THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CONVENTION THURSDAY, 1993

MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN COMICS!

Something a little more interesting is the Small Press
Syndicate, based in Cincinnati. The Small Press Syndicate is
"a group of self-publishers dedicated to publishing their
own comics and helping promote and distribute them." They
quote Neil Gaiman as calling them "fun and energetic." Would
Death call them perky?

In the small print (so small, in fact, that it's going to be
unreadable to those without cybervision), it says that
membership is "not automatic in some cases. Write for
details." My guess is that they're deliberately keeping out
Cartoonists Against Crime. If you do want more info, write
to J. Kevin Carrier, Small Press Syndicate, 8913 Eldora Dr.,
Cincinnati, OH 45236.



MOTIVATION IS SOMETHING THAT KEEPS YOU GOING

What was I waiting for?  Keeping Yourself Motivated Until
You Break In. Turns out this is actually about breaking in
to comics, but I think I'll stay. Societaly, there's no
difference.

The title quote is from Marcus David. He advises artists not
to take it negatively when an editor tells you your work
sucks. Trying to get into coloring in Marvel, he continually
sent in samples, and continually was told it was "good, but
not the Marvel Style (TM)." So he virtually copied the
coloring from a contemporary issue of Alpha Flight. This
time, the return read "one of the best color samples we've
seen, but not quite the Marvel Style." Of course, we've
suspected this all along. This was back when the Flight let
in undesirables.

From Dan Chichester: "Ninety-five percent of the time you're
working alone in a room you hate because you're there so
often." Dan's a writer, you see. A lot of editors, he says,
well, there were no editors in the room, so perhaps he
didn't mean that to spread around. Suffice it to say that
you've got to be your own worst critic. And when you're a
newcomer submitting, you have to be as good as the best, not
better than the average. And when you're in? Well, editors
feel that they need to earn their pay. They'd better edit
something, whether it needs it or not.

Steve Mattson is a penciller. He started out like most kids
do-he drew what he liked, and let the rest happen. He liked
ray-guns, helmets, and armor, and was torn apart by editors.
His art included great ray-guns, but horrible anatomy.
Nowadays, of course, Steve would be hired as an assistant to
Name Withheld.

This was supposed to be about keeping inspired, not braving
the jungles of the editorial offices. Dan says to "keep
looking for the things that inspire you." Then, the topic
turned to proposals. Salesmanship is the key, he says. And
proposals should be one page, double-spaced. Otherwise, 90%
goes right in the circular file, and the rest goes into the
toilet. Dan has been an editor. Is this his experience from
that side? A one-page double-spaced proposal is a work of
visual art as much as it is written. Each line is important,
and the whole must show that you can articulate yourself
clearly. "Editors," says Steve, "should be busy people."
They're not going to look at lengthy proposals. Fifty
percent of the writers trying to break in don't have an idea
at all. The rest can't articulate their ideas.

How do you condense a complicated six issue series? Every
single line has to sing, says Steve. And Dan reiterates that
you have to keep it to one page. "That's the key-if you send
in more than one page, they won't read it." He then went on
to explain that Terminator 2 and Aliens 3 were complex
movies and could be reduced to one page. Remember that Dan
has been an editor, so possibly his brain is just a little
fried on this subject. And make sure you tell them
everything in that one page! "They want to see that you have
figured it out. Don't leave them hanging."

Dan tells about a time working at Marvel: a prospective
writer took the chips out of musical greeting cards-forty of
them, one to each editor. A grand plan that failed
miserably: instead of going off in the offices, they went
off in the mail cart. Those chips were durable. You could
stomp 'em and they'd keep on going. The disposal was singing
until garbage day. But, he says, it was the right idea. "Be
shameless!"

Work with an artist, says Steve to potential writers. But
all the good artists already have writers. You have to learn
about art: learn enough so that you can detect potential.
This, so the story goes, is how Mike Baron found Steve Rude.
What about writer-artists? "Check your pride at the door,"
Dan points out. "Getting published is a great motivating
factor. Paychecks are good too."

