Write Now! #12 by TwoMorrows Publishing

INSIDE: HOW TO FIND YOUR STORY’S THEME! #

12 May 2006

$ 95

In the USA

M AG A ZI N E

EDITORS REVEAL:

HOW TO GET HIRED

M AG AZ I N E Issue #12

May 2006

Read Now! Message from the Editor-in-Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 2

Mr. DC Interview with DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz . . . . . . page 3

One From the ’Hart Interview with Steve Englehart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 19

Breaking and Entering Department You have great ideas and sensational writing samples—but what do you do then? How do you get someone in a decision-making position to decide whether or not they want to hire you to write for them? These three features will help you find the answers to that key question.

Writer, Know Thy Editor Paul Benjamin, former DC/Humanoids Managing Editor and current in-demand freelance writer, investigates what comics editors want to see— and brings back the information for you! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 43

Editors’ Preferences In handy, point-by-point fashion, a checklist of what 18 top editors want to see in your submission—and what they don’t! Compiled by Paul Benjamin . . .page 47

Breaking into Comics (and Staying In) for Writers From the horse’s mouth: what one top editor wants to see in your writing submissions, and his thoughts on what every editor wants to see from aspiring writers. Marvel editor Andy Schmidt talks in detail about the skills you need, how to network, the art of The Pitch, and much, much more . . . . . . .page 53

Writing Webcomics It’s a whole new world on the web for comics. Starting with the definition of “what is a webcomic, anyway,” webcomic expert (and writer) T Campbell explains what the world of webcomics is and why it might just be the place to showcase your ideas and maybe even generate some income . . . . . page 62

Feedback Letters from Write Now!’s Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 70

Nuts & Bolts Department

Conceived by DANNY FINGEROTH Editor-In-Chief Cover art by GEORGE PEREZ Associate Editor BOB BRODSKY Assistant Editor LIZ GEHRLEIN Designer RICH FOWLKS Transcriber STEVEN TICE Publisher JOHN MORROW

Special Thanks To:

THE 18 EDITORS!! And… PAUL BENJAMIN ALISON BLAIRE BOB BRODSKY T CAMPBELL KIA CROSS STEVE ENGLEHART RICH FOWLKS LIZ GEHRLEIN GISELE LAGACE PAUL LEVITZ ERIC NOLENWEATHINGTON JOHN OSTRANDER ADAM PHILIPS CHRIS POWELL BEN REILLY JIM SALICRUP ANDY SCHMIDT STEVEN TICE VARDA STEINHARDT

Pitch to Arc Breakdown to Script: BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE II Steve Englehart traces the evolution of 2005’s smash hit Batman: Dark Detective II mini-series/story arc. We see the pitch letter that sold the idea, his issue-by-issue outline for the story arc, and the first five pages of script and art for the first issue. Art by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin . . . . . . . .page 32

Theme: The Heart of the Story John Ostrander sheds some light on the subject that is the essence of writing: having something to say! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 37

Script to Pencils to Finished Art: PENNY AND AGGIE Pages from the webcomic by T Campbell and Gisele Lagace . . . . .page 67

Danny Fingeroth’s Write Now! is published 4 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Fax: (919) 449-0327. Danny Fingeroth, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Write Now! E-mail address: WriteNowDF@aol.com. Single issues: $9 Postpaid in the US ($11 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $24 US ($44 Canada, $48 elsewhere). Order online at: www.twomorrows.com or e-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com All characters are TM & © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © the respective authors. Editorial package is ©2006 Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved. Write Now! is a shared trademark of Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

WRITE NOW | 1

READ Now!

