Writing Wolverine

Hey Internet,

With today's release of X-Men Origins; I thought, what a perfect time to talk about one of the most iconic comic book super heroes: Wolverine.

Schnkt!

In the television industry, to become a staff writer on a show a writer will submit a spec (speculation) script. The script won't be necessarily for that exact same show they're applying for but rather in the genre. It's meant to show that the writer understands the format and can put together a coherent script.

So, if one were to desire to become a writer for the big comic book publishers, I wouldn't be a bad idea to write a spec script using a well known character.

I honestly wish comics were more organized like television and movies. I don't know if marvel and DC have ever hired by spec script, but it also wouldn't hurt to have one under your belt.

If you had to pick one character to write a spec on, your best bet might be to pick Weapon X....WOLVERINE!

Why?

Here's some reasons:

- He has a very simple way about him. He loves to monologue in his head. He has a moral code, a samurai like way, that's easily understandable.
- We know how he should sound. He grunts and growls and we can just hear him in our head when we read him.
- He's been everywhere and done everything. You can slap him anywhere in the world and it would probably make sense. Can't do that with spider man, he rarely leave NYC. You can throw Wolvie into any environment and he'll tear out whatever baddies.
- Wolverine can fight any villain. You make Logan fight ninja's, spies, robots, zombies, aliens, super villains, who ever you want.
- You can place Wolverine any time within the past two centuries. He's fought in every war, seen all kinds of crazy shit that would be fun to write about.
- You can't kill him. That means you can come up with all kinds of creative ways to kill him and he's not going to die.
- He's on every superhero team. He can fight alongside whatever team and it makes sense.
- He has the most books out there. If your story is that good and you some how fanangle some Marvel editor to read your story, there are many books out there to insert your Wolverine piece. Wolverine also gets many one shots and miniseries, so your odds are stacked that your spec script could plausibly be put on the racks.

If you're dying to write a mainstream comic character try out Wolverine.

So, Get into a beserker rage and begin to write.

Marvel's Hiring Writers!

Yeah you heard right, today's Variety announces a new initiative by Marvel to hire a group of feature film writers to work on their films and upcoming projects.

Essentially a group of writers are tossed a project by Marvel to develop, build up, and tear down. The idea is that a group of writers can better shape and mold an existing character or franchise property better than a single writer (much like how a writer's room for television programs work).

From my understanding of the article, the program will work much like Disney's fellowship program. Where as, each year Disney selects from a pool of applicants to work as writers for their company. Each writer is contracted to work on developing all kinds of scripted Disney projects. Anything the writer writes under his 1-2 year contract is property of Disney.

Disney's application process consists of submitting a feature film or television spec script, a resume, and a self-biography.

There is no information on Marvel's Submission and selcetion process yet, but this is very exciting for those (like me) who would love to work in both comics and film.

More to come if and when I find submission information.

Sunday Comics on Wednesday!

DC is trying out something new with an old concept: Sunday Comics.

"The publisher (DC) today officially announced Wednesday Comics, a new 12-part weekly series launching this summer that will be presented in a 14” x 20” broadsheet format and will have to be unfolded and opened to be read. The "Wednesday" part of the title refers to the fact new comic books go on sale at comic book stores nationwide every Wednesday." For the full article checkout NEWSARAMA

I think this rocks!

As a writer the flood gates have opened up for new ideas to fit in this format.

The accessibility to writing a one page adventure for a DC superhero seems tremendous. You don't have to take into account to much continuity or worry about fitting in with current tales.

I like the idea of writing some short scripts for some established books, cause now there might be an outlet for these kinds of adventures.

I'm excited cause if this catches on it might become a good spring board for new writers. I can imagine the format being friendlier for the big companies to test out young talent.

Fifty Scripts

Do you want to write comics? Do you find yourself writing your comic script and thinking 'geez this is hard'? Do you recklessly start scripting comics although you've never read a comic script? That could be a problem.

I find that many are eager to write. Most people learn how to format the script and have a good idea of what goes where. Yet, I often find on from peers and message boards most people have not even read more than one script (This goes for both asipiring movie and comic writers).

You wouldn't call yourself a fireman, let alone run into a burning building with out putting in the hours of training, right? You would die! From the Fire! or the smoke inhalation!

The point is : Read fifty scripts. If you want to write a comic book or a movie read as many scripts as possible. Fifty is a good number cause by that point every little format and method details should be burned into your brain. You'll also pick up on how the script should flow and sound.

Want to be a writer, then read. Study boy! read fifty scripts

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Watchmen releases this weekend. Naturally I got my tiks and saw a midnight premiere at the ole Sherman Oaks Arclight Theater.

As I'm sure many of you plan on going, but for those ones on the fence: go if only to hear all the fantastic mixed reviews after the film.

I stuck around and heard some fantastic lines:

group of school girls "uhhhh I didn't get it", "Why was the blue guy naked all the time?"

Emo Kids "well the costumes were pretty cool, I know that much."

An adult "What the fuck was that about!"

Immature teenager "look at my blue penis I'm Dr. Manhattan!" *stumbles along with arm swingin away in front of his crotch

Confused girl to boyfriend "Did they win?"

Comic Nerds "I'm glad they finally made a movie for us and not cater to the ignoramus" "it really was for intellects" *not making this up...

AND MY FAVORITE REVIEW... which deeply sums up both sides of the argument...

Angry Bro walks out "Ughhhh, that wasn't like Spiderman at all!!"

Red Slime

Hey I got a webcomic online!

Checkout the monthly magazine on Red Slime. Mine is the second comic in the mag promptly title "Suddenly at the Science Fair".

Thanks to Amanda Hel Edwards the artist of the strip (whom I've never met).

Red Slime is the brainchild of Jay Goldberg. I found him online looking for submissions on digital webbing. A very motivated individual, he did all the grunt work slapping together artists and writers. He's been working on the site since July 2008 and finally for march got it the site all together including the monthly magazine (very impressive).

The site is still in it's childhood stages but there is potential for it to turn into something really great. If he can keep the magazine monthly and on time, packed full of content (no matter how raw) Jay will have a good chance at finding an audience.

If you got a webcomic you're dying to get out there then check out the submission page. Jay was really easy to wrok with and has an whole arsenal of artists to work on stories.

Marvel Ends Open Submission Policy

It's true! Check out the full story here Marvel Ends Open Submission Policy

I have never heard of one creator cracking into the business this way but at the same time it's kind of sad knowing a young hopeful can't blindly send out his Spiderman Masterpiