Issuu

ISSUE!!

SPECIAL $

695

In the USA

Winter 2007

THE HIT SHOW’S WRITERS SPEAK! DAN BUCKLEY DAN DiDIO Scripts Scripts & & Art Art by: by:

GRANT MORRISON & MARK SILVESTRI ED BRUBAKER & TONY DANIEL

PETER DAVID ON STEPHEN KING’S DARK TOWER 74 1

82658 27765

M AG A Z I N E Issue #17

Winter 2008

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

HEROES WRITERS ON WRITING HEROES Heroically Speaking Interview with Tim Kring.................................................................................page 3 Loeb is a Many Splendored Thing Interview with Jeph Loeb .............................................................................page 13

View From the Top Interview with Dan Buckley ........................................................................page 25

In the Hot Seat Interview with Dan DiDio.............................................................................page 30

Feedback Letters from Write Now!’s Readers ...........................................................page 39

Storming the Dark Tower Interview with Peter David ..........................................................................page 45

Testimony Interview with Douglas Rushkoff .............................................................page 48

My Life in Words: What It’s Like to be a Working Writer Michael Teitelbaum tells all about the world of children’s book writing .............................................................................page 54

Nuts & Bolts Department Script to Pencils to Finished Comic: X-MEN: MESSIAH COMPLEX #1 Pages by Ed Brubaker and Mark Silvestri.............................................page 20

Script to Pencils to Finished Comic: BATMAN #570 Pages from “The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul,” by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel .......................................................page 40

Conceived by DANNY FINGEROTH Editor-In-Chief Managing Editor Special Thanks To: ROBERT ALISON BLAIRE GREENBERGER TOM BREVOORT Designer DAVID GREENAWALT Transcriber STEVEN TICE Circulation Director BOB BRODSKY FOR COOKIESOUP PRODUCTIONS Publisher JOHN MORROW Proofreader ERIC NOLENWEATHINGTON

DAN BUCKLEY KRISTY CHAN KIA CROSS PETER DAVID DAN DiDIO ERIC FEIN STEVEN GRANT DAVID GREENAWALT TIM KRING JAMES J. MARTIN JIM McCANN JEFF NEWELT CHRIS POWELL DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF ALEX SEGURA VARDA STEINHARDT MICHAEL TEITELBAUM STEVEN TICE STEVE WACKER

Script to Sketch to Pencils to Finished Comic: TESTAMENT #6 A page from “West of Eden, part 1: Breishit,” by Douglas Rushkoff, Peter Gross, and Gary Erskine......................page 50

Script to Pencils: CAPTAIN MARVEL #2 Pages from “Reconstruction,” by Brian Reed and Lee Weeks ..................................................................page 59

Creating Comics Step By Step (Part 3 OF 3) Steven Grant concludes his information-packed series on making comic books ...................................................................page 62

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: $8 Postpaid in the US ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US ($40 Canada, $44 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 ©2007 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.

READ Now ! Message from Danny Fingeroth, Editor-in-Chief This might be the most eclectic issue of Write Now! ever. Just take a look at what we’ve got for you: As the cover featuring Hayden Panettierre and Milo Ventimiglia might have clued you in, we have a whole bunch of inside info from Heroes’ writers. Series creator and executive producer Tim Kring talks to us while on the picket lines at the Writers Guild of America strike! And comics own Jeph Loeb, who’s a producer and writer for the hit series (along with a mile long list of other TV credits, including Lost and Smallville), gives us his take on writing the show. Then, Peter David tells what it’s like to be writing the #1 smash-hit comic/graphic novel Stephen King’s Dark Tower! Plus, “When Dans Collide!” We have interviews with Marvel President and Publisher Dan Buckley, and with DC’s Editorial Director Dan DiDio! Both these guys have important things to say that will impact anybody looking to write for either company—or for comics in general! Eclectic enough? Wait—there’s more! Futurist-writer Douglas Rushkoff (Testament) and kids’ novelist Michael Teitelbaum (Scary States of America) talk about writing comics and comics-related material from

their own unique perspectives. And Nuts and Boltswise, we have script and pencils from X-Men: Messiah Complex, by Ed Brubaker and Mark Silvestri; Batman: Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul, by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel; and from Captain Marvel, by Brian Reed and Lee Weeks. Not to mention some of Rushkoff’s Testament work, with art by Peter Gross and Gary Erskine. And Steven Grant wraps up his pointer-filled “Creating Comics Step by Step” series. If all that ain’t eclectic—I don’t know what is. A quick plug: My new book, Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero, is out from Continuum. If you dig books like Gerard Jones’ Men of Tomorrow, or my own Superman on the Couch, I think you’ll really enjoy Disguised, too. Now let’s get eclectic—and plunge into this issue of Write Now! Write away!

Danny Fingeroth

NEXT ISSUE:

#18

STAN (THE MAN) LEE is turning 85 this December— and still going as strong as ever!