Message from Danny Fingeroth, Editor-in-Chief

t’s a new day and a new issue of Write Now! We kick off the proceedings with an in-depth interview with DC Comics President and Publisher, Paul Levitz. Paul started out as editor of The Comic Reader fanzine and eventually was hired to write letter columns for DC. That was followed quickly by a staff editorial gig, as well as much-acclaimed writing stints on books like Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice Society. Paul rose steadily in the business ranks at DC, and is, today, the head of the whole shebang. In this interview, Paul talks about his unusual career route, about his recent return to the writing trenches, while still serving as P & P of DC, and DC’s attitudes toward the issues affecting the creative community today. He doesn’t flinch from answering the hard questions. We have an interview with the red-hot Steve Englehart, fresh from the triumph of his Batman: Dark Detective II. Bob Brodsky finds out how Steve’s work in TV, novels, and videogames relates to his comics work! Then, we’ve got a new special section called Breaking and Entering. It’s about how to get in—and stay in—the comics business as a writer. Two of B & E’s three articles are by Paul Benjamin, former DC/Humanoids editor, and now red-hot freelance writer, who interviewed close to 20 editors to find out what they look for in submissions. In the first article, he summarizes general things to do (and not do) when pitching. In the second article, Paul gives a checklist of what each editor specifically does—and doesn’t—want to see in a pitch. In the third article in the section, Marvel editor Andy Schmidt takes the microscope in closer to give you his (and Marvel’s) thoughts on what and how to pitch them. If you’re wondering what to put in those pitches you’re pitching, John Ostrander is back to give you another arrow in your quiver. This issue, John talks at length about theme and its role in writing comics (and everything else). It’s kind of important, y’know—theme is only WHAT YOUR STORY IS REALLY ABOUT! Feel confined by the world of print? Online guru T Campbell is here with an article explaining what the heck webcomics are and how you can use electronic media to get your creations out into the world. In the Nuts & Bolts (How-To) department, we’ve got a couple of gems. First we’ve got a bunch of pages from Steve Englehart’s Batman: Dark Detective II, issue #1. We see Steve’s amazing script pages, of course. And when you see how his words became Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin’s artwork, you’ll be thrilled, delighted—and educated. Then we have a sampling of some of T Campbell’s webcomics work. Of course, seeing it on paper isn’t the same as seeing it on your computer. You’d have to go to www.tcampbell.net to do that. But they read real good in old media, too. And since many of you asked, since last issue’s awesome Professional Secrets section, about what my Professional Secrets are, they’re here in this issue, too.

As for next issue, we’ve got some treats for you in DFWN #13. Behind a brand new Ron Lim-Al Milgrom cover featuring the X-Men in their movie costumes, we’ve got an issue focusing on adaptations— what happens when comics go to film or film to prose or Japanese comics to American translations. Simon Kinberg, screenwriter of the movies X-Men 3: The Last Stand and Fantastic Four (as well as Mr. And Mrs. Smith and XXX: State of the Union) is interviewed. 2 | WRITE NOW

Then Dennis O’Neil, in an interview by Eric Fein, tells how he took the screenplay from the blockbuster Batman Begins movie and translated it into his top-selling prose novel. Central park Media’s Stephen Pakula talks about what’s gained and what’s lost when manga are adapted from the original into English. And Platinum Studios’ Lee Nordling gives his takes on adapting comics into film. Want more? DFWN #13 also has: • Kurt Busiek’s words of wisdom on breaking into comics as a writer. • Novelist Bill McCay on how to do research. • Comedian/comics writer/novelist Marc Bilgrey on how his new comedy-fantasy novel And Don’t Forget to Rescue the Princess came to be. • The legendary Mike Friedrich talks about the role (or lack thereof) of writers’ agents in the comics business. And, of course, there’ll be lots of nifty Nuts and Bolts to help you make your writing the best it can be! Write Now! #13 is gonna be one you just can’t miss! SHAMELESS PLUG DEPARTMENT: The How To Draw Comics From Script to Print DVD (based on the historic Write Now! #8-Draw!#9 Crossover that showed how a new character is created from initial idea to finished comic) is still available at comics shops or from the TwoMorrows website (www.twomorrows.com). But the big news is the June debut of the trade paperback collection of the magazine crossover—with 30 NEW PAGES OF WRITING AND DRAWING TIPS! It’s called How to Create Comics from Script to Print. It should be pretty amazing. In May, my YA novelization of X-Men 3 will be out from HarperCollins. (I won’t have to keep the secrets anymore!) I also have a book about the X-Men phenomenon called The Story and History Behind the Creation of Action Heroes: X-Men, which will be coming out soon from Rosen Publishing. More on that when I know the on-sale date. My book Superman On the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society (from Continuum) is still exciting a lot of attention! (At least at my house it is.) My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle episodes should be airing any day now. I’ll be teaching an intensive one-week comics writing course at NYU (www.scps.nyu.edu/) this summer. Finally—and this is very cool—on Thursday night, June 22, yours truly, as well as Dennis O’Neil, Michael Uslan (producer of the Batman movies), and Tom DeFalco will be presenting a panel about superheroes and why they’re important to our society at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. It promises to be an amazing night. That’s more than enough from me. Time to check out the issue. Write Away!

Mr. DC:

THE PAUL LEVITZ INTERVIEW

Conducted at DC Comics by Danny Fingeroth October 3, 2005 Transcribed by Steven Tice Copy-edited by Paul Levitz, Adam Philips and Danny Fingeroth

aul Levitz is the President and Publisher of DC Comics; as a writer, he is best known for his run on The Legion of Super-Heroes. Levitz was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1956, and entered the comics industry in 1971 as the editor/publisher of The Comic Reader, the first mass-circulation fanzine devoted to comic news. He continued to publish TCR for three years, winning two consecutive annual Comic Art Fan Awards for Best Fanzine. His other fan activities include editing the program book for several of Phil Seuling's legendary New York Comic Art Conventions, and he worked briefly for Seuling at Sea Gate Distributors, the original direct distribution company. Levitz is primarily known for his work for DC Comics, a company he's been associated with for over 30 years. Beginning as a freelance writer of text features, he went on to write most of the classic DC characters, including Batman, Wonder Woman and the Superman newspaper strip. His most popular writing was his thirteen years of The Legion of Super-Heroes, including an eight-year uninterrupted run, one of the longest in super-hero comics history, and on Justice Society of America. Levitz joined the editorial staff of DC in 1973 as an assistant editor, and became editor of the Batman titles before shifting from the editorial to business side in 1980. Since then, he has been the Manager of Business Affairs, Vice President— Operations, Executive Vice President, Executive Vice President & Publisher, and since 2002, the President and Publisher. Levitz lives with his wife and three children in the hills of Westchester County, New York. As one of the most important decision makers in comics today, and as someone who has deep experience as a comics editor and writer, it goes without saying that Paul would have much of significance to say to the Write Now! audience. His generosity with his time and insights are deeply appreciated. [Special thanks to DC’s Adam Philips for helping make the whole process go smoothly.] —DF DANNY FINGEROTH: Paul, you have a unique perspective. You’re the guy that sets policy for DC. On the other hand, you’ve been in the trenches as a writer and editor. I’m interested in how and why you chose this path. To start with, can you tell me a little about your background? PAUL LEVITZ: I’m a Brooklyn boy, and my dad worked at an industrial hardware place selling the nuts and

bolts and other objects that you need to hold a building together when you’re constructing it. Before she had kids, Mom had been a bookkeeper, and, off and on, other odd things, including, at one time heading a branch of the Drake Business Schools. Neither of them had particularly touched real creative industries in their work, other than Mom having briefly been a bookkeeper at an ad agency. Pretty basic working class upbringing. DF: When you were reading all these comic books, did they encourage it, discourage it, just think it was cute? PL: Mom was afraid I would ruin my eyes, which was probably a fairly accurate conclusion. My father was, in his youth, quite an athletic man, and he had taught all the kids on the block how to play ball. He was rather confused by having a kid who wouldn’t come out from under the tree and put down whatever book I was reading at the moment. “Thanks, Dad. I’m glad you’re having fun running around out there. Can’t imagine why anyone would want to do it, but if it makes you happy, have fun.” They were PAUL LEVITZ | 3

One From the ’Hart:

THE STEVE ENGLEHART INTERVIEW Conducted by Bob Brodsky via phone and e-mail 2004-2006 Copy-edited by Bob Brodsky, Danny Fingeroth and Steve Englehart

rom his vital recasting of the terminally un-hip Captain America in the early 1970s, through 2005’s acclaimed revival of his Batman: Dark Detective, Steve Englehart stands as one of the most important writers in modern comics. The son of a respected newspaper journalist, the Indiana-born Englehart began his career in comics in 1969 as an art assistant to Neal Adams. The apprenticeship with Adams soon led to other artistic assignments, including various chores at DC Comics and Warren Publishing, as well as two little-known (and quite good!) penciled romance stories for Marvel Comics. In 1971, a chance writing assignment pivoted Englehart to a staff writing and editing position with Marvel Comics. By late 1972—the beginning of Roy Thomas’ run as Stan Lee’s editorial successor—Englehart was writing three Marvel titles: The Avengers, “The Beast” in Amazing Adventures, and Captain America. Englehart attacked these assignments with a creative ferocity far beyond any possible expectations for a young writer. Steve’s creative resume includes stints at DC, including a memorable run on Batman in Detective Comics; an excellent prose novel, The Point Man; a slew of creator-owned projects including Scorpio Rose and The Night Man (which became a live-action television series); and various animation projects. In the 1980s, Steve was an early designer of video games, doing pioneering work for companies like Atari and Sega and in the ’90s was one of the writers of the online and CD “Multipath Movie”: Superman: Menace of Metallo. Most recently, Steve, often in tandem with his wife Terry, has written various fiction and non-fiction prose books, including the DNAgers adventure series and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright Brothers (selected by NASA as the basis for their lesson plan on the invention of the airplane). 2005 brought Steve back to Batman, via his creative reunion with penciler Marshall Rogers, inker Terry Austin, and letterer John Workman on Batman: Dark Detective. Together, Steve and his collaborators maintained the spirit of their original late 1970s Detective Comics run, while succeeding in making their stories relevant to today’s reader. The following interview with Steve was conducted via a series of telephone conversations during late spring and early summer 2004, with e-mail updates added in early 2006. –Bob Brodsky

