DC Comics Writers Workshop: What I Learned

This post is about my time in 2017’s DC Comics Writers Workshop, but if you came here looking for The Secret To Writing Superhero Comics, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong place.

I don’t have anything to share in the way of specifics about the workshop or what I worked on  (but writing “EXTERIOR. THE DAILY PLANET” doesn’t get old, I can say that much). The big takeaway is obvious, but participating in a writing workshop—something I haven’t done at least since college—was invaluable.

First, I learned so much about my own work, style, bad habits, and shortcuts just by having a consistent feedback loop. Knowing that my colleagues would be involved every step of the way and seeing my improvements (or my missteps), throwing out ideas, going big, going small… it was an environment that, much to my shame, I haven’t had a lot of in my career as a professional writer. Making the process collaborative rather than solitary was a huge learning experience for me. Like, why don’t I do this all the time? I can see why a writer’s room is so appealing.

Which leads me to… the people. Of course, Scott Snyder and the Talent Development team at DC are fantastic, the best there is at what they do (I know, I know, I’m crossing the aisle with that one). But the best thing to come out of this, I think, is that I feel like I’ve finally got my own Breakfast Club.

(Top row, L-R) Sanya Anwar, Bobbie Chase, Sara Miller, Some Jabroni (Middle row, L-R) Ryan Cady, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Scott Snyder (Bottom row, L-R) Robert Jeffrey II, Magdalene Vissagio

What I mean is this: A small group of peers who have all gone through something significant together that few people can really relate to unless they were there, man. We’re already continuing to share ideas and work, meeting as a group on our own, and generally keeping each other sane as we get back to the real world.

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Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 5)

Only two days left on the Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Kickstarter, and we’ve already explored the behind-the-scenes of Pages 1, 2, 3, and 4… onto Page 5!

This page is pretty straightforward. The only real deviation from the script is panel 5.3, which originally called for a medium shot or so of ‘Resa placing her bet. Smartly, Jonathan conserved space and changed it to a close-up with an off-panel balloon. It just wasn’t necessary to show that many details, not when the location has already been firmly established and we can infer what she’s doing from the context of the scene and her dialogue. Great example of an artist being economical with space.

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Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 4)

We’re only a few days from the end of the Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Kickstarter, so I’ll be posting the remainder of these behind-the-scenes pieces this week! We’ve looked at Page 1, 2, and 3, so onto Page 4!

Jonathan more or less rendered this page as I wrote it aside from two notable changes: he added a panel that helps build the suspense of the gambling and he chose a different angle for that last panel, which definitely works better (and is less complicated) than what I wrote. But the thing I love about this page is something that you can’t see from comparing the script to the final art — you’d have to be privy to our emails back and forth to have any idea about it.

‘Resa’s line in the last panel, “Cash in your winnings and never come back” is a nod to one of the greatest movies of all-time, Casablanca. But it wasn ‘t written in the original script that way; it was originally just “Oh, Devil…” as she tried to grab his attention. Continue reading “Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 4)”

Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 3)

Since we’ve looked at pages 1 and 2 so far, I figured we might as well go the rest of the way and check out the remaining four pages of the Footprints: Bad Luck Charm story. Whereas Page 2 takes a lot of liberties from the script in terms of what Jonathan did with the art, Page 3 is a great example of how Adam’s lettering really helped the flow of the story in a significant way.

You’ll notice that Adam shifts the balloons around a bit, most notably Devil and ‘Resa’s lines as scripted in 3.2 to 3.1 and Devil’s line as scripted in 3.6 to 3.5. While the moves might have been related to space issues within the panels, they both help punctuate particular moments that would’ve been lost under dialogue otherwise.

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Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 2)

Last time around we looked at Page 1 of Footprints: Bad Luck Charm, in which Jonathan followed my script exactly. Page 2 has significant changes, and I think goes to show how much a good artist and storyteller can help improve whatever you’re trying to do with the story.

So often, as a writer, you’re lost in the script and the dialogue and trying to think so visually that you’re neglecting the core of the scene and what it’s about. That was the case in my script for page 2, I think, where I was doing more to establish the setting than I was the characters (see below).

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