by Matthew Russell - Posted 5 years ago
To all my writing vigilantes out there, welcome. We have
been focusing on pencilers and digital artist for so long that I haven’t had
much time to focus on my true passion with comics, the writing.
Today we are going to tackle some various ways to plan out
your comics. We will take you through everything from thinking up the
characters to actually getting it on paper.
Let’s pretend that you are coming up with an entirely new
series with new characters. For those that are tackling an existing character,
you may want to skip this step.
We need a Bible. This is not the King James version or the
Koran but a character bible. In this we will need EVERYTHING from character descriptions
to locations.
First let's list out everyone in the comic. Who are the main
characters, who are the players in the supporting roles. On our Downloads page
we will be posting some blank character descriptions sheets in the future.
Think of this like your D&D sheets.
We will want a very detailed description of each character
both physically and emotionally. This will help if you ever get stuck in a
situation. “What would (*blank) do?” return to your character sheet and it should
enlighten you. This will keep each character in character
the entire time.
Not only will you want their entire back story but you will
want physical traits as well. Have an artist go through and draw out the face,
the body physic. The way they move, everything. Remember Batman and Superman
move differently from Spider-Man and Hulk. This is not a DC v Marvel thing, it's
just how they move.
If your story is set in a fictional city, like Gotham for
instance, then you may want to include a map. If it is set in New York than a
map might only be optional as you can Google that.
Any way, you will want well thought out descriptions of each
major location. What is the apartment layout for our protagonist?
Do they work in a lab? Where are the windows? What does each
work station look like? Are they a comic artist? What does their studio look
like?
Space is a wonderful location. Another planet, a space
station, a space ship…Where are they.
The locations should almost be considered a character in and
of itself. They will breath life into your works. Batman just wouldn’t work in
a small town. Spiderman couldn’t swing in a desert environment. Let your
locations and landmarks shape your characters as they will begin to shape your
landmarks.
Now that we have our bible, we should always keep it open and
on hand while writing our stories. We have all our characters and locations set
and detailed so let's move onto the plot.
I love to look at everyone and try to figure out what they
have to gain from the story. What does the bad guy want? We don’t want to have
evil for the sake of evil. Characters like the Joker being the exception.
Everyone is the hero to their own stories. Now remember,
with comics, it is not all earth-shattering plots with cosmic level villains.
One of the most interesting comics is “My Friend Dahmer.” My
favorite comic movies is “Chasing Amy.” Neither of which has a brutal villain,
and they both just tell a compelling story.
This is something that I like to do for my own personal use.
Some may find it redundant and simply stick with the plot.
I have a graph that looks like a gnat chart. Each line
indicated where each character is and what they are doing.
This help me so that if I need to have a surprise ending, or
plot twist, I can trace the roots back so that it makes sense. I don’t want to have
a side character unmasked as the villain but earlier I had them meet.
A long time ago I was working on a script for a Star Trek
Series and I picked up this timeline habit from a friend. We started getting into
Section 31 (the Federation version of the CIA) and everything got gummed up.
A friend that writes a lot of “Fan Fiction” suggested that
and I now have an OCD need to do this with every project.
