I thought I’d take a moment to reciprocate the gesture and pass along some older (but still quite valid) advice from Mr.Ellis on the art of pitching. This piece was from his old “Come in Alone” series on Comic Book Resources– a treasure trove of wisdom that I highly recommend bookmarking it for later reading.

There’s also a collected print version that you can pick up here–

Warren’s blog can be found here– and if you’ve never read his work, you can’t go wrong starting with FreakAngels- a free serialized webcomic that you can read RIGHT NOW.
Ok, enough with the intro, let’s turn it over to Warren:

THE PITCH

All right. You’ve got your story. Now you want to try and sell it to someone.

You poor doomed bastard.

Okay, first off, do your research. You’ve got Net access. Hit the companies’ websites, see what they say about dealing with submissions. Don’t give them an excuse to turn your pitch down. Companies like Dark Horse have very specific submissions policies.

Most of them will say something like, boil your idea down into a paragraph, or a page, give us as little as possible to make a decision over, fuck you. Because, frankly, they’re not that interested. Your job is to make them interested.

They want you to boil your idea down into something that, in Spielberg’s term, “you can hold in your hand.” I’ve heard a lot of editors tell me that they look for the “high-concept” pitch. This basically means writing the advertising-copy version of your idea, as opposed to the full-blown treatment these people should be making the time to read. Doing this will also teach you a valuable skill; writing your own damn ad copy. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of the ad people at the various companies are good. But there was one guy who would send out press releases about new artists that included details of how he had to run to the toilet and violently shit himself when their new pages came in. I had the recipients of these press releases at various magazines phone me up to read this stuff aloud to me. Know how much coverage these guys got? Well, they’re not working in the business any more. Learn to write your own ads. I wrote all the PLANETARY, THE AUTHORITY and TRANSMETROPOLITAN advertising text, taglines etc., and while they may not win me any major advertising awards, I’d rather have them than 48-point type proclaiming the comics’ effect on some suit’s lower bowel.

So that’s what you’re doing; boiling it down, distilling the idea into a reduced form. No, it won’t have the completeness of what you really want to show them, and it won’t indicate the richness and complexity of what you’re doing. Frankly, you have to live with it. Hook them with this and show them the good stuff later. Because if you don’t do it in a way that at least looks like their way, they won’t even look at it to begin with.

“…if you don’t do [your submission] in a way that at least looks like their way, they won’t even look at it to begin with.”

Are all publishers and editors like this? No. Editor Andrew Helfer at DC once told me that he likes synopses and pitches to be big, showing him everything. He wants to get a sense of what’s there. However, the blunt truth is that Andrew Helfer produced about as many comics last year as Joe Madureira. He’s an exception to the rule and generally marginalised and the rest of the editors’ club is probably working out ways to have him sterilised at this very moment.

Obviously, specific areas of the pitch will depend on what you’re pitching. If you’re talking about a miniseries, then the bare bones of the plot are required, the beats of the story from beginning to end. And I do mean just the bones; you’re flensing off all the meat and just explaining the structure, the path of the plot of inception to resolution without dressing it up. Practise it on things you haven’t written yourself, first — take a film and try to boil its plot structure down to, say, half a sheet of typed A4. If, for some godforsaken reason, you’re pitching something longer, then remember — you’ve still got to do the work in one single page to meet the demands of many companies.

For years, to beat the one-page constraint, I created what I call a Shout Sheet. An extra page that had the project’s title, my name, address and copyright mark on it, that went on top of the pitch page. It was just barely within the rules — and, crucially, it freed up space on the pitch page. If I had a tagline for the series, or maybe a high-concept logline, those would go on the Shout Sheet too.

The worst thing about trying to break in as a writer is that you can’t just shove a portfolio under an editor’s nose at a convention or meeting. You have to somehow convince the editor to sit down in their office and read you. Sometimes, yes, it’s easier to collaborate with an artist and get something drawn and lettered first. And I’ve been saying for a while that the best way to break into comics right now is to get published in the independent sector and use your indie-published work as a calling card.

“The worst thing about trying to break in as a writer is that you can’t just shove a portfolio under an editor’s nose at a convention or meeting.”

But here’s a secret.

95% of all writer’s submissions are absolute shit.

Seriously.

You want to impress an editor? Learn to spell. Lay out your pitch cleanly and elegantly. Be coherent. I knew of a writer who wrote the clearest, most lucid and beautifully structured synopses anyone had ever seen. The actual scripts, when they came in, was utter gibberish, made no sense at all, had plainly been written on acid. But the damn things were commissioned and paid for on the strength of clear pitches.