BOB BRODSKY: What were you reading in the ’50s, Steve? Before the Marvel Age? STEVE ENGLEHART: I read Batman, Superman. I don’t recall really reading the Timely stuff. I was too late to catch EC. At a certain point, I’d kind of “outgrown” comics. So I missed the Silver Age revival, and came back into it later, when I was in college. BB: That would have been in the ’60s? SE: Right. The ’60s was an incredible super-hero time. We had Kennedy, we had people going to the moon, we had Martin Luther King, we had civil rights, we had Vietnam. The Avengers [the TV series featuring the adventures of Steed and Peel] was on TV, Batman was on TV. Without going totally sappy about the whole thing, the ’60s was really a time of heroes and villains. We had larger-than-life heroes, we had larger-than-life villains—in real life. I think that’s what Stan and Jack tapped into. They’d been doing comics for years, and all of a sudden, in 1961, it took off. They did it by relating it to the real world, and the real world was very colorful. I mean, if you look at ’60s movies, they’re all very colorful. It was an optimistic, comic-book-colored time on a kind of subliminal level. It was a time when not only were comics starting to really sell and make a point, but they could reprint the Doc Savage, they could reprint the pulp-character the Avenger, they could reprint The Shadow. So all these heroes of the past were now reappearing for our perusal. So I read all that stuff. I was a complete comic book guy, but I also read mysteries—the classic stuff, Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen—and the pulp stuff like Shell Scott, Perry Mason. STEVE ENGLEHART | 19

Here’s Steve’s original proposal for what came to be called Batman: Dark Detective II. Note that, while many details need to be filled in, Steve knows where he wants the storyline to start and where he wants it to end, and what he wants to accomplish along the way. [Proposal © 2006 Steve Englehart. Referenced characters © 2006 DC Comics.]

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Once the proposal was approved, Steve broke the storyline down into six 22-page issues. As he recalls the process: “Here’s my original brainstorming breakdown of the plot for the six issues of DDII, where many differences may be seen from how the actual issues turned out. I knew I had enough for six strong issues, so I laid that down as my base and continued to improve from there in my head.

“The 6-panel layout works like this: I have some ideas about what I want to do in the series. I start blocking them out, seeing where I need more material. I eventually get to the point where I have enough to make up an acceptable storyline, which is what this document represents. Then, I keep worrying away at that, seeing what feels out of place, or what's not strong enough, and when I find something like that, I make it better. But now, every time I add something, I have to subtract something else, because I had enough to start with. This process makes the whole structure stronger, and thus we move past acceptable. But those changes generally don't cause me to make a new document; I just scribble notes to myself and move into the actual scripting. “So, in this 6-segment overview, we find a subplot involving Professor Radium and Doctor Phosphorus that went to the cutting room floor, and so on.” [Storyline breakdown © 2006 Steve Englehart. Referenced characters © 2006 DC Comics.] STEVE ENGLEHART | 33

Welcome to modern society, where superhero culture has become the METAPHORICAL prism through which we see--and live--our lives.

& Cover art by Mark Bagley

Scott Hanna.

What is it about superheroes that speaks to us, that cuts across boundaries of nationality, race and gender to entrance us?

“Danny Fingeroth has produced a readable and socially insightful consideration of the superhero. His analysis of society’s solution to its dissatisfaction with the protection provided by standard law-andorder systems makes it important and current. Stan Lee’s ‘excelsorial’ foreword is an enjoyable addition.” —Will Eisner

paperback

$19.95 available now

“In Superman on the Couch, you’ll explore subjects that may make you reconsider preconceived notions and perhaps bring you greater appreciation of the superhero stories.” — From the foreword by Stan Lee

In Superman on the Couch, DANNY FINGEROTH, longtime Marvel Comics writer and editor, and editor-in-chief of Write Now! Magazine, digs deep into our cultural psyche to explore just what we see reflected back when we look at superheroes.

“…With humor and a touch of comic book hyperbole, the author capably mines the genre’s cultural morphologies and the societal changes it reflects - a subject largely overlooked by contemporary pop psychologists and academics…” — Publishers Weekly

Breaking and Entering, Part 1:

WRITER, KNOW THY EDITOR Paul Benjamin

ometimes, trying to break into comics—or anywhere, really—as a writer feels like screaming into the wind. You may have come up with what you think is a great new property, or a unique take on an established character. But then what do you do with it? Paul Benjamin has been on both sides of the desk, as an editor at Humanoids Publishing, and in his current incarnation, as a freelance writer. From this informed perspective, Paul spoke to a slew of comics editors and asked them what they want to see in a proposal. What he learned is extremely enlightening. Read on (and be sure to check out the Editors’ Preferences sidebars, too) and find out what Paul did.

