This week, issue 8 of Fear Itself: The Fearless came out, so let’s give it a go!

This issue was co-plotted by Matt Fraction, Chris Yost, and myself. I handled the script. Paul Pelletier and Mark Bagley did the pencils. Danny Miki and Andy Lanning inked the book. Matt Wilson did colors. This is the Part 8 of a 12-issue limited series.

• Cover. First off, how ’bout that cover, huh? I’m frequently asked for suggestions on cover images, and I keep it very loose. I think for this one my suggestion was “Bring on the Bad Guys!” Art Adams once again knocked it out of the park. I wish I had thought of using “Bring on the Bad Guys” as the chapter title.
• Pages 1 – 6. There are two written versions of the first scene of this issue. When I scripted the first draft, I thought Sin had escaped at the end of Fear Itself. In my original version, we found her wandering aimlessly through an alley. She was weeping, weakened from her defeat. A group of ruffians recognized her and decided to take justice into their own hands. At first, she seems like a lamb heading to the slaughter, but her killer instinct kicks in and she murders the ruffians. That’s when the D.O.A. shows up to bring her into the fold. After I wrote that, I realized I wasn’t sure if  Sin escaped or not. I’m pretty sure I wrote this on the weekend or late at night, because I couldn’t get confirmation from the others right away. So, I went ahead and wrote the version with Sin being transported to some classified prison. I sent both version to editorial. I actually liked the second version better.
• Page 4, Panel 2. Sometimes, I get caught up in research on the smallest things. I must have spent 30 minutes looking at helicopter call signs for the one panel where the pilots reference “Gundog and Badcat.”
• Page 5. And… yeah… those are Deathwings from ROM attacking those helicopters.
• Page 7. Somewhere along the line, I read that Valkyrie keeps her sword and pegasus in some extra-dimensional pocket. That brought me to the idea that Valkyrie has her own pocket dimension hangout. This ends up being pretty important to the story as a whole.
• Page 9. “And it’s a dwarf’s prerogative to enjoy his misery while he can.” I’d be willing to bet I heard that in a D&D campaign at some point.
• Pages 10 – 12. At this point in the series, I need to spend a little time with some exposition. This issue as a whole is a little less “actiony” than others in the series, but sometimes you just have to have the bad guys reveal a little about their plans.
• Page 12, Panels 5 and 6. I knew it wouldn’t fly when I wrote it, but the original dialogue here was “You may be the Son of Satan… but when it comes to this outfit, you’re just another bitch.”
• Page 13. Again, talk about bringing on the bad guys! Most of the villains in the front row are existing characters. The rest came form my vague suggestions and Mark Bagley’s twisted imagination. They look so cool, though, that I have to give them some more play in the future, don’t I? I really like the idea of the D.O.A. becoming this army of creepy villains. The existing characters in the panel are Chimera, Master Pandemonium, Wildpryde, Witchfire, Yith, and Venomm.
• Page 15. C’mon. If I’m writing a story with X-Men and Valkyries, I have to include Dani Moonstar. And Paul Pelletier makes her look so awesome here. Believe me, if I could have gotten a Demon Bear in this issue, my life would have been complete. Deathwings and Demon Bears? That would have been comic book gold!
• Page 19. I love Emma… but I also love her being called “stupid” by Dani.
• Page 20. This is the beginning of a match-up I wanted to write since the early days of conceptualizing this series. If Storm had been naked… with wisps of clouds protecting her modesty… it might have been even better! Deathwings, Demon Bears, and naked Storm? Boom! My head would have exploded with nostalgic awesomeness!

]]> http://www.cullenbunn.com/2012/01/25/snikt/feed/ 3 http://www.cullenbunn.com/2012/01/22/plot-to-script-this-is-how-i-do-it/ http://www.cullenbunn.com/2012/01/22/plot-to-script-this-is-how-i-do-it/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:40:39 +0000 cullenbunn http://www.cullenbunn.com/?p=2908

Yeah… Sometimes it feels like that.

I’m frequently asked how I go about plotting and pacing a comic book script. My process has changed over the years, and I continue to shake up my methods and try new things. Still, there are some core steps I usually take that seem to work well for me. They might not work for anyone else, but if you’d like a behind-the-scenes look at how I work, here’s your chance.

