WRITE NOW! #14 (80 pages, $6.95) once again shows why it’s THE magazine for anybody interested in comics writing! Behind an all-new cover by ALEX MALEEV, we start with an in-depth interview with BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, writer of Ultimate Spider-Man, Powers, New Avengers and much more. Then, we have an amazing round table discussion on writing Spider-Man, past and present, with STAN LEE, TODD McFARLANE, J.M. STRACZYNSKI, J.M. DeMATTEIS, TOM DeFALCO, PETER DAVID, MARV WOLFMAN, GERRY CONWAY, ROY THOMAS, ROGER STERN, LEN WEIN, DENNY O’NEIL, and HOWARD MACKIE!. Also: An incredible Nuts & Bolts “how-to section” featuring pencil art and script from the hottest comic of the year—MARVEL CIVIL WAR #1—by MARK MILLAR and STEVE McNIVEN! JIM STARLIN on the creation of his new Captain Comet and The Weird features for Mystery in Space—including Nuts and Bolts of Starlin’s script and art! Plus: LEE NORDLING on Adapting your Comic for Hollywood! JOHN OSTRANDER with another important writing lesson!
The State of the BendisInterview with Brian Michael Bendis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3
Not A Platypus or The Rebirth of Mystery in SpaceJim Starlin documents the winding road he traveled to get his current DCcosmic project approved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 47
Just The Facts, Ma’am: Secrets of Non-FictionComics ScriptwritingFred Van Lente explains how you can create non-fiction comicbooks and takes you behind the scenes of his acclaimedAction Philosophers series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 55
Adapting To the Cinematic SandboxLee Nordling explains the realities of how movies are made from comicbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 67
SPECIAL 45th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION:SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE
Amazing, Spectacular, Ultimate Q &A with great Spider-Writers past and present, including:Stan Lee, Brian Michael Bendis, Tom DeFalco, RogerStern, Todd McFarlane, and many more . . . . . . . . . .page 27
Nuts & Bolts Department
Script to Pencils to Finished Comic: CIVIL WAR #1Pages by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 17
Script to Pencils to Inks: MYSTERY IN SPACE #1Pages from “Eschatology,” starring Captain Comet, by Jim Starlinand Shane Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 52
Script to Finished Comic: ACTION PHILOSOPHERSPages from the series by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey . . .page 62
January 2007
rian Michael Bendis has become so prominent inthe comics writers world, it’s hard to believe that he’sonly been in the “mainstream” for about six years.After nine years of steadily increasing success in the
indy world on his creator-owned titles such as Jinx,Goldfish, and Torso, he was hired by Todd McFarlane towrite the Sam & Twitch minseries and soon foundhimself launching the then-controversial Ultimate Marvelline. Brian is still the writer (after over 100 issues!) ofUltimate Spider-Man, and has also become a moverand shaker in the regular Marvel Universe, writingoften-controversial titles like Alias, New Avengers andThe Illuminati. His and Mike Oeming’s indy noir-superhero series, Powers, is still going strong and isnow a part of Marvel’s Icon line. Brian’s jinxworld.comwebsite is a vibrant hub of discussion about comics. Heis also active as a creator of movies, TV and computergames, but his first love and loyalty is comics.
I first interviewed Brian, back in 2002, for the premiereissue of Write Now!, and he, Oeming and Powers werethe subjects of WN #6’s “In Depth” look at the series. Now,we check in with Mr. B again, to get his take on comicswriting and a host of other topics in 2007 and beyond.
—DF
DANNY FINGEROTH: When we first spoke, which wasalmost five years ago, you were at the beginning of yourmainstream success. It’s five years later, and you’re stillriding this incredible wave. Did you think you still wouldbe back then?BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: No, no. I’m too show biz savvy,pop culture knowledgeable, not to know that you eitherget a two-year shelf life or you get to ride maybe a littlelonger. So, yeah, this is much more than I had hoped Iwould get. But I’m thrilled to bits and I take it very seriously,and I don’t take it for granted. But, no, this is way more.
DF: I’ll flatter you by saying it’s because of your talent,but do you see any other explanation?BMB: Well, I appreciate that, but, as I just mentioned,I’m pop culture savvy enough to know that talent hasvery little to do with it. There’s a lot of talented peopleand there’s a lot better writers out there than myself,and it’s very amazing for me.
DF: So is there anything you would attribute it to, or is thattoo much of a superstitious question to even ask about?BMB: It’s hard to say. The one thing I’ll pat myself on theback about is, I seem to be a little more business savvythan some people I’ve met in this business, both olderand younger than myself. I do ascribe that to my wife’s
savviness. And also, I learn as many lessons as I can fromthose who came before me and study them very carefully.That is one of the reasons I love almost everythingTwoMorrows publishes, because of that, because it’s rightthere, it’s accessible, and people are very honest about theirplace in the world, and you do study it and think aboutrepeating their mistakes and making your own new ones.
DF: What mistakes do you think you’ve avoided?BMB: There’s a sense of entitlement that seems to comeover people when they get a book that sells, whatevergets into the top ten for whatever generation. Once youhave a top book, there seems to be a royal entitlement.And I do not have that in me. I just don’t have that in meat all. I get almost neurotic about people spending $2.99on a book that I wrote, and I take it very seriously, andthat never goes away at all. And I do see that that doesget across to a lot of people, even people who beat theh*ll out of me online. No one says I’m lazy.
DF: No one could ever accuse you of that.BMB: So I take it very seriously, and I think people respondwell to the fact that they know that I’m not using comics asa stepping stone, I don’t have an agenda other than toentertain and provoke and do something worth buying.
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS | 3
Conducted via telephone by Danny Fingeroth 10-23-06Transcribed by Steven Tice
the state of the bendis:
THE BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS INTERVIEW
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DF: You’ve anticipated a question of mine. You’re clearlynot a guy who’s using comics as a stepping stone,because you could have stepped if that was your intent.Why haven’t you?BMB: Because, well, I’ve gotten a taste, I have gotten towrite a couple of movies—I just wrote one recently—andI’ve gotten to work on television shows. I worked on theMTV Spider-Man show, which is a perfect example. See,when I was offered the show, I actually didn’t evenunderstand that I was going to be working on the staffof the show. I was offered to write the pilot. I waswriting the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, and it’s thegreatest job I’d ever had in my life. It’s completelyfulfilling on every conceivable level. So I figured thatwriting the TV show in addition would be twice as good.And when I started working on the show, immediatelyit was not fun. I would, literally, have a meeting wherethe executive would say, “Why does it have to be aspider?” And he wasn’t joking! And the movie wasalready out! And I’m like, “No, seriously, what’s themeeting about?” And then I find out that that was reallywhat the meeting was about!
And then you find out this is not as fun or–”fun”sounds immature—as inspiring and as fulfilling asworking on the comic book. There’s this false thingthat floats out there that movies and televisionare better than comics. And they’re not at all. Infact, there’s a lot of arguments that say thatcomics are five years ahead of every pop cul-ture curve that has come our way. Whatever’sgoing on in comics, five years later happens inmovies. I remember some executive telling mewhen I was working on the show and I was frustratedwith some lines getting dropped or whatever, and hesaid, “Well, you know, in television, if you get fortypercent of your script on-screen, it’s considered asuccess.” And I was like, “Wow! No wonder all of TVsucks.” Not that everyone ever thought it was genius, butyou’re shooting for forty percent? You’re aiming for it?How about aim for a hundred? Which has never occurred.I mean, it was just so frustrating. And then I realized, oh,yeah. You get spoiled. Even though you’re working for abig corporation, Marvel Comics, every word you write getson the page. Everything you write. You know, if I f*ck it up,it’s me who did it—not some faceless producer or whateverwhose name no one knows.
DF: And comics get out to the world much quicker.BMB: Yeah, it’s immediate and it’s visceral, and there’s alot to be said for that. And that’s why you see so manytelevision and film people actually coming towards usmore than we’re coming towards them.
DF: It’s been a remarkable thing.BMB: A lot of us in comics and TV and movies are friendsand we put it out there, “Boy, every word I write gets seenby the public.” That’s an intoxicating feeling, especially forpeople who have been frustrated that a whopping fortypercent of their work is seen on screen. And they come tocomics and they have a blast. The double edge is that I lovemovies and I love great television, even though you cancount the number of good television shows on one hand.
DF: You’re doing comics and you’re doing the otherstuff, as well.BMB: Yeah, I’ll do the other stuff, but I’m very, very picky,and I don’t hustle there. I wait until stuff happens. Andalso, because of the nature of the beast, like, my graphicnovel, Jinx, just got sold. But from now on, I don’t sell itunless I’m the writer. Mike Oeming and I sold Powers toSony and I wasn’t the writer, and they offered enoughmoney where we could justify it. Plus, we were both justcoming up and couldn’t afford to turn down the money.But the scripts that were being handed in just weren’tfilmable. And they were by good writers, they justweren’t getting it, you know? They were writing super-hero scripts instead of cop drama. And it took them fiveyears to realize that they were on the wrong genre. Andso, from now on, we don’t sell anything where I’m notthe writer. And also, my comics success has allowed meto side-step a lot of the screenwriting ladder. Like, now Iwrite major motion pictures.
DF: Is that Jinx that you just wrote, or something else?BMB: That was Jinx, and I know the thing went well. Ijust found out this week. I’ve had other times whenpeople tell me they love a script that they were lyingright to my face. But when they offer you another job...
Spider-Man: The NewAnimated Series ran for 13episodes in 2003 on MTV.
DF: That’s the meaningful compliment, right?BMB: Right. Now I got offered a couple of gigs, one fromthe studio I wrote Jinx for. It’s like, “Ohhhh, okay. This iswhat lying isn’t.” You have to feel the other thing beforeyou realize that. I’ve actually been invited to the Jinxmeetings. I know that’s a miracle.
DF: It’s like that in comics, too. The ultimate complimentis, “Here’s the next gig.”BMB: Exactly! But, you know, they lie to you in Hollywoodwith such blank-faced verve. You know, it’s on a wholeother level. No onein comics has theability to lie to youlike film people canlie to you. I’m notused to it. Whensomeone looks mein the eye and says“great job,” I figureI’ve seen the truth.
DF: No, no. There’salways quotesaround it.BMB: So I’ve learned.
DF: They might eventhink it’s a great job,it’s just not what theyor their boss want.BMB: Yeah. Orthey’re speakingsome kind of code.
DF: There’s that saying,“There’s no such thingas a bad meeting inHollywood.”BMB: Mm-hm, that’sright. That’s right. That’sanother thing, too. InHollywood, there’s aninordinate need to havemeetings. They’re just sofull of meetings so they can justify their jobs, and I reallywould rather just work. I need to go out there for Jinxand Powers and a couple other things, so I cram two daysfull of meetings, and we do all those meetings, and mymanager distills down the ones that are b*llsh*t and hejust gets rid of them. Because I just don’t want any more“get-to-know-ya’s.” Every moment away from my child hasto be meaningful, so I need get out of L.A. real fast.
DF: Is that why you don’t live in L.A. or New York, to keepa distance like that?BMB: I love New York. I would rather live in New Yorkthan L.A. I would never want to live in L.A. I totally despisethe place. People just living off of other people’s fear anddistrust. And it’s such a damn power play, and I know it’skind of a cliché, but I’ve actually seen very talented friendsof mine who are out there for a long period of time, and
you realize they’re being preyed upon, and you go, “Dude,dude, dude, dude! Cheer up! You’re doing really well!” Butyou can’t possibly do well enough out there. You go to aparty and say, “Oh, I’ve got a show.” And the other personsays, “You mean a show in development. Not such a bigdeal.” They just smack you down. They can’t be happy foryou. It’s impossible. So I wouldn’t live there for a second.
DF: But New York…?BMB: New York I like, but I think actually, in this day andage, it’s actually a plus not to live in New York. If Marvel
saw me every day, I think I’d be out of work. I thinkit’s nice that they rarely ever see me. I think it makesthem like me more.
DF: Yeah, it makes you exotic.BMB: Yeah,exactly.
DF: Now, youare the comicsestablishment, ora big part of it,and closelyaligned withMarvel. That mustbe a little weird,considering yourindy roots.BMB: I guess it’s allabout state of mind.I think about this alot. I was talking to[Ultimates writer]Mark Millar, andwe’ve kind of beenconnected at the hipby fate because weboth broke invirtually the sameweek. We’re bothcompletely differentanimals with com-
pletely different agendas, but we’ve talked about, “Okay,we’re here now. We get to stay, and I’m under contract fora while, so I’m guaranteed the work and whatever. Sowhat are we going to do with it?” And I do think that beingpart of the establishment, if that’s the case, is to not forgethow you got here. And I got here by a little indy comicp*ss and vinegar, and that’s still in me, that’s not squashed.Let’s build that up, and at the same time, what was thegoal before I got here? Oh, yeah, comics excellence. Let’sdo that. Make comics that we would buy. Every script Iwrite, I sit there and I go, “Would I buy this?” And if Iwouldn’t, I just toss it. It’s that simple.
DF: You’ve gone from the Ultimate universe to themainstream Marvel universe? Any difference in writingthose two?BMB: Yeah, there is. There’s a lot of baggage in 616 [theoriginal Marvel universe]. I’m writing the Illuminati seriesright now, and I’m purposely and gloriously retconning
Brian first rose to comicbook prominence as thewriter and artist of such
As a special treat for DFWN’s readers, hereare script and pencil art from Marvel’s CivilWar #1, written by Mark Millar, with pen-cil art by Steve McNiven. (The printedcomic pages are inked by Dexter Vines.)
Civil War has turned the Marvel Universeon its head, as friend and family are pittedagainst each other, thanks to theSuperhuman Registration Act.
It’s the job of the artist to translate the writer’sdirections into appropriate art. Notice the artdirection for panel one: “Close on Cap, moody andeyes narrowed.” Now look at the first panel ofpencils and notice how McNiven has chosen to tiltCap’s head down slightly and to show the tensionin Cap’s neck muscles. This gives him a moremenacing attitude and adds tension to the panel.In this way, the penciler plays the role of “actor,”“director,” and “cinematographer.”
In a major crossover event as big as Civil War,the writer and artist will have to coordinatetheir efforts with not only their editor, but withother writers and artists as well. Notice the noteto the artist in panel 4. It lets the artist knowthat some of the characters he will have todraw have been designed by another artist—Howard Chaykin. If the note wasn’t there,McNiven could have reasonably assumed it washis job to design the “Cape-Killers.”
mazing (and Spectacular) as it may seem, Spider-Man debuted almost 45 years ago in thepages of Amazing Fantasy #15. Over the course of those years, the wall-crawler has hadhis comics exploits written by dozens, if not hundreds, of writers. All these folks took theirlead from the character who was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in 1962.