—DF Once you’ve polished your comics pitch and you’re certain that it’s the best it can be, you send it off to a publisher, hoping that an editor there will see your story’s amazing potential. Imagine a submissions editor, sitting at a desk every day from 9 to 5, reading proposal after proposal, writing responses and dropping them into the self-addressed stamped envelopes included with each pitch. That doesn’t sound like such a bad job. Certainly there’s no reason for that editor to fail to get back to you, right? Wrong. The submissions editor as described above is about as real as an alien infant rocketed to Earth from a dying planet. Most companies don’t even have a dedicated submissions editor, in which case a book’s editor has to find time to read submissions while staying on top of the primary job: getting a high quality book out the door on time. Look at Marvel Senior Editor Tom Brevoort. He has to juggle 20 books per month. That means he’s essentially getting a book off to the printer every single weekday. When you write a proposal, your mission should be to present a concise and effective representation of your story. When the frustrated editor takes a five minute break to scarf down a sandwich before getting back to the mountain of work piled high on the desk, he or she just might grab a couple of submissions to see if any are worthy of attention. This is not an ideal situation, but it is a realistic one. Your job is to make sure you’ve given that editor exactly what he or she needs to decide whether or not your story is The Next Big Thing. This is where knowing what an editor wants comes in handy. Every editor is unique. They have different backgrounds, different philosophies towards writing and different editorial goals. In late 2005, I spoke with a wide

variety of editors from different companies about specifically what they look for in a pitch. They took the time to tell me what they want so that Write Now! could share their preferences with you; proving that editors want to find new talent and they want to read strong pitches! I interviewed editors from publishers large and small to get a broad overview of the comics publishing industry. I couldn’t talk to everyone, but this cross section of excellent editors has a great deal of useful insight. I talked to Larry Young of AiT/Planet Lar, Mike Carriglitto and Diana Schutz at Dark Horse Comics, Joe Pruett of Desperado Publishing and Chris Ryall from IDW Publishing. From Marvel, I spoke with Axel Alonso, Tom Brevoort, Ruwan Jayatilleke, Mike Marts, Mark Paniccia, Andy Schmidt and Warren Simons. I interviewed Michelle Harman at Penny Farthing Press, Lee Nordling at Platinum Studios, Chris Beranek of Silent Devil Productions, Paul Morrissey at TokyoPop, Jim McLauchlin at Top Cow (whose policies remain the same, despite Jim’s recent departure from his staff gig), Chris Staros of Top Shelf Productions and Jesse Garza at Viper Comics. DC Comics declined to participate, as they do not accept any unsolicited submissions. [For elaboration on what this means in practice, see the interview with DC Publisher and President Paul Levitz elsewhere in this issue. —DF ] Read on and see—in this article and in the accompanying “Editors’ Preferences” section—what the responding editors had to say. —PB PAUL BENJAMIN | 43

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8. ARTIST ATTACHMENT: A writer can approach TokyoPop alone or with an artist. If you attach an artist, please provide 4 to 5 character sketches and 4 to 5 pages of sequential art based on your story.

JIM MCLAUCHLIN [Editor-in-Chief] Top Cow 1. WHO CAN SEND PITCHES: Anyone can send in a pitch. Check out the Top Cow website (www.topcow.com) for their submission form. 2. FORMAT: Written 3. LENGTH: 2 to 3 pages. 4. MATERIAL: Original concepts or existing companyowned characters. 5. SETTING UP YOUR CONCEPT: Hook: No. McLaughlin can figure this out to fit his purposes as he pitches the story to his colleagues. “Hollywood pitch style” Logline: No Genre/milieu: This should be evident from the story. Cliffhanger: No Setting: Only spell this out if it is integral. 6. PLOT: Please provide a plot overview for a 6-issue [22 pages per issue] story arc. 7. CHARACTERS: Provide a brief overview of the characters’ motivations, arcs, abilities/powers and physical appearance (if important). Knowing their motivations is vital. 8. ARTIST ATTACHMENT: Great art is useful, bad art is a negative. The safe bet is no art, but if you have an artist attached, please provide a couple of his or her character designs.