M AG A Z I N E

• To celebrate, Write Now! #18 will be a special TRIBUTE TO STAN LEE, featuring commentary and articles about Stan’s writing and how it’s impacted all of pop culture! • Among the many folks heard from will be: BRIAN BENDIS, GENE COLAN, JOHN ROMITA, SR., DAN DiDIO, TODD McFARLANE, ROY THOMAS, DENNIS O’NEIL, and a horde of others. • Art by Kirby, Ditko, Romita, Sr., and many more! • PLUS: samples of little-seen comics and non-comics writing by Stan, direct from the STAN LEE ARCHIVES at the University of Wyoming! • And much, much more! 2 | WRITE NOW

HEROIC AL L Y SP EAKING

THE TIM KRING INTERVIEW Conducted by Danny Fingeroth via phone, November 2 and 6, 2007 Transcribed by Steven Tice Copyedited by Tim Kring, Danny Fingeroth, and Bob Greenberger

Tim Kring’s biography, from the http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ website: “Tim Kring is the creator and executive producer of Heroes, NBC’s Emmy Award-nominated epic saga that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. “Kring grew up primarily in Northern California. Eventually, his parents, who were both teachers, moved the family to Santa Maria on the Central California coast. Kring studied film at nearby Allen Hancock Junior College before transferring to the University of Santa Barbara, where he earned his bachelor of arts degree in religious studies. “Kring later attended the master of fine arts program at the University of Southern California’s renowned film school from 1981-84, then worked his way up in production as a grip, gaffer and on camera crews on various low budget films and documentaries. He continued working in production until selling his first pitch for an episode of Knight Rider in 1985. Kring spent the next 11 years writing feature films, including the sequel Teen Wolf II, series pilots and television movies such as Bay Coven and Falling for You. “In 1996, Kring became a producer on the popular television series Chicago Hope and was elevated to supervising producer on the series a year later. In 1998, he co-created the series Strange World and served as co-executive producer on the drama L.A. Doctors. Kring joined the staff of Providence in 1999 as co-executive producer and signed an overall deal with the then NBC Studios. In 2001, Kring created NBC’s procedural drama Crossing Jordan, which celebrated its historic 100th episode milestone in March 2006. “Kring resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Lisa, who is a social worker, and their two children, Amelia and Ethan. In his spare time, he enjoys collecting acoustic guitars.” Tim was able to take some time from his unbelievably busy schedule to speak to me about his career and, of course, about Heroes. —DF

DANNY FINGEROTH: Was there a moment or series of them, Tim, when you decided you were going to be a writer, or was it a process? TIM KRING: For me it was really just a process. I was in film school, and I thought I was going to be a cinematographer. That’s what I was really interested in. As a prerequisite you had to take a writing class, and I really got into writing, thought it was pretty cool. But I still didn’t think I was going to be a writer. I pursued the whole idea of being a cameraman and a cinematographer. I did that for a few years out of film school, I worked here in L.A. as a gaffer and a camera operator and that sort of thing, on anything I could get work on—low budget films, commercials, rock videos—that kind of thing. And documentaries. And I finally had a chance to get into the camera union, and it was at that point that I realized TIM KRING | 3

that they were front and center, and in many ways Heroes became the beta testing ground for how to do that. So anything that we wanted to do, anything that we thought of doing, anything that we even dreamed of doing, they pretty much said yes to, “Go try and figure it out.” So it became like the wild West out here, where we were just making up the laws as we were going along. Nobody was telling us what would and wouldn’t work. If we had an idea, we had a platform to try it out on. It turned out to be a very, very big success for the network.

into series television by pitching ideas, to make sure that it’s an idea that doesn’t just live on-air in traditional network broadcast television. It has to be an idea that has legs in multiple platforms. So I would start thinking about an idea living in multiple platforms, whether that’s games, or comic books, or some form of alternate reality. But it’s very important to start looking at where the whole digital world is going, and realizing that the projects that have the broadest appeal in the broadest number of platforms are the ones that I think the networks are going to be gravitating toward.

DF: How about the comic? Do you oversee that, or have you written any of them? TK: I didn’t write any of the comics, and it became sort of an issue for us, because it was hard enough to just write the show. A lot of the show’s writers were writing them for a while until it became just too hard for us to do. Aron Coleite must have written 70% of them. The compilation is coming out this month [November], a hardback with two covers, one by Alex Ross and the other by Jim Lee. It’s going to be fantastic.

DF: Now, what about if somebody wants to be a staff writer, come on board and join a writers room? You talked about you had your assistants writing, so obviously you’re open to that. TK: I’m a huge believer in that. As far as I can say with any certainty, I think the best avenue in is to try to get yourself into an assistant or intern position. We’ve had people who started as interns, worked their way up to writers’ assistants, and now are on staff. There is a kind of collective quality to any show, where people work closely with one another, and it’s just human nature to want to work closely with people you’re friendly with. So the guys who are hanging around, who are getting your coffee and running off the copies of the scripts, those guys become your friends and your confidants, and you’re rooting for them, and their spec scripts float around among the writing staff, [who give input on them]. There’s a real art to getting your foot in the door and then working with relationships within a writing staff, and that’s very much the avenue that I see as the most efficient way to get yourself onto a writing staff.

