharing one body. Unlike Jekyll and Hyde though, you need to be able to switch back and forth at will, to do two completely different types of writing.

One writer has to be the artist, the wordsmith, the poet. His work will be read directly by the readers. The other writer isn’t interested in poetry, or a deft turn of phrase, or in making sure a given character is speaking in his own distinct voice. His prose needs to be dry and undecorated. This second writer is a technical writer whose job is to instruct a customer in how to program a DVD player, or assemble a piece of furniture, or disassemble an engine. Clarity and simplicity are his only concerns. “Can the customer understand what I’m asking him to do?” is the only question guiding him. In this case his customer is the artist who’ll draw the story.

Here’s the technical writer at work in a sample bit of script taken from an actual issue of Fables. All it consists of is what the artist has to draw on each page:

Page One (five panels)

Panel One

We open this issue with an establishing shot panel of the Farm, including the “village” area, town square, main set of buildings. The early morning sun is coming up over the horizon.

Panel Two

Same scene, but now we move down into the main square. Beauty and Beast are walking arm in arm across the square, towards the steps to the main house. They are dressed formally, in dark funeral clothes. They look pretty sad, but a quiet “they’ve already done their crying” sadness.

Panel Three

Same scene, but closer now on Beauty and Beast. She looks up at him, still sad, but not crushingly so.

Panel Four

Same scene, but now they are both caught in a flash of light coming in from the side (from off panel). The light is intense enough to bathe them both in brilliant light.

Panel Five

This isn’t really a panel. It’s the space you need to leave at the bottom of the page for this issue’s titles and credits.

Pages Two and Three (one panel)

Panel One

This is a double-page spread. Suddenly now, as Beauty and Beast look on from the far left hand side of the two pages, the town square area fills up with people and animal Fables. They have all just arrived via teleportation from Fly’s new kingdom of Haven. Flycatcher is in the exact center of the arriving mob of Fables. There are the sparkly special light effects around Fly that we’ve seen in the last few issues, just like what used to surround Boy Blue in his witching cloak, when he was in the process of teleporting (as seen in the War and Pieces collection). In this newly arrived mob of Fables we see: Bigby and Snow and their cubs (all in human form); Rose Red and Sinbad; Totenkinder and the other 13th floor sorcerers (including Mr. Grandoirs, the big Russian bear-like fellow, whom we’ve seen a lot of in recent issues, and little Ozma, the little blond girl, who is going to become an important character soon); King Cole and Grimble and Hobbes; and a big group of the Farm animal Fables, including Stinky the Badger. Pinocchio is here, but basically alone – not part of one of the groups of Fables. He’s carrying blue’s trumpet with him. Clara the Raven flies more or less near Rose Red. All of these newly arrived Fables walk away from Fly in the middle, off to their various homes and forests and such. Sinbad is practically holding Rose Red on her feet. She seems overcome with grief. Stinky the Badger is trailing behind Totenkinder and her bunch. All of the characters who wear clothes are dressed for a funeral. David: If you want to include other known Fables here, like Doctor Swineheart, the fat nurse, the Three Crow Brothers and such (or other favorites of yours), feel free to. But I’ve listed the ones who have to be in this scene. Note that Mowgli, Bagheera, or anyone appearing in the recent back-up stories, can’t be here. Note also the order in which the dialogue takes place on these two pages, to help in deciding where on the pages to place the various characters. Okay, one final note: Recently all of the Fabletown Fables have moved back up to the Farm when Fabletown was destroyed (another big secret you have to keep), so, depending on how much room you have in this spread and in the pages to follow, we need to see lots of cars and trucks parked wherever there’s room, and lots of tents and temporary shelters pitched wherever there’s room. Thanks.

Page Four (four panels)

Panel One

Same scene, but now we concentrate on Bigby, Snow and their cubs. They are all subdued. Bigby and Snow walk arm in arm and the cubs trail behind them. They are headed towards the main house, where Beast and Beauty are still sitting.

Panel Two

Same scene, but now we concentrate on the kids, trailing behind Bigby and Snow.

Panel Three

Same scene. We are at the main house, where Sinbad is leading Rose Red through the front doors at the top of the steps. Beast and Beauty are still sitting on the steps, so that Sinbad and Rose Red have to walk around them. Rose Red still looks like she might collapse if Sinbad lets go of her.