Steve's cat pays the price for Steve's art. Steve recommends
allotting at least 10 minutes a day to do nothing but
create-write, draw, color, whichever you're aiming for. Do
it for ten minutes, no less, and do it constantly, even if
you can't think of anything. Write nonsense if you have to.
And when you hear that plaintive meow, "the cat needs to be
let out, but I can't let him out, because I still have three
minutes to go."  Good luck, Tabby. I recommend blues.
"There's never any new rock'n roll songs written-they're all
old blues songs."

Dan advised ritualism. "Don't light candles or sacrifice
animals," but set up a place to inspire yourself, a shrine
to your creativity. An art table or writing desk, surrounded
by things that inspire you, such as art prints, movie
posters, inspiring quotes, and Understanding Comics. Scott
McCloud is everywhere today, and we'll soon be sacrificing
animals to him.

While "the smaller companies are becoming bigger companies
anyway," Marcus David advises that you've a better chance of
getting in, and a better chance of getting feedback, from a
smaller company. And a parting piece of advice from Steve:
"Don't ignore assistant editors; they wield a lot of power
in the office, and they eventually become editors."




=========
THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CONVENTION, Friday, 1993
                              
STAR*REACH

Saw Barb Rausch at the Star*Reach booth. In the comics
field, she's currently working solely on the Barbi comic,
but she's also doing work for Cut-Out Doll magazines. She
was handing out samples of the dolls; my roommate's niece
will love 'em, I'm sure. I wouldn't play with dolls.

Star*Reach seems to be reaching out. They had three
handouts, just like BMI does.

              Star*Reach Submission Guidelines
                              
     If you would like to submit a manuscript, please
     do the following:
     
     * All story ideas, scripts, or proposals have to
      be typed.
      
     * On the cover page, include name, address, and
      phone number.
      
     * On a separate page, list any comic book credits
      you have.
      
     * The format of the submission should include:
      
     * A "high concept" (2-3 sentence them) of your
      project.
      
     * A detailed plot synopses (2-3 pages).
      
     * Character descriptions and motivations (major
      and minor characters).
      
     * Short sample of scriptwriting (2-3 pp), if your
      work hasn't been published before in comics, or
      an existing comic if published.
      
     Note: If the package consists of more than 10
          pages, it will not be considered.
          
There you are. Star*Reach is popularizing the concept of
"fun bucks."


"IT'S ALL EGO-BOO"

Daryl Mallett's seminar on "What to do after you finish
writing" focused mostly on novel writing. Daryl is an editor
and a writer. Credits include Star Trek and Cannibal Women
in the Avocado Jungle of Death. He has appeared in four
shows of The Next Generation, after auditioning for Wesley's
part.

Who should you write for? "Anyone who pays you. When I
started out, I wanted to be a science fiction writer. Now,
I'm a writer, period." Computers are a wonderful invention.
"I used to be able to write a novel in a year," he says,
"now that I've got a computer, it takes three years."

"Don't criticize yourself," he says in contradiction to
yesterday's panel. "Write it and have faith in what you're
doing. You are going to be your own worst critic." Of
course, yesterday, that was a good thing.

"Don't ever ask, 'where do you get your ideas?' If you have
to ask, you need to leave right now."

For critiques, you "show it to another writer." But then,
"you send it to an editor. Writers won't buy your material."
As an editor, Daryl promoted himself by writing promos,
announcing appearances at conventions for himself.
Established writers would say to him "Daryl Mallet! I know
your name. What have you written?" "Oh, press releases,
about myself."

"Know your market." Louis L'Amour used to go to bookstores,
unannounced, as he traveled, surprising and pleasing the
bookstore owners.