DF: Has the Heroes comic given you any desire to write a comic, either Heroes or anything else? TK: You know, it has. And right now I’m in a unique place, because I’m walking the picket line thinking about all the things that I could do, including comics. But while I’m making the show, it’s so hard for me to think of anything else. But it is something that I definitely would like to do. And the second that I have any breathing room at all to take on a separate project, I’d love to do some comics. DF: In terms of aspiring writers reading this, any advice on breaking into TV writing? TK: I think that right now the one piece of advice that I would give is that, if anybody is thinking about breaking

The saga of brothers Nathan and Peter Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar, left, and Milo Ventimiglia) was one of the highlights of Heroes' first season. [© 2007 Universal Studios. All rights reserved.] 12 | WRITE NOW

DF: Anything you want to plug, and/or anything about writing Heroes you want to say in general, that we haven’t covered? TK: What we’re trying to stress right now as much as we can, to anybody who will listen, is that Heroes has this unique format in that we write it and we air it in volumes. Volume two of the show is coming to an end with Episode 11 [scheduled to air December 3], and if you were not able to watch volume two, or it wasn’t your cup of tea, then volume three starts immediately in the next installment, and it’s a chance to sort of start again. So, unlike most shows, which have a single premiere every season, and then a single finale, we actually get to replicate that a couple of times a year, with a chance to get viewers back onto the train of the show. It’s something that I really want people to really understand about the show. This idea of “volumes” is a really unique way of doing series television. DF: Thanks, Tim. This was really terrific. TK: Thank you, Danny. I had fun.

THE END

LOEB IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING

THE JEPH LOEB INTERVIEW by Danny Fingeroth Conducted via e-mail, October 29, 2007 Copyedited by Danny Fingeroth, Robert Greenberger, and Jeph Loeb

Jeph Loeb writes comics, he writes and produces television, he writes and produces movies, he writes and produces animation. He does material like Batman: Hush and A Superman for all Seasons that mine heroes’ classic mythos for neglected gems. From his days at Columbia University film school, where he studied with the likes of Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and writer/director of American Gigolo and Affliction) and Milos Forman (director of Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), to his work in Hollywood with people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael J. Fox, to much-lauded run as a supervising producer and writer on Smallville, to his time as a writer/producer on Lost, to his current gig of Co-executive Producer and writer of Heroes, Jeph has worked constantly since leaving film school. The fact that in addition to his screen work, his comics work, both in quality and quantity, rivals that of anyone who has ever worked in the industry is simply astonishing. The X-Men, The Avengers, Superman for All Seasons, Spider-Man: Blue, the sales record-setting Batman: Hush, the deeply personal Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, and his latest much-anticipated series, Ultimates and The Hulk, are just part of his comics resume. Tim Sale, Jim Lee, Ed McGuinness and Michael Turner are just some of the superstar artists he has been paired with. Jeph has won four Eisner Awards and five Wizard Fan Awards. Jeph has devised a career for himself where he has a variety of options in a variety of media, which for a working writer is the best of all possible worlds. Here, he speaks, among other things, about his role in and his feelings about the runaway success that is Heroes. —DF

DANNY FINGEROTH: Jeph, do you or Tim Kring (or anyone else) come to a writers’ meeting at the beginning of a season with an agenda/outline for that season? JEPH LOEB: We have a pretty good idea where we are going for the next three seasons. Obviously, year three is clearer than four, etc. But, as we’re doing this interview, only the fifth episode of year two has aired and we’re working on episode 17. So the lead-time is pretty fantastic. The biggest change this year was Kring’s idea of incorporating the volumes into a season. So now the viewer isn’t waiting for 23 episodes to find out who killed Hiro’s Dad. It will all be cleared up and dealt with by Episode 11. The next volume begins with 12 and ends with 18. The last pod—which we are talking about now, is 19-24. More like arcs in comics that become trades. It’s working great. JEFF LOEB | 13

20 | WRITE NOW

X-Men: The Messiah Complex, Chapter One, launched the first Marvel mutant-title crossover in years. The event kicked off with a one-shot written by Ed Brubaker, and boasted the return to the X-Men of superstar artist Marc Silvestri.