Be good. That’s what’ll capture an editor’s attention. Because 95% of that pile of submissions next to them is inexcusably awful, and they know it. You will stand out from the crowd because there are no semen stains on your submission, because a cursory examination shows that you have a basic grasp of English, because it reaches for concision and appears professional in its approach, because the covering letter isn’t headed “Dear Bastard.” Etcetera.

“Be good. That’s what’ll capture an editor’s attention.”

Half of this job is about being bloody-minded and not stopping until you get what you want. It’s not about education — I didn’t go to university, neither did Garth Ennis, nor Alan Moore or Grant Morrison, and none of us took any special courses in How To Write Comics because there bloody weren’t any. All the professional writers I know just saw something they wanted to do and hammered away until they were damn well doing it.

ADDENDUM: A Few Tips

There’s a rule-of-thumb for dialogue writing you might want to try. Stan Lee used it, Alan Moore uses it. An average-sized panel can stand about twenty-eight words of dialogue. Try it for a while, before you go your own way; no more than twenty-eight words in each panel.

Larry Hama’s got a trick to keep the page turning and the eye flowing across the page. He makes sure he has a caption or a piece of dialogue in the top left corner of the page and the bottom right corner. Try it for yourself, look at the effect it can create for action stories.

Make sure you’re describing something that can be illustrated. The example of this that I always use is a story David Lloyd told on Alan Moore from the production of V FOR VENDETTA: where Alan asked for a character to be standing with their back to us, smiling ironically. Try drawing that. Also be aware of human limitations. I’ve seen scripts where writers have choreographed the actions of every player in a twenty-person fight scene — for a single-pic shot couched within a nine-pic page. The poor bloody artist went mental trying to fit a twenty-person shot into that page. There’s a whole bunch of us who often sketch out our stories on scratch paper to ensure we’re not asking the artist to draw anything impossible.

And remember; they are always wrong. You are always right. Because you are the writer.

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If you’re an aspiring artist/writer, Tony Fleecs is a guy you should get to know. I’ve had the pleasure of being buddies with Tony for a few years now, and I can honestly say he’s one of the nicest, funniest, and talented mo’fos I know.

Tony has been working for a number of years now and lucky for us, his body of work just continues to grow– if you’ve been reading Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn’s Firebreather, you’ve seen Tony’s work in the ‘Lil Firebreather backups. Additionally, Tony recently provided one of the variant covers for Archie’s 600th issue. He’s also currently working with Tumor’s author, Josh Fialkov on a book for Oni Press.

But that’s just the artist side! In addition to his award winning Autobio comic “In My Lifetime,‘ Tony has also written a book for Terminal Press called Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here.

Wadd is an adaptation of the 70s porno movie starring John Holmes as Johnny Wadd, Private Investigator (or, Private Dick, if you will)– Naturally, this was back in the Boogie Nights days when porn was filled with ham fisted plots (note: maybe they still are?)– Tony’s challenge was to present the story without the porno/sex element.

Any work of adaptation takes research– and Tony found himself with a very strange set of circumstances in regards to Wadd:

“I watched [the movie] strangely opposite the regular way you watch porn, because I fast forwarded through all the sex and went straight for the plot. In other words, fucking is not the motivation to the story.”

Obviously, changes were made to the story as well “I don’t want to be the guy who says [‘Johnny Wadd’] is a bad movie to start with, but the point of the movie wasn’t to have a cohesive plot; it was for [Holmes] to have sex a lot.” By removing the porno aspect, it’s up to Fleecs to ground the plot as a dusty/gritty crime story–It’s a simple, but unique concept– and it really works.

The book was illustrated by Guns of Shadow Valley artist Dave Wachter– who does a great job evoking the sleezy 70s.

I had talked to Tony about getting the Wadd script, and I was stoked that he actually sent over his original pitch for the comic as well– The Pitch is REALLY worth checking out– Our previous examples (Costa’s Hawksmoor and Warren Ellis’ Planetary) don’t fit the typical mold of what you should be writing in a pitch doc– Tony’s Wadd pitch is much closer to what you should be aiming for.

Additionally, since Tony has done it all (Art, Lettering, Coloring, etc,) his script is well worth checking out– Because he’s worked in various positions on other writers scripts, he knows how to call attention to certain details that might be overlooked. In particular, I really dig how he highlights notices for the colorist.