CHRIS STAROS [Publisher] Top Shelf Productions 1. WHO CAN SEND PITCHES: Anyone can send in a pitch, but writers who are not illustrators should partner with an artist. There’s no paperwork to fill out. 2. FORMAT: Written 3. LENGTH: A 1-page synopsis is ideal. However, they cannot accept scripts or plot synopses unless they are accompanied by a minimum of 10-20 fully inked and lettered comic book pages. 4. MATERIAL: Original graphic novels only; generally stories with a lot of heart and subtext done in a somewhat cartoony style. 5. SETTING UP YOUR CONCEPT: Hook: Yes “Hollywood pitch style” Logline: No preference. Genre: Top Shelf is generally slice-of-life, so no big Sci-Fi/Action/Superhero stories, please. Cliffhanger: Sometimes these can make him curious to read more. Setting/milieu: This should be evident from the story.

6. PLOT: Please provide a plot overview for a single graphic novel. 7. CHARACTERS: They should be fleshed out through the story. Characters must be captivating and believable and grow over the course of the story. 8. ARTIST ATTACHMENT: In addition to the written pitch, please provide 10 to 20 completely inked and lettered pages from the story so Staros can see it in full form. If he already knows the artist’s work, Staros does not need to see sample pages.

JESSE GARZA [President] Viper Comics 1. WHO CAN SEND PITCHES: Viper Comics does not accept unsolicited submissions. However, most of their creators are not yet established in the industry, so be articulate and show determination in your attempts to get Viper to solicit your submission. 2. FORMAT: Written, preferably via email. 3. LENGTH: Summarize the whole series in 1 paragraph, then provide a short paragraph on each issue. 4. MATERIAL: Original stories, ideally told over 4 to 6 issues of 22 pages of story each. Originality is key. Any genre is acceptable, but it must stand out from stories that have been told before. 5. SETTING UP YOUR CONCEPT: Hook: No preference. Just be creative. “Hollywood pitch style” Logline: No preference. Just be creative. Genre: No preference. Just be creative. Cliffhanger: No preference. Just be creative. Setting/milieu: This should be evident from the story. 6. PLOT: Please see #3 above. 7. CHARACTERS: If the story overview is strong, then anything important about the characters will be revealed there. 8. ARTIST ATTACHMENT: A good and reliable artist can be a plus, especially if you have worked together before and have an established rhythm. Please don’t attach an artist who may not be reliable. Paul Benjamin has worked in the comics and comicsto-film industry for 10 years. He worked for Malibu Comics, then Platinum Studios where he developed Jeremiah, the J. Michael Straczynski series for Showtime. As Managing Editor for the DC Comics/Humanoids line, Paul paired talent from the American comics industry with writers and artists from around the world, editing books such as I Am Legion with John Cassaday, Olympus with Geoff Johns, Kris Grimminger, and Butch Guice and Redhand with Kurt Busiek. Paul is now a full-time writer whose credits include The Wolverine Encyclopedia and Metal Hurlant. A few of his forthcoming projects are Pantheon High for TokyoPop and the best titled book in comics, Monkey in a Wagon Vs. Lemur on a Big Wheel.

THE END

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Breaking and Entering, Part 3:

BREAKING INTO COMICS (AND STAYING IN) FOR WRITERSAndy Schmidt by

verybody wants inside info. Well, here it is—direct from a guy whose job involves evaluating writers and commissioning paying work for a major comics publisher. Things being what they are, some of this information may have a limited shelf life. But 90% of it is stuff you have to know no matter when or how or from whom you’re looking to get writing work. So without further ado—here’s Marvel Comics editor Andy Schmidt to tell you how things are. Take it away, Mr. S. —DF

ou’re reading this because you want to break into the comics industry. I’m going to try to help you gain the tools you’ll need to have a fighting chance. But, there are a few things you should know:

1. This article can only serve as a guide. There are no hard and fast rules on this subject. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another. 2. I can’t make your writing any better. I’m working on the assumption that you are talented. I can give you advice and a few tools and hints to getting better, but no matter what, you will have to do the work. 3. Following my every step won’t guarantee you success, I’ll give you notes on form and networking, but it’s up to the working professional to actually pull this off with a great story. Okay, so who am I and why should you care about what I say? My name is Andy Schmidt. I’m an associate editor at Marvel Comics. Some of my series are (from my first project to my most current) Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, Madrox, Secret War, Alias, The Pulse, Defenders, Drax, The Destroyer, Ms. Marvel and X-Factor series. Assisting on about 15 other titles at the same time has given me a wealth of experience with creators that I’m hoping to pass on to you. I think I’m good at what I do, but I always want to learn more and hone my skills. I’ve taught courses on aesthetics and visual storytelling, so I’m comfortable when it comes to art as well. We’ll focus a lot of our attention on communication, because communicating with your editor, your artist, your colorist, etc., is possibly the single most important thing you can learn from this article. I hope you’ll take everything I say here with a grain of salt. Not everything I say is law and it won’t work exactly the way I lay it out for everyone, but these are the most efficient ways to get into the biz. So, ultimately, good luck, and I hope this helps.