X-MEN MESSIAH COMPLEX NUTS & BOLTS | 21

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w t h i a d o u e b -l s o w e í l l o p en l il l u s t r a t i o n , w i t h so m e co o ge a p c p a e r a co m i c . s t p a g e w il l b e f t h e p nr t i e d sky. Th e a c t u a l f i r g e s 2 na d 3 o the night-time on w ha t s i p a ring fast across p a g e p rs e ad and around Blackbird soa d TW O The n a E blurred below es. N O pag S h E P A G world arcing and the top of bot the , oss uds acr el clo 1—Wide pan s and through r -- Zoom! over mountain m, as they soa They’re flying clear above the ed. rs and moon ving at top spe them. The sta into Alaska, mo ng ssi Cro – ckbird CAPS: The Bla 1 LOCATION s e . g oh t p a e r s a rc o s b Cyclops a t sp r e a d n i t i this mission. l a r b e e lo w t h seat assembled for Th e s e p a n e s s seats. In a m that’s been tea the ts and copilot see tt pilots. are in the pilo the ship, we ler Sco ide as raw Ins er htc el. uld ) and Nig his sho gel on An now 2—Wide pan d is for m han or a the vis g of both , placin just the d. And behind (no mask on, leaning forward e for a ed, arms crosse Angel costum we see Emma behind Scott, , who looks bor the classic blue and white rine lve Wo is to k to that look: Across from her ks now . Or maybe go bac . Here’s a link loo – whoever he Angel in forever /archangel-bigcostume4.jpg haven’t seen me while, since we nyxmen.net/images/costu can http://www .un

Note how the characters are introduced by name, and also given a bit of dialogue that establishes each one’s mood and personality, unobtrusively telling (or reminding) readers of who the heroes are. [© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MESSIAH COMPLEX #1

X-MEN

h o m C p l xe Ms s i a ba X -Me n : Sce rip ker t by Ed Bru

The 13-chapter storyline revolves around the birth of the first mutant child since the events of House of M, which saw the Scarlet Witch reduce the mutant population from millions to 198. Note how Ed’s script gives Marc flexibility in setting the scene, and even in deciding what outfit the Angel can wear.

P A G E

F ra m e 1

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“DADDY”?

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Here, Tony deviates a little further from the art directions, choosing to go for emotionally-charged close-ups, breaking them up with a medium-shot of Silken Spider and Batman. In the last panel, placing the word balloons between the heads (as opposed to tucking them away in the corners of the panel) gives the words physical impact, using the balloon shapes to create a literal barrier between the characters. [© 2007 DC Comics.]

THE END 44 | WRITE NOW

STORMING THE DARK TOWER

PETER DAVID DISCUSSES ADAPTING STEPHEN KING’S NOVEL SERIES FOR COMIC BOOKS

Interview conducted by Robert Greenberger via e-mail, October 2007 Copy-edited by Danny Fingeroth and Robert Greenberger Peter David, self-proclaimed Writer of Stuff, has shown a tremendous range of styles as he has moved from heroic adventure to comedy to dark fantasy, from comic books to prose to screenplays. No stranger to adaptations, he previously adapted Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country for DC Comics and novelized Swamp Thing, The Rocketeer, and Spider-Man among other properties. His greatest sales success as an adapter, though, was with the seven issue Marvel miniseries that brought Stephen King’s The Dark Tower to comic books. Partnered with co-writer Robin Furth, artist Jae Lee, and colorist Richard Isanove, the title brought critical acclaim in addition to high sales and will spawn a second series in 2008. With the first miniseries now available in hardcover, and the team at work on the next installment, we thought it high time to check in and learn what Peter’s role in the adaptation process is, exactly, and how he approaches it. —RG ROBERT GREENBERGER: Okay, you get the assignment. How do you begin the adaptation process? PETER DAVID: Actually, I don’t. The process is actually begun by Robin Furth, who breaks the story down into a plot structure narrative. Jae Lee then breaks down Robin’s story visually, and I come in and write the scripting. RG: Who is Robin Furth and what is her role with The Dark Tower? PD: Robin may well be the most knowledgeable person on the planet when it comes to The Dark Tower, save for Stephen, of course. She’s the one who worked closely with King to break the existing material down into a comics narrative, and also to develop the storylines that are to come. RG: How much involvement did Stephen King actually have with these adaptations?

PD: King has been involved in every step of the process. He worked up the outline with Robin, he approved all the visuals, and he reads every single script and line edits it. RG: While adapting something as stylized as Dark Tower, what can you bring to the table? Is there any Peter David to be found in here? PD: My job isn’t to draw attention to myself. My job is to be the stand in for Stephen King, trying to adapt his narrative voice as much as I can. RG: You told me once that you try and vary your writing to suit the needs of the material. Was that easier or harder with an adaptation? PD: Easier, since King’s work provides a wealth of material PETER DAVID | 45

TESTIMONY:

THE DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF INTERVIEW Conducted in person by Jeff Newelt, October 2007 Transcribed by Steven Tice