Panel Four

Same scene, but now Rose Red and Sinbad are inside the doors, while now Bigby and Snow head up the same front porch steps into the same doors. They also have to walk around Beauty and Beast on the steps. This time Beast shoots Bigby a suspicious stare, which Bigby doesn’t see as they pass by. The kids are still following their parents.

And now here’s the same section of script with the dialogue and other matter added that the first writer is responsible for. Note that the artist needs this information too, because the dialogue gives him important clues to every character’s expression and body language. The artist also needs to see the order in which the dialogue occurs in every panel, so that he can position the characters in those panels accordingly, and leave enough space in the panels to fit the amount of dialogue the first writer has written:

Page One (five panels)

Panel One

We open this issue with an establishing shot panel of the Farm, including the “village” area, town square, main set of buildings. The early morning sun is coming up over the horizon.

Non Narration Cap: The Farm

Voice (from Farm): That was a lovely service.

Panel Two

Same scene, but now we move down into the main square. Beauty and Beast are walking arm in arm across the square, towards the steps to the main house. They are dressed formally, in dark funeral clothes. They look pretty sad, but a quiet “they’ve already done their crying” sadness.

Beast: It was. Flycatcher spoke well. And Pinocchio was on his best behavior. Good service indeed, but a dreary way to spend our anniversary.

Beauty: Oh, is it – ?

Beauty: I guess it is.

Beauty: I forgot.

Panel Three

Same scene, but closer now on Beauty and Beast. She looks up at him, still sad, but not crushingly so.

Beast: Don’t worry. Today of all days you have a good excuse for forgetting. And any sort of celebration would be inappropriate.

Beast: So instead, I guess I should just ask you the traditional, annual question. How about it?

Panel Four

Same scene, but now they are both caught in a flash of light coming in from the side (from off panel). The light is intense enough to bathe them both in brilliant light.

Beast: Care to take one more circle around the sun together?

Beauty: Without question. And I think –

Beauty: – huh? –

Panel Five

This isn’t really a panel. It’s the space you need to leave at the bottom of the page for this issue’s titles and credits.

Title (display lettering): Waiting for the Blues

Subtitle (display lettering): (An Epilogue of Sorts for The Dark Ages)

Credits

Pages Two and Three (one panel)

Panel One

This is a double-page spread. Suddenly now, as Beauty and Beast look on from the far left hand side of the two pages, the town square area fills up with people and animal Fables. They have all just arrived via teleportation from Fly’s new kingdom of Haven. Flycatcher is in the exact center of the arriving mob of Fables. There are the sparkly special light effects around Fly that we’ve seen in the last few issues, just like what used to surround Boy Blue in his witching cloak, when he was in the process of teleporting (as seen in the War and Pieces collection). In this newly arrived mob of Fables we see: Bigby and Snow and their cubs (all in human form); Rose Red and Sinbad; Totenkinder and the other 13th floor sorcerers (including Mr. Grandoirs, the big Russian bear-like fellow, whom we’ve seen a lot of in recent issues, and little Ozma, the little blond girl, who is going to become an important character soon); King Cole and Grimble and Hobbes; and a big group of the Farm animal Fables, including Stinky the Badger. Pinocchio is here, but basically alone – not part of one of the groups of Fables. He’s carrying blue’s trumpet with him. Clara the Raven flies more or less near Rose Red. All of these newly arrived Fables walk away from Fly in the middle, off to their various homes and forests and such. Sinbad is practically holding Rose Red on her feet. She seems overcome with grief. Stinky the Badger is trailing behind Totenkinder and her bunch. All of the characters who wear clothes are dressed for a funeral. David: If you want to include other known Fables here, like Doctor Swineheart, the fat nurse, the Three Crow Brothers and such (or other favorites of yours), feel free to. But I’ve listed the ones who have to be in this scene. Note that Mowgli, Bagheera, or anyone appearing in the recent back-up stories, can’t be here. Note also the order in which the dialogue takes place on these two pages, to help in deciding where on the pages to place the various characters. Okay, one final note: Recently all of the Fabletown Fables have moved back up to the Farm when Fabletown was destroyed (another big secret you have to keep), so, depending on how much room you have in this spread and in the pages to follow, we need to see lots of cars and trucks parked wherever there’s room, and lots of tents and temporary shelters pitched wherever there’s room. Thanks.