In honor of this occasion—not to mention the fact that there’s a third Spider-Man moviecoming our way this spring—I decided to get together a virtual roundtable discussion of someof the greatest Spider-Man Writers of all time. I say “virtual” because I didn’t actually sit thesefolks down in one room. I asked them all (with one exception) the same dozen questionsand am running their answers consecutively. So there’s no “cross-talking” as there no doubtwould have been were all these writers in the same room. Most of the writers chose toanswer the questions via e-mail, while two—Todd McFarlane and Brian Michael Bendis—decid-ed they’d rather be interviewed by phone. And if a given Roundtabler doesn’t have an answerto a given question here…it’s because he or she chose not to answer it.
Since yours truly had the honor of doing some Spider-Man writing over the years, I decidedI’d also answer the questions—which explains why I’m both the interviewer as well as one ofthe panelists.
As I mentioned above, there was one writer who got his own special set of questions.Needless to say, that was Stan Lee himself. I couldn’t really ask him what it felt like takingover a character with a legacy like Spidey’s—since Stan was responsible for so much of thatlegacy! So while some of the questions the other writers answered are relevant for Stan, itwas a no-brainer that he’d need a bunch of his own unique ones, too. His incredibleresponses lead off the section, and then we take off with the other writers’ answers.
There’s a webful of fascinating and insightful information in the pages that follow. So…readon and enjoy!
STAN LEE ON SPIDEYThe Man himself leads things off with his thoughtsabout chronicling the wall-crawler’s adventures…
DANNY FINGEROTH: What’s the hardest thing aboutwriting Spider-Man?STAN LEE: To me, themost difficult thingwas coming up withdifferent villains anddifferent threats to thesuperhero Spidey—andto Peter Parker as ayoung, troubled man.
DANNY: What’s themost fun aboutwriting Spider-Man?STAN: The dialogue,always the dialogue. Igot a kick out ofadding gags, wise-cracks and, of course,whatever dramatic,hopefully memorablespeeches I couldcome up with,although I neverquite topped theGettysburg Address.
DANNY: OnceSpider-Man becamea hit, did you feelyou had to treat thecharacter differentlythan you had whenyou thought that “noone was looking”?STAN: Nope. I alwayswrote everything thesame way, whether Ithought it was a hit ornot. Of course, if itwasn’t a hit, I mighthave experimentedmore and tried tochange the style a bit, but with Spidey there was noneed to ever do that.
DANNY: You had Spider-Man graduate from highschool in pretty much “real time.” Was it yourintention that the character age in real time—thathe’d get a year older every year? When did yourealize you couldn’t do that anymore?STAN: Yeah, I thought it would be great to have him agein real time. I never really knew that it couldn’t be done.You may recall, after high school I put him in collegeand then after he’d been there for a few years I made
him a grad student. Later we had him get married—ormaybe it was earlier, I can’t quite remember. I’d haveeventually had MJ get pregnant, also. However, MartinGoodman, the publisher, didn’t want him to age in realtime so that put a stop to it.
DANNY: Do you identify with Spidey more than (ordifferently from) other characters you’ve written?
STAN: Not really. Iidentify with eachand every one ofthem, all in differentways, of course.
DANNY: Who’s yourfavorite Spider-Manvillain, and why?STAN: I’m really notgood at pickingfavorites. I love ‘em allor I wouldn’t havedone them. But if Ihave to pick one, Iguess it might be DocOck because I thoughthis tentacles were areal original concept,although I also likedSandman and Kravenand Lizard—aw, forgetit! There’s no way I canjust pick one!
DANNY: What areyou proudest of thatyou’ve done onSpider-Man?STAN: The fact thatwe managed to injectsome humor and aconsiderable amountof realism into asuperhero series.
DANNY: Would youever want to write aregular Spider-Manseries or limited series/graphic novel again?STAN: Probably not.Perhaps an occasionalspecial issue—preferably one witha humorous angle—but to do a series,whether limited or
not, would be what I did years ago, and I kind’aprefer to move forward in life rather than backtracking.
DANNY: How is writing the Spider-Man newspaperstrip different from writing the comic books?
Now that we’ve heard from The Man, let’s hear what therest of the roundtable has to say about he wallcrawler…
DANNY FINGEROTH: What made you want to writeSpider-Man (besides being offered the gig)?
BRIAN BENDIS: I am Peter Parker. There is no character Ihave to do less work to get me excited than Peter Parker.And also, every wound from high school is as fresh as if ithappened yesterday. And I’m moved by the philosophy.“With great power comes great responsibility” is somethingyou can live by.
GERRY CONWAY: I was a fan from about issue #6 – it was adream assignment, the fulfillment of a childhood (and maybechildish?) ambition. Also, I kind of identified with Peter Parker.
PETER DAVID: Who wouldn’t want to write Spider-Man?He’s Marvel’s flagship character, he’s the everyman of thesuperhero community, and he’s quite possibly the singlebest character ever to come out of Stan Lee’s imagination.His appeal is limitless, and there’s just so many directionsyou can go with him.
TOM DeFALCO: While I was always a fan of Spider-Man, Inever planned or wanted to write him. I had done a fill-in, afew guest star appearances and a few issues of Marvel
Team-Up and I struggled to get his voice right. In thosedays, a character had a particular voice and it was thewriter’s job to replicate that voice. I thought Roger Stern haddone a great job and I was totally intimidated when DannyFingeroth asked me to follow Rog. In fact, the assignmentscared me so much that I knew I had to take it.
J.M. DeMATTEIS: To be honest, in the beginning—and Istarted my acquaintance with Spider-Man with a lengthy,and fairly mundane, run on Marvel Team-Up—it really wasthe gig. I liked Spider-Man as a character...who doesn’t?...but,at that point in my career I would have been thrilled to takeanything that was offered to me. “Wanna write Millie TheModel?” “Cool!” Of course Spider-Man was one of theGreat Marvel Icons and that was a treat.
It was only in writing the character that I came to reallylove Spider-Man. Peter Parker is the most wonderfullycomplex, and wonderfully human, character in any super-hero universe. It’s a case of becoming a bigger fan of thecharacter as a professional than I was as a reader.
DANNY FINGEROTH: I had been editor of the Spider-Manline and had gained an appreciation of the character I actu-ally didn’t have as a kid, when my favorites were the FF,Captain America, Iron Man, and Daredevil. With myenhanced appreciation of the character, I thought I couldcontribute something to his universe.
STAN: The biggest difference is the pacing. As you canimagine, it’s tougher to tell a story in three panels a day thanin twenty pages a month. Also, in syndicated strips there’sa terrible size constraint. There’s no way to draw any big,spectacular panels in the amount of space allotted to us.
DANNY: What’s the appeal of Spider-Man that’s made himso popular for so long?STAN: I think the realistic quality about Spidey makes it easyfor readers to empathize with him and, as you know, empathyis one of the most important qualities in a fictional character.
DANNY: If you could meet Spider-Man, what would you liketo ask or tell him?STAN: In case nobody has told you, Spider-Man is a fictitiouscharacter. It’s not likely that I’ll ever meet him. I really don’tspend time wondering what I’d ask or tell Robin Hood, orSherlock Holmes or James Bond. It’s a full-time job justthinking of what to tell the people I work with day after day.