The road ahead of you: The comic book business landscape is a harsh one. There are many talented writers out there who want to do the same thing as you—and twice as badly. Only a few attributes will separate prospective writers from one another—talent, persistence, and luck. You can effect change on the first two, and thereby affect the odds of the third. It takes at least two of these attributes to break into comics, so no one can say you were just lucky. That being said, yeah, you’ve got to hone your three fundamental attributes in order to get your shot at the title. We’ll talk about these attributes first, then we’ll roll into how to network and pitch, and lastly, we’ll deal with how to stay around once you’re in the biz.

I. The Tools You Need Talent You’ve got to have skills and prove it. Here’s the thing: you may have a great story idea, but that doesn’t mean you’re a great storyteller. You have talent, maybe a little, maybe a lot, but ANDY SCHMIDT | 53

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WRITING WEBCOMICS T

he idea of “webcomics” is an irresistible one. People like comics. People like to do stuff on the Web. And so… webcomics! But what exactly is a webcomic (this week), and how do you break into the field, get noticed, and maybe even make a few bucks doing them? T Campbell, who knows about such things, is here to give you the lowdown. Take it away, T. —DF

The World Wide Web is either the greatest publishing opportunity to come along since Gutenberg, the most efficient means of wasting time ever produced, or both. Depends on how you treat it and what you expect. Writing comics for the Web can be a A panel from the lot of fun and good for your career. webcomic Rip and But it's not for the timid. Teri, written by T A “webcomic” is generally Campbell with art by considered to be a comic created for Jason Waltrip. online consumption. This definition is [© 2006 T Campbell pervasive but not universal. Some and Jason Waltrip.] webcomics artists take their lead from sentiments in Scott McCloud’s book Reinventing Comics and claim that true webcomics are those difficult or impossible to reproduce in print. These “purist webcomics” might include sound, animation, hypertext or interactivity, or they might simply be twenty feet high. We’ll discuss those more at the end of the piece, but our focus is on printable webcomics. But “printable” covers a lot of ground. Is a printable webcomic a comic strip, a comic book, or a single gag cartoon? Yes, yes and yes… it can fill the needs of any of those formats. At first, writing webcomics may seem like a dream come true: all of the benefits of independence with none of the drawbacks. No worries about whether circulation will justify your continued existence—outside of hosting costs, you and only you decide when your comic stops. No DC, Marvel or Image to navigate around—they have Websites, but they don’t really compete in the same space as online comics, at least not yet. No hours wasted at a signing nobody comes to or a convention table everyone passes. No printing bills. No distributors’ cut. (Newspaper comic strip syndication giants like King Features and United Media do have significant web presences, but they are to the kind of webcomics I’m discussing here as Paramount and Columbia are to independent filmmakers who show their work at Sundance.) 62 | WRITE NOW

by T CAMPBELL

But do webcomics also mean no money and no audience? Well, there is some of each. Of the two, the audience is the easier to get. The monthly audience for webcomics consistently beats out the monthly audience for comic books—people cried hallelujah when All-Star Batman and Robin #1 sold 261,000 direct market copies, but Sluggy Freelance, not even the most popular webcomic, gets 300,000 readers every month. Only newspaper comics can compete with that kind of circulation, and you can only guess what percentage of a newspaper’s readership actually reads a given comic strip. And unlike newspaper publication, online publishing is a growth industry, with an audience projected to double between now and 2009. Now for the reality check. The audience is there, but so is the competition. At the top of the virtual heap are established players who’ve spent years gathering an audience loyal both to their properties and to them, personally. At the bottom—well, any fool can publish online. All you need is a Web address, a host, an FTP program and a scanner. As for the money, most of the established players are grizzled-cartoonist sole-proprietors, presenting only their own work, who have achieved the highest level of success of which “webcartoonists” dare to dream—they make a living. Unlike in print, the Web’s most successful selfpublishers make more than the highest-profile cartoonists at Web-publishing labels, and even members of those publishing labels always own their work. The two biggest “publishing labels” (i.e., websites) in webcomics, Keenspot and Modern Tales, are moderately impressive as businesses and a nice windfall for their most popular contributors. [Contributors’ pay is determined by their traffic as a percentage of the overall site traffic, multiplied by half Keenspot’s profits (or half Modern Tales’ revenues) from ads, merchandising, donations, “premium” subscriptions and print.] Below those folks are an untold number of hobbyists. Not every cartoonist on the Web treats cartooning as a business, and though these hobbyists might sell sketches to cover hosting costs, they don’t seriously compete for dollars. But they do compete for readers’ attention, without which dollars cannot flow. With this in mind, there are two reasons to seriously consider writing comics for the Web. (Needless to say, you’ll need to be or to work with an artist, but since this is a magazine about writing, I’m focusing on that aspect.) One is that you’re making an investment. Building an audience and gaining experience online today may help you get into the print comics field tomorrow. The other reason to consider the Web is that you’re making an immediate career move. If

