This week I read the comic scripts for Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and Neil Gailman's Calliope. I have read the finished version of Arkham before, but never Calliope. So reading the script for each was a different kind of experience.

The most helpful part of the experience was in reading Gaiman's introduction for his script. He talked about the difficulties he had with allowing one of his scripts to be published — comparing the experience to a magician sharing his secrets, or being allowed to explore the sets of a movie that was in the process of shooting.

He reveals that once upon a time Alan Moore showed him what a comic script looks like by laying it out on a piece of notebook paper for him.

Gaiman tells us there really is no set way to write a comic script. Some writers break down every little detail, draw doodles of what the paneling will be like, and some don't. Some write to the artist and some writers don't care who the artist will eventually be. Some writers follow more of a movie script style where they only write in dialogue and actions and let the artists decide how everything will look. There are also some writers who do their own art (and sometimes coloring and lettering as well).

Gaiman himself writes his comic scripts as a letter to the artist — something he says drives his editors nuts because he always has to know what artist he will be working with before he can finish a script. For this script he breaks things down by panel and includes details about how things look and feel (e.g., gloomy). He also says he makes a doodled version for every comic he does to help him know how many panels will be on each page. Gaiman says that this is only an example of how he writes for Sandman. So, even in only one authors case the script may not always look the same.



In Morrison's introduction to the script he talks more about the process of writing Arkham and the inspirations for the themes of the book. The script itself is heavy with detail. Every page gives feeling and symbolism to be used in the comic. And in this case Morrison has put comments in footnotes for most pages to give even more information on how certain scenes and looks have been changed, where things are from, and other little details. Morrison does not break things down by panels, giving McKean more free reign to decide how things will be put on the page (and he does so very effectively). Morrison is also writing to the artist and adds in little references (to stories from his own life where relevant or to specific information about the symbolism being used).

So What?

I think the habit of talking to the artist within the script is probably typical. If I were to write a comic script I don't think I'd be able to help but think of the artist as my audience to address the actions and details of my script to.

I'm reminded of McCloud's Making Comics where he starts the comic by saying, "There are no rules . . . And here they are!" The exact style of the script depends on the writer but I assume most, if not all, comic writers tend to follow a typical sort of script format (as far as set up of dialogue and action goes, font, and cases of upper and lowercase text).

And finally there was a small mention of what an editor of comics does! Gaiman says they make sure everything makes sense and is getting from place to place on time, and that everyone is getting paid. From this I gather that the editor is a sort of middle man between the various people involved in getting the comic finished and published. I may just have to try to contact a comic writer or artist to ask more about the editors they have worked with.

Quotes
(all by Morrison from his introduction to the script and the script itself)

"The Moon card then, represents trial and initiation -- the supreme testing of the soul, where we must face our deepest fears, confront them and survive or be broken. In this single image are encoded all the themes of our story."

"The story's themes were inspired by Lewis Carroll, quantum physics, Jung and Crowley, its visual style by surrealism, Eastern European creepiness, [etc.]. The intention was to create something that was more like a piece of music or an experimental film rather than a typical adventure comic book. I wanted to approach Batman from the point of view of the dreamlike, emotional and irrational hemisphere [. . .]

It took a year to research and plan and was written in one fevered month in 1987, generally late at night and after long periods of no sleep. [. . .] I found out later the script had been passed around a group of comics professionals who allegedly shit themselves laughing at my high-falutin' pop psych panel descriptions. Who's laughing now, @$$hole?"