DANNY: Is there anything you’d like to say about writingSpider-Man not covered by my questions?STAN: ‘Fraid not, Danny. You seem to have coveredeverything. Well, actually, there is one thing! I can’t under-stand why people think J. Jonah Jameson is sort-of a villain—especially since I modeled him after my loveable self.
Stan Lee co-created the Marvel pantheon of charactersincluding—in addition to Spider-Man—the X-Men, the Hulkand the Fantastic Four. His Sci-Fi Channel series, WhoWants to Be a Superhero?, was the TV hit of theseason, and will be returning soon with 10 new episodes!
HOWARD MACKIE: Getting to write Spider-Man was adream job. I, like everyone else working in comics at thetime, grew up reading those Lee/Ditko and then Lee/Romitaissues. Spider-Man was comic books as far as I wasconcerned. He was a guy I could identify with or at leasthope to be like, and had powers that were way cool.But…and isn’t there always a but? I really did not want towrite Spider-Man when I started writing comic books. If youremember correctly I was a reluctant member of the Spider-Man writing family at best. The Ghost Rider comic book hadtaken off, and gotten me some attention as a writer, andyou (the editor of Web of Spider-Man) were in a jam and Iagreed to take on Web for a short time as I began my free-lance career. Writing the adventures of Spider-Man justseemed to be aiming too high too fast. So I wrote Web for awhile, and then decided I was way too busy with GhostRider and decided to quit. I did. Then I left staff. And youimmediately offered me adjectiveless Spider-Man. And forsome unknown reason I said yes. The reality is... who couldreally have said no? Aside from getting to work with one ofthe greatest editors in the business... it was SPIDER-MAN!!!!
TODD McFARLANE: As an artist, I was getting to the pointwhere I was seeing if I could actually write stories for myselfthat I wanted to draw.
AL MILGROM: Oh, please. Who, aspiring to a career incomics books, wouldn’t want to write the adventures of oneof the greatest characters ever created? He was a revolutionarycharacter and he, along with several other of the ’60scharacters I loved, literally changed the course of my life! Iwas becoming tired of the DC stuff and was just on theverge of “outgrowing” comics altogether when the Marvelstuff started to trickle out. Like Pacino’s character inGodfather III, just when I thought I was out they pulledme back in. Spidey’s comics ultimate “everyman.” If you’rea human, you can imagine what you’d do if you had super-powers and gain insight into the character.
DENNY O’NEIL: Well, actually…I did it because my bossasked me to. I think I was happy to get the assignment, butI don’t remember going after it.
LOUISE SIMONSON: Spider-Man was always my favorite ofthe classic Marvel heroes. I loved the fact that as Spider-Manhe won...and as Peter Parker, that usually meant a loss. Iguess it was the irony of his situation...
Also, it was fun to work with you as the editor.
ROGER STERN: Well, I’d been reading Spider-Man storiesever since high school, and he’d always been my singlefavorite Marvel hero. But actually, I’d really never expected towind up writing him. That seemed too far-fetched to me,even after I lucked into a job in comics.
Looking back, one of the earliest things I wrote for Marvelwas a ten-page framing sequence for a treasury editionholiday special. Just about every major Marvel character turnedup in those ten pages — and I should probably retroactivelyapologize to George Tuska for asking him to draw all of that —so, of course, Spider-Man had his cameo. At the time, I thoughtthat would probably be my one shot with the character.
Then, about three and a half years later, Denny [O’Neil]offered me the assignment to write The SpectacularSpider-Man. And I still had to spend about a day thinkingabout it. The idea of writing one of the Spider-Man bookson a regular basis was pretty intimidating, but I’m really gladthat I decided to go for it. Writing Spider-Man turned out tobe one of the most satisfying assignments I ever had.
Plus, there was the added benefit that just abouteveryone had heard of the character. Shortly after I startedwriting comics, a teller at my bank was impressed that mypaycheck was issued by Marvel Comics. But when I told himI was writing Guardians of the Galaxy, he just gave me ablank look. Later, whenever I told people that I was writingSpider-Man, you could see their faces light up. Same thingwith writing Superman. People think it’s the coolest job inthe world. And they’re right!
ROY THOMAS: Actually, I didn’t particularly want to writeAmazing Spider-Man, much as I liked the character—andflattering as it was to become only the second person ever towrite the character. When Stan told me he needed to takefour months off from writing so he could script a screenplaywith French New Wave director Alain Resnais. I preferred towrite Fantastic Four...but Stan specifically asked me to writeSpidey...and since I didn’t have time to add both books forseveral months, Archie Goodwin was given FF...although, as itturned out, I did end up writing one issue of FF in that period.
LEN WEIN: Are you kidding? I was being offered the chanceto become the third regular writer (following Stan Lee andGerry Conway and discounting a couple of fill-in issues byRoy Thomas and Archie Goodwin) of the most importantbook in the Marvel Universe. Who says no to that?
MARV WOLFMAN: Actually, that is precisely why I wrote it. Iloved reading Spider-Man; I thought he was easily Marvel’sbest single character, but I didn’t think I’d be able toduplicate the kind of dialogue Stan wrote. Back then, in the’70s, we didn’t have the freedom to make wholesalechanges in approach that writers do today, and Stan’s workon Spidey was personal, flowing out of his mind. I hadwanted to write the Fantastic Four, but I was told by editorArchie Goodwin that if I wanted FF I had to take Spidey,too, because if I didn’t, he’d have to give it to another writerhe didn’t want to give it to. I reluctantly took over thewriting chores and discovered that I fell into writingSpider-Man. I had a better time writing him than any otherbook I was on save for Tomb of Dracula.
FINGEROTH: Was there anything you consciously(or, in retrospect, unconsciously) set out toaccomplish during your run on Spider-Man?
BENDIS: I consciously was going for the [John] Romita, Sr.years. When I remember having this conversation with[Mark] Bagley, that’s the quintessential Spider-Man to us.That’s when the rules for Spider-Man were laid out prettystrong, and they were still kind of thinking about the Ditkoyears. That was the height of drama, fun, and superheropathos put together. Unconsciously I really wanted to stay
employed. There’s a lot of mistakes that could be made, andI really didn’t want to f*ck it up. I just really didn’t want tobe the guy who really made a mess of things.
CONWAY: I just wanted to write the stories I would havewanted to read as a fan.
DAVID: The intention, during my first run, was to writeSpider-Man in a tone and style that hadn’t been donebefore: To give it a sort of “Hill Street Blues” feel. In fact,that’s why Owsley put the credits at the end as simple whiteagainst black background.
DeFALCO: Yeah, I was determined to do the best I could,even though I was convinced I was going to screw up andhumiliate myself. I soon realized that I could channel thatfear of failure into the character.
DeMATTEIS: With a character as multilayered as PeterParker, it seemed natural (at least to me) to go for as manypsychologically-driven stories as possible. I like to peel backthe layers of a character, question the basic assumptions weall take for granted. Try to figure out why he does what hedoes. Find out what life circumstances, what stresses andtraumas, pushed him to become the man he is.
Looking back, I think the single thing I did best was toshine that same kind of light on the Spider-villains. I didsome stories with Kraven, The Vulture, Mysterio, Elektroand, especially, Harry Osborn that I’m very proud of. I neversaw any of the villains as “bad-guys.” In my mind, they weretrying to do their best in difficult circumstances: they justmade some horrendous choices along the way. We live in
a world where peopleare forever trying todemonize “the other,”“the enemy,” “theevildoers.” Which meansthat, more than ever,we need stories thatexamine even the worsthuman behavior withcompassion.