What I’m presenting is a glimpse at how I planned issue 5 of The Sixth Gun. Much of my planning, as you’ll see, is done in a Moleskine notebook (sometimes more than one). In the early stages, I’m not concerned about the notes looking neat or being well-organized or even being all that legible. I’m more concerned with getting the pacing right, figuring out dialogue that says a little bit about the characters and moves the story forward, and making sure the issue is going to be enjoyable on its own and as part of the longer story.

Step 1 – Planning the Scenes

For our purposes here, let’s assume I already know what I want the issue to be about before I get to this stage. Honestly, sometimes I don’t. In those cases, this step becomes one helluva brainstorming session and a battering ram through writer’s block.

I start out by listing all of the scenes I’d like to appear in the book in a perfect world. I don’t worry about how many pages I have to work with (yet) and I don’t worry about the order in which the scenes will appear. I just want to list all of the story beats I’d like to include.

After I have the scenes listed, I draw two columns.

In the first column, I write a number representing how many pages I think the scene will take in the book. At this stage, I’m still not worrying about how many pages I’ll have in that issue. This is just a starting point. It helps me figure out which scenes need more “weight” than others.

In the second column, I add up all the page counts for the scenes. What I end up with, usually, is about 50 pages worth of scenes for a 22-page book.

So the final step (and often a painful one) is to go back and start reducing page counts. Sometimes I have to go through this several times, trimming a page out here and there. Sometimes, I need to combine scenes or cut scenes altogether to make it work.

In the end, though, I’ll have scenes that fit the issue I’m writing.

Usually, these scene breakdowns are much messier than this. I must have had an easy time with this one! Still, you’ll notice that I had to reduce the page counts on almost every scene. I also ended up scrapping the  ”Drake gets Death’s guns” scene. I let that play out off-panel, and the issue was better for it.

Step 2 – Planning the Page Turns

For a book with ads (most Marvel and DC books for example) this step isn’t important. But for a book that has no ads… a book for which I have control over what happens on “the turn of the page”… I slave over this. I try to make sure big reveals and scene changes happen when the reader flips a page. I find it to be an effective way of enhancing the reader’s experience. I’ve changed entire books around because the page turns weren’t working the way I wanted.

It’s during this step that I put the scenes I’ve planned into the order they’ll appear in the issue. The scenes don’t always appear in chronological order. I try to order them in the way that’s going to give the story the most “punch.”

Step 3 – Roughing the Script

Some writers might go directly into scripting at this point, but I like a little more of a safety net. For me, the more prep work I do early on, the less time I have to spend during the actual scripting. If the story is clear once I sit down at the computer, I can devote more energy to “painting a picture” for the editors and artists. Obviously, I do a lot of work in longhand before I sit down at the computer. I like this because I can do the heavy lifting while sitting on the couch or watching my kid play at the park or while having a margarita.

I keep it pretty short and sweet at this point. Just a brief outline of what’s going to happen in each panel. In this case, it’s succinct enough that I can get three comic pages on one page of the notebook.

I don’t worry much about perfection at this stage. Perfection’s a myth created by people who don’t want you to finish a project. I don’t slow down too much for corrections. You’ll notice that I decided to flip panels 4.3 and 4.4 at some point while mapping them out. I just drew a couple of arrows to indicate that.

While I’m outlining the panel breakdown, I’ll often think of brief bits of dialogue. I’ll usually just go ahead and write them down in the margins or on the back of a page so I don’t forget. In this case, while outlining one of the final scenes of the issue, I stumbled on some dialogue for that scene and a scene that appeared much earlier. You’ll also notice that at some point my page numbering changed. For a little while, Page 23 vanished entirely!

Step 4 – Dialogue Brainstorming

Dialogue is tough for me. I want it to “sound” right, convey something about the character speaking, and push the story forward. As with the scene and panel breakdowns, doing a little pre-work on dialogue only helps me when the chips are down. This often works a lot like free-writing. I just pick one exchange, no matter where it will appear in the issue, and start writing it. One usually leads to another pretty smoothly.

This is some of the dialogue from the exchange between Drake and the General at the end of issue 5. I’m not gonna lie. Sometimes I sound these out and speak in the voice of the character (I do a  mean General Hume). The dialogue will often change once I get to the script, but this gives me a solid foundation to build on.

