A Newb on Writing Comics...

I've jumped feet first into figuring out how to write comics. As a person who has loved comics her entire life, this has always been a dream. I always knew it was a tough thing to do, but has that swayed me? Not at all. The past week I've really been actively researching and exploring the world of comics publishing and writing. It's amazing what one can learn in just a week.

I always knew it was a tough field to break into, but I never realized it was *this* hard. Most publishers don't just want your script, they want to see drawn pages, which means hiring an artist. Or that's what it means for me since I couldn't draw if my life depended on it. From what I can tell, a lot of agents are the same way. I could be wrong about that one, though. Still looking into agents who rep graphic novel and comics writers. There aren't as many as you'd think. And if you want to write for one of the Big 2 (DC and Marvel), GOOD FREAKING LUCK! I'm personally not interested really in writing established books so the fact that DC and Marvel are off the table doesn't bug me too much. What does bug me is how closed they seem to be to new ideas and new talent. But, whatever.

And then, there's the actual writing of the thing! Go google "comic book script examples". Go on, I'll wait. (I would have just shown you some here, but I'm paranoid about copyright infringement...)

*waits*

Do you see what I mean? Do you see how intricate that stuff is? Similar to a screenplay and yet different. Instead of shots, you have panels. There are tons of terms to learn, too. And if this book is a series, where do you end the first book? Is it like chapters in a novel or not? I mean, maybe... I guess. Wait, no, not really, but sometimes... *sigh* There's so much, it all just makes my brain hurt. But in a good way, if that's possible.

If you came here looking for advice on how to write comics, I'm sorry, but I'm in the same boat you are. I do, however, have some links and recommendations that I've found extremely useful:

Gail Simone wrote this: A Real Tip Just From Nowhere

Neil Gaiman's FAQ page has some advice and some reading recommendations.

One of the books Gaiman recommends is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and, guys, GO FREAKING READ THAT RIGHT NOW! I don't care if you've never had any interest in comics ever! Seriously interesting stuff and so well done. I mean, a comic *about* comics? Genius!

Another rec from Gaiman is Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art which I will begin reading in the next couple of days as soon as I get over the book hangover I got from Understanding Comics.

The forums at Digitalwebbing.com look to be informative. I just joined and will be perusing them. I know forums were very important in my journey to becoming a published YA author. I'm a fan of forums.

I'll continue to update this post with more links and things as I find them.

Despite my bitching, I'm really excited about this. I'm a learner, I love to learn, so this endeavor is right up my alley. I'll keep you posted, ya know, if you're interested.

Do you have any recs for me? Have you attempted comics writing? Post in the comments!