Back in the mid-1990s first flowering of the Internet, every time a major “old media” outlet, say The New York Times, needed a “hip young expert” to explain things to them, as often or not, said expert was Douglas Rushkoff. Perhaps because he always gave good sound bites about the coming electronic revolution, or just because they knew where to find him, not a week seemed to go by when Rushkoff wasn’t being extensively and prominently quoted somewhere. Finally, I saw an event listed that he was moderating. Being in the new media biz myself then—overseeing an electronic comics initiative at pioneering Silicon Alley house Byron Preiss Multimedia—I went to said event, ready to mock Douglas under my breath. Let’s see if Mr. Sound Bite can hold his own live! Well, it turns out, I have no memory of who else was on that panel, just of being highly impressed with this intelligent, opinionated, personable Rushkoff fellow. And who knew that, underneath the new media guy, was a longtime comics fan? Of course, Douglas has a zillion other interests, too, and you can read about them at his website: www.rushkoff.com. And here’s what Douglas’s official bio says: “Douglas Rushkoff is a world-renowned cultural theorist and the author of ten books on media, society, and beliefs, including Media Virus, Coercion, Cyberia, and ScreenAgers. He wrote two novels—one about early 90’s psychedelia called Ecstasy Club, and another about dot.com fascism, Exit Strategy. “He’s made two documentaries about marketing and the co-option of culture for PBS’ Frontline, The Merchants of Cool and The Persuaders, and he teaches popular classes in media, interactivity, and narrative for NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and the MaybeLogic Academy. “Rushkoff doesn’t dabble, but dives. He has worked as a theater director, a fight choreographer, Guardian of London columnist, a rabbi, and a keyboardist for PsychicTV, among other things. “His very first comic, Club Zero-G was about kids who visit a shared consensual dreamspace when they’re asleep— remembered only by one them. Misunderstood as a Matrix rip-off by an inexperienced reviewer, the graphic novel version won ‘Worst Graphic Novel of 2004’ from The Comics Journal. Appreciated by Jonathan Vankin, of Vertigo, as an original and successful narrative experiment, Club Zero-G got Rushkoff a pitch meeting. Testament, Rushkoff’s first comic series, was the result of that pitch.”

48 | WRITE NOW

As for me, I figure if Douglas is good enough for the Times, then who are we to say different? Douglas recently sat down with Jeff Newelt and talked about—among other things— comics, new media, religion, and his recent Vertigo title, Testament. Enjoy! —DF JEFF NEWELT: In your comic Testament, I notice a convergence of your favorite themes… “open source” Judaism, alternate forms of currency, media viruses, corporations, etc., etc. Why did you think a comic was the way to express your ideas? DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF: In comics you can combine ideas in a way you can’t in an article, an essay, or even a nonfiction book. Prose is a deeply linear medium, you’ve got to have a clear subject and make an ordered, rational argument for it. You can attempt some verbal mash-up, à la William Burroughs, but that’s working against the bias of text and books. Comics are collage. It’s sequential storytelling. There’s both

nate, fertilize, and mutate. They rise again like a mutated monster—these wonderfully rich combinations of thoughts, ideas and imagery that you wouldn’t see anywhere else can grow into new organisms. Comics give me a forum to look at the Bible as a media theorist would, while comparing it to situations, technologies and fiscal calamities that are going on today. So this seemingly staid, holy, redacted and permanent, set-in-stone book gets dragged down into this fertile ground of possibility. It’s not just EC Bible Stories, anymore. It’s a living, mutating set of myths. And that’s what gets people the most upset, but it’s also what gets people the most fascinated: “what if the Bible were alive?” Yeah, put something in comics and it becomes JN: Did you think of that analogy in retalive. That’s why Grant [Morrison] is so rospect, or when you were coming up interested in comics. You take a god with your approach to Testament...? Cover to the first issue of Douglas that’s the projection and imagery of all DR: I’ve always looked at comics as mulRushkoff and Liam Sharp’s Testament, these people focusing on it, you take any timedia—as a precursor to the Internet. Art is by Liam. object and put it in comics… it’s alive! My first books tried to explain the [©2006 Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp. All rights reserved.] That’s what he means when he says Internet to people who had never comics are a “magical sigil”: their creation is a ritual through touched it—who didn’t believe or even care that it was comwhich imagery can be beheld and disseminated. Conjured ing. And it’s hard to explain non-linear, hypertext experiences into existence. to people who’ve never been on drugs or something. But there were a lot of other emerging cultures providing easy JN: Did you have an agenda with Testament? analogies to the Internet experience—fantasy role-playing, rave DR: I’m trying to do to the Bible what Jack Kirby tried to do to music, snowboarding, dj performance. Cultures and art forms his universe. I’m trying to make these characters and situawhere things were juxtaposed, and communicating through tions come alive again by juxtaposing them with near-future their roughness or user’s interactions. scenarios that are actually happening. I’m trying to show that, Comics have always been open to these kinds of mixes— in the best sense, the Bible was warning us about what’s biased toward these juxtapositions of themes, eras and realihappening now: worshiping money, sacrificing our kids to ties. Its position in “low culture” is its strength, because peofalse idols (like oil), taking a scarcity approach toward ple aren’t necessarily expecting it to deliver all those formal resources rather than an abundance approach. At the same requirements of, say, “the sonnet,” or “the novel,” or “the nartime, though, I’m looking at how, well, the Bible didn’t work, rative nonfiction book.” did it? If this is where we are, then its lessons weren’t learned. And I’m finally suggesting that the reason it didn’t work is JN: So the power of comics sneak-attacks you, like sticking because they tried to manage society through a one-pointedmedicine in a kid’s ice cream or something…? ness. Monotheism is fine when it’s universal, but it became DR: Right. And, on top of that, because it’s ostensibly a kids’ something of an “accept our God or you’re out” thing. The medium, you can pull a Pee Wee Herman: “Where am I going notion of a universal, abstract unknowable “God” got corruptto tease and provoke culture about gay values and sexual ed, and became a “this guy is everyone’s God” mandate. innuendo, and where can I do that better than in a kids’ show?” Bart Simpson and South Park allow for a cultural criJN: And you make it clear in Testament, by the “good light” tique and irreverent jamming you couldn’t have had before you shine on the goddess Astarte, she seems to be the god on TV. that comes out the “cleanest”… this one-pointedness is related to a textual repression of the Feminine Goddess Energy, JN: Creating comics must be like messing with a Petrie dish, represented by Astarte…. What is this energy? creating a little universe that comes alive when read. DR: Well, she is responsible for screwing up the heavenly DR: Yes! Alive because it’s a cultural Petrie dish. What is a gods’ whole Eden experiment. But yeah—she’s ultimately the “culture” but a growing, fecund thing? Fecund like manure— one who got screwed over, and something of the hero in my sh*t is great fertilizer! Comics are bottom-feeders in the best god world. She represents the feminine goddess energy, the sense—reworking all of the cultural preoccupations, characters, situations, conspiracy theories that trickle down into its spirit of abundance that agricultural societies worshipped. It is disdained in the Bible, which is really about the superiority of delightful cesspool of ideas. In comics, they can cross-polliword and picture. You can communicate through the juxtaposition of image to image, or image to word, word to word, dialogue to description, or even dialogue to picture. Unlike plain text, the comics medium is biased towards these clashes, toward these mixes. Towards time travel and cultural mixing. That’s why doing comics is like doing Shakespeare. Nobody does a Shakespeare play in its original setting anymore. We perform Hamlet in an office tower or set Macbeth in the Nixon White House. We frame it so that the old myths and themes are relevant to a modern audience, and seen in a new light. There’s spoken word and a visual frame: it’s working on multiple levels.