If you’d like to do a script to page comparison (or, would just like to pick up the book) you can order it direct from Terminal Press here.

Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here – Pitch

Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here – Script

You can follow Tony’s comic book adventures on Twitter @Tonyfleecs

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Friend to the archive, Matt Fraction, has a little performance piece he’s been doing at wOOtstock called The Batman Dreams of Hieronymus Machines– it’s funny, informative, inspiring, and touching…really, what more can you ask for?
I’m not going to say much beyond that– it’s about 17 minutes long, but you won’t feel it for a second. Enjoy:

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In 2009, Chris and Atomic Robo co-creator, Scott Wegener published a three-issue, Image mini-series called Killer of Demons.
…and it’s awesome.

I had been tracking Killer of Demons fairly early in its development, when Yost popped by a message board I frequent with some pre-release artwork– being a fan of Scott’s work, I was instantly hooked.
Killer of Demons is one half Army of Darkness/Constantine and one half Office Space– with a lot of decapitations in between.

YOST: ‘Killer of Demons’ is the heartwarming story of junior account executive Dave Sloan, who wakes up to see that there are actual literal demons from hell among us and a heavenly cherub angel is telling him to kill them all. Which he does, with swords, axes, guns and even a pen. But Dave starts to realize that things aren’t necessarily as they seem.
“As Satan points out to him, pretty much all the good serial killers think they’re doing God’s work. And given that everyone Dave sees as a demon is someone he works with–he works in advertising, about 10 to 1 hellspawn–or people that annoy him–gardeners with leaf blowers, the drive-thru window guy–it doesn’t look good for Dave’s sanity.
“So the question is ‘Dave… insane? Or hand of God on Earth?’ The answer may or may not surprise you.”

Killer of Demons was quite well received amongst the audience that picked it up, but like many great Image books, it got a bit lost in the shuffle of the monthly rack. Still, I’m a big champion of the book and a when I do run across people that have read it, I’ve yet to hear a negative review.
Recently, (up really late one night on Twitter) Yost mentioned that he’d started thinking about Killer of Demons 2– which, I instantly (and perhaps over-excitedly) responded to…ultimately, that led to a quick email in which I asked Chris if he’d be willing to shoot over a KOD script– and being the awesome guy he is, he didn’t give us one. He gave us all three!

This is a really good script for you writers out there- take note of the page space of Yost’s script– I don’t think that any one page of final comic goes over two pages of script. That’s important. You don’t want to overload your artist– unless you’re Alan Moore…but you’re not, so don’t.
I also think this is a really good script for you artists to practice on. Scott is a stylized artist, so it would probably be neat to see how you might interpret the script and then go back to look over his artwork to see how he did it.

You can pick up the first Killer of Demons trade at Amazon for about ten bucks– It’s a fun read! Highly recommended!

For those who do, here’s a quick message from Letterer extraordinaire, Thomas Mauer:

(Keep an eye out for) the joke on Creationism on the double page spread in issue 3 where Dave stands before the building and you can read when the ad company was created. I threw that in there but no reader’s ever mentioned anything about it to me afterward.

– and indeed, we can consult the script and see that Thomas put that in there himself! Just a little amusing flourish that even I overlooked on my first read. That just goes to illustrate the power of having an awesome letterer on your side!

Wrapping up, let’s have a big round of applause for Mr. Chris Yost for kindly donating his Killer of Demons scripts for us to read and study! You can find Chris on twitter @Yost, where you too can let him know that you’d love to see Killer of Demons 2!

THE SCRIPTS:

KILLER OF DEMONS #1
KILLER OF DEMONS #2
KILLER OF DEMONS #3

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The Archive has successfully survived it’s migration to WordPress 3.0 (finally!) You’ll also note that I changed themes, so after suffering about a year and a half of tiny gray text against black, we’re now legible! No more trips to Lenscrafters for you!

I also moved all the advertising off to the right sidebar– I’d love to run the archive ad-free, but well…the site costs money, and I gotta offset that somehow. We’re using a lot of Project Wonderful slots, because most of the time the ads featured there are independent creators– so, please consider giving them a click if something catches your eye!
I also added in a donate box– so, if you ever feel like buying me a cup of coffee, it’d be much appreciated. That said, I’m working on some incentives to generate a buck or two to keep the site running…

So, yeah- it’s still a work in progress. You can still find the bulkload of the archive in the “Scripts” section, which is now located on the sidebar.