On format, he recommends J. Michael Straczynski's Complete
Guide to Scriptwriting. It covers television, film, and
plays. "Format major important," he tersely states. You want
it on white bond paper. "Amateurism is unacceptable.
Learning is." And, "don't be original! You want your
manuscript to look like anyone else's. If I have Ray
Bradbury's book in there and your book, you don't want me to
tell the difference." Presumably, of course, this assumes
you're not Ray Bradbury.

"Writers have to have cats. You can't write in a vacuum, but
90% of the time that's what it is." You have to have a place
set aside just for you. "Shakespeare didn't have a nine to
five. That's why he wrote such great shit."

When submitting, he says he submits to people he knows
first, people who helped him. Then he does it in order of
higher paying markets.

Finally, "I have Asimov's disease. I want my name on
everything."


WRITING IN AN ART-ORIENTED BUSINESS

The panelists were Len Wein, Mark Evanier, Mike Barr, Peter
David, Steve Gerber, and Marv Wolfman. I would've gone to
any panel they were on, even if the discussion was
genetically breeding turnips.

Len: "I don't promise to answer honestly, but I will
     answer."

Mark: "Is there anyone in this room who did not create
      Cable?"
      
Peter David did a vamping dance to buy time for Marv
Wolfman, who was so dedicated that he risked a heart attack
running to this panel. He was out of breath for five
minutes, though Peter didn't dance that long.

Marv: "For a long time, people bought comics because they
      liked the characters, the stories. They got involved
      with the lives of the people, with what was going to
      happen next month. It seems to have become 'who's
      drawing the book' instead of 'what's in the book.'"
      
Marv: "Let's start from the other end. Mike Barr, is there
      anyone to your right?"
      
Mike: (looking right) "Not in this room."

Mark: "There's Rush Limbaugh."

Peter: "My name is Peter David, and I created Cable."

I think X-Factor was based on these guys. Let's hope they
survive the cross-over.

The panel count has fallen in recent years. Steve says that
the amount of content has been cut: even during his last
days at Marvel, "a page was a scene." Now, a scene covers 4
to 5 pages. Films and television also tell less story.
Movies often don't have any stories anymore; they're just a
chase scene or a big fight. Where have we heard this before?

Mike believes that this evolved out of the Marvel style of
writing, going from plot to character. Mark pointed out that
Carl Barks frequently spent a couple of pages doing very
simple things, such as "getting Scrooge's foot out of a
jar." In DC at the time, stories weren't necessarily plot-
driven; some were trick driven. "The story wasn't about
Jimmy Olsen. It was about the Trick." And the story was a
vehicle to get to the trick.

Comic book stories had to have an ending eventually, said
Len. We're not telling stories anymore; we're doing soap
operas. If there's a choice between advancing the story and
advancing a character, we'll choose to advance the
character. First, stories were paramount; then, with Marvel,
characters were. Now, nothing is.

Marv had trouble with his return to Dracula. The artist
changed everything, to the point where there was no longer
any plot there. Marv would find it impossible to make sense
out of it, and would clip his original dialogue and script
to the panel and send it back. Only one page was ever
redrawn, however: and this was because Marv was somehow sent
the original. So he erased the last page except for the
first panel, in hopes of getting an actual ending.

Do artists have a better time of it? Do writers need
artists, while artists don't need writers? Writers can
function without artists, points out Peter: it's called
novels.

Commenting about the success of Groo, Len joked about Mark
and Sergio recycling their plots, "But geez, that's only one
story." Mark popped back, "that's a lot more than most
comics."

Marv outlined a scripting technique he used once to give the
artist more freedom, while hopefully retaining the writer's
plot: He wrote the plot at the top of the script page, and
the dialogue at the bottom, and simply asked that the
dialogue be able to be fitted to the penciling.

Peter advised that you should cater to what the artist is
going to like. Todd McFarlane liked machinery. So, Peter
called for machinery when Todd was on the Hulk. Dale McKeown
liked drawing hot babes. So, Marlo came back when Dale came
onto the book. And the current artist hates drawing
buildings. This was part of the impetus for sending the Hulk
into space. This, Peter and Mark pointed out, gets better
art out of the artist.

