Something I’ve often noticed while reading through stacks of comics is how often I’ll see a book where the writer seems to have little concept of what makes good art, or a book written and drawn by an artist who seems to have little concept of what makes good writing.
Comics, after all, are a fusion of two fairly different things. As we’ve seen with many of the novelists-turned-comics-writers, skill with prose doesn’t translate to a well done funny book. And, alternately, amazing artists can compile heaps of pretty images, but often they don’t add up to a cohesive story. The art of comics, then, is the balancing of those skills — writing with art in mind and drawing to bolster the story.
A little bit back, Jeff Parker (Agents of Atlas, Marvel Adventures) spoke at the Savannah (GA) College of Art and Design for Comics Art Forum XIV about this subject and gave some of the best, most practical advice on how artists can improve their writing, and how writers can work better with their artists.
Parker is a perfect creator to comment on this, as he started out in comics as an artist and has become best known as a writer.
For writers, one of his best pieces of advice is to be as fun and imaginative as possible (seems obvious, but plenty of people forget that comics panels can hold just about anything). For random scenes of exposition or other lulls in action, Parker recommends setting it somewhere visually interesting, even if just for the sake of good art:
You can put this anywhere you want, this is a comic book. Get them out to a jungle, or an old crumbling palace ruin. You can be Evocative. Even if it adds nothing but visual interest, you’re still giving the reader more value, and creating interest for our artist. Does the artist do great animals? Then have this conversation take place at the zoo. Or even if it must take place in a house, can we justify a big Dr. No- style giant aquarium to serve as a backdrop?
There’s also great advice on where to find character names, what editors want, playing to an artist’s strengths and making pitches.
My two cents to the main discussion is that the crucial thing for writer-artist team books is developing a good understanding of each other. I’ve done some comics writing before where all I had to give was a solid script, and I’ve worked on a book with someone new to comics art that wanted me to do complete page breakdowns.
Comics creator Jill Thompson also attended the forum and posted a report on her blog.
