How to Write Comics, with Russell Lissau

Saturday I attended a little workshop at my library, "How to Write Comics," presented by Russell Lissau. He's a Chicago-area journalist and also a writer for DC, notably the Batman Strikes series for kids. He had some interesting things to say, much of it applicable to writing in general as well as comics in particular. Here are my notes.

General process for big (non-indie) comics

- Writer writes script.
- Editor reviews script, works with writer to make changes as needed.
- Penciller draws the action of the strip... in pencil. Writer and editor proof pencil drawings, only requesting changes if there's something vastly wrong.
- Inker, a/k/a finisher inks the drawings, adding weight, depth, etc.
- Letterer adds dialogue balloons and "special effects." In most major comics today, lettering is done by computer.
- Colorist colors the art. This, too, is usually done by computer these days.

A comic book script is written like a movie script.

Panel by panel, writer sets the shot, describes the characters and action, and provides dialogue. Lissau's scripts run about 25 typed pages for a 22 page comic. He outlines before he starts writing so he can be sure to meet the page limit. He usually starts with a good idea of the beginning and the end and works out the middle as he goes.

Three-act structure: beginning, middle, end

The first act establishes character and ends with an "inciting incident" that puts the characters in danger. The second act is where all the "good stuff" (i.e., action, series of challenges) happens. The third act contains the finale and resolution.

Lissau challenged us to draw a three-act comic using just three panels. This was harder than you might think. He recommended checking out Mad Magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" as a perfect example of simple, three-act comics.

Comics, Lissau said, used to be like soap operas, "all second act" with no final resolution. This has changed over the years. The money is now in trade collections, so publishers are looking for finite plot arcs spread across 6+ issues.

Panel layouts

In the old days, pages had a rigid grid of panels so that as much action as possible could be crammed in. Now there's more variety. You might have four small panels across the width of a page, followed by a single "widescreen" panel, etc. Or you might even have a full-page "splash" (for something super-super-important).

Tips on pacing

A panel is a captured moment in time. It includes one or more more-or-less simultaneous (or at least rapid-fire) actions. Combine panel action/dialogue when you can. He cited Brian Michael Bendis, "enter a scene late and leave it early." (That's advice I, literal-minded writer that I am, can never hear too often.)

Lissau talked about building tension and momentum by varying panel layout. All page real estate, area-wise, has the same weight, so a big panel should contain a weightier/more important moment that the reader spends extra time with, while small panels contain quick action or dialogue that the eyes can skip quickly across.

He compared this to music: a widescreen panel is like a whole note, a series of narrow panels side by side is like staccato quarter notes, etc. Lissau attributed the "comics as music" analogy to Warren Ellis.

Cliffhangers should always be placed in the bottom-right panel, so the reader is compelled to move to the next page. It's even better if that cliffhanger is on the right-hand side of the page, so the reveal occurs after the page-turn.

You can also compel the reader forward by breaking dialogue with an ellipsis and continuing on the following page. This also works well for scene transitions. I wish I could explain this one better, but when I try it gets too complicated.

Also

Dialogue should be written in the order that the characters appear in the panel, left to right. If you need to switch that up, you should warn the artist that the characters' positions will need to be switched. Depending on the scene, you can see why that could be a tricky proposition.

Recommended reading

- The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, by Dennis O'Neil (Watson-Guptill, 2001)
- How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, by Stan Lee and John Buscema (Fireside, 1984)
- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel, by Nat Gertler and Steve Lieber (Alpha, 2004)