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c omic c r eator s deta il their storytelling a nd a rtistic pr oc esses
Rarely is the process, unique to each artist, examined and documented. Working Methods puts the minds of comic artists under the microscope, highlighting the intricacies of the creative process, step-by-step. Three short scripts are each in-
terpreted in different ways by professional comic artists to illustrate the varied ways in which they “see” and “solve” the prob-
lem of successfully interpreting and transferring a script into visual comic form. The creative and technical choices of artists mark schultz, tim levins, jim mahfood, scott hampton, kelsey shannon, chris brunner, sean murphy, and pat quinn are documented as they work, allowing comic fans, artists, instructors, and students to enter a world rarely explored. Illustrated examples document the artists’ processes, and interviews clarify their individual approaches to storytelling and layout choices. In Working Methods, the exercise may be simple, but the results are profoundly complex.
WORKING METHODS
P
rofessional comic artists interpret scripts every day as they successfully transform the written word into the visual form.
j ohn low e
TwoMorrows Publishing, Raleigh, NC $21.95 in the US ISBN 978-1-893905-73-3
WORKING METHODS Comic Creators Detail Their Storytelling and Artistic Processes
b y j ohn low e
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Working Methods: Comic Creators Detail Their Storytelling and Artistic Processes by John Lowe Book Design by Scott Newman Edited by Annabelle Carr Artwork photographed by Ben Dashwood Early edits by Tia Lam, Scott Newman, and John Lowe Transcription services by Steven Tice Proofreading by Christopher Irving Published by TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • twomorrow@aol.com First Printing • May 2007 • Printed in Canada Softcover ISBN: 978-1-893905-73-3 Trademarks & Copyrights Entire contents are ©2007 John Lowe and TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved. All scripts and art are ©2007 the respective authors and artists. Special thanks to the Savannah College of Art and Design, especially college President Paula Wallace, for granting the Presidential Fellowship that provided the funds to complete this book. Special thanks also to George Collazo, John McKinnon and Charlie Ribbens for providing college resources. Further thanks to Professor Mark Kneece and Scott Hampton for providing the scripts used in this book.
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working methods
contents 06
Acknowledgements
07
Introduction
09
Paddy
47
99
scott hampton
12
tim levins
30
Fight Night jim mahfood
50
pat quinn
66
sean murphy
82
Time Troubling mark schultz
102
chris brunner
126
kelsey shannon
150
5
Paddy:Working Methods
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Scott Hampton
Known for his artistic diversity, Scott Hampton has illustrated such iconic properties as Batman, Sandman, Black Widow, Hellraiser, and Star Trek. He has also worked on creator-owned projects such as The Upturned Stone. Scott began his career by following in the footsteps of his brother, fellow comic book creator Bo Hampton. Both Scott and Bo studied under the great Will Eisner in 1976. Scott's first professional comics work was the six-page story Godfather Death, released by Epic Illustrated in 1982. His work on Silverheels from Pacific Comics in 1983 is regarded as the first continuing painted comic. Recent works include Spookhouse, released in 2004 by IDW Publishing, featuring sequential adaptations of his favorite ghost stories; and Batman: Gotham County Line, from DC Comics in 2005. Scott Hampton is also pursuing a passion outside of comics: filmmaking. He completed his first short independent film, The Tontine, in April, 2006. He lives with his wife Letitia in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Paddy:Working Methods
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scott hampton
the script
something that would allow certain decision-making opportunities on the part of the artist. I wanted it to have a great deal
John Lowe: When you wrote the script for Paddy, did
of flexibility in that way. For example, an artist could turn the
you write it for other artists or for yourself?
woman into a little fourteen year-old girl. The back-story could be interpreted differently. I hope other artists will take it in dif-
Scott Hampton: Both for myself and as an exercise for
ferent directions than I did. Something that seems quite specific
other artists.
can actually have a lot of room for play.
JL: It’s a full script. Do you always work that way? SH: That’s the way I usually do them.
roughs
JL: I know some artist/writers will use pictures as well as words in their scripts, but you prefer to write all the
JL: What are the first steps you take when approaching
words first.
this or any story?