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CREATING COMICS STEP BY STEP

FINAL 4 steps

Steven Grant has had a long and successful career as a comic book writer, including work on The Punisher, Spider-Man, Batman, and RoboCop. He is the creator of the independent comics series, Whisper. His weekly column, Permanent Damage, can be found on cbr.cc. Its predecessor, Master of the Obvious, is where “Creating Comics” first appeared (not on Permanent Damage, as we had previously stated), and it is also archived at cbr.cc. For those keeping count, there are a total of ten steps (plus a “substep”) in this series. Here are the final four. The info in them is as valuable as what Steven wrote in parts 1-6. Read ’em and learn! —DF Step 7: Characterization I was doing a job for Louise Simonson, back when she was editing for Marvel, a Battlestar Galactica issue if I remember right, when I asked her about characterization. I hadn’t been hanging around Marvel for that long at that point (neither had she) but I’d become puzzled by one editor or artist or fan after another talking about this writer or that’s terrific characterization. And I’d look at the comics they talked about—and I just couldn’t see it! For the most part it was certainly better than the pure vanilla characterization you saw in most DC Comics of the late ’70s, where heroes were heroes because they were good and when you’re good you become a hero and villains were bad because that’s what villains are, and in Marvel Comics they didn’t editorially blot out all authorial idiosyncrasies so they were more interesting, but when I looked for what, in literature classes in college, was called characterization, it just wasn’t there. At least in any broad sense. It seemed every author would seize on one little character twist, then run it on every character in their stable until it became nothing more than the shtick by which that author was easily recognized. Even with the most interesting characterization, if every character in a story behaves the same, it’s not characterization. So, at the risk of looking ignorant, I asked Weezie about it, though she’d never raved up anyone’s characterization in my presence. She took my issue of Battlestar Galactica, opened it to a certain sequence, and said, “See where this character does this in this situation, but that one does that? That’s characterization.” Yes, it really is just that simple. Sort of. 62 | WRITE NOW

Awhile back in this series I raised some eyebrows when I said, despite schisms imposed by generations of English teachers and literary critics, that plot and character were really the same thing. In real terms, when writing a story, they commingle to the point of inseparability, with character’s actions constantly working on the story to change the direction of the plot and the events of the plot in ways large and small constantly altering character. But in real terms we the audience never see character. Character really only exists in the author’s head. What we see is characterization. As nit-picky as it sounds, it’s important to understand the difference between character and characterization. Characterization is where plot and character intersect. Characterization is the expression of character through action. Characterization is the means by which we (hopefully) convince the reader the story is actually happening about people. It’s an essential part of story logic, because it builds the logic of each character and establishes their behavioral patterns. Characters who establish their own behavioral logic and stick to it become “real.” Characters that play fast and loose with behavioral logic are little more than cartoons. A character demonstrates a mortal fear of choking to death on chicken meat. Given that premise, what strikes you as more logical and “real”: he goes into a cold sweat when his co-workers suggest lunching at Kentucky Fried Chicken, or he goes with them without a thought and chows down on a bucket of buffalo wings while discussing the latest company project? Every movement a character makes in a story, every word, is characterization. Back when characters still smoked, I used that as a characterization example: when your character