I have to add that Ialso fell in love withthe character of AuntMay. I think I poked intosome corners of herpsyche that few othershad. In fact, I loved thecharacter so much, Ikilled her. But I hearthat she recovered!
ast issue, writer-artist Jim Starlin showed us somecool script and art from his The Weird feature inMystery in Space. This time around, Jim gives usthe lowdown on how he got involved with MIS to
begin with—including his reimagining of CaptainComet. Take it away, Jim…
—DF
All things evolve, figuratively going from single cellorganism to plankton to fish to amphibian to mammaland eventually becoming their equivalent of either manor platypus. Businesses and business practices are noexception to this rule.
In the comic book industry, evolution has madesome huge leaps in the past couple of decades.Hand lettering and little old ladies sitting in awindowless office somewhere in New Jersey,separating comic book colors for publication, haveevolved into much simpler operations done oncomputers. But I believe the greatest change hastaken place in the area of how a comic book comesinto being: the conception process.
Now to establish my own bona fides, let me remindthe reader that I have been in the biz since 1972 andenjoy a pretty successful career in the comic bookindustry. Today there are perhaps only a half a dozenother creators that have more collected volumes oftheir past work currently in print. So one would thinkthat getting a comic book project off the groundwouldn’t be a problem for me. Well, you’d be wrong.Process is king.
Back in ’72, after a run on Captain Marvel, I stoppedby the Marvel Comic offices to speak to then editorRoy Thomas about my next project. At that meeting wedecided I’d take a crack at another outer spaceoriented hero. That night I began penciling the firstpage of the Warlock series.
But since then movie tie-ins and myriad merchandisingdeals have come into the equation. DC and MarvelComics aren’t the small operations they once were.So let us now consider a new project I’m working on atDC: the revival of Mystery in Space. Warning: this talewill be strictly from my prospective, the freelanceartist/writer point of view. I have made no attempt tofill in empty spaces in my knowledge by interviewinganyone up at DC about the following events. This isabsolutely an exercise in subjective ignorance.
So to begin with, I was in the middle of the secondvolume of Kid Kosmos for Dynamite Entertainmentand decided, once this graphic novel was done, thatgetting my name out there more broadly amidst thecomic-book-buying public would be a wise careermove. The best method for accomplishing this endwould be taking on a job for either DC or MarvelComics. There’s two ways one can set about gainingsuch employment.
#1: You can phone overworked editors, most of whomare desperately trying to catch up with their deadlines,and leave a message on their answering units, to see ifthey’re interested in working with you on some project.What will probably then happen is said editor will writea note to remind him or herself to give you a call back.That note will then disappear beneath a mountain oflate work and never be seen again.
#2: You can go to a comic book convention, have afew drinks in the evening with fellow freelancers andeditors and something may just rise out of this strangemix of camaraderie, reunion, alcohol, ego inflation and
L
NOT A PLATYPUS:
THE REBIRTH OF MYSTERY IN SPACEb y J i m S t a r l i n
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deflation, paranoia and confusion that is the after-conhappy hours. I chose to take my shot at the BaltimoreComic Convention. But Dan DiDio and I actuallyconnected up on the con floor rather than over a beer.I was looking for a job and he was interested in havingme write this particular project he had in mind.
A number of phone calls and a few weeks later, Danand I mutually agreed I wasn’t right for the above-mentioned project after all. But we’d meet at thePhilly Con in a couple of weeks and talk possibilities.That’s when MIS cameinto the picture.
Right off the batI got a good hit offDan, could see thathe appreciatedwriting. This issomething not allcomic book folktake into honestconsideration. Whathas good writing gotto do with a visualmedium? Dan toldme DC had plans torevive Mystery inSpace with AdamStrange. Mr. DiDiowanted the characterjazzed up in somenew way. I washooked. As a kid Ispent many a transitvacation hour in theback of the familystation wagon, enjoyingAdam’s quirkyadventures and studyingthe breathtaking art ofCarmine Infantino andMurphy Anderson.Yes, this was a project Icould and would get obsessive about.
But then Dan laid the bombshell on me. Mystery inSpace would be linked to DC’s next big crossoverminiseries, 52. I tried to conceal the horror thisrevelation stirred within me. Now if you’ve been inthe business for any length of time, you know thatcoming in on a job that is connected to a crossover isvery similar to leaping through the window of a fastmoving train without jostling any of your fellowpassengers. I’d been involved with many of themover the years and can assure you that, as far asfreelancers are concerned, there are only two types ofcrossovers: the annoying hassle crossover and thetotal disaster crossover.
The upside was that we’d be working nearly a yearahead of schedule on Mystery in Space and 52 couldwork around and with what we did in our project. I’m
absolutely certain Dan believed this to be true when heassured me that things on this project would go smoothly.And I, optimistic fool that I am, wanted to believe.
So I proceeded to begin revamping Adam Strange,even though I hadn’t yet seen all of what Andy Diggleand Pascaul Ferry were currently doing with thecharacter. Those books eventually caught up with meand I was filled in on what would happen in theRann-Thanagar War [limited series]. I adjusted mysynopsis accordingly and by the time I polished it up, I
was quite proud of my Adam Strange proposal.Our hero wouldbe going in aradically newand complexdirection. Thiswould be anAdam Strange noone had everbefore seen.
Of course bynow you realizethis is also anAdam Strangeno one will eversee. But I’ll getback to that.
Experience hadtaught me that fora project to surviveat either of themajor comic bookcompanies itneeded a paladin—a champion—withinthe community. Yes,I said community.
For each of the majors is very much like a smallvillage in the middle of Manhattan, populated by realand fictional folk, who have their own game agendasand insecurities. Yes, Dan DiDio had started thewheels rolling on Mystery in Space, but I knew theman currently had several dozen different platesspinning at the end of different sticks. Mystery inSpace desperately needed an editor to assure itdidn’t get lost in the shuffle.
Once again a comic book convention proved thesolution, this time in Barcelona, Spain. Bob Schreckand I had never worked together but had run intoeach other many times at cons. I knew his rep as aprofessional. It was solid.
Now working with an editor is one of thosestrange relationships you just can’t easily describein print. A good editor knows the territory andcan subtly guide you to fruition without yankingthe steering wheel from your hands. I’ve workedwith some of the best, like Archie Goodwin andRoy Thomas. I’ve also worked with the other endof the spectrum.
Covers to issues #1 and 2 ofJim’s Kid Kosmos, which is a
Page 1Splash Panel: We start off with a street scene set on Hardcore Station, in the residential district.Comet (in his new outfit and looking like a very fit twenty-something,) has just walked out of afuturistic -looking apartment building and is being set upon by five assailants. Shane, these are theCaptain Comet clones who work for the Eternal Light Corporation. I’ll refer to them as the hoodedmonks.
There’s no design yet for these character’s outfits so I’m going to be leaving that job up to you,because you’ll be drawing them before me. They should look dark and mysterious with a clericalfeel about them. Their heads should be fully covered with hoods with eye cut outs. Good luck.Two of the hooded monks are grabbing Comet by the arms. Another is mind blasting Comet. Ourhero looks pained but is resisting this assault. A fourth hooded monk is walking menacinglytoward Comet, holding a psychic restraint headband. This is just a headband with a circuitry designon it. The last hooded monk is hovering in the air above the attack, supervising.Maybe have a small robot hovering in the air nearby, silently witnessing this incident.