Peter did let slip the true origin of the Hulk stories:
"Bobby Chase hasn't quit, she enjoys writing the book."




=======
THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CONVENTION, Saturday, 1993

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

Bradley Parker, Janet Tait, and Peter Glaskowski decided to
show up in person; Matthew Costello and the rest were
presumably there in virtual versions. Peter, who once worked
for SuperMac, likes to use words like 'disublimation.'

Brad is an artist. He's done work for computer games, as
well as standalone fantasy art. He uses Photoshop, and
prints out at Nash Editions, owned by Graham Nash of Crosby,
Stills, and Nash. They did their printouts at 300 dpi. He'd
done the drawing at 72. Gosh, it's 11 by 17 on the computer
screen. Why's it turn out to be 3 by 5 on the printout?

Doing art on the computer to sell brings interesting points.
He did a limited run of 50 copies of the pieces on display.
But, "there is no original. The original is a bunch of
electrons."

It's a completely new area, says Janet. It changes the
definition, and even the usefulness of the concept, of
'originals.'

The Macintosh has been involved with color printing and
color pre-press for a lot longer than the PC has. This makes
it, according to Peter, better suited for the problems of
converting screen art to printed art. Specialized programs
to match the two mediums exist, currently, only there.
Computer color is different than 'real' color. Computer
screens produce color; in the 'real world,' color is
reflected. "What you can't do on a computer is mimic the way
your printout will look under a different light source." For
hard copies, printers will bring you outside to check if the
color is correct. "Sunlight," says Bradley, "is still the
truest light."

Things are beginning to move to electronic versions. Project
Gutenberg has moved thousands of non-copyrighted works to
electronic format, and has millions more in plans. A Hard
Day's Night is available in QuickTime format on CD-ROM, in 8-
bit gray scale. There's a video backbone on the net, though
it's expensive. Text is easier, of course, Peter points out:
we don't need to worry about resolutions. If we change
formats, all we need to do is re-read them into the new
format. For graphics, if we read it into a format that
becomes obsolete, we need to re-scan from the original if we
want to gain advantage of the higher technology.

We don't know what we'll have on our desks in the future,
but we know what we won't have. We won't be able to predict
the weather. We won't have artificial intelligence.

"The concept of electronic publishing is that we won't read
printouts," says Peter, but the "best monitors are 150 dpi.
Linotronics are 2,500." Most monitors are 28 to 40 dpi.

Adobe has come out with Adobe Acrobat, which allows us to
look at a document regardless of what application produced
it. It's currently available on Windows and the Macintosh.
Soon, it'll be available for DOS and Unix.



MARK EVANIER ON WRITING COMICS

"There are not a lot of rules in writing anything." Mark
Evanier has a personal crusade in the comics industry:
popularizing lots of different ways to do comics. "How much
time do we have? An hour? Whatever it is won't be enough."

"There's no place to learn comics in general. If you go up
to Marvel, they'll teach you how to do what they need this
month. They'll talk about style, shading, lines. What
they're really saying is draw like John Byrne. At DC, you'll
get the same thing, only they want you to draw like George
Perez."

Where do you get your ideas? All the good ideas come from
inside. Write what you care about, what you're passionate
about.

Do not be a comic book writer. Be a writer that writes comic
books. "Right now there's about eleven people who, if they
don't like your work, you won't get a job." And, don't
shoehorn your stories into comic books if they won't fit. If
they're short stories, write them as short stories. If
they'll fit best as a novel, write a novel. Write plays,
poetry, or whatever other format works best for the story.

THE BASICS OF THE FIELD: SCRIPTING

THE TWO-COLUMN METHOD: In the beginning, this is the format
that was used. In the left column, the panel was described.
In the right column, the dialogue was given. For example:

PANEL 1. Winnie-the-Pooh crushes       BEES: ARRGH! TELL SUZY I DIED
the bees in his hand.                        WITH MY BOOTS ON!
                                       WINNIE: I'M SHORT, FAT, PROUD
                                               OF THAT.