their relationship to grow over the years, people will beg you, plead with you, to have them “get together” by the second month. It doesn’t matter if you point out that that’s what killed the 1980s TV series Moonlighting. They want instant gratification—and they want it right now! In my early days of doing webcomics, way back in 2001, I had two characters who the readers really wanted to see catfight. I did give them what they asked for, but I did it my way… instead of a wacky, sexy, fanservice-y fight, they got a violent one with upsetting consequences. You have to stick to your guns—but still be ready to be called a sellout, regardless. I see some of my friends get [character-]assassinated for no reason by… usually a 12-year-old who doesn't know why he's not writing X-Men, and he will now torture you. —Brian Michael Bendis

you’re fed up with the direct market and ready for a new environment with new rules, or if you want a new environment for that one passion-project for which the print market doesn’t seem to have a place, the Web could be the place for you. Let’s talk a little about these reasons… Everyone’s A Critic The Web’s ability to give instant feedback is its blessing and its curse. Writing and drawing are lonely occupations. When your work goes online and people from around the world talk to you about it less than five minutes later, it feels really, really good. But mind how you listen. The Internet has been a source of comics commentary back since the days of USENET discussion groups with names like “rec.arts.comics.misc.” But be careful about taking chatroom chatter and message board postings as accurate indicators of what the webcomics audience wants. As Peter David once noted: Jim Shooter, correctly I think, observed that fans keep saying they want to see modern opera, but what they really want to see—or at least what they’ll most eagerly support—is the 38th production of Carmen. This talk-versus-reality disconnect is true of all media audience feedback, so why should the Web be any different? That doesn’t mean the Web doesn’t provide an eager audience for new ideas. It does! If I had to name the most popular comics genre on the Web, it’d probably be “gamer comics” (which focus on video games or tabletop role-playing games—either the people who play those games, or characters and situations from them). Also commanding a lot of attention are action-adventure, comedy, pop-culture parody and slice-of-life, with plenty of overlap between them. Superhero comics, crime comics… they won’t be booed off the stage, but they don’t own the stage. This isn’t their turf. However, you will find that if you introduce, say, a romance strip featuring a “will-they-or-won’t-they” couple and plan for

You absolutely cannot win an argument with your readers. You can’t do it. If they don’t like a character, your scripting style or your mother, you pretty much have to sit there and take it. I cannot emphasize this enough: anything you say in your defense will make them think you’re even more of an a-hole. Focus on the next strip; let other readers do the defending for you. (The only exception to this point is if the criticism comes from an established cartoonist—but if that happens, you’re already in the advanced class.) If you have a relatively large readership (say 5,000 readers a day), and no one’s defending you, then it’s probably time to take stock. And if you actually tell them you agree with the criticism, you can win a lot of points by conceding the point. Healthy ego abounds on the Web; humility is regarded—rightly—as water in a desert. Speaking of popularity, you may be wondering how to get ”circulation figures” for your webcomic, and what those figures mean. There are many different programs on the market that present “traffic reports.” Shop around for such a program and ask others to share their experiences with it. The figures to pay the most attention to are pageviews and visitors: how many times any one of your pages is viewed and how many people came to view them. Obviously every visitor to your site viewed at least one page while he or she was there. The ratio of pageviews to visitors tells you how many pages the average visitor viewed, which tells you if you’re bringing in new and curious readers or a loyal base. It’s also useful to look at these figures over the course of one day and over the course of one month. Readers aren’t dollars—the flimsy assumptions of the dot-com boom were founded on that assumption—but between 1 and 10 percent of a webcomic’s audience will buy its T-shirts and posters and printed editions and such. Webcomics are also in a better position to negotiate with advertisers than their independently-published print cousins: their audience is younger, tech-savvier and less fixed in its tastes. “Pay-to-read” models have not been spectacularly successful online (more about that later) and I’d urge most cartoonists, particularly newcomers, to look at building an audience as a long-term investment. It’ll take time. Just because Sluggy has 300,000 readers this month doesn’t mean you will next month. But on the Web, no one can cancel you except you, you are tapping into a growing readership, and you have months or years to figure out how to build your audience one step at a time. T CAMPBELL | 63