Logo: COMETTitle: ESCHATOLOGYCredits: Writer Penciler InkerJim Starlin Shane Davis ?
Colorist Letterer Asst. Editor Editor? ? Brandon Montclare Bob SchreckCap1: Muggings on the streets of Hardcore Station are, unfortunately, quite common.Cap2: But getting assaulted by five telepaths with super strength is something to takespecial note of.
Cap3: For one thing, there aren’t all that many of us psychics around.Cap4: Telepaths that can bench press a Buick? Until ten seconds ago I was pretty certain I was
it.
Cap5: Lots of questions and no time for answers.
Here are some of Jim Starlin’s script (“full script,”with the art and dialogue done at the same time)and Shane Davis’s pencils for the first couple ofpages of Captain Comet in Mystery in Space #1.(The finished pages are inked by Dexter Vines.)
The art differs from the script in several ways,while still telling the intended story. Here, on pageone of the story, Davis—with clearance from writerand editor—came in close for a dramatic full-pagesplash. Many of the details Jim asks for in the scriptaren’t revealed until the next page and beyond.
Panel 1: Comet is now flipping one of the monks, that were restraining him on the previous page,
into the monk holding the headband device. Crash! The other monk that was holding Comet is
now sunk into the street, up to his waist. Comet is hitting him with a telekinetic blast, driving him
downward. The remaining monk on the ground is rushing toward Comet, as if to attack.
Cap1: Because these guys were dead serious about taking me down.
Cap2: A little leverage bought me about a half second of breathing space.
Cap3: I could tell, from the creep I was telekinetically driving into the street, that these baddies
outclassed me in the muscle department.
Panel 2: Comet is now trying to mind blast the rushing monk, but his assault is being met with
another mind blast from the monk. The mental forces are slamming into each other, between Comet
and the monk. Spectacular display.
Cap4: But on a pure psychic level, it looked like...
Panel 3: Comet has won the test of wills. The monk he was battling is collapsing, Comet is
besting him with a mind blast. Behind Comet we can see the first two monks he took down, getting
to their feet.
Cap5: I had a bit of an edge up on them.
Panel 4: Comet is now pointing at a nearby wall, where a large metal plate (6 ft. x 6 ft.) is ripping
free of its setting and slamming into the two monks that were getting up. Show some kind of
emanation coming from Comet’s head to indicate he’s using his telekinetic powers. The mind
blasts and telekinetic powers should have distinctly different looks to them. The hovering Monk is
now heading toward Comet.
Cap6: So the game plan was to keep them further than arm’s length and take them out
A.S.A.P.
For page 2 of the story, Jim provided a basic page layout to showhow he envisioned the 4-panel page in his script looking. Shanehad some other ideas for how to tell the story and submitted twodifferent thumbnail sketches of his vision of the page for Jim andeditor Bob Schreck to see.
hile currently doing work for Marvel andImage, Fred Van Lente’s also a prominentvoice in the indy comics world. Here, Fred hastaken the time to talk about some of his own
experiences—and what you can learn about them.—DF
PART ONE: The Truth About Nonfiction Comics—and Me.
Go into the average bookstore. Go on, I’ll wait.
Pay attention to how much surface area is devotedto what topics in the store: there is usually one fairlylarge section for “fiction and literature.” But themajority of the store is taken up by genres in thenonfiction category: Science, Nature, Travel, Gay andLesbian Interest, Cooking, Philosophy, Religion, Judaica,Current Events, African-American Interest, History,Psychology… The list goes on and on.
On the other hand, in the average comic book storeyou’ll find that the percentages are very much skewed inthe reverse: Nonfiction makes up the smallest percentageof the available stock. If you discount the nonfictionabout comics (or science fiction or video games, andrelated topics that could be labeled “Geek Interest”),that number drops down to a few stray titles.
Mostly, this is because, as I am sure I will shockexactly no one by asserting, what is usually referred toas the “comic book” Direct Market could be moreaccurately described as the “superhero market” or,even more accurately, as the “DC & Marvel Universemarket.” Comics readers, no matter how sophisticatedor interested in alternative books, generally started outas fans of one superhero or another and then“graduated” to other types of comics as time went on.(I’d include myself in that category.) So of coursefiction, in the form of superhero comics, predominates.
That said, however, the Direct Market, she is a chang-in’. As the mainstream publishing industry begins toembrace comics, the Direct Market is adopting more andmore aspects of mainstream book publishing. A goodindicator of that fact is the small but growing
market for nonfiction comics out there in Funnybookland.I discovered this myself quite by accident when I startedself-publishing, with artist Ryan Dunlavey, my ownnonfiction comic book series, Action Philosophers.
Right off the bat I should underscore that when Irefer to nonfiction comics I do not mean autobiographicalcomics. Ever since Harvey Pekar self-published his firstissue of American Splendor back in the mid 1970s,autobiography has been one of the dominant formsof independent comics. Arguably the most famousgraphic novel ever, Maus, is itself part autobiography(being as much about Spiegelman’s relationship withhis father as it is a biographical account of his father’swartime experiences). Joe Sacco’s celebratedjournalism comics, Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde,are as much travel journals of Sacco’s sojourns throughwar zones as they are reportage, so I’d stock them onthe memoir shelf as well.
W
JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM:
SECRETS OF NONFICTIONCOMICS SCRIPTWRITING
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This distinction didn’t start with me: Most creativewriting departments and writing contests/grantsconsider “literary nonfiction” to be a separate hybrid ofthe two dominant forms. The reason for this, I wouldsuspect, is that the autobiography or memoir has morestructurally in common with the novel or short story thanwith, say, a treatise on voting patterns in Sub-SaharanAfrica. Memoirs and novels are both frequentlydependent on characters, dialogue, and suspense tomove their narratives along. Since the nonfiction writerdoes not have access to the thoughts of his subjects andis held to higher standards of evidence and proof, hecan rarely employ the same bag of narrative tricksavailable to the fiction writer. (Though some writers, like BobWoodward of All the President’s Men fame, flagrantlydisregard this fact and write internal monologues fortheir real-life “characters,” this is highly con-troversial and generallya no-no for people whoare not Bob-freakin’-Woodward.) Unless oneactually has credibletranscripts of conversa-tions on hand, forexample, it is difficult ifnot impossible toinclude long passages ofdialogue in a nonfictionwork. Also, any narrative,fact or fiction, tends tohave the same basicstructure, with a distinctbeginning, middle, andend. By contrast, informa-tion in a nonfiction workis frequently organized ina non-sequential way: by,say, geographical origin,unity of concept, or someother method.
So, when I refer tononfiction comics, I meanthose dealing withthe sciences and thehumanities: history,politics, philosophy, et cetera. And even though they’venever been as popular as their make-believe counter-parts, nonfiction comics–even as I’ve narrowly definedthem above—have a long and venerable history in themedium, dating back to the Golden Age.
In 1946, DC started publishing the rather redundantlytitled Real Fact Comics (as opposed to Fake FactComics?), which ran a hodgepodge of factual features ineach 52-page, bimonthly issue: “How a Movie Serial IsMade”; a biography of Annie Oakley; “Dog Training atCanine College.” Comics history given what it is, however,Real Fact is best remembered, bizarrely enough, forpremiering DC’s first major space hero, Tommy Tomorrow,in its sixth issue (in “Columbus of Space”). Maybe FakeFact Comics would have been the more accurate title.