lights a cigarette, how does he do it? Matchbook? Cigarette lighter? Kitchen match struck on whatever rough surface is at hand? Does he smoke a pipe? Cigars? If cigars, stogies or cigarillos? Cigarettes? Filtered or straight? Plain or menthol? Straight up or through a cigarette holder? Each choice suggests something different about the character. In my early days at Marvel I’d make sense of characters by figuring out what music they listened to. (Hawkeye, for instance, had a massive collection of rockabilly records, which I thought said something interesting and different about his character.) Broadly, characterization breaks down into four forms: • big action (macrocharacterization) • mannerism and body language (microcharacterization) • background • dialogue Big action is the main form of characterization in most comics: the notion, for example, that Spider-Man will smash into a room through a window without a second thought to save someone inside. But there was a time when SpiderMan would slither in through a vent window and creep along the ceilings like, oh, a spider. But everyone understands big action. It’s the action that pushes the plot along. The cowboy wears his gun low and walks out onto Main Street to face off against three gunmen in a showdown. It’s the most instantly apprehensible form of characterization because it’s the most blatant and the most attached to plot, but it’s also the most overtly given to stereotype: you know the cowboy’s the hero because he’s the one who walks out alone against three killers. What is the perception if his behavior changes, if instead of walking out without cover onto the deserted street he hides in a bell tower or the loft of a barn, or crawls beneath the raised sidewalks of an old west town, and picks off the three killers one by one from hiding, and they never even figure out where he is? That doesn’t discount him from being the hero, but it makes him a different sort of hero (smarter, for one thing). These sound like plot concerns, but they’re really characterization. How the character behaves in the big picture is characterization. How a character behaves in any way is characterization. Not too many comics writers concern themselves with mannerism and body language, partly because of the nature of the medium: control of those things are in the artist’s hand. But they’re of necessary consideration, as they add texture and weight to characters, distinguishing them from others. (Shared or parallel mannerisms can also be used to thematically link characters.) The clothes a character chooses to wear, or whether he bothers with personal hygiene, or whether he prefers to stand with his arms folded or his hands clasped behind his back define him as much as his

willingness to leap through fire. How characters move when they walk is characterization. Everything is characterization. A trained boxer is going to move differently from a chess player, a teenage girl walking through a mall will look at different things than a 35-year-old man will. On a physical level, this kind of characterization—irrelevant to the plot for the most part—defines the relationship between character and environment. Every character in a story, even ancillary characters, needs to have some distinguishing characteristic, even if it’s only the way they stand, whether it’s the decision of the writer or the artist. The real trick to mannerism and body language, or any kind of characterization is: consistency. Once it’s established, follow it faithfully. Not that a character’s mannerisms and behavior can’t shift in the course of a story—most stories are about how characters’ behavior shifts and why—but those changes need to be properly set up and motivated, and for that to work effectively the initial characterization has to be well-established. Background, of course, consists of the details of a character’s milieu, values and history, which are often inextricably meshed, and they all influence other aspects of characterization. Someone who grew up on a farm in backwoods Alabama’s going to have different personality tics and vocabulary (particularly unconscious or automatic slang) than someone raised in a Park Avenue high-rise penthouse. Someone with seven brothers and sisters will likely have different values than an only child. As the forces that underlie personality, milieu values and history have direct effect on character and therefore characterization. It all has to be, in some form, taken into account. The most commonly abused form of characterization in comics is dialogue, which far too often is reduced to what amounts to exposition and catch phrases. The words we use, the rhythms of our speech, our grammatical shortcuts and eccentricities, these are all part of what each of us are. It’s no different for the characters in our stories; it is the most intimate and immediate expression of their psychopathologies and thought processes. But, since dialogue serves many functions alongside characterization, it deserves a discussion of its own. Step 8: Dialogue in Theory In theory, the purest comics are those done without use of any words at all, where the pictures alone carry the entire narrative weight of the story. Comics like that have been done. Very few

Two different ways a spider approaches its prey. The one on the right is Spidey’s first encounter with Doctor Doom, as depicted in Amazing Spider-Man #5, script by Stan Lee, art by Steve Ditko. On the previous page is a bombastic approach, in Amazing Spider-Man #350, courtesy of scripter David Michelinie, penciler Erik Larsen and inker Randy Emberlin. [© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.] STEVEN GRANT | 63

