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Written by Jeffery Stevenson
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Saturday, 01 January 2005 |
Step right up folks and witness the art of editing. Editing and self-editing essentially break down to one important factor... instincts. Yes, you can know the ins-and-outs of grammar, spelling, story structure, drawing, page layout/composition, characterization, pacing, and all other aspects of creating comics to use in your editing, but that's only the beginning. You'll need to be able to dive into a script and keep in mind those aspects with the mindset of the penciler... and inker... and the colorist... and the letterer... and the reader to make sure the parts of the script clearly relay the information they need to get the job done (or to just enjoy the story in the case of the reader). Plus, all that needs to be done while preserving the individual writer's style and keeping the story on track. With all that to keep track of, it really does become a matter of trusting your instincts to help identify the problem areas in the script.
Last week, I selected five scripts for this article. This week, I went through the first page of each of those scripts to break down a little bit of how I look at a script. Sure, I can't go deep into story structure or overall storytelling with one page, but I can cover one of the aspects I believe is most important to the script... clarity. If an artist (or letterer or any person working on the book) gets confused and has to call the writer multiple times to figure out what he or she really wants, that slows down the productivity of the book. If the artist interprets the script one way and draws the wrong thing (and has to go back and redo the page), that eats up that artist's valuable time. If a reader gets confused while going through a comic, that can take them out of the story and make them start questioning everything else they see in that book (and it also runs the risk of them not wanting to continue with the series).
So, let's get started and take a look at my editing process. I usually go through multiple passes when I edit a script. The first time through, I'll highlight anything that catches my eye... spelling mistakes, minor grammar problems, and anything that causes me to pause for any reason while reading through it. Anything... right or wrong. If I have to stop while reading it, there's something in the script somewhere that caused it. It may not be right at that spot or may just be a problem with the way I read that part, but it set off alarms in my subconscious and gets flagged as an area to look into later.
The second pass through the script is my troubleshooting phase. I'll take those highlighted stoppers and try to break them down to the root cause of the problem. That could occur in the same panel as the phrase or sentence I highlighted, or it could be the side effect of something that happened much earlier in the story. It could actually be nothing at all... possibly something that I read too fast. After tracking down these problems, I'll write up some notes to explain what I saw and make a few suggestions for improving the situation and creating a stronger story.
The third pass into the script is my page layout phase. I'll try to visualize the layout of the page and composition of the elements in each panel to make sure they're feasible (and sometimes break out the trusty pencil and paper to attempt thumbnailing pages that feel a little off). This becomes a sanity check stage to make sure the writer isn't asking the artist to cram too much into a page or running the artist through a bunch of hyper-detailed, panel-heavy pages for an entire issue without giving him or her a break every once in a while.
The fourth pass is a double-check of all the dialogue to make sure it flows nicely from panel-to-panel and page-to-page as well as ensuring the dialogue will fit nicely into the artwork accompanying it.
From there, I'll set the script aside for a couple days and then go through it one last time to get a fresher look at it and make sure I cover as many of the troublesome spots as I can.
And that's the basics of what I put a script through when I edit it. It's time consuming, but it works fairly well for me (and the people I provide edits for seem to be happy with the results). Now, on to the scripts.
Overall Notes
- The Importance of the First Page. Many people will say that the first three pages are the most critical to hooking the casual, "browse before you buy it" comic shop patron. I actually believe that in today's fast food, "can't be bothered to make my own coffee", internet-paced world... you need to hook them with the very first page to win in the comic shelf arena. It can be the introduction of a mystery or bringing the main characters to the reader's attention in an interesting way. It could build intrigue or curiosity in the reader... or it could just fill them with wonder. Most of the first pages submitted for this rely on a second, third, or even fourth page to build up that hook. There were a couple that had some good potential for an opening page, but it felt like it wasn't quite executed well enough to give that hook enough punch. I'll get into some more on this when commenting on the individual scripts. For now, let's take a look at some samples of opening pages from published comics:
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Bruce Wayne in a race and looking like he has a death wish. This introduces aspects of the character's personality that put his sanity in question.
- The Metabarons - A splash page of the Metabunker surrounded by a force field and floating amidst a gorgeous futuristic cityscape. Lets the stunning visuals do the talking.
- Y: The Last Man - Brooklyn, New York. Now. A mother covered in blood races toward a female police officer to get help for her little boys. The police officer pulls out her gun, places it next to her head, and says, "All of the men are dead." I like to think of this as the "What the hell just happened?" opening. And Vaughan took this a little further by immediately backtracking his story, so this opening page was actually the ending of the first issue.
- The Sandman - Looking between two demons/gargoyles on a fence to see a slightly Victorian/Gothic mansion. An old man looking a bit stunned as he approaches the golden demonic knocker attached to the front door. A butler leads him into the shadows of the mansion and then once again, emphasize the fence with the demons/gargoyles on it. This first page emphasizes (and repeats) visual elements representing a certain type of subject matter, which builds on the curiosity of anyone that might have an interest in that type of subject matter.
- Characters. I know I didn't ask for them, but it's always a good idea to have a quick character sheet of recurring characters to send along with a script for the editor and all the artists to use as a reference. It doesn't have to be a detailed bible... just a short paragraph on each character to give a description of their look and personality. The artist can use it to start sketching and getting down the look for each of the characters that will be seen time and again, and the editor can use it to get up to speed on the characters before diving into the script. It's not critical to have one of these, but it can help make the production of the comic a bit easier for people involved.
- Titles. Aside from the Raptor script, I didn't see any title/credit boxes specified in the scripts (and I looked beyond the first page for these to make sure). With small press publishing, you can get around this by placing credits and title on the inside front cover, but you should try to specify a placement for title and credits somewhere in the first few pages. If you don't mention it in the script, you can't always expect the artist to leave room for it in the artwork.
And finally, the scripts. I created pdf documents for each one to preserve what it would actually look like when I go through a script (to show what I'd send the writer). If anyone has any problems with the pdfs, let me know, and I'll add some .rtf versions of the scripts to this.
Raptor
Impossible Outcomes
Intergalactic Wrestling Federation
Doc
Echidna
Next, I'll cover comments on the first five pages of two of these scripts. Which ones? You'll have to wait and see... |
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