Rising Stars: How does one write a comic?

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: Scott Advani <sadvani at home.com>
Date: 15 Mar 2000 09:59:02 -0700
Lines: 14

Since the comic genre is visual, does it take a "screenplay" or, I
guess, "comicplay" to put the pieces together?  From a certain
perspective, a comic could be considered a storyboard to a screenplay.

What does what you submit to the artists look like?

 -= Scott =-
-- 

"If you cannot say what you mean, then you cannot mean what you say."

Scott Advani
sadvani at home.com


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 15 Mar 2000 22:06:58 -0700
Lines: 180

>Since the comic genre is visual, does it take a "screenplay" or, I
>guess, "comicplay" to put the pieces together?  From a certain
>perspective, a comic could be considered a storyboard to a screenplay.
>

I take the same approach to writing a comic as writing a script; I flesh it out
panel by panel, page by page, rather than doing a plot and letting the artist
break it down.  Not because I don't think the artist can or should, but because
I just don't know how to write it any other way.  I need to see it in my head,
shot for shot, or I can't follow or create the narrative.
 
>What does what you submit to the artists look like?

Like this.  (From Rising Stars #1)  Please excuse the weird margins; it came in
odd when I did the text insert from the script.

 "Nova Placenta"

 PAGE ONE

SPLASH PAGE
Earth looms large in BG.  We can see the edge of the North American continent
through a scattering of clouds.

In FG, we see part of a massive ball-shaped energy field with arcs and
eruptions like solar flares.  The bulk of it  bleeds off the page, we see only
enough of it to know that it's big, and it's heading right for Earth.

                                             CAPTION
                              Poet's Journal.  This is way it 
                              happened.
  


                                         PAGE TWO

 This page is done in soft pastels, an airbrushed feeling,  romantic, the faces
of the two people seen here smiling, warm, loving.  This and the facing page,
page 3, are meant  as parallel pages, so the poses used in one should be 
reflected in the facing page.  (It may help to read each  panel one at a time
across the two pages, rather than straight  through.) 

PANEL ONE - A BEDROOM, NIGHT

There is a couple in bed: 30s, the man is EVAN, dark haired, the woman
ELIZABETH, with red hair.  A vase of flowers is beside the bed.  It's night,
and Evan is in bed smiling up at her as she settles into the bed.  She is
pulling open a nightgown, clearly on her way into the bed.  
               
His arm is draped across the bed, ready to accept her.  A  trace of moonlight
filters in the lightly curtained window,  which blows gently with the
nightwind.

                                             CAPTION
                              Not the way I would like to think 
                              it happened. 

 PANEL TWO

 A medium-high shot angling down toward the bedroom window in  BG.  In FG
Elizabeth and Evan are embracing, their mouths  hungry for one another, loving,
passionate.

 PANEL THREE

 A downshot of Evan's face in the bed, her POV, his eyes closed  in rapture,
mouth slightly open, her hand reaching out to  him.

PANEL FOUR

 A close-up of the Elizabeth's face in the bedroom, his hand on her face,
straddling him, the lovemaking continues.  A  vague glow backlights her head.

 PANEL FIVE

 A wide shot again, same angle as the first panel, as the two entwined in sex
look toward the open window, which is now lit by brilliant light from outside.

PANEL SIX

 A thin horizontal panel across the bottom of the page, broken into repetitive
sub-panels in which we see the ball of energy coming closer and closer to the
earth, moving left to right, toward the intersection of pages 2 and 3, so that
in the last part of the panel it's about to strike the earth.
  

 PAGE THREE

This page is done in darker, more stark art and colors, the look severe, more
realistic.

 PANEL ONE - THE SAME BEDROOM, NIGHT

 Evan is still in bed, but dead asleep.  Instead of a vase of  flowers beside
the bed, there is an empty bottle of beer. His arm is draped across the bed,
but in sleep, where he passed out.  Elizabeth is in the same pose as the other
page, but from the expression on her face and her movement, pulling  the
nightgown closer, we can tell she's getting out of bed, not getting in.  A
trace of moonlight filters in the lightly  curtained window, which blows gently
with the nightwind.

                                             CAPTION
                              Or even the way it probably                      
        happened. 

 PANEL TWO

 The same medium-high shot, angling down slightly toward the window in BG.  In
FG, we see a part of Evan's body, still asleep on the bed, and out the window
we see Elizabeth   embracing a blonde, muscular man, their faces locked in the
same kind of passionate kiss as on the previous page.

 PANEL THREE

 A close shot of Evan in bed asleep, mouth slightly open, drooling.

PANEL FOUR

 Outside the house, a close-up of Elizabeth's face, the larger hands of the
blonde man touching her face, the house behind  her in BG, the stars
above...making love under the stars...as a light begins to appear in the sky
above them.
              
PANEL FIVE

Evan in bed is awake now, same angle as the first panel, looking out the window
to where the night has lit up like daytime.  The two figures making love
outside are caught in  the sudden glare, but almost made invisible by it,
whited out.

 PANEL SIX

 A thin horizontal panel across the bottom of the page, broken  into repetitive
sub-panels in which we see a sperm coming closer and closer to an ovum, moving
right to left toward the intersection of pages 2 and 3, so that in the last
part of the panel it's about to enter the ovum.
  


PAGE FOUR

SPLASH PAGE

 The night has turned into day, totally obscuring the house  except for the
barest silhouette, just enough to make out  the forms of the couple outside the
house, standing, and the man inside, now standing on the porch, their forms
almost skeletal or blurred out, the way those old x-ray Specs would  make
things look when you would squint through them.

                                             CAPTION
                              Just the truth about the way it 
                              happened, and what came                          
    after.

                                             CAPTION
                              Though no one really                             
               understood what happened that                              
night.  Not  for  a long time.

                                             CAPTION
                              Not until the first of us was                    
          born.
 

(That help?)


 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
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