Step 5 – Scripting!

It’s all been leading up to this point. It’s time to sit at the computer and do the actual work of scripting the issue. If I’ve done everything else, this should be gravy.

My script format has changed over the years. I’m always tweaking it to try to find a better way to present the story. But all of the versions I’ve used started with me looking over one of Greg Rucka’s Queen and Country scripts and trying to copy his style. Someone once said my scripts read like technical instructions in terms of the format. You be the judge. They work for me.

In terms of detail, I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve seen scripts that are really sparse, and I’ve seen scripts that have pages and pages of detail. For mine, I want to use enough detail to get my idea across while leaving plenty of room for collaboration with the artist. I tend to use some prose-like details here and there in order to convey some of the mood I’m going for. In the end, I want the script to be fun for the editor and the artist to read.

The script for Page 1 of the issue. You should be able to compare this to the panel outline I showed you earlier… and the pages of finished art Brian Hurtt turned in based on the script.When you look at the final art, you’ll notice that Brian made some changes from the script on the last panel of this page. That kind of stuff happens. Most of the time, Brian calls me or shoots me an e-mail with a suggested change. But he doesn’t need to do so most of the time. Part of working in comics is trusting your collaborators.

Format-wise, this script is pretty close to what I use currently. The biggest difference is that I’d never break a panel at the end of the page these days. I’d rather do a page break, leave a little note that the page is continued, and move the entire panel to the next page. It’s a quirky thing for me.

Another quirky thing for me: I like to indicate what is making the SFX. It’s a little unnecessary, but I like to think it gives the letterer a little help in how to present some of those SFX.

How long is a typical script? Here’s the answer! For a 24-page comic, this script was 50 pages. Some are longer. Some are shorter. You’ll find that earlier scripts are much longer because I spend more time in the description of characters and key locations.

I still love this exchange between Drake and the General.

I don’t do a lot of splash pages. I usually have too much story to get to. But in some cases a splash page is just needed.

Step 6 – Artist, Take it Away!

Now, I’m skipping an important element. The editing phase. There’s every possibility that the editor is going to come back with a few notes. At that point, it’s hopefully just a matter of tweaking a few panels or pieces of dialogue here and there. I’ve seen some notes, though, that have taken the whole thing back to the beginning.

Assuming editorial signs off on the script, it heads to the artist. The fun here is waiting to see what the artist does with your script. Enjoy it!

Page 1 – Notice the difference in the script and the final art. Brian changed the last panel of this page and the first panel of the next.

Page 2

Page 23

Page 24

Remember How I Said I’m Always Trying Different Stuff?

Way back when, I posted this somewhere. Once upon a time, I tried to outline pages of comics using a notebook and a bunch Post-It Notes. Each page of the notebook represented a page in the comic. Each Post-It represented a panel. That way, I could move stuff around and reorganize with ease. This was actually a fun way of working on a comic, but it took a little more time.

This shot is from my notes on the 6th issue of the series. You’ll notice I used yellow Post-Its for panels and blue Post-Its for bits of dialogue.

I Hope You’ve Found This Helpful or Interesting

Every writer approaches their work differently. While this method works for me, it might not be helpful for anyone else. If you feel like it, give it a shot. You might find bits and pieces of my process that help you out. Or this discussion of my process might lead you to develop something completely different. Either way, I hope this has given you an interesting look into how I go about writing one of my scripts.

If you have questions, send them my way and I’ll try to answer them.

• Monster Librarian has chosen Crooked Hills as one of the top reads for kids of 2012. They went so far as to give the book special recognition as being reviewed highly by more than one of their reviewers.
• Broken Frontier has unveiled the winners of the Broken Frontier Awards for 2012, and I’ve been selected as the Best Writer (independent) for The Sixth Gun.

Old farts like myself may remember the days of Captain America and the Falcon. Those were just some fine, fun comic books. Well, I’m being given my shot at writing some fun superhero adventures when I take over Captain America and…

And who, you ask?

Well, to start with, it’ll be Captain America and Hawkeye (with the amazing Alessandro Vitti on artistic duties). That story will comprise 4 issues, starting with issue #629 in April. After that, it becomes Captain America and Iron Man. After that, it becomes… shhh…it’s a secret. This series will give me the incredible opportunity to work with a ton of great characters and a ton of great artists. What’s not to love? I hope you folks will follow me on this adventure.

