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Why aren't you in San Diego? Don't you know that the biggest comic book convention in the entire universe is going on RIGHT NOW!
And where are you? What exactly do you think you're doing? Sitting in a chair? At a desk? Reading the inter-nets?
C'MON!
Okay. Obviously, there are a lot of people who can't afford to
fly out to San Diego for four days. Maybe it's the time off. Maybe it's
the money. And, as hard as it may be to believe, I'm sure there are a
lot of people out there who simply don't WANT to go to San Diego.
(I know of at least three: Warren Ellis, Osama Bin Laden, and the ghost of Hitler. Sadaam Hussein WOULD go, but we've got him locked up right now.)
That said, if you have the time, you have the money, and you
have the inclination, maybe you can hire the A--Wait, that's not right.
What I meant to say is, if you've got all those things, San Diego is
great.
Or, well... I imagine it'll be great. This will be my first
time at the biggest of all big shows. As this column goes live, I'll
actually be in the air, crossing the United States from New York to San
Diego.
A couple days ago, I scrolled through a list of all the panel
discussions, screenings, and other events scheduled for this year's
convention. I wrote out three pages worth of events! Sometimes three or
four per hour!
Now, I can't attend all of these things. I can't even attend
most of them. It's just nice knowing that at any given moment, there
are tons of cool things going on.
For instance, at 4 o'clock on Friday, will I go to Brian K. Vaugan's panel? Or Mike Mignola's? Or the TwoMorrow Publishing panel with Write! Now's
Danny Fingeroth? Or the WB! Animation panel? Or will I be on the
convention floor promoting Scryptic or one of my upcoming comics? Or
will I be meeting with a potential collaborator? Or scrambling to get
tickets to the Padres game?
Or, you know, stuck in an elevator with a pregnant woman about to give birth?
That's what's great about San Diego! You never know what's coming next!
(Probably. Again, I've never been there before, so I'm probably not the right person to ask.)
Provided the hotel I'm staying at isn't lying about having wi-fi, I should be making a few "Live from San Diego" updates on DrewMelbourne.com this weekend. (Including, if the stars align, a big announcement about a new comic series. Fingers crossed.)
So if you've never been to DrewMelbourne.com, or if you haven't been lately, or even if you were just there very recently, now's a great time to check it out. Now updated daily!
Did I mention DrewMelbourne.com yet?
What?
If you see my at the convention, be sure to say hi! I currently look like this:
But please! No jokes about the facial hair!
Another quick piece of business: Hopefully you've all read my interview with Hugh Sterbakov, the writer of Top Cow's latest hit series, Freshmen! FRESHMEN #1 is in stores now. Pick up a copy and tell us what you think!
Finally, because this is a column about WRITING comics and not about, um, VISITING comics BOOK CONVENTIONS--sorry, I know I really stretched the parallel structure there--here's a writing tip that you can use immediately:
| WRITING TIPS THAT YOU CAN USE IMMEDIATELY #2,415!
If a comic book story starts on page one and runs without ads, then the even numbered pages of the story will always fall on the left hand side of the page. That means you won't be able to see anything on the even numbered pages till you actually flip the page. Not so with the odd numbered pages. A reader might carelessly glance across both pages as he flips, spoiling any big shocks left for the odd numbered pages. It's always best to put all the big surprises on the even numbered page.
In fact, if you can set up a series of mini-cliffhangers at the bottom of each odd numbered page and pay-offs at the top of every even numbered page, that's sure to make your comic a real, well... page-turner.
NOTE: Advertising that interrupts the story can easily disrupt this pattern, so if you write for a publisher that uses interspersed ads, always doublecheck your assumptions with your editor!
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Drew Melbourne is the writer of the comic book series, Heroes of Tomorrow, and the web column, Think Like Tomorrow, which you just read. He was another comic that will hopefully be out in January, which does NOT have the word "tomorrow" in it, and which he hopes to be able to formally announce soon... ish.
Oh, and... DrewMelbourne.com!
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