I also added the snazzy “Social Bookmark” widget, so you folks that like to Stumble, Digg, Reddit, Twitter, etc, can now do so with ease.

I’ve still got a little more cleaning up to do, mainly in the category and tags sections. Like I said, work in progress!

Oooh, and TAGS! We’ve got TAGS now! That’ll come in handy for you guys who want to find specific publishers or authors. If you’re wary of Tags, we’ve even got a snazzy Search up at the top!

So, I’ll be poking around and doing some minor site stuff over the next week– All of the Scripts and Content seem to have made the transition smoothly– but if you do happen across something that isn’t working, please drop me a comment and let me know!

Ok, back tomorrow with a BRAND NEW SCRIPT!

(or– maybe 3…)

Oh, I almost forgot: Does anyone out there subscribe to us via RSS? Just curious, I’ve recently gotten into using RSS– actually, I should apologize to you: I generally do “Live-edits” of these write ups, but apparently the RSS feeds don’t update! I’ll make sure to proof before posting from now on!!

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So, I know we’ve been pretty quiet lately– that’s all my fault, and I apologize. I’ve been pretty swamped on a number of projects, and since I run the CBSA in my spare time– well, it gets neglected when I don’t have any!

On the plus side, that guilt has transformed into a fire under my butt to get this place cleaned up! So, over the weekend and through next week, I’ll be putting together a v2.0 of the Comic Book Script Archive!

So, if you happen to come along and things look a little wonky– that’s probably just me at work.

I’ve got 2 new scripts coming your way when we relaunch, and I’ll be busy making connections down at SDCC to bring you another solid year of comic book script goodness!

Ok, off to work!

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Sad to report that I received a request from Marvel to pull their scripts offline. It sucks, and I’m bummed about it– but ultimately, it is their Intellectual Property and as stated in the “About” section, if I ever recieve a request to take something down, I’ll always comply.

That said, we’ve still got a lot of great scripts up on the site for you to study and learn from! I’ll also be making an effort to see if I can get ahold of independent stuff to replace the former Marvel writers– Keep an eye out for updates coming very soon!!

Best,

Tim

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I use the band analogy a lot with comic book creative teams. Inkers are like Bass players, you notice them when they do a bad job– and if you’ve got a killer inker, everyone credits someone else, they’re the unsung heroes of the page and stage. Letterers and Colorists are like Drummers, setting the rhythm and tonality of the page. Finally, Pencilers are your Guitarists and Writers are like Lead Singers.
(Yes, you can now make “out of control ego” jokes about both writers and artists– just go look up some musician jokes and refer to the key I’ve just given you)

The point is, sometimes you run across a guy like Eric Clapton, a guy who is instantly recognizable by both his voice and his tone– and yeah, you’re jealous. That’s ok. He practiced a lot to get there.
Phil Hester is like Eric Clapton. Yeah, I said it.

Probably the only time Dr. Doom and Eric Clapton have been in the same article.

I’ve met Phil a handful of times at various conventions, he’s a super nice and really funny guy– also, likely baffled that I keep referring to him as Eric Clapton, but we’ll get to that in a minute…

“Don’t wait for anyone’s permission to do your thing. Just go. Make mistakes. No one’s keeping score. Nothing teaches like work, so put yourself to work. Now.” -  Phil Hester

Phil began his professional career during the 80s B/W indie boom, handling art chores for companies like Silverwolf and Caliber and Now. That work eventually bloomed into a shot on Taboo, sharing pages with the likes of Mobius and Neil Gaiman.

A slew of work through the 90s as a penciler, which you can track here…

Then comes, y’know, Green Arrow, Ant-Man, as well as creator stories like The Wretch (which was nominated for an Eisner), The Coffin, and Firebreather, a personal favorite of mine.
It’s sort of impossible to summarize the amount of work that Hester has put out– at this point, he’s worked with every major publisher on a bevvy of different types of stories–

“I always saw writing and drawing as part of the same storytelling continuum, so it’s more like I just shifted the dial to a different station. My big heroes are cartoonists who do it all; Eisner, Miller, Kirby, etc., so writing and drawing have always been different parts of the same animal to me.”