Dan Johnson

cond ucte d July 12, 2007

If you want to succeed in business, you have to tap into your full potential. While on the comics page Tony Stark may have learned that lesson a long time ago, some of the writers and artists who were crafting tales of his alter ego, Iron Man, had not. All that changed though when inker Bob Layton and writer David Michelinie were given the nod to helm the adventures of Ol’ Shellhead from Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978) to #153 (Dec. 1981). During their run on the book, Iron Man became a major power player in the Marvel Universe and a huge hit with fans of Marvel Comics. More importantly, the man in the Golden Armor, Tony Stark, took center stage in the series and was finally fleshed out as a character. The world that the man behind Stark Industries inhabited, and comics in general, became richer for this new emphasis. Indeed, Layton and Michelinie’s initial run was so successful and fondly remembered that they were asked to return to the book for a second time during Iron Man #215–232 (Feb. 1988–July 1989). Recently BACK ISSUE caught up with Layton and Michelinie and got the story about their two times with the Golden Avenger, and we also got the inside scoop about how they are returning to the character once more in an effort to yet again build a better Iron Man. – Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: Thank you both for sitting down and doing this “Pro2Pro” interview with BACK ISSUE. The theme of this particular issue is “Men of Steel,” and you certainly can’t do an issue like this without talking about Iron Man. Tell our readers how you two came to work on this character. DAVID MICHELINIE: We had worked together at DC on Claw the Unconquered and we had become friends over that [series]. We had both recently left DC to work for Marvel and we were offered Iron Man by Jim Shooter. I had never read Iron Man before, and it was one of Bob’s

Iron Men Tony Stark and his temporary replacement as Iron Man, James “Rhodey” Rhodes, in a 2001 Bob Layton commissioned illustration. From the collection of Chris Murrin. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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favorite books, so we made a good team. Bob knew all the stuff that had happened in the past, and I knew absolutely nothing, so I was coming to it with fresh eyes. BOB LAYTON: If I remember correctly, there were three books offered to us and Iron Man was one of them. They were three books that were at the bottom [in sales rankings]. Do you recall that? MICHELINIE: It may well have happened, but I have no memory of that. LAYTON: I think I was just so excited to find out Iron Man was one of the books they had available. MICHELINIE: If so, then that’s probably the reason I picked it. The advantage of having you know the character was probably a factor. LAYTON: It’s safe to say that Dave kind of rolled with this. I was always such a huge fan of armored characters anyway, from my King Arthur obsession on, that Dave just listened to all my ranting about this character from my childhood and he formed his take on Iron Man from my opinions. Is that fair, Dave? MICHELINIE: [slight pause] Okay. LAYTON: [laughs] MICHELINIE: I don’t know if I formed my opinions, but I certainly got a great deal of background, and your enthusiasm bled off into my viewpoint, I’m sure. LAYTON: I was a lot more excitable in those days. MICHELINIE: I don’t know if that has diminished. LAYTON: [laughter] Thanks! JOHNSON: You said Iron Man was selling poorly when you took over. When you sat down together to discuss what needed to be done to improve the sales, what conclusions did you draw? What changes did you think had to be made? LAYTON: Get rid of the Ani-Men! [laughter] Wasn’t that our first agenda, Dave? MICHELINIE: I think our first agenda was to push the character into a more realistic direction, looking at Tony Stark as a real guy and determining what would a real guy in his position do. That’s why one of the first storylines we wanted to do was “Demon in a Bottle,” an alcoholism storyline. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been trying to take over his company and [Stark] had all kinds of women problems. As some would say, you wouldn’t give his problems to a monkey on a rock. [Faced with these problems,] what would a real person do? A real person would look for some kind of safety valve and at the time, with Tony being a millionaire playboy in the 1980s before crack cocaine became such a popular item, drinking seemed to be the logical way to push him. That was our main thrust, to try and take this character and change him as a real person and see where that led us.

Corner symbol art by Bob Layton used during the Iron Man run penciled by John Romita, Jr.

Beginnings: Inker on Charlie Nichols’ pencils for “By the Dawn’s Early Light,” published in Charlton Comics’ Beyond the Grave #5 (Apr. 1976)

Milestones: Co-creator of the Huntress / plotter and inker on Iron Man / writer and artist on Hercules limited series / writer on X-Factor / co-founder of Valiant Comics / co-creator of X-O Manowar / co-founder of Future Comics

Works in Progress: Iron Man: The End one-shot / a new miniseries featuring the third installment of the Iron Man/Dr. Doom/Camelot trilogy for Marvel Comics / writer and inker of the online monthly web-comic, Colony, at www.boblayton.com

Cyberspace: www.boblayton.com

BOB LAYTON Photo courtesy of Bob Layton.

Beginnings: “Puglyon’s Crypt,” published in DC’s House of Secrets #116 (Feb. 1974)

Milestones: Co-plotter and scripter of Iron Man / The Avengers / Star Wars / The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones / The Unknown Soldier / The Bozz Chronicles / The Amazing Spider-Man / creator of Venom / Action Comics / co-founder of Future Comics

Works in Progress: Co-plotter and scripter of Iron Man: The End one-shot and Iron Man/Dr. Doom/Camelot trilogy miniseries for Marvel Comics / short stories for Moonstone prose anthologies including The Phantom Chronicles and Moonstone Monsters: Werewolves

DAVID MICHELINIE Photo courtesy of Bob Layton.

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