The cartoonist generally regarded as creating the firstunderground comic, God Nose, in 1964, signed hiswork under the pen name of “Jaxon,” but soon revertedto his real name, Jack Jackson, and as a writer and artisthe is probably the greatest single creator of nonfictioncomics ever—the Will Eisner or Jack Kirby of the field.The legendary chronicler of Texas history in such graphicworks as Comanche Moon (Rip-Off Press, the companyhe co-founded, 1979), Los Tejanos (Fantagraphics1982), Lost Cause (Kitchen Sink Press 1998), andIndian Lover (Mojo Press 1999) mixed exhaustivescholarship with a sense of humor and a flair for thedramatic visual that made a huge impression on YoursTruly as a teenager. Unfortunately, Jackson’s comics didnot make much of an impression on the academic
community. It was his firstprose work of history, LosMesteños: SpanishRanching in Texas, thatgarnered him a pile ofhumanities awards, madehim a Lifetime Fellow ofthe Texas State HistoricalAssociation and got himinducted into the TexasInstitute of Letters. It is atrue tragedy that we willnot get to see any morehistory comics fromJackson, as he has nowpassed into history himself.He was found just outsidePleasant Valley Cemetery inStockdale, Texas, at thebeginning of June this year,an apparent suicide.
One practitioner of nonfiction comics who hasspectacularly succeeded in penetrating the
mainstream is Larry Gonick, a cartoonist who beganserializing his Cartoon History of the Universe in1977. While shopping around for a mainstreampublisher, he was lucky enough to find an exceptionallyformidable advocate: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,then an editor at Doubleday. Jackie O edited thebook version of Universe and since then Gonickhas produced, through a number of big-time bookpublishers, further installments, such as The CartoonGuide to Physics (1994), to Genetics (1983), toChemistry (2005), Computers (1991), Sex (1999),and many more. Rumor has it that the Cartoon Guideto Navel Lint is soon forthcoming.
I should also mention the most successful nonfictioncomic ever—which, perhaps predictably, is aboutcomics—Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud’sdelightful hybrid of art history, narrative theory andhow-to-book. It’s still going strong now 12 years afterits original publication by Tundra in 1994. I justchecked and it’s currently #453 on the overall Amazonsales list. Four hundred fifty-three! Out of somethinglike two million-plus titles Amazon offers! Pardon mewhile I go gnash my teeth in jealousy.
Steve Ellis’s covers for twocomics that he and Fred
co-created and which Fredwrote: Rightwing #44 and
The Silencers #1.[Rightwing and The Silencers are both copyright
In the wake of the success of UnderstandingComics, more and more creators have tried their handat nonfiction comics. DC’s Paradox Press initiated itsBig Book line of factoid anthologies with a Who’s Whoof A-list comics talent, beginning in 1994 with The BigBook of Urban Legends. And there’s Mr. ScienceComics, Jim Ottaviani, who through his company, G.T.Labs, has published five graphic novels, starting withTwo-Fisted Science (1997), through his latest hit,Bone Sharps, Cowboys & Thunder Lizards (2005).Recently, the incomparable Kyle Baker has gotten intothe act, self-publishing a four-part biography of slaverebel Nat Turner beginning in 2005.
As for me, I had little interest in nonfiction comicsbeyond that of the casual reader; I fell into them as acreator entirely by accident. My artist buddy RyanDunlavey was planning on going to the Small PressExpo (SPX) in Maryland in 2001 and wanted to submita story to their annual anthology. Ryan and I had beenfriends since college (Syracuse University–McCloud’salma mater) and I had always admired his work, butwe had never collaborated on a comic before. Isomehow managed to talk him into letting me scripthis short story.
I had been a veteran of several SPX’s past, alwayswith my co-collaborator on comics like The Silencers(Image/Moonstone), artist Steve Ellis (another SUalum). Beginning with our first SPX in 1998, Steveand I created mini-comics that were parodies ofdifferent kinds of comics. We had written and drawna parody superhero character called Rightwing, therabidly right-wing conservative vigilante. The nextyear we showed up with a landscape pamphletreligious comic in the style of Jack Chick’sfundamentalist Christian tracts, except ours tried toconvert people to the worship of Great Cthulhu.
I decided to continue the tradition when I sat downto write a script for Ryan. One type of comic that Ihad yet to satirize was the little free comic bookletsyou’d get in action figure packages when I was kid,like GI Joe or Masters of the Universe. The themefor the SPX anthology that year was biography. Ithought it would be amusing to imagine there wasan action figure of controversial nihilist FriedrichNietzsche, and that what Ryan and I were creatingwas the free bio comic that came with it. Thusthe concept and first installment of ActionPhilosophers was born.
Unfortunately, Destiny is a cruel mistress. Not onlydid the anthology people reject the Nietzsche story,but also the convention itself was cancelled that yearbecause of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But Ryan,showing the bulldog tenacity that strikes fear into thehearts of his many enemies, refused to give up onthe AP concept. He submitted the Nietzsche story toa start-up comics magazine, Prophecy, which wantedto be an Onion-style free paper distributed in majormetropolitan areas around the country, supported
by local advertising. It turned out that Prophecy’seditor had been a philosophy major in college.He loved the Nietzsche strip and commissionedmore in the Action Philosophers series; Ryan andI gratefully complied and in the succeeding monthsproduced two more AP strips, featuring Plato andthe founder of Zen Buddhism, the Indianmonk Bodhidharma.
But Destiny was not done toying with us justyet. Prophecy’s funding fell through, sticking Ryanand I with an entire comic’s worth of strips and nopublisher. We went out trying to find one, but allthe major indy labels shot us down. It was actuallyChris Staros of Top Shelf who recommended weapply to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creatorPeter Laird’s non-profit Xeric Foundation for aself-publishing grant (learn more about their finework at http://www.xericfoundation.com), sowe’ll always give a grateful tip of the hat to Chrisfor that.
Here are script and finished, lettered art from ActionPhilosophers #19. Fred writes detailed full scripts forartist and AP co-creator Ryan Dunlavey.
Providing reference for artists is often part of a comicswriter’s job. The internet has made that aspect easier.
Doing things such as having the Philosophers sitting arounda table a la the Justice Society is one of the touches thatattract both regular readers as well as comic book fans. Notehow Fred provides a web link to the Justice Society shot hewants Ryan to see. Since Ryan received the script via e-mail,he can just click on the link and see the reference.
VAN LENTE | 63
TWO
HEADER: LOGO over top:
THALES of MILETUSPanel 1: Thales measures the pyramids by their shadows. He is extremely poverty-
stricken in this picture, and his toga is patched and threadbare.
1. CAPTION: Thales was a scientific JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES. He
predicted ECLIPSES, diverted the flow of mighty
RIVERS…
2. CAPTION: …and figured out how to measure the height of the
PYRAMIDS by measuring their SHADOWS at the precise
time of day when HIS shadow was equal to HIS height!
Panel 2: Some rich Greek NOBLEMEN mock Thales openly.
3. CAPTION: You’d think his mad MENTAL SKILLS would have won
Thales some PROPS from his PEEPS.
4. CAPTION: You’d be WRONG….
5. NOBLEMAN #1: Pfff! SHADOW BOY here thinks he’s so GREAT!
6. NOBLEMAN #2: If you’re so SMART, why aren’t you RICH, Poindexter?
HAW, HAW!
Panel 3: Thales studies a weather station in an olive grove.