SH: Absolutely. I really don’t confer with the visual part of my
SH: I take the script and block off what I think are natural
brain when I do it, because I’m mostly thinking about telling
tiers. I break it down in that way, from page to page. Then I
a good story. The challenge later on is to make the story work
start doing the roughs. I’ll do up a rough that’s a quarter of a
visually.
piece of 8.5" x 11" typing paper, so I get four on a page.
JL: Do you approach everything you write like this?
JL: Do you have a little template that you make for yourself to do those?
SH: As long as I’m writing for myself, I do. If I’m writing for someone else, I have to think about the visuals at the same time.
SH: Yes. From that point, I’ll just get the roughs where I like
That’s what I did with my Legends of the Dark Knight job.
them. Sometimes I’ll do multiple roughs, depending on the
I was supposed to write that for Kent Williams but he took on
complexity. Then I transfer the best one over—usually with the
another project, so I ended up doing the art on it myself.
Artograph, because it will enlarge. And boom: I start working.
JL: We should mention that you originally slated Paddy as
JL: When you’re working out your storytelling, do you
a four-page script, with two pages in between as a way to
stick to basic shapes?
help build the suspense. For our purposes in this book,
SH: Not really. I draw most of the stuff. It’ll be fairly rough—
we decided to condense the script to three pages.
it won’t be super-tight—but it’ll be there. In between the four
Also, you initially planned to do it all in a six-panel grid,
or five lines will be the real line. But no, they’re not just shapes,
but then you changed it to accommodate the plot. Those
unless of course there’s some sort of dense background like a
bits that were condensed into page two are especially in-
bunch of trees.
teresting because they contain no dialogue, which leaves
JL: Right, a generic background. But if you showed the
a lot of room for interpretation by different artists. It’s
roughs to an editor or someone else, they’d definitely be
really up to each artist to decide how to show pacing and
able to read them?
story there.
SH: Oh, yeah.
SH: Exactly. I thought that would be really effective as an exercise. It seems very specific and you might think everyone
JL: And they’re done very small with pencil, right?
would approach it in exactly the same way. Not so.
SH: Right.
When I wrote this script, I was very conscious of trying to make
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Fight Night:Working Methods
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Sean Murphy
Sean Murphy lives in Los Angeles with his dog, Red. His credits include Batman, Superman, Star Wars and Teen Titans, but lately he's been striking out on his own, writing novels. Off Road was his first original graphic novel for Oni Press in 2005. In 2007 he released Outer Orbit, another creator-owned project with Zach Howard for Dark Horse. It should be noted that Sean completed this work years before turning professional, while studying in the Sequential Art department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. His style and methodology have since changed substantially, but this work represents a very promising student interpretation of the script.
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sean murphy
the script
character design
John Lowe: When you get a script in hand, what’s the
JL: After you read the script and make drawings and no-
first thing you do?
tations, what’s the next step?
Sean Murphy: I read it a few times to see what the writer is
SM: I research my material and get references to draw from.
really saying. I take notes on what I like and what ideas I have:
I figure out how the characters will look, and I decide on the
buildings, cars, costumes, characters—anything that comes to
backgrounds.
mind. If it’s a good script with a good story, I try to emphasize a distinct visual storytelling element. For example, I may want
JL: With this three-page Fight Night script, you have a
the theme of the book to be dark or light. I might decide to tell
fairly mainstream, action-oriented short story with char-
the story with mostly straight-on shots, or mostly dynamic
acters that aren’t established. Was it fun for you to create
shots. But if it’s light on story or the script's uninspiring, I’ll
the characters, or did you have to work a lot with it?
just do what I can to improve it through the images while
SM: It should have been fun because it was so small. But the
meeting my deadline.
characters were stereotypical. So I just, you know, drew a female
JL: So the type of story really determines your visual
character with a gun and her nerdy assistant. It was three pages
approach.
and it had a deadline. I did the best I could with every single panel under the circumstances.
