HOW I ARRIVED SO LATE TO WRITING COMICS … At the age of 39 I finally began writing my first comic series. Why did it take me so long? Well, it began like this. In 2001 I had an idea for a novel, then called ‘The Immortality Of Snow.’ Well, actually I had many ideas, too many in fact, more than I could possible fit into a single novel. That was my first problem. Should it be a trilogy, or maybe five books, or more? It didn’t take long for me to realise ( well, about one abandoned synopsis and a continually rewritten first chapter) that what I had in my head was certainly not what was ending up on the page. I soon became convinced that the ideas I had were better than my ability to turn them into a story. Something about the story or the way I was telling it just didn’t feel right. The ideas felt good, the characters felt right, but nothing else did. So after a lot of unsuccessful rewriting and more than a few sleepless nights I finally decided to put it on the proverbial shelf. And for ten years it stayed on that shelf, never forgotten, just gathering dust and filed away under the heading of ‘The One That Got Away.’ But for those ten years it kept nagging at me, tapping me on the shoulder every few months or so. I just had a gut feeling that if one day I ever got it right it had the potential to be the best thing I’d ever write. And then in may of 2011 I had a light bulb moment, ironically while I was working on something else entirely. At the time I had been reading/ catching up on a lot of Neil Gaiman’s work and I had just finished his modern classic, ‘American Gods.’ I happened to mention this to a friend. “Have you read ‘The Sandman’ series” I was asked. I hadn’t. I’d heard of it of course, but I hadn’t read comics since my early twenties, at least not properly or regularly. So on my friend’s advice I began reading ‘The Sandman’ and something very interesting began to happen. As I lost myself in this fantastic, unusual, and varied world that Gaiman had created I slowly began to realise that he was doing the sort of things in comics that I had been trying and failing to do in a novel. I’d always wanted my story to deal with angels, gods and the gift and curse of immortality along with lots of the more weirder ideas I’d had over the years. I wanted to tell a story that jumped back and forth through time to different periods of history, had a lot of offbeat characters and that was quite often told in a non linear storytelling fashion. I’d been slapped in the face. I’d been slapped hard and I’d been slapped good. It was now clear to me that this long, epic story had always been meant to be told over a long period of time, in instalments, at 22 or 24 pages at a time. I’d never attempted to write a comic script before though, or for that matter any kind of script. It had always been prose for me. That was all I’d ever written, all I’d ever wanted to write. So that first script for the opening issue, issue # 1 of ‘Modern Days’ became a very steep learning curve for me to say the least. I read as much as I could as I wrote. I re-read ‘The Sandman,’ I read the ‘Death’ spin offs, I read Alan Moore’s ‘Watchmen,’ I read Joe Strazynski’s ‘Rising Stars, I read Mike Carey’s ‘The Unwritten,’ I read Brian k. Vaughan’s ‘Y: The Last Man,’ and so on, and so on. I read and I learned as much as I possibly could. And in the midst of all this I fell in love with comics again. I realised that you can do anything with them, and more importantly, and most surprisingly I realised that I now enjoy writing scripts just as much as I enjoy writing prose. Hmm, yup, go figure. And so, I guess after years of just writing prose that is how I arrived so late to writing comics …
Thanks Karen : ) ...
Great story in itself James. Well told. Great parallels.
1 person likes this
How hard was it to find the person to draw the work?
Hi Manda, Yeah, as i was saying, some stories just seem more a natural fit for comics/ graphic novels, especially if you really want to mess with the nature of story, non linear, etc. I just pretty much did research for the format. I found sites that reprinted original scripts of things like 'Sandman.' As well as just goggling 'how to write comics. Unlike, other scripts though, there is no exact format. The most important thing is that it's clear and concise apparently. The way i've done it is: Page 1, Panel 1, followed by description of panel, whether it's a head to waist shot, a full shot, profile shot, etc ( which is aligned to the left ) followed by the dialogue like a film script ( which is centred. ) Hi Jay, I haven't found an artist for the whole thing yet, only for concept drawings of the characters, which is what publishers require at the very least so i've been told so they can get a really good idea of how it may look visually. James
90% of publishers require all of the art. 90% of artists will expect you to pay them, a lot, before they'll do it. I hope you CAN find a publisher based off of what you have, but it's really tough to break in as a pure writer.
1 person likes this
If i've learnt anything in the last four years, it's that anything is possible if you have the passion and work hard enough at it ...
1 person likes this
OoOo if you need funding or anything for it now or in the future try out www.kickstarter.com I am always on that site and will be putting up my own project there perhaps. But yeah, if you need it doesn't hurt to check it out.
Thanks Jay, I'll check it out ...
Kickstarter is good for some projects, but you really have to have a fan base or do a LOT of work to get seen. for instance - don't forget to check out SUBCONSCIOUS while you are there... ;)
Very cool story.I can relate in may ways .Keep up the good work
1 person likes this
Even i am a late starter I was 48 when I started writing . First with short sories articles, poems , plays and finally scripts.
1 person likes this
I was thinking more independent to be honest Nate, just for the creative freedom. A lot of what the Bigs put out really isn't my thing anyway, so i think, yeah, definitely independent ...