That wasn’t true, of course. Every now and then, Pa had taken her into the nearby town of Ahmen’s Landing. Usually, she just waited in the truck while he ducked into the feed store or the hardware supply. She would sit there, watching the townsfolk—the women chatting as they exited the beauty shop, the men gathering outside the diner, the kids her age laughing and goofing off as they strolled past. Once, one of the boys had looked her way and smiled even though he was walking with a girl who must have been his girlfriend. Madi felt her face flush and she gasped aloud. In the instant when their eyes met—in that second before Madi forced herself to look away—she felt like the prettiest girl in all the world… and she was certain that he was the most handsome boy that ever lived. And then he was gone, continuing on his way, throwing his arm around his girl, talking loudly and boisterously with his friends.

A couple of times, Madi had accompanied her father to the grocery. The small store with its crowded, dusty shelves and rumbling refrigeration units seemed like a magical place to the girl. She could have spent hours browsing those shelves, looking at canned food and boxes of cereal and packets of juice mix. The colors and the images amazed her. But Pa always hurried along, like he didn’t want to be seen with her. Madi had to admit, some of the other customers looked at her strangely, not with malice or distaste, but with a glimmer of familiarity. Madi always left the store with a couple of bags of groceries, a tattered paperback book or a few out-of-date magazines, and the distinct the impression that the townsfolk wanted to talk to her… but they were afraid.

Ahmen’s Landing.

How far away was town? At least a few miles, she guessed, maybe as many as a couple of dozen. On foot, with someone chasing her through the woods, it might as well have been on the other side of the—

“Madi!”

Pa’s voice cut through the night—loud and clear and close. The sound of it sent a shockwave through Madi’s bones, and she stumbled and almost lost her footing.

She whirled around, scanning the darkness. For a few dreadfully slow seconds, she saw nothing, heard nothing, and she wondered if her mind might have been playing tricks on her, if the sounds of the forest weren’t coming together in such a way as to make her think she’d heard her father.

“Madi! Stop right there!”

As he called out again, Madi spotted him in the shadows. He threaded his way through the trees, a shadow among shadows, moving toward her quickly.

“Don’t move!” he cried.

Madi had never known her father to have a quick temper. He had never been a cruel or mean-spirited man. But she had seen him angry from time to time, not necessarily with her, but maybe with life in general. She recognized the knife-like edge of anger in the man’s voice when she heard it.

And she heard it now.

Pa was angry.

“Run.”

From the satchel at her side, the boy’s skin hissed.

“Run!”

And she ran, turning away from her father and scrambling into the darkness, slipping in the leaves and pine straw and almost falling face first to the ground, but pushing herself forward, through the trees, down a hillside, over a cluster of large rocks that pushed their way out of the forest floor. She heard her father behind her—his bellowing cry, his breath coming in rugged gasps, his heavy footsteps coming closer, but she didn’t dare look back. She willed her legs to pump faster, and the world around her seemed to blur into nothing but mist and gloom and the painful sting of branches slapping at her, scratching her face, trying to drag her down.

“Stop!” Pa called, and it sounded like he was just a couple of steps behind her. He no longer sounded like himself, though. Instead, his voice was deep and rough and bestial. “Madi! Listen to me!”

His fingertips grasped at her shoulders, and she almost fell again. His hand caught hold of her arm, jerking her to a stop. Madi cried out in pain. It felt like he had ripped her arm out of it socket. The satchel fell from her shoulder, thumping to the ground, as Madi was forcibly yanked around to face her father. She tried not to scream, tired not to sob, but she couldn’t help herself.

“Dammit, girl!”

His face was a mask of anger, and sweat dripped from his nose. His breath came in hot blasts that washed across Madi. He grabbed her—hard—by both shoulders and pulled her close. She knew he was going to kill her right then and there. He was going to put his big, sweaty hands around her throat and squeeze until he choked the life out of her.

“Dammit!” he spat again. “Why make this any harder than it has to be?”

“Please,” Madi whined, “I don’t want to–”

“Don’t you say it! Don’t you dare say another word! You think anyone wants to die? You think anyone—lease of all me—wants to do what has to be done?”