SM: Yeah. Is it an adventure or mystery? Is it funny and corny
JL: Let’s say you were designing an environment that the
or really serious?
characters return to several times in the script. You would
JL: If it’s something you like that's visually exciting, like
have to establish a visual continuity for that space. In that
a Batman script; it’s easier for you to make the art really
case, would you map the environment for yourself on a
dynamic, right?
separate sheet of paper?
SM: Definitely.
SM: It depends on how important the environment is. If it’s the
JL: Do those images come to you immediately when you
Batcave, I don’t want to have a half-assed idea and inconsistent
read through a script?
details. It’s going to be very important to keep track of where they’re sitting, where the car is parked, where the entrance is
SM: Yeah, pretty much. Ideas come to mind immediately. But
and where the dropoff is. All these things make a difference.
I try to steer away from anything that’s fairly obvious. I try to
The more important a scene and its stage are, the more they
think as creatively as possible. In comics, many common themes
need to be planned out.
and scenes can spawn certain familiar images. I try to avoid those and do something new, you know? When I’m drawing these little sketches, I take a number of
thumbnails
things into consideration. What do I need to show? What’s the simplest and easiest way to convey that to a reader? What do I
JL: Now that you’re working on full scripts, do you gen-
want to draw? What would a reader want to see? How can I
erally thumbnail out the entire story before you begin?
impress readers and make them feel like the book was worth SM: No. I usually do scenes. Thumbing is such a tiring process.
their money?
I can’t do a whole issue in a day. I can do roughly five pages at a time before I’m exhausted. For someone like Mike Mignola, it’s the best part. But although I appreciate the process, it gives me a headache.
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Time Troubling:Working Methods
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Mark Schultz
Mark Schultz has been cartooning and illustrating for over twenty years. He is best known as the creator of the award-winning speculative adventure comic book, Xenozoic Tales. Mark is also widely recognized for co-creating and co-writing SubHuman, an underwater adventure series for Dark Horse Comics, and for scripting a five-year span of DC Comics’ Superman, Man of Steel. He has scripted and/or drawn many other popular fictional icons, including Flash Gordon, Tarzan, The Spirit, Star Wars, Aliens and Predator. As an illustrator, Mark depicted the adventures of Robert E. Howard’s Conan of Cimmeria for the highly regarded Wandering Star/Del Rey editions of Howard’s works. He also illustrated the autobiography of the famed painter of prehistoric life, Charles R. Knight. Schultz has been awarded five Harvey Awards, two Eisners, an Inkpot, a Spectrum, and three Haxturs (the last from the Salon Internacional del Comic del Princpado de Asturias). He is currently working on a cautionary storybook tentatively titled Storms at Sea, as well as writing the Prince Valiant comic strip for the Sunday comics. He lives with his wife/letterer, Denise, and their two cats in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.
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mark schultz
the script
MS: I could tell right away. It wasn’t so much that there were problems with the storytelling, it was that Mark had divided
John Lowe: When you receive a script, what are the first
the story information into so many panels. One of the pages
steps you take?
had seven panels on it. I could see very easy ways to consolidate
Mark Schultz: I’ve gotta tell you, this is a pretty unique sit-
that information into fewer panels and eliminate crowding on
uation for me. Up to this point I’ve always worked from my
the page.
own script. I’ve never actually penciled someone else’s script.
I suggested the changes to Mark and asked for his input. He
The first job I had in the industry was inking over Val Semeiks’
was very cool about it. He agreed that the changes wouldn’t ef-
pencils for a back-up story in Savage Sword of Conan—Val’s
fect what he was trying to communicate. It’s definitely wise to
first story. At the same time I got that job, Kitchen Sink ac-
make sure any changes work for the writer because he may have
cepted my Xenozoic proposal and offered to give me my own
a certain rhythm in mind for the page.
book. Of course I accepted, and for years I only did artwork
JL: Let’s talk about those changes.
based on my own writing.