Ok, we’re going back to the Clapton thing…
Clapton was always big on studying the roots of the blues– It’s no coincidence that he’s jammed with every living blues legend– the guy studied everyone from Robert Johnson, to the Kings (BB, Freddy and Albert), to Bo Diddly. Clapton inherently knew that if you’re going to learn, study from the masters.
Hester did the same with comics: ” most of my really heavy influences are older guys. In comics- Eisner, Kirby, Krigstein, Wood, Steranko, Staton, Toth, Kurtzman, Wrightson, Miller. In fine art- Rothko, Calder, Bellows, Guston, Rothenberg.”

It’s obvious that the writer/artist guys were a big influence on Hester– so it’s no small surprise that he transitioned so fluidly into a writer:

” I own a Frank Miller page from Daredevil. It’s the classic issue in which Daredevil fights The Hulk and takes a huge beating, but keeps coming back. I remember reading it as a kid and thinking, “Wow. Comics were always cool, but this comic is taking me places even movies don’t.” Miller on Daredevil sort of woke the storyteller in me. I bought the page ten or so years later for $400, which was a huge amount to me at the time, the most I’d ever paid for anything and a divorce-able offense. I study that page almost daily and am still in awe of the storytelling Frank was capable of when he was just in his early 20′s.”

told’ja you’d be jealous! Original Frank Miller DD art– WITH THE HULK!

Ok, let’s get on to our script shall we?

Courtesy of Stephen Christy at Archaia Press and Mr. Hester, we have the script for Days Missing #5.
Days Missing is a very unique and interesting book which I highly recommend checking out.
Each issue (of five) takes place in a different time period– something bad goes down, and our main character, The Steward– who observes humanity from the isolation of his library, must intervene to save us from an impending apocalypse. The Steward has the power to “fold” time back 24 hours– Restarting a day and changing the course, but never leaving a memory of his involvement. A very Gene Roddenberry “Prime Directive” concept– but also a very cool one.

The Steward, humanity’s powerful and mysterious guardian, is challenged as never before. Not only by a ravenous artificial life form programmed to overrun the entire planet, but by a shadowy figure whose power and motives make them The Steward’s opposite number.

“#5 is definitely my favorite, because #5 I think by that time, we had read all the materials, my first issue, and we had a real handle of what the character was about, and it was sort of a personal story for me too. I love, I’m a big fan of stories where machines or artificial intelligence becomes sentient. And it was a blast to sort of, through this sort of eternal character who’s in love with our life form, y’know, as we exist, and then have him witness the birth of another one, that may be compatible with him, spreading to the first one. And that was a neat quandary to put him in.”

Phil’s script is a great educational tool because he wears the hats of writer and artist– he has an interesting perspective that I think writers should very much take into account on their own scripts:

“I try not to — as an artist, I try not to make artists draw boring things. And when I do make them draw boring things, I try to reward them later, with something cool. I’ve been on that other end of the equation. People think it’s hard to draw two-page splashes, with a three-point perspective of a cityscape, with all the heroes fighting inside of that. That’s easy, that’s fun, everyone wants to do that. The hard part is drawing two characters just talking on a phone. That’s the rough stuff to me, and it’s hard to draw yourself up to the drawing board to do that work.”

Going back to Phil’s earlier quote about just “doing it”– I’d also like to call out the barebones-ness of his script, which I greatly admire. I think often times, writers look for any excuse not to write.
“I don’t own Final Draft!”
“The macros are corrupt in my Word file!”
Here’s Phil to set you right:

“I don’t have any kick-ass writing tools. I mean, I have a template that I print out so i can draw little thumbnail layouts to accompany my scripts, but I don’t have any cool screenwriting or comics writing program. Does anyone?”

So, there you go! Get to writing!

The Days Missing Hardcover (Collecting issues 1-5 with an introduction by Warren Ellis) is available for $20 here.

You can read the first issue for free here!

And lastly, you can download the script by Phil Hester, right here on the Archive!

Once again, a big thanks to Phil Hester, Stephen Christy, and a special shout out to Mel Caylo at Archaia!!
Follow Phil Hester on Twitter @philhester

Oh– finally, to round off the whole artist as a guitar player thing:

Will Eisner = Django Reinhardt
Jack Kirby = Les Paul
Jim Steranko = Jimi Hendrix
Frank Miller = Eddie Van Halen
…I could go on for hours…Feel free to argue with me in the comments section.

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Every time I pop open one of his books, I know I’m in for an awesome ride– A typical Jason Aaron book has everything you want in a comic– and like all great comics, when you hit the last page, you’re itching for more.