PANEL 1. Winnie-the-Pooh eats          BEES: NO! HELP ME!
the bees with a look of extreme.       WINNIE: TASTES LIKE CHICKEN!
pleasure.                              SFX: CRUNCH


THE SCREENPLAY METHOD: This is probably the second most
popular comic book writing method. It's very similar to
scriptwriting for the screen. You describe each panel in a
row, with the dialogue beneath each panel. For example:

PAGE 1.

PANEL 1. WINNIE-THE-POOH sees PRIME punch PIGLET right out
of the comic panel. POOH is horrified, PRIME is pissed, and
PIGLET is gone.

PRIME: TAKE THAT, YOU LUMP OF CARBONOUS TEXTILE!

PIGLET: AAAAAAAAAH!

WINNIE-THE-POOH:   OH DEAR! WHAT IS THAT MUSCLE-BOUND
                   CRETIN DOING TO POOR LITTLE PIGLET?
              
PANEL 2. WINNIE-THE-POOH ducks behind a telephone pole. You
can see his fat butt sticking out on either side.

WINNIE-THE-POOH: THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR...
              

THE FUNNY-ANIMAL METHOD: This is probably the most commonly
used method, since it's used for most funny-animal comics.
Carl Barks wrote this way. Disney uses it, Archie uses it,
and Harvey uses it. The writer draws the panels on an 8.5 by
11 page, and sketches the characters in, then draws the
balloons and puts the dialogue in the balloons. The
penciller is not going to follow your layout. But it will
give you an idea of what fits. It forces you to think in
terms of simple pictures. "If you are writing something to
be spoken, you would read it aloud. If you can't read
something you wrote aloud, a professional actor can't. If
you can't sketch your own script out, a professional
penciller can't."


THE MARVEL METHOD: This goes back to the forties. Writers at
Marvel would get behind. The artists would call them up,
needing the money, asking, "where's my script?!" They'd talk
about the idea. The penciller would draw it, and the writer
would dialogue it. In the sixties, this was standard
practice between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee and
Steve Ditko. Stan would tell Jack what was going to happen
that issue, Jack would draw it, put notes in the margins
about possible dialogue, and then Stan would write the
dialogue.

THE MODIFIED MARVEL METHOD I: In this version, the writer
writes a full script, telling the penciller the full plot.
The writer tries to give the artist as much input as
possible. The artist then chooses what to draw, and the
writer writes dialogue for it. Mark doesn't like this
method, though, and most writers he knows don't like it. You
end up with a co-writer. If your penciller is Jack Kirby or
Steve Ditko, a great comic can result. But it's still not
your story.

THE MODIFIED MARVEL METHOD II: Mark didn't talk about this
one, but it came up at one of the previous panels on a
previous day. Marv Wolfman prefers to write the dialogue
along with the script, but some pencillers simply won't work
from a panel by panel breakdown. So, for a while, he tried
this: writing the plot for the comic page at the top of the
script page, and putting the dialogue on the bottom, and
telling the artist to draw what's necessary, and to make
sure that the penciling allows the dialogue. In general,
Marv doesn't like this any more than Mark likes Method I,
but it does overcome some of the problems with that method.


THE MODIFIED FUNNY ANIMAL METHOD: Back when he was working
in funny animals, he was writing the Bugs Bunny comic, using
the Funny Animal Method. He was way ahead with the scripts
and Bugs was popular, so they went from eight times a year
to monthly without telling him. "We were way ahead of
schedule, I thought." Then he got a call telling him they
were out of scripts, and needed more.

This combines the Screenwriting method with the funny animal
method. Rule the page out, like normal for the funny animal
method. Usually in funny animals it's a four-tier page, with
eight panels and one double panel. Script in the action
instead of sketching it. If the action is difficult to
describe, sketch it. This forces economical panel
descriptions. You can't talk more than there is space in the
panel.