“Why?” Madi tried to pull away, but her father only seemed to draw her in closer. His hands moved up to her throat, his fingers crawling across her skin. His touch seemed to sear her flesh. “Why are you doing this?”

“It’s good that you don’t know, girl.” Pa’s chin trembled as if he was on the verge of weeping. “It’s good that you’re gone before you realize what you are.”

His fingers closed around her throat.

He squeezed.

Brian is one of those guys that, no matter how awesome he is, he always thinks he can do better. And–yeah–he’s grown a lot as an artist in the 17 years since he did this work, but it’s still pretty great stuff! When I uncovered the artwork in some old files, I just knew I had to share.

This was technically my first collaboration with Brian… not in comics… but in board games.

Years ago, small group of people, including myself, decided to put together a horror-themed board game called The Inner Circle. I believe we called ourselves “Thieves Guild Games.” The game itself was a lot like Arkham Horror, I guess, with each player taking the role of a character (vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, and other supernatural types) and moving around the game board (which looked like a city), collecting cards, and  trying to reach the Inner Circle to accomplish some individual goal. We had the rules figured out, the characters created, and we just needed artwork. Brian was among the small group of artists we contacted to bring the game to life.

He was tasked with creating artwork for game cards with names like “Ankh” and “Shaman” and “Directive From Below” and “Blood-Sucking Lawyer.” Below are just a few of the pieces he did. I have some of the artwork that others contributed, too, but I don’t know how to reach any of the artists. Brian’s the only one who stuck with me after all this time.

Sometimes I think that if the game had been in development now, during the age of Kickstarter, it might have actually reached publication. Alas, it’s now just another one of those things that might have been, having fallen victim to lack of funding, inter-personal drama, and other idea killers.

Still, a fun walk down memory lane. Hope you enjoy.

“Diabolical, Fanatical Occultist,” “Atlantean Crystal,” and “That Mobster Guy”

“Blood-sucking Lawyer,” “Shaman,” and “Ankh”

“Ritual Sacrifice,” “Shadows,” “Dr. Sam Yamimoto,” and–I think–”Directive From Below”

Issue 6 – Does Val need the Avengers? Or do they need her?

Issue 7 – Claws vs. a mean streak a mile wide

Issue 8 – Bring on the bad guys!

]]> http://www.cullenbunn.com/2012/01/02/fear-itself-the-fearless-covers/feed/ 0 http://www.cullenbunn.com/2012/01/02/where-did-the-time-go/ http://www.cullenbunn.com/2012/01/02/where-did-the-time-go/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:20:18 +0000 cullenbunn http://www.cullenbunn.com/?p=2861 2011 was a big year for me. I was finally able to give my dream of writing full-time a go. The time flew by, and sometimes I need to stop and think about all the projects I worked on. I’m sure I’ll miss some things, but here’s how I spent my time over the past year:

• Scripted 12 or so issues of The Sixth Gun.
• Scripted 4 issues of Fear Itself: The Deep.
• Scripted 2 Fear Itself tie-in issues: Fear Itself: FF and Fear Itself: Black Widow.
• Scripted 12 issues of Fear Itself: The Fearless.
• Scripted the Spider-Man: Season One graphic novel.
• Scripted a few books for SmarterComics.
• Scripted 2 issues of a new limited series for Oni Press (to be announced soon).
• Scripted 4 issues of a new limited series for Marvel (to be announced soon).
• Scripted 4 issues for other Marvel projects (to be announced soon).
• Started work on Crooked Hills Book 2.

• Comic Book Resources has posted a new interview with me about Fear Itself: The Fearless.
• I spoke with Mark Justice and the Pod of Horror about Crooked Hills, The Sixth Gun, Fear Itself: The Fearless and a bunch of other stuff.
• I also spent some time talking about writing and The Sixth Gun on Fictional Frontiers.

Anyhow, this year, the super-keen website Four Colors & The Truth has posted a list of the Best Comics of the Year and the Best Graphic Novels of the Year. Take a look. The Sixth Gun and The Tooth both make an appearance. Also, CBR is counting down the Top 100 Comics of the Year, and The Sixth Gun comes in at #28! There are some pretty great books on the list, and it’s nice to be ranked among them!