Pics of Wolverine Sighting

Below are some pics relating to my Wolverine sighting I tweeted about yesterday. I have included the tweets as captions for the photos.

Wolverine of the Xmen spotted in Sudbury Ontario office

Wolverine ... the best there is at what he does...right now what he does is financial analysis

Epic battle between Wolverine and...unorganized file system?

Winner - Wolverine

Anyone else out there have any superhero sightings?

Issue Two Writing Process

Issue Two has now gone through my initial edit and has been typed.

As with issue 1, this issue had some work done to it between written and typed versions as well, such as eliminating scenes, moving dialogue, and even adding an entire page. Another major area where changes occured was with the length of dialogue. Wherever possible, I shortened the dialogue in order to let the images tell the story.

So, without further delay, some sample pages

The above page illustrates the diagrams I mentioned in my last blog post, showing the basic layout of the panels for the illustrator to follow. In most cases the artist would not have to follow such a strict, plain, grid format, but this is just a basic idea of how I would like the page layed out.

Although there is dialogue scratched out in the above, I have shortened it even more in the typed version.

Again, this page shows another page layout sample. Going by this sample, it may look like this page would have 11 panels, but even with these sample diagrams I have changed how I wanted it to look, and the middle 6 really represent 3 tall panels.

The astute viewer will notice that the panel sequence on this written sample goes from 2 to 3 to 2 again. This has been corrected in the typed version, and shows how caught up I was in just getting the story written on the first go around.

Here is a comparison of a written page to its typed counterpart.

Page 6

Panel 1

Hero leaping down into an alley from nearby building. Night.

Hero Caption: “Day four and I still haven’t found her”
“I dread what I will find when I do”

Panel 2
Hero crouched next to a dumpster, yawning.
Hero Caption: “I’m exhausted. Been working on little sleep lately”

Panel 3
Side shot of Hero starting to pull off mask
Hero Caption: “Time to get home and rest up”

Panel 4
Behind Hero, view over shoulder out into the mouth of the alley to see the sidewalk, see a well dressed man walking by with 2 others in tow
Caption: “When I see him, the thoughts flood my brain”
Thoughts: “We will control this city soon”
“Death will to the enemies of the Villain”
***AUTHOR'S NOTE: Established in Issue 1 that the Hero can read people's thoughts***
Panel 5
Closer on men walking by, still see good portion of their bodies
Hero Caption: “I finally get a lead”
“the biggest I'll next to tripping over the Villain”

Panel 6
Close on side profile of the lead man, just before he is no longer visible behind the building
Hero Caption: “I’ve stumbled upon Conspiro.”
“The Villain’s right hand man”

A lot of the minor changes in this issue related to continuity items. When I first wrote the issue I still had 3 issues to write after. Now that I am going through and know exactly how the book is written, I can go through and tighten everything up.

As a side note to this post, but somewhat related, the new blog post at idrawdigital relates to comic and graphic novel writing, so check it out if you are at all interested in this topic or field.

As always, any comments, criticisms, or words of encouragement are greatly appreciated!

Issue One Writing Process

It took a long time to actually get started writing Issue 1. I wanted to make sure I started strong, yet introduced enough of the story and characters to interest the reader and keep their interest through to the end of issue 5 (at the time it was issue 6, but I digress).

When I started writing issue 1, I found I was still unfamiliar with the characters, how they would get where I wanted them to go, and if the interactions I had planned for them would work within the story. So, as you can see from the scan of my first page of writing, I made many changes to my script as I went.

This page went from being page 1, 2, and the beginning of 3, to part of page 1, page 5, and the beginning of page 8. Some panels were scrapped all together, others were moved to other pages. This was all determined as I was writing, based on what I felt worked best for the story and the characters.

Below is another page where changes had taken place, but not quite as sporadic as above.

This just shows some shifting of page sequences and minor deletions. I also include notes for page references (ie: SEE FRONT PAGE) especially in the case of this issue, since I did so much jumping around to start off.

After this, I tended to stay on track for the most part, ending in pages that looked like this.

There are still deletions and moving of dialogue between panels taking place, but page orders are primarily in tact. I started to hit my stride on this issue and started pumping out some story.

For some pages I also draw a quick page layout to show how I see the panels appearing on the page. This issue didn't have any of those diagrams, but I will include some scans of these for the next issue that has some.

The above written copy was then typed into word. Page 9 in the image above is shown below in typed format. As I type from my written copy, I make changess again as I go through it, tightening up any weak areas, and tying things in better with the way the story unfolds in the later issues.

Page 9

Panel 1

Outside view of apartment. Nice neighbourhood. Daytime

Caption: “The next day”
Off-panel: “Honey, I’m home”

Panel 2
Interior of apartment unit. Man walking into the room, hand in a fist as if holding something hidden in hand. Well dressed, clean shaven
Off panel: “I’m in the living room John”

Panel 3
John sits down on couch next to a pretty woman. His hand is still fisted.
John: “I brought you something”

Panel 4
See the 2 sitting on the couch looking at eachother.
John: “That girl I saved last night, she was all alone.”
“I wanted to get you something”

Panel 5
John’s arm outstretched, hand open now. See a gold chain with pendant.
John: “Something that would let you know you are never alone.”

Panel 6
John putting it on the girl
John: “Something that will always be with you”

Panel 7 The two kissing passionately.

Although the above sample is one of the slower scenes in the story, it has subtle and important ties to events that take place later (plus I want to save the good pages for when there is some art to go with it!). I will probably flesh out the discription portions a bit more so that when the piece goes to an illustrator to draw it all, it will be more clear to them what I am looking for.

Well, that's my synopsis of work so far on the project. I have finished the writing portion of the script, now I am typing and revising issue 2. Once I have that issue complete, I will get some more scans up to discuss my progress.

Please feel free to let me know what you think so far. Any words of encouragement, advice, or criticism are welcome and encouraged :)

Blog Delay

I am aware of my ever increasing delays between blog posts. Having the 2 kids in the house now is draining me of precious time, but I wouldnt give it up for the world.

I have been busy with standard around the house stuff, preparing for an interview (which I did well on, and they offered me the job), and typing my graphic novel scripts up. I will be sure to make my next post compare my hand written script to the typed up edited version to show my process.

I have also been preparing for Halloween. Still deciding if I will be Wolverine (more logan than fully costumed wolverine) or Dee Snider, singer from Twisted Sister.

I think I may also look into purchasing a digital pen so that I can write out my initial drafts of things, then just download the file to my computer rather than have to spend time typing it all over again. Anyone have experience of this type of product, or have any suggestions? I have only ever really seen the Fly Pen by Leapfrog, but I am sure there is better product out there than that.

Full Rough Draft COMPLETE!

Just a quick note to say I have completed the full first draft of my Graphic Novel. It feels great to have everything down on paper. Now I get to go through it all with a fine tooth comb, get everything in just the right order, create the suspense I want, and get this thing refined to the best piece it can be.

Then I have to find an illustrator to draw the thing :)