If you’ve been reading comics for any length of time, I’d wager a pretty penny that you’ve read a few by Ron Marz. A quick glance at his biblography showcases Ron’s work with almost ever major comic book publisher, and on a personal note, his Silver Surfer run was epic.
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!