I got down to writing again yesterday, though I am using a different method to generate the script. My original idea was to write a screenplay, and then transform it into a comicbook script. But there is a problem with that; comics are not movies.

I know, yet another obvious statement by Rudy-san. But it is a point that a lot of writers (including myself) have missed out on. A movie is moving images and sound. Comics are a series of still images and text, and Scott Mccloud argues that text is just a form of imagery. Actions and dialogue can not be presented the same way in both formats.

Let us take a simple example. Our hero, Johann Nutbagger, scourge of the sea, walks across the desk of his ship. This action could be a couple of seconds in a movie. But it’s a SINGLE image in a comicbook.

Conversation is also an interesting challenge. In a movie, it is perfectly fine to preserve the same shot for a length of time while an interesting discussion takes place. You can do the same with a single panel in comics … except you quickly run out place for the word balloons. Of course you can blow up the panel to fit more baloons in, except you may begin to bore your audience with a static, non moving image. Switching back and forth between the same few images is no good either, because again, your reader will grow bored.

These are the things you have to think about for a comicbook script.

I need to get out of the movie script mode and focus on the comicbook medium. So I am trying a method that some authors use. I am creating a mini-comic rough of the story. Making a mini-comic is easy: take a piece of paper, fold it, staple it, and trim it (badly) to make 16 pages. I use the little booklet this produces as a sketch pad where I figure out what shots to use, plan dialogue, and manage the overall sense of pacing that is crucial to comicbooks.

Even better, cause the mini-comic is so small (fits in a pocket), I can haul it with me anywhere, and work on it whenever I have a few moments to spare. Good stuff.