If you’re an aspiring comic writer (as I presume many of you reading this site are,) Aaron’s “origin” story is worth investigating, as it is both inspiring and informative-
Jason hails from Jasper, Alabama (population 14,000) a town that isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of comic creator talent…

“I’ve read comics since I was a kid, I knew for a long time that I wanted to be a writer, but I had no idea about how to even go about trying to break into the comic industry,”

He heeded the advice of his parents and went to collage, majoring in Journalism– after graduation was a series “of bad crappy day jobs,”– Writing movie reviews, working as a waiter, working in a warehouse, and shift managing a video rental store. Aaron notes, “(they) were low on stress, I could daydream at work. And once I walked out the door, I was done, I could go home and work on things I really wanted to.”
In 2002, now living in Kansas City, Aaron attended Wizard World– armed with an 8-page Wolverine script, he entered a Marvel Talent search. Months later, word came down that he’d won. Nab a copy of Wolverine #175 to check the story out.

With his short published, Aaron started to make a run at the wall (y’know, the one that surrounds the comic industry and refuses entry to anyone without the stones) with a pitch for “The Other Side” (Script below)–
The Other Side was turned down by Marvel, so Jason packaged it up and sent it over to Vertigo– where we have a very good lesson for aspiring writers from editor Will Dennis:

“Sometime in 2003, when Jason first approached me (literally out of the blue) with what would become THE OTHER SIDE, he was very polite, persistent without being annoying, professional in his correspondence (too much alliteration!) and all the other things you need to be to “break in”…but I still was putting him off since I had no idea if he could actually write.
And given the number of writers who pitch me stuff every week (right now I have a stack of about 10-15 pitches I still need to answer post SDCC), I have to make decisions based on what I know of their work. Easier said than done.
But here’s the difference with Jason…he actually WROTE it. His last ditch effort was, “I know it’s long shot but I wrote the first script cus I HAD to and I think it’s pretty good. If you read and like it, cool. If not, thanks for your time.” So I read it and I LOVED it and that was that. Now he’s a big star and I look like a genius…ok, not really. I mean I am a genius but he’s only a medium-size star. heh heh.
But that’s the EXCEPTION.
You might be shocked how often new writers tell me that they either haven’t written the script or haven’t planned on writing it yet or don’t want to write it on spec. When you’re at that “starting out” level, my advice is always, “Look, you’re gonna have to write this thing sooner or later so if it’s a question for me, write it and I’ll have more to go on. Worse case, you’re gonna have a legit editor give you unbiased feedback.” That falls on deaf ears (or worse people get combative) more often than it doesn’t.
Bottom line — you need to do the work. Then do it again. And again. And again. Sitting in a bar calling yourself a writer is not the same thing as BEING a writer. Writers write. End of story. “

Here’s the deal– that first issue of The Other Side is below– you really should read it to see how your stuff stacks up. Why? Well, here’s Karen Berger, former Executive Editor at Vertigo:
“No editor in their sane mind could’ve turned down the first issue script that Jason sent over even though it was unsolicited,”

So, make your script that good.
(For more thoughts on Breaking In click here)

From there, Jason had Scalped green lit at Vertigo, and from there, Marvel came calling again– Runs on Wolverine and Ghost Rider are poising him to be a superstar writer in the near future.

Aaron has a staggering range– but his great trick is his ability to subvert plot expectations while remaining true to the characters–a delicate balancing act when dealing with a dedicated fanbase.

“Just dealing with the expectations of hardcore Marvel fans. Whatever character I’m writing, I’m always hoping to bring something new to the table, but there are always fans out there who don’t seem to want anything that’s too different from what they’ve read before. If there are plot threads left dangling from some other writer’s run years ago, these fans are still expecting them to be addressed. They have very definite ideas of how these characters should be handled, and sometimes it’s hard to get past that. But then again, it all comes with the territory, and it’s a thrill to be working on characters that fans are so passionate about.”

Take his short Manifest Destiny mini for example, how many thousands of times have we seen Wolverine fighting Ninjas? I’ll give ya, I love seeing Wolverine fighting Ninjas– but what can you do with claws vs. katanas that hasn’t been done?
Aaron subverts the whole Ninja-Thing by placing Logan in “Big Trouble in Little China”/kung-fu setting– It’s a brilliant move: Something we’ve never seen before, yet is instantly recognizable.

Likewise with his Ghost Rider run, which is a bat-shit Grind/Roadhouse epic where he’s able to play both within and outside of genre conventions– again, subverting expectations of what you would traditionally expect from a Ghost Rider comic, yet narratively threaded so everything makes sense…even going to friggin’ Tibet.

