1. The state of the comics industry today.
For much of the past 40 years -- since the days Stan Lee and Jack Kirby saw Fantastic Four first hit the stands -- writers were usually current or former staff people. At Marvel, for example, the "Marvel Age" roster of scripters were Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Gary Friedrich, and so on. They were all on staff as editors or assistants; the biggest exception was writer/artist Larry Lieber, who was the editor-in-chief's brother.

Today, the situation has changed.
• Image Comics (Image Central) welcomes comics with "strong personal version" but requires a completed drawn and lettered first issue for consideration.
• Vertigo Press (a division of DC Comics) offers a variety of genres and works with writers all over the world.
• Marvel Comics under new editor-in-chief Joe Quesada is opening its doors to edgier talent.
• Such smaller companies as Oni Press, Caliber Comics, and even internet-based publishers are openly courting fresh talent.

2) The love and lure of comics.
Writers who understand that comics are a medium, not a genre, are often invigorated by the notion that they can tell stories in a manner that combines the best from text fiction and from screenwriting. Comics offer their own advantages and disadvantages in storytelling.

Thinking visually: Much as with screenplays, comic book scripts describe establishing shots, and all the major and smaller character "theatrical actions" that go on. The writers has to SHOW, not tell. Dialogue is tight, clever, terse...much like a good movie or TV script.

Introspection: Unlike a TV show or movie, where narration and a character's THOUGHTS can seem hokey or intrusive, they seem natural in a comic book story -- even more so, in some instances, than in a short story or novel. In fact, where a text story might appear confusing revealing the innermost thoughts of seven or eight characters plus a narrator in, say, a 20-page story chapter, such revelations are right at home in a comic book story.

3) Some advice to would bes.
• Learn the forms for plot format and script format. Some variations exist, but don't re-invent the wheel here. Editors don't want to deal with scripts that are hard to decipher.

• Be concise -- If you submit a proposal for a new project, some visuals help. But mostly, don't bog down a proposal with too much text. A brief pitch, some quick character info, an outline where the story goes, and out. Leave editors wanting to know more; if they want to see more, they'll tell you.

• Don't give up -- It took me 10 years to break in, and I've stayed with it for 19 years. It took a while, but it was worth it.

• Don't compare your work with the worst guy and say, "I can do better than that." EVERYBODY else they have is better than their worst guy. You don't want an editor saying, "Congratulations, you don't suck as badly as my worst guy." Strive to set your sights for being better than their best guy, because it's a buyer's market and you have to bring something to the table the editors can't get anywhere else.

• Read comics and learn from them. Study the limitations and unique opportunities in storytelling. Watch how pacing differs among creative teams; how wide or narrow panels control a reader's sense of time; what to put in and what to leave out, to tell a coherent story beginning to end in 22 or so pages, or how to serialize a story over several issues while understanding that every issue is a first issue to somebody.

A comment on any or all of the above, plus whatever else you might have to say.

Never, ever assume comics are "just" a children's medium. They're no more so than TV, or film, or novels, or short stories, or audiodrama. Anne Rice, Stephen King, Andrew Vachss, and many other bigtime novelists have had their work appear in comics. Comics have won Pulitzers. This year's Pulitzer Prize winner was a novel ABOUT comics.

The next time you see some reviewer claim, "This [movie/TV show] is comic book writing," smile to yourself knowing just how good that CAN be, in the right hands.

-- David Campiti
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