Which method should you use? He recommends the screenwriter
method. If you're going to be the writer, instead of a
collaborator, this makes it your comic.

"There are writers who try to impress editors by making
their panel descriptions poetic." Give the artist your
basics. What's happening. Who are the people. How are they
dressed. Remind the penciller about continuity, if you feel
it necessary. If Batman's cape is ripped, for example, the
penciller might need to be reminded. Don't tell them too
much, but if you have to make a choice, tell them too much.

Make things easy on letterers. "I've had letterers get all
the dialogue for page 7 on page 6." Double space the
dialogue. If they can miss something, they will. They're in
a hurry and underpaid.

Comic books are one of the only two mediums that use thought
balloons. Musicals are the other. Don't be too reliant on
them. Save them for when you need them. While people may
lecture themselves in their thoughts, or scold themselves,
they don't generally tell themselves facts they already know
just to bring readers up to par.

Mark worked on Welcome Back, Kotter, and some variety shows.
These teach you to deal with deadlines. "They'll come up to
you and say, 'We're going on in twenty minutes. We need the
monologue re-written.' This isn't a time for writer's
block."

Topical jokes are a great idea, but you have to be careful.
Sometimes you've got a four to five month delay. It's good
to take chances and try to predict what's going to happen.
With Mighty Magnor, they're doing better. He handed Sergio
the script today, and it'll go to the printer in a week.

DOING YOUR STORY

"I was looking at the comics I was writing, and I wasn't in
them." He and Sergio Aragones write Groo, and it's fun. But
he also has some stories all his own he wants to tell. How
do you choose these stories? Ask yourself what you have an
opinion about. What makes you happy, angry, or passionate?

When he was working on Blackhawk, the sales were so low
nobody knew it was being published. Even DC didn't know they
were publishing it. Back then, DC was much more security
conscious. He was out to dinner with one of the head honchos
and Marv Wolfman, and played a joke: "The secret is out," he
said. "The secret is out." "What? What is it?" asked the DC
staffer. "They know you're publishing Blackhawk."

"Marv Wolfman passed an entire diet 7-Up through his nose."

Before his comics were so personal, he got his ideas from
looking at other comics. "Bugs Bunny hasn't been in Istanbul
recently. Let's send him to Istanbul."

He cautions us "never" to write autobiographically. Use the
feelings, the emotions, and the energy, but don't write your
life story into comic books. Don't try to put your voice
into other people's characters. Control your own characters,
and use them. He believes that "in five or ten years, going
out to write Superman or Batman will be the lowest jobs
available. The hot jobs will be doing your own stuff."

The best comics are made by people who are friends. Find
some friends to work with, to do your art. This is how Mike
Baron and Steve Rude started.

There are two ways to break into Marvel: have a friend on
the Marvel staff, or come in via small publishers. Since
coming to this convention, he's "been invited to work for
five new universes that haven't been announced yet." This is
a case of art imitating life, as anyone who's seen issue 3
of Magnor will recognize.

You cannot be the Batman or Superman writer for DC. Five
people are writing Batman at any time.

He has these recommendations for books: A book called
Auditioning by Michael somebody, for actors. It talks a lot
about stuff that's applicable to our dialogue. The Season by
William Goldman, in which he examines why certain Broadway
plays during a single season failed, and others succeeded.
He also recommends as much Carl Barks and Harvey Kurtzmann
as you can find. Look for the Silver and Golden Age
reprints, and the Dr. Strange reprint. "Understanding Comics
I disagree with greatly, but it's fascinating to read. We
have so little in this field."

"I don't think you'll learn a lot about writing by reading
recent comics." Don't try to replicate Sandman! Swamp Thing
was Alan Moore's best work at DC. Mark's not a big Watchmen
fan, and feels The Killing Joke was the worst comic in
twenty years. Read anybody you like: they'll inspire you.