7. CAPTION: So, after careful STUDY, Thales determined that next
summer would produce an especially bountiful OLIVE
CROP…
8. CAPTION: …and used his last CENT to buy up all the OLIVE
PRESSES in the neighborhood!
Panel 4: Thales, now in a rich toga, grins madly as the glum noblemen pay him
buttloads of dough for the use of the olive press behind him.
9. CAPTION: Once his prediction came TRUE, he CLEANED UP renting
out his equipment to the growers!
10. THALES: Who SAYS philosophy doesn’t PAY? Heh!
THREE
Panel 1: The now-rich Thales, lost in thought, wanders through a landscape, lookingup at the twinkling stars in the night sky above.1. CAPTION: But not even FINANCIAL SUCCESS slaked Thales’ thirstfor KNOWLEDGE…2. THALES (THOUGHT): There is such a WONDROUS VARIETY to the things inthe world… Clouds, stars, men, earth…3. THALES (THOUGHT): …yet I am CONVINCED that the MANY are related toeach other by a single COMMONALITY—the ONE!Panel 2: Thales is so lost in thought, he doesn’t realize that he has come upon anopen well until he trips on the edge, and loses his balance.4. THALES (THOUGHT): But WHAT could this One BE—5. THALES: WHOOOAAAA…Panel 3: Same shot: Thales falls into the well.6. SFX: SPLASH!Panel 4: Same shot: the well.NO COPY
Panel 5: Stat previous panel.7. THALES (THOUGHT, IN WELL): By ZEUS, I’ve GOT it!8. THALES (THOUGHT, IN WELL): ALL THINGS are made of WATER!
Through humor, lean text, and imaginative art, Fredand Ryan are able to deliver many complex philosophicalideas and make them understandable.
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ee Nordling’s back with some more tips aboutyou, your comics, and Hollywood. Listen to whatthis smart fellow has to say. [By the way, thereare spoilers to the endings of several movies,
comics, and books in this piece, none of themcurrent. You have been warned.]
—DF
Every writer has his or her own process for determininghow to best adapt material from one medium—whether it’s comics, prose or TV—into film.
Your interest here could be as a creator whose workis being adapted, you could also be the writer lookingto adapt somebody else’s work, or you might just beinterested in watching the train wreck that may ormay not take place. Regardless of which it is, it’simportant to understand the process in which you’reparticipating or observing.
In adapting a property from one medium into film,some rip the heart out of the original piece and dowhatever they want to do, simply because they can.There are a lot of these people in Hollywood. I’m notjust ragging on writers, because directors and producersoften do the same thing to screenplays, but whenthey’re doing it to screenplays that are from writerswho just eviscerated somebody else’s work...well, onthese days, I believe in karma.
Other writers try to adhere slavishly to the sourcematerial, or as many aspects of the material aspossible, as was evident in the first two Harry Potterfilm adaptations. In this process, the results usuallydon’t take best advantage of the visual storytellingpossibilities of the film medium, but they do manageto not offend the fan base. They may bore them todeath, but they don’t offend them.
The above examples are two extremes, and some-times these extremes produce vibrant cinematicresults, but this isn’t a discussion about being solucky or talented that you can escape the pitfalls.
Those are the extremes; now let’s discuss thetwo middles.
The first one is a process for figuring out how toconsider what to keep and what to toss. It’s not new, inthat many screenwriters have practiced and writtenabout it before, William Goldman in his book,Adventures in the Screen Trade, being the most promi-nent example I can think of, but this approach is embed-ded at the core of most successful adaptations.
The key to a successful adaptation is getting to theheart of the story, isolating what it’s really about—not what it could be about, but what it is about,concept-wise or thematically—as opposed to how ittracks in terms of plot or in its sequence of events.
The first step to discovering what’s at the heart of astory is by simply looking at where it begins andwhere it ends. Then you look at the bridge betweenthe two, examine the journey, and ask yourself,“What’s the moral of the story?”
Yep, it’s that simple. When you figure out the moral tothe story, which can also be called the “moral argument,”“theme,” or “controlling idea” —the statement that thestory makes about one or more things the writer wants toconvince you are or aren’t true—then you’ve got a spinearound which to wrap your adaptation.
My favorite example to prove this point is how oneof my favorite writers, David Mamet, badly adapted anearly draft of Thomas Harris’ book, Hannibal. For theuninitiated, this book was the follow-up to Silence ofthe Lambs, which, in turn, followed Red Dragon.
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ADAPTING TO THE CINEMATIC SANDBOXb y L e e N o r d l i n g
Excesses and wanderings aside, I liked the book. Bythe time I’d reached the climax, I’d already figured outthat it was the thriller equivalent of My Fair Lady.
“Huh???” you say.
“Yep,” I say. My Fair Lady is about a woman whois refined and defined by a man, with whom sheultimately comes to a separate-but-equal understanding.Hannibal is about a woman who’s being pulled in sever-al different directions by a number of men, each of themwanting to refine and define who she’ll be as a person.Hannibal wins, and they ultimately come to a separate-but-equal understanding.
At their hearts, they’re not much different.
Whether it was by direction from the producers orfrom the director, Ridley Scott, the adaptation wasre-imagined as a story of unrequited love by Hannibalfor Starling. Nope, I’m not guessing, Scott says this onthe DVD commentary, and it’s the best clue as to whyJodie Foster chose not to reprise her role as Starling, as
well as why the finished film is episodic and unfocused.There’s so much in it that doesn’t belong in a love storybetween Hannibal and Starling, and, even if the eventswere in the book, the results are unsatisfying.
If you accept that Hannibal is My Fair Lady, thenthe solution to the adaptation and Foster’s possibleparticipation should have been a simple fix.
My Fair Lady is a musical adaptation of the stageplay, Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw. In thisoriginal incarnation of the story, Eliza Doolittle allowsherself to be molded into a “lady” by Professor HenryHiggins. When Eliza realizes she’s been taken forgranted, she leaves the professor, just as she does inthe scenes toward the end of My Fair Lady. But inthe original play, she doesn’t return to him at the end,and the bullying professor gets his comeuppance.
Since Jodie Foster was reported to havehated what happened to her Starlingcharacter in the book, the people shepherdingthe film could have easily steered theadaptation in the direction of Pygmalion,where Starling is manipulated by a numberof different and powerful men, but ultimatelybreaks free of all their influences andregains her footing as her own woman.Pretty compelling stuff, and Foster mighthave been onboard for that.
After this, the next step would have beento eliminate and/or refocus the rest of thenovel’s story that doesn’t work to this end.
Sure, easier said than done, but in theend it would’ve been a lot less work thantrying to turn Hannibal into a love storywhile smoothing out all the stuff that didn’tfit, which is something they did not end upaccomplishing anyway.
Conversely, Silence of the Lambs—a film that’soften referred to as a horror film, and contains manytruly horrific images and sequences—isn’t structuredlike a horror film; it’s a buddy movie.
Ted Tally, the screenwriter, recognizing that hecouldn’t condense the entire novel, establishedthe relationship between Starling and Lecter—twocharacters with opposing goals who are forced towork together to achieve those goals—at the centerof the story, and he only kept in whatever else wasnecessary to have each of the characters achieve hisand her goals.
In this manner, he was able to refashion thenovel into a screenplay, with considerably lessstory/plot than the original book contained andstill have it work as a whole, making it a distantcousin of buddy pictures like 48 Hours and DieHard With A Vengeance, but still related to them,nonetheless.