MS: Well, since I haven’t drawn continuity in at least six years,
After that, I started writing scripts for other properties. I was
I wanted to make the compositions and the panel breakdowns
a scriptwriter dealing with pencilers. I may have penciled a spot
much more formal than usual. I wanted to get back to grid
panel or two, but this Time Troubling script is the first actual
breakdowns and let the information in the panel tell the story,
storytelling I’ve ever done based on a script I didn’t write.
rather than using dynamic panels as a storytelling element.
As a scriptwriter, I want to hear from the artist so we can dis-
The older I get, the more conservative I become, and I’m start-
cuss what’s working for him and what isn’t. If we collaborate
ing to see dynamic panels as extraneous to the story. Looking
from the beginning, we can produce a strip that works for both
back, I wonder why the hell I did Xenozoic Tales the way I
of us. When I got Mark’s script, I called him because I had a
did. It’s confusing. I should have kept it simple. Mark’s script
few ideas and questions for him.
offered the opportunity to rethink my choices.
JL: Did your questions jump out at you right away or did
I really wanted to keep the basic six-panel grid, so I asked Mark
they emerge after you started the thumbnails?
Mark first reads through the script, then calls the writer to get a sense of his intent and to discuss the possibility of making a few minor variations. A writer himself, Mark believes the results are better when writers and artists work together.
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Chris Brunner
Christopher Brunner was born in 1978 and raised in Jamesville, New York. He attended art school in Savannah, Georgia, and moved on when homework and professional work began to overlap. Though a cartoonist at heart, Chris has poured himself into illustrating, writing, coloring, lettering, storyboards, toy design, graphic design, fashion design, concept art, and mixtape covers. He's put his skills to use for Image, Dark Horse, Marvel and DC Comics; Lucasfilm, Sony, Disney, Nike, Nickelodeon, the NBA, and Upper Deck entertainment. While the process doesn't always come easy, he doesn’t really think of it as "work.”
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working chris brunner methods
script
and events, and I look at the writer’s intention. Once I’ve drawn out every panel, I move to a separate piece of
John Lowe: What’s the first thing you do when you re-
paper and try and forget about the script altogether. I just let
ceive a new script?
the story grow organically from there. Panels get lost, shots get
Chris Brunner: I read the script and try to see it in my head.
changed, and stuff gets moved around. I just keep massaging
Some scripts just click at some point, and the light bulb goes on.
until it seems to flow well. And that’s definitely an intuitive
When that happens, I just go to the side of the script and do a
thing. In hindsight I can explain logical reasons why I did this
little doodle of the idea. I try to get the shots that I want in
or that, but at the time I’m not thinking about the “why.” An
there first. Then, out of respect for the writer, I draw out every
idea just pops into my head and I go with it.
shot the way they asked for it, just to see. Because once I get into the process, I’m going to hijack everything. I’m going to run it over.
thumbnails
JL: So you’ll literally draw everything the script asks for,
JL: You read the script, make notes, and then do your
just out of consideration for the writer, even though you
thumbnails. What did you use to do these thumbnails?
know you may not use some shots?
CB: Just pencils and a Pigma pen. I think there were four
CB: I know I won’t want to use some shots. I respect writing
thumbnails to one page of typing paper. Between the script and
very much, but I don’t think the standard comic script that’s
those thumbnails, there is also a no-man’s-land: a couple of
written panel-by-panel is the best way to work. I think that’s
pieces of paper onto which I just vomit panel shapes and ideas.
just the way the industry fool-proofs things. A more natural
Eventually, everything starts to gel and come together, like lit-
script would just be a description of events with dialogue. Since
tle sequences or arrangements on a page.
the storytelling is visual, I think the person with the best visual instincts should be the one dictating the storytelling. So I’ll do
My thumbnails are really small. I actually do thumbnails so
what the writer asked for first, but after that I stop reading
small that I really can’t draw them. I think the goal of the
the visual descriptions altogether. I just stay with the dialogue
thumbnail is to forget about the drawing part. It’s much more
Chris begins his storytelling process by sketching thumbnails with a no. 2 pencil.
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