Beauty: Oh, it’s Flycatcher again. These should be the last Fables from Haven.

Beast: Quick turnaround this time.

Rose Red: No, Sinbad, I don’t want to talk about us, or about anything. I just want to get back into bed.

Rose Red: And Clara? This time I expect no interruptions. Understand?

Clara: You get your rest, boss. Don’t worry about us. I’ll keep everyone in line.

Stinky (the Badger): So how soon before Boy Blue comes back, Frau Totenkinder?

Stinky: The important ones always come back, right? Isn’t that how it works?

Totenkinder: No, that hasn’t been demonstrated in a conclusive way.

Totenkinder: Certainly not to my satisfaction.

Totenkinder: We haven’t established any measurable pattern.

Page Four (four panels)

Panel One

Same scene, but now we concentrate on Bigby, Snow and their cubs. They are all subdued. Bigby and Snow walk arm in arm and the cubs trail behind them. They are headed towards the main house, where Beast and Beauty are still sitting.

Bigby: We should think about parking the cubs with their grandfather, until we know just how much danger we might be in at the Farm.

Darien: What danger, papa?

Winter: More dangerous than grampa’s castle?

Panel Two

Same scene, but now we concentrate on the kids, trailing behind Bigby and Snow.
Conner: Gram Paw’s castle isn’t dangerous no more, stupid. Not now that our Uncle Monsters are gone.

Ambrose: But is anywhere safe? Uncle Blue got killed dead right here.

Panel Three

Same scene. We are at the main house, where Sinbad is leading Rose Red through the front doors at the top of the steps. Beast and Beauty are still sitting on the steps, so that Sinbad and Rose Red have to walk around them. Rose Red still looks like she might collapse if Sinbad lets go of her.

Rose Red: No, I want to be left alone.

Rose Red: Completely alone.

Panel Four

Same scene, but now Rose Red and Sinbad are inside the doors, while now Bigby and Snow head up the same front porch steps into the same doors. They also have to walk around Beauty and Beast on the steps. This time Beast shoots Bigby a suspicious stare, which Bigby doesn’t see as they pass by. The kids are still following their parents.

Snow: Either your father’s keep, or Haven.

Snow: Somewhere safe.

And that shows the two different writers you need to be in a nutshell. No, you don’t have to write the panel descriptions in italics. I just did that to better show off the two different sides to the work ahead of you. The hardest part of this particular type of storytelling, at least in my humble but long experienced opinion, is being able to switch back and forth between the two writing styles at will. If you can’t do that, you can’t do comic books very well. One technique I have found that helps, is that I will first write out long stretches of dialogue at a time – the entire scene’s worth – before I go back and plug in the page and panel descriptions. I write the story like a play, with dialogue only. That way I am able to live in the artistic writer for as long as possible, before switching over to the technical writer. One problem with doing it that way though is remembering what you wanted to happen in any given panel by the time you get back to describe it.

Many comic book writers do the opposite of my process. Since comic books are considered primarily a visual storytelling medium, they write out all of the “action” – the page and panel descriptions – first, and then, only when the issue is entirely done in the technical writing side, do they switch to the artistic writer, going back to plug in the dialogue. This is a perfectly fair and legitimate way to do it, but since my scripts tend to depend more on what characters say to each other, I prefer dialogue first, action second.

Of course you’ll find your own preferred way to do it and your own best pace on how often to switch back and forth between your two writers.

One last thing. Remember that your two different writers, the artist and the technical writer, are partners. They need to work together to produce the best of all possible stories. The artist better not try to cram in so many lines of dialogue and captions into a single panel, that the technical writer can’t possibly fit them in. Since the technical writer is just a stand-in, at this stage, for whoever will actually be drawing this story, you need to treat him kindly, or some comics illustrator (who’s an actually separate person) will grow to hate you. In the same vein, the technical writer can’t try to have more than one action occurring in a single panel, or too many people in a single panel, or too many panels per page, or that same very real comics illustrator is going to hate him too.

So that’s the lesson. You need to be two different writers in one body. You need to be able to switch back and forth between them at will. And, unlike the original Jekyll and Hyde, both personalities have to be partners – the best of friends in fact – each working to bring out the best in the other.

Thank you.

Bill Willingham

Somewhere in Minnesota