No two ways about it, Jason’s scripts are great. Seriously, go open up the script for “The Other Side” and you’ll instantly see what Karen was talking about.

I know it’s silly, but from an astetic standpoint, I really like the fact that Aaron uses cover pages. I just find it classy.
Another little tidbit of formatting that you should consider is Jason’s usage of page/panel slugs. If you take a look at any of his scripts, you’ll see that he uses a page, point, panel format– 10.1 means “Page 10, panel 1”.
Recently, Ron Marz tweeted that he’d written in two page 8s…Top Cow editorial quickly tweeted back that they’d missed it as well. It happens, particularly when you’re working at the speed and volume that comic creators do.
I’ve done the same, in the last script I worked on, I “skipped” a page– luckily, this gave my artist a winning chip for his “I want to do a splash page” argument, so it worked out in my case.
Point being, I’ll be adopting Jason’s slugs for future scripts. I might still “miss” a page in the future, but using this format will hopefully check and balance against making a little error that could cost you time down the road.

One of the other things to keep an eye out for in Jason’s writing is his usage of “no copy” or silent panels. He uses them extremely effectively in his comics as pacing tools or “moments of reflection…”

“I break the supposed dialogue rules all the time, in terms of how many words you shouldn’t exceed in a given balloon or panel. Maybe I shouldn’t it, but fuck it, if the story needs it, it needs it. I don’t feel like I’m overly wordly overall though. Maybe I was a couple years ago when I was first starting out, but these days I truly appreciate a great silent beat. It may sound weird, but I love being able to take out dialogue or narration from a page because you realize that you don’t need it, that it’s all there in the art.”

OK, enough of my yammering, go read and study some scripts!

Let’s also give Mr. Aaron a huge round of applause for donating these scripts for us! Support awesome comics: Pick up his books!
Jason Aaron can be found on Twitter @Jasonaaron

SCRIPTS

THE OTHER SIDE #1

This hard-hitting graphic novel examines life on opposing sides of the Vietnam War through the eyes of two young men. Bill Everette is a 19-year-old Alabama farm boy who’s been drafted into the Marine Corps, while 19-year-old Vietnamese farmer Binh Dai enlists in the People’s Army of Vietnam to fulfill his duty to his country.

Along the way, Private Everette encounters demonically vicious drill instructors, talking maggots, voiceless ghosts and a rifle that begs him to shoot himself. Vo Dai must undertake the long march south through black forests and bloody swamps, past tigers, dragons and mounds of dead. Both men struggle with their own demons and nightmarish visions … before their inevitable showdown.

SCALPED #35
In a special stand-alone issue, we meet a couple of characters for the first and last time – an aging husband and wife who eke out a living in the harsh and rugged heart of the Badlands. Learn what it means to reside in the poorest community in the entire United States – and what it means to survive.

SCALPED by Jason Aaron is the best thing I’ve read in a long time. Dark, beautiful and not for kids. Graphic storytelling at its best.
– Damon Lindelof

BONUS! Download the first issue of Scalped for FREE!

REMOVED BY REQUEST OF MARVEL
“The Man in the Pit”
Wendell Rayfield is a recently divorced, down on his luck ex-cop who’s looking down the business end of 40 with no hope for the future and with demons from his past still haunting him at every turn. All he has going for him is his new job. A job that involves a very large machine gun, a hole in the ground, a certain hirsute mutant and several thousand bullets. We all know what damage Wolverine can do with his claws, but how dangerous can he really be when all he’s able to do is talk? Wendell Rayfield is about to find out.

Read/compare the script to some preview art:

REMOVED BY REQUEST OF MARVEL

Wilson Fisk is a bodyguard for mob boss Don Rigoletto, but he has his eyes on a much bigger prize, and he’s gonna use Frank Castle to help him realize his dreams. The biggest story in MAX history begins here, as we witness the birth of the greatest villain the Punisher has ever faced.

Review with Preview pages that you can gander are over at Comic Related!

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Lately, Ron has been sandboxing in the Top Cow universe with an acclaimed run on Witchblade– a title that may have been fairly criticized as a cheesecake book eight years ago, Ron has been working hard to shake that preconception off the book by grounding it in character.

