A Big Thank You

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported Artifacts #33 being released last week. I'm just happy to have produced a comic that so many people enjoyed.

I promise more projects in the future, but for now enjoy your Wednesday pull lists!

Writing Comics with Ken Porter - Part 1: The Idea

The first installment of many!

The most dreaded question in any facet of the writing kingdom is “where do you get your ideas from?” For budding writers or creative types, it seems like a valid question. There wouldn’t be content if people didn’t have a means of finding ideas for stories, projects, or other endeavors. The truth is that generally creative people can’t turn it off. It just keeps happening. The best way I can describe how my process works is in two words – what if?

But it isn’t just the two words that contribute to my wondering imagination. I’m also heavily influenced by music. I walk the dog every morning and take lots of other walks just for fun. Each time I hit the pavement or trail I throw my headphones on and pick music that suits my mood. I’ve always been really into visual mediums, so music is also visual for me. What I mean by that is that while I’m listening to any song I default to picturing images to go along with it. Sometimes it’s a fake trailer for a movie. Other times I just let the images pour over me. To be honest, when I’m in a bit of a rut, I’ll listen to theme songs of cartoons and TV shows I liked as a kid (or now) and think about how I would reinterpret them. Aside from divine inspiration, this is how I usually milk the ideas out of my skull.

Once I have an idea for a comic book and have a story locked down I think about how long it should naturally be. Is it a one-shot, an original graphic novel, or a mini-series? It might sound strange to decide how long a story is going to be before you write it, but in comics you’re working in pages and limited space. For example, a lot of the Big Two (Marvel and DC) comics are just about 20 pages long. That means that every story told by writers at those companies have to be told in 20 pages or in parts of that increment. Independent series have a bit more leeway with the page count, but it’s still around 20 or 24 on average.

This doesn’t have to be set in stone. It usually changes after a day or two of outlining, but it’s good to know within a good margin how long a story is going to be before you start it. I guess at least for me it is. One thing about writing comics is that there is no set way to approach or script a story. It’s similar to screenwriting, but doesn’t have all of the rules and regulations. The concept of pacing is really important, so if a story seems like it’s going to be too condensed or too fluffy I’ll trim or expand where necessary.

When the idea is fleshed out I make a one-sheet that has all of the series information. This isn’t for anyone else to see but me. It’s just a guide so that I don’t forget.

Here’s an example.

Title: A Crazy Space Adventure

Genre: Science Fiction/Action/Thriller

Length: 4-Issues (20-Pages Each)

Synopsis:

Captain Space Guy and his crew struggle to solve a murder mystery before the killer can crash their ship into the sun.

Characters:

Captain Space Guy

This is where the description would go. Etc.

And that’s generally what I do first. I need to know what the story is and who the major players are. Then I usually write out a treatment, or complete story in paragraph form, of what happens in each issue below that information. That way I have a guide on how to pace the pages of the story later.

I’ll get more into how I decide to pace out pages in the second installment, but for now I hope this helps with anyone who uses Google to try and find information about comic book writing.

Comment with any questions you might have!

Ink Ribbon - Re-Release - Published by Visionary Comics!

INK RIBBON GETS THE SPECIAL EDITION TREATMENT!

(Current New Work-In-Progress Cover)

My first completed comic book, Ink Ribbon, has been picked up by Visionary Comics for publication.

Ink Ribbon is the story of Michael Green, an art thief who always relies on the one person he can trust -- himself. But when he fails to listen to his girlfriend Elaine's warning about being a lone wolf, he soon finds himself on the verge of death with the police hot on his trail.

Visionary's editing team is going to help make Ink Ribbon a much leaner, meaner, and more formidable comic book.

I can't thank C. Edward Sellner and the rest of the Visionary Comics team enough.

More information about the release as we find out about it!