Self-Taught By Others (Part I)
Film school flunkie to comic book junkie.
Business First
For those who read these updates via email, you may have already noticed new teaser art for the upcoming project, Stay Cool.
Here’s an even better look at the full cover - which will be available as a variant when the campaign launches on September 12.
This cover is provided by the amazing Mattia Monaco of AfterShock’s Chicken Devils and Knock ‘Em Dead. It’s one of three covers that will be available.
A lot more to come before launch day! Be sure to follow to make sure you don’t miss the early bird deals.
I want to share some of the resources I’ve found very useful in my creative journey. I hope you find them as useful as I have.
Learn From Different Disciplines
My intentionally paradoxical title to this post is a nod to how I ended up writing comics.
When I was still a young dude trying choose a college, I knew that I wasn't going to become an English major and write fantastical novels. My reading habits always trended towards Pulp and Comics - sci-fi, noir crime, superheroes. Not genres post-secondary education tend to respect.
Getting into comics wholeheartedly didn’t seem like a good idea because it was all going to end soon*.
*It’s 20 years later and here we are. Still doing just fine — adapting and changing, but still here.
So I went for the most reasonable path forward: I went to the Toronto Film School to learn to write films.
I took a crack at TV production and short films. I wasn’t loving it like I thought I might. I always had one eye on comics. After a couple years, I gave up and got a “real” job - which is now allowing me to follow my dream by finding some great artists to work with (along with some successful crowdfunding!)
I find lessons from film apply to comics - assuming you have the right motivations. If you’re looking to make a comic because you can’t make movies, you’re going to make a bad comic. It is its own medium and needs to be treated as such.
That said, here’s a bunch of screenwriting books…
Learn to Write
Three books immediately come to mind when it comes to writing instruction - two screenplay books and a comics focused book.
Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels by Brian Michael Bendis
Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
The script for your comic is the foundation which the artist is going to create their magic. Your job as the writer is to make sure the reader wants, or better, needs to see all of the hard work your artist has put in. If your story drags or doesn’t invest them in some way, there’s little the artist can do.
Screenwriters are fighting the same fight. They need to keep you interested, looking at the screen. It’s not a book that people are going to put down and pick back up later when they’re in the mood. It’s now or never. Comics have the same challenge. Each page turn is an opportunity to stop reading forever.
These books will make sure you stay on that path so the artist’s effort isn’t wasted. Speaking of artists…
Watch Those Who Have Done It
Art on YouTube
The script is more than just the structure and guide for your story. It’s how you communicate with the artist.
Though I like to dabble in drawing here and there, I know where my skillset is and respect those who take the craft seriously. What’s important to me is that I know how to speak their language.
These are my translators:
Both Sam and Marc have been great in explaining what possible and why. Being able to understand what I’m seeing and how to explain it has been key in being comic scripting.
One more artist…
Full disclosure on this one - he’s my brother. He’s does some cool portraits worth checking out. Give him a sub!
Writing on YouTube
I’ve yet to find someone dedicated to writing comics on YouTube (let me know who I’m missing in the comments!)
That said, there are a ton of great writers with extremely informative channels out there.
Here’s a handful:
Tyler is really good at breaking down movies from a screenwriter’s point-of-view. Most of these lessons apply to comics as they deal with character and narrative structures. He explains extra clearly with his examples.
Chris, Hannah and Abbie are authors that not only focus on building great narratives and characters, but productivity, technology and the business of self-publishing, publishing and creative life in general. Lots to take when putting together the funny pages.
You Should Be Writing
Between all these forms of learning, there’s more than enough to procrastinate when you should actually be getting some writing done. I didn’t even get into podcasts, courses or other Substack newsletters.
I’ll save those for another entry.
Until then…
What’s Next?
September 1
The Wrath of Con
Back to Fan Expo Canada!
September 12 (Special Extra Newsletter)
STAY COOL - Ready for Launch
Everything you need to know for what’s available!
September 15
The Early Birds are Out To Play
The First 2-3 Days of the Campaign in Review
Great write-up, and great resources!
Another I'd suggest for comics, and this isn't necessarily a writing guide but I've found it endlessly inspirational over the years is "The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore" by George Khoury. It's basically a 200-page long interview with Moore and is all about his life and his work, and I found I learned more in that about how to think about writing than in a dozen other books.
PS
Kickass variant cover!
Thank you for providing some learning resources! I look forward to checking these out.