In a CBR article from awhile back, Ron says: “I get so tired of hearing of the sniping comments about “Witchblade” being a “T&A” book; always from ill-informed dopes who haven’t looked past the cover of the book in, say, the last five years. Books and characters evolve. Batman isn’t a grinning boy scout fighting space aliens anymore.

When I took over writing “Witchblade” with issue #80, I said I wasn’t interested in writing stories that were excuses for Sara’s clothes to fall off. My intention was to do what I always try to do: tell stories that make you care about what happens to the characters. Top Cow was absolutely supportive, and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since.”

The stuff I’ve been catching up on (I actually am planning a larger piece on the Top Cow U in the near future) has really impressed me and Stjepan Sejic is quickly rocking his way up my list of favorite artists.

Ron was generous enough to pop us over 4 scripts to study and learn from– It’s very interesting to note that his script style remains consistent throughout all four titles. I asked him where he picked up his format and he had this to say:

“This is the format Jim Starlin showed me when I started. It’s designed to make it easy on the artist — each story page is contained to one or two script pages; each new story page starts a new script page. That’s so the artist can look at one page at time at his board or at his screen. No confusion, and once a page is drawn, that script page can be discarded.

It’s also designed to make the process easier on letterers, by numbering each balloon/caption for placement.

Too many writers just produce a document that’s like a screenplay, without any thought to the people who follow in the creative chain.”

Long-Time Script Archive fans will remember the usage of the “mysterious numbers” from the Panel One column awhile back. What I’ve found extremely useful is Ron’s big/bolded page numbers at the top– It’s helpful as a quick/silly check and avoids the problem of “missing” a page– on both the writer and artist side of production.

For the process junkies out there, you’ll really want to take a look through the Dragon Prince script and compare it to the full issue which Top Cow has graciously made available for free online.

On the subject of comic plotting/scripting, Top Cow publisher Filip Sablik recently conducted a great interview with Mr. Marz over at Geekweek. In it, Ron discusses comic storytelling technique with some really helpful gems–

“Comic storytelling is really an exercise in fitting your story into the available space, in both the macro and micro sense. Your overall story has to fit into the 22 pages of a standard comic, or whatever page count you’re working with. That’s the macro. The micro is the individual page, how much information you put on each page, how you plan the page turns so they pull the reader through the story. So the pacing of the storytelling is paramount”

I highly recommend you read the full article here–and actually, keep a keen lookout for Filip’s “I Thought You’d Never Ask” series on Geekweek– it’s a great read!

Ok, so that’s enough rambling from me, let’s get down to what you all came here for: The Scripts!!

ANGELUS #1

Script
Taking flight from the pages of “War of the Witchblades”! Danielle Baptiste returns home to New Orleans to come to grips with her new role as the Angelus, the human bearer of the primal force of Light. To complicate matters she must sort out her undefined relationship with Finch while maintaining control of the Angelus host, some of whom covet her power.

Preview Pages if you’d like to read along with the script.

BROKEN TRINITY: WITCHBLADE

Script Here
In the aftermath of BROKEN TRINITY, there’s a somber visit to a gravesite as Witchblade bearer Sara Pezzini is left to sort through her feelings for her baby’s father, Jackie Estacado, wielder of The Darkness. Meanwhile, The Angelus watches and plots, waiting for a chance to strike.

Preview Pages if you’d like to read along with the script.

DRAGON PRINCE #1

Script Here
Like a lot of teenagers, Aaron Chiang feels he’s never fit in, though he’s never known why. But all that changes when he learns the truth of his heritage: He is the Dragon Prince, last of his kind and heir to the bloodline of all dragons. Hunted to the brink of extinction by a secret society of wizards, dragonkind’s survival is now in Aaron’s hands.

Read the FULL ISSUE here!!

WITCHBLADE #132

Script Here

A quiet, romantic weekend in New England turns into a terrifying mystery when Sara and Gleason are pulled into an investigation of missing children. But is this a simple missing persons case or has the Witchblade been drawn to another supernatural crime?

Preview Pages if you’d like to read along with the script.

Wrapping up, let’s have a HUGE round of applause for Mr. Ron Marz! If you enjoy his scripts and want to check out even more behind-the-scenes goodness, check out the Deluxe Slipcase edition of First Born & Broken Trinity; which, in addition to the scripts, also feature the accompanying layouts by Stjepan Sejic and Mr. Phil Hester.
You can find out more about the Deluxe Slipcover edition here.

Finally, if you do find these scripts to be helpful, please go out and support the industry by picking up and reading some of these titles!

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