I came upon this today. It is Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings talking about Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man. Pretty neat stuff.

In 1988, when Animal Man had barely been seen in decades, he was reinvented by Glaswegian comic book writer Grant Morrison in his own series. Animal Man was now an easy-going suburban dad, trying to make a living as a full-time superhero. An encounter with B’wana Beast (another embarrassingly named 1960s relic) radicalized his politics, and Animal Man became the first vegetarian, PETA-member superhero. A reasonably clever take on the character, I thought. Then things got weird.

I consider Rapid City to be metafiction, but every once in a while I am hit with just how meta some fiction can get. Rapid City is, in many ways, a story about its own production, but I don’t ever expect the characters to actually address the audience.
Maybe I should re-label it psuedo-meta. Meta-meta?

I also came upon this eHow.com article by Robert Vaux.

How to Write a Comic Book Plot

Honestly, I was hoping to make fun of it for getting everything wrong, but it actually does a decent job of explaining the basics. I don’t know if you could actually make a comic book by following these steps, but following them could lead the way that you actually COULD use.

Step 6 is where it seems to get a bit tongue-in-cheek about the over simplification of the process.

Step 6
Give a trusted friend the script and let him or her offer suggestions. If possible, your friend should be a professional editor or someone with a background in English. Regardless, your friend should be honest in pointing out problem areas and helpful in mentioning possible solutions.

That is good advice.

I recently stumbled across this interview with author Peter Coogan that reminded me just how much I enjoyed his book Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre.

In that book, he defines what the super hero genre actually is, by meticulously comparing it to what it ALMOST is. Clearly, the genre has elements of sci-fi, fantasy, action, adventure, detective, and many others, but it is also its own unique thing. In his book, Coogan describes exactly where superhero stands in relation to these genre-siblings.

As a reader, it is simply fascinating to me. As a writer, it gives me a new formula-lens through which ti view my work. If certain elements are not working, I can see that one possible reason might be that i have actually deviated from genre-model. And, once I see my work in that sense, I can more effectively, intentionally, break from form.

The script for the tenth issue of the superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

Panel 2. Sidekick on the ground. He has knocked over one of those black waste barrels and several pump hoses have come out of their cradles. He is gesturing to one of the hoses, or holding one up, as an example,

SIDEKICK

Careful? Doesn’t look like you’re too…

Panel 3. Kinetic has grabbed Sidekick by his jacket and is swinging him in a high arc.

SIDEKICK

careful!

Panel 4. Kinetic completes the high arc by slamming Sidekick hard into the ground. Monkey is leaping clear of the impact and bits of gravel are spraying up.

Panel 5. Kinetic gripping his bandaged abdomen in pain and grimacing. Sidekick is climbing to his feet again

KINETIC

Damn.

SIDEKICK

What was the point of…. Oh!

SIDEKICK

Are you ok?

Panel 5. Shot of Monkey looking over at the slightly larger crowd.

MONKEY

Sidekick, this isn’t working.

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the ones leading up to it, for free here.

I completed issue 10 earlier today.
Now to ship it off to my editor!

That is me, so the shipping is very quick and inexpensive.
I just ran spell check, but now I need to run through and look for any obvious mistake… like the one that my buddy Mike pointed out is still in issue 1….. and then it will be ready to post.

So, again, quite possibly tonight.

Also, if you are reading this…. mention it somewhere. Tweet about it, mention on Facebook that you were looking at this comic, mention it in your blog…. however you communicate.. just let people know that you have been checking out Rapid City.

Thanks

I have one more page to do, and I know what will be on it. So, barring unforeseen complications, I should get this one done on time.

I have been going over it and editing as I go, so there won’t be too much time spent on touch-ups. There is a really good chance that I will get issue 10 posted tonight.

Right on time.

Issue 10 is really coming along now.
I don’t know how the first scenes will work, as they are rather dense, but they do what I needed them to do and I don’t know how else it could have gone.
Everything that had been going on led to this, and it makes sense for it to happen this way. I just hope that it isn’t boring.

So, here’s is the interesting craft lesson I just learned.

I just wrote about 10 pages densely packed with dialog and fairly similar panels. So now I have some space to fill. Naturally, big panels are a way to speed things up and fill space/ But that seems cheap, to just draw big in order to fill pages.

It feels that way because it is cheap. If a panel should be small, then it should be small. If it should be big then it should be big. they should not be crammed or stretched. i knew that.

I just realized, though, that after all of those pages of talking, my readers will be desperate for some big, quiet, panels. Visually, it will be like a cool sip of soda or beer after several mouthfuls of hamburger and onion rings. The drink might not be the most important part of the meal, but it is essential to the enjoyment….and even the completion of the entree.

And speaking of completion….. back to work.

Issue 10 is coming along well.
But, I just looked at my page count and I realize that I might need some padding. I think that means I need a bad guy.
Until now, all of the major characters and events have reflected my over-arching theme of following my creative process.

The growth and progress of the characters will mirror my own growth and progress in this writing project.

So now I find myself in a spot where in order to meet my deadline, I may need to cavalierly inject some action or some unexpected interference. Can i do this and maintain the project integrity?

Maybe the key is to devise a character who is facing external pressures (my deadline) and feels that he must take action regardless of the consequences… with no regard to what ever carefully laid plans he might be upsetting. That could work.

I don’t know is this is a valid excuse or anything, but this heat is just brutal.
It makes me feel lazy and drugged, and disconnected from reality.

I hate it.

I did, however, manage to get a little bit of writing done this afternoon.
I believe that I will take a siesta and see how I can do once the temp drops a little bit.
Ok, maybe this is whiny and not the words of a dedicated creator, but COME ON. It is just so hot.

Got this idea from seeing Jonathan Hickman do it.
In teh box below, ask me anything about writing, comics, or the Rapid City project.