Spy6Teen by Tim Simmons
Posted in Scripts on April 8th, 2009 by admin – 3 CommentsA little shameless plugging this week– Here is the script for my Zuda entry: Spy6teen.
I thought it might be cool to take you guys through it and show you what I’ve learned about the process of comic script writing from running this site!
A little backstory first: I met the artist, DJ Keawekane over on the Digital Webbing forums. I was looking for an artist, he was looking for a writer– sadly, the project we decided to work on together was ill-fated and died on the vine.
Still, over the course of a number of emails we got to be friends– I had grown up in Hawaii and DJ currently lives there. We both would frequent the same comic shops growing up– It was kind of like meeting up with a buddy you hadn’t seen since grade school…to say the least, DJ’s a good guy.
We decided that we also dug each others work enough to give a go at a new project– so, DJ asked: What else have you got?
I’d been playing around with this idea that became Spy6teen for a bit. I knew I wanted to do something with broad appeal– and since DJ and I had been talking about a lot of nostalgic influences, I knew I wanted to pay homage to them. Old school Gi Joe, the classic “uncanny” X-men– our “roots” influences…
The “one line” pitch of “Espionage in High School” occurred to me…the more I thought about it, the more it made sense: Secrets in hallways, double lives, no one is who they seem– and that’s just normal high school.
I pitched it to DJ and off we went…
Looking at the Zuda format (in a 4×3) box, I knew we should try to use the layout to its advantage. Compose to it…not just try to shoehorn standard comic dimensions into it.
I wrote the script– taking bits and pieces of what I liked from others (much of it cribbed from the “Modified Brubaker” of Matt Fraction) and I learned fairly quickly why Fraction is constantly championing Macros. Might have saved me from destroying a “tab” key.
Granted, around the time I was writing the script, I was re-reading Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns– which is filled with 16 panel pages. Influenced by that, I think I gave DJ a number of “impossible” pages. He wisely said: “No, dude.”
So, we took it back to basics: I recomposed the script and drew him horrible stick figure layouts of what I saw in my head:
And, armed with the script and my caveman drawings, DJ would turn them into a cool thumbnail/layout:
We’d make minor adjustments from there to the final page, which you can see on Page 3 of the final Zuda.
(Zuda rules prevent me from posting up finished artwork)
The whole thing was a pretty awesome experience. From dreaming this stuff up, to “drawing” a thumbnail– the thrill of seeing “real” artwork come back– seeing the whole thing come to color via Lisa, and finally Brant’s Letters finally add some “sound” to the whole thing.
Really, I’m pretty proud of it.
Here’s the script:
Since we’re on Zuda, we also need Votes– if you could kindly swing over and register to vote and favorite us– it’d mean a lot to me and the archive…which is actually just me. So, it’d mean a lot to me.
A VOTE for Spy6teen is a VOTE for the Comic Book Script Archive!
