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was no “page 16 to 20, fight scene.” I would plot the whole fight scene, and he’d feel free to rework it. In fact, to give another example of how this sort of thing can work, when I was doing Thunderbolts with Mark Bagley, I’d plot a fight scene, panel-by-panel, here’s the whole fight scene. And I’d plot five-, six-panel pages and Mark would draw like nine-, ten-panel pages because he had his ideas of what could be going on in the fight scenes, so he’d draw everything I asked for and add his own ideas, too. And I thought, “This is getting kinda crowded. These are the action pages, these should be all the big splashy pictures and we’re getting eight, nine, tenpanel pages.” So I asked Mark, “What I care about in the fight scenes is that the stuff that serves the story happens. If you’d prefer, I can plot the fight scenes like this: pages six through ten is going to be a fight scene and we’re going to need to establish this, this, this, and this; this character’s going to need to do this, and this character’s going to need to do this, and it’s going to need to end this way.” And Mark said, “That’d be great.” So I started plotting the fight scenes not as a series of plot descriptions, but as a set of bullet points. “This is the skeleton of the fight scene, wrap around that skeleton whatever you want.” And then we’re back to doing five- and six-panel pages and big, exciting splashy moments, and it worked just great. But the reason why I adapted my approach to the plot was because doing a full plot was confining to Mark. He didn’t have room to add the stuff he wanted to add. If I said, “Look, I’ll loosen up on the plot,” and if he said, “Okay, then I want to be paid more and you get paid less,” I’d say, “No, no, no, I’m happy doing the C/-)# "//+ #2%!4/2 s 3PRING s
full plot.” [laughs] The reason I was doing it this way was Above: Wraparound cover art as an accommodation, as a way of making the comic better by Alex Ross for the hardback IF YOU THIS because he was choosing to do that extraENJOYED work anyway. SoPREVIEW, I collection, Astro City: Dark Age CLICK THE LINK ORDER 2THIS don’t think you’re wrong when you say that there areTO issues [’10]. ISSUE PRINT ORthat’s DIGITAL of compensation, but I think that if I’mIN writing a plot tai- FORMAT! lored to the artist’s wants and needs, then I shouldn’t be penalized financially for doing what makes the artists happier and more productive. But if I was doing the Stan Lee method of “Hey, how about we bring back the Red Skull? Go!” than I’d certainly think the artist should be compensated for that plot, because he’s the one coming up with the plot. Essentially, what he’s been given is editorial notes, rather than an actual story to draw. When you talk about how Spider-Man is worth a billion dollars, Spider-Man is worth a billion dollars, but that worth is not based on who gets the money for deciding what the panel breakdowns are going to be in #173. It’s based on Spider-Man being really popular and making a ton of money as a licensing character and as a movie character. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko should both be cut in on that for creating the character. And when youBOOK see The Rhino #1 COMIC CREATOR Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor and JON B. COOKE returns to show up, John Romita should be compensated for that; TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigawhat’s happening instead is wrong. This is money that is tion of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEXatROSS KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS going into the pockets of the people theand company that spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines should be shared with the people who actually created this. to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS But when you’re getting downO’NEIL, to as new fineALEX a line “Here’s ROSSas, cover, and more!a plot; who decided that this page would(84-page be fiveFULL-COLOR panels versus magazine) $8.95 seven?” You’re slicing the baloney really fine(Digital there.Edition) $3.95 http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1087 CBC: Well, then these are semantics. I mean these are academic questions, perhaps, but I mean fair is fair is fair 75