I'm going to be a little frank here, some of us comic writers, well, we're jerks. Not all, but quite more than makes me comfortable. I realize that we often are the originators of stories, but we often forget that the artists are the people who bring bring life to and enhance them. I've been fortunate enough that every artist I've worked with, makes me look like a better writer than I am. Seriously. So many writers have the egos the size of Russia and forget, hey, it takes two of us (or more) to makes comics. And I'm writing because... dun dun dun... I can't draw them. Well, I can, but they wouldn't be very good. Trust me, I know, I used to draw comics too.
So honestly, it's important to trust your artists and have an open dialogue with them when it comes to panel composition, pacing, and, well, the entire process. Giles and I discuss character designs, location designs, panel and page composition, pacing, characterization, and pretty much every aspect of Igor. He and I know so many tiny bits of information about the series that will probably never even see the light of day. But this kind of dialogue is essential, particularly on a mini-series or long-running title.
Here are a couple examples of script versus pencils where Giles had an idea, discussed it with me, and ran with it. This is from Igor: Occult Detective #1 and reflects a pacing choice Giles made that seriously improves the issue.
PAGE 16 (5 Panels)
Panel 1: One of the tentacles knocks Mr. Frank back.
Panel 2: Close shot of Igor. He yells to Mr. Frank.
IGOR:
Mr. Frank, keep him distracted! I need to send it back!
Panel 3: Igor starts rifling through the books on the ground.
Panel 4: Mr. Frank clenches his teeth.
MR. FRANK:
Godamnit.
Panel 5: Mr. Frank stretches out and levitates into the air and electrical energy surges out of his body, striking the monster.
SFX: Kraka-THOOM!
MONSTER:
SKRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Giles decided that the electrical energy attack should be a full splash page because, frankly, it's a pretty bad-ass cool moment and deserved that kind of focus. So he took what was one page of script and made it into two comic pages. Obviously, we had to find a moment to trim back on and Giles easily found a moment to do that with. See the following.
PAGE 20 (6 Panels)
Panel 1: Shot of Igor and Mr. Frank’s townhouse. Lightning is crashing in the sky again. It is raining heavily. There is a silhouette on the roof.
CAPTION:
November 14, 1923 – Greenwich Village, NY
Panel 2: Igor is on the roof with Mr. Frank who is strapped to some sort of table, he is not wearing a shirt. There is a lightning rod near the table.
Panel 3: Igor attaches cables to the bolts on Mr. Frank’s neck.
Panel 4: Show that the cables connect to the lightning rod.
Panel 5: Lightning cracks in the sky.
Panel 6: Igor looks up at the sky.
IGOR:
I hate this crap.
PAGE 21 (1 Panels)
Panel 1: Splash page. Lightning strikes the rod and electricity flows through Mr. Frank’s body. He arches beneath the straps. Igor is in the foreground covering his eyes with his forearm.
How he crammed all of the necessary information into one page, utterly eludes me here, but he totally nails it. And Igor #1 is better for it! And it's not that we're incapable as writers, but sometimes artists just have ideas that are better. A lot of Giles' pages are exactly what I've written, down to panel size, angles, and everything but he always has that freedom to come to me and say, "Hey, can I tweak this? I think it'll improve the story for this reason." And you know often I've told him no? Never.
The other important bit I need to discuss is trusting your artist when it comes to panel composition. As writers we tend to think that we need to describe every last solitary detail of a panel. This could not be any less true. Give the artist what he or she needs to work with and that's it. As writers we tend to be control freaks... I know I am. But we have to kick those inclinations to the curb if we want to have a good relationship with our artists. I'm not saying we need to give bare-bones panel descriptions but don't go overboard. Here's an establishing panel from an Igor short. It has the essential bits and couple little things that I really wanted in there but I give the artist enough freedom to do what we he wants with it.
Panel 1: Large establishing interior panel of Grimm’s home. There ought to be piles of books, though they should be organized not just strewn about. On the walls there should be ghoulish paintings perhaps some references to Pickman’s paintings. The whole place ought to have the look of a well-kept library or study. There should be some furniture like plush couches or perhaps an arm chair. The guy does live there, but it should be very clear that he spends most of his time reading. Elsa stands near the doorway, still clutching her copy of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, as Grimm walks into an adjacent room.
Well, that pretty much covers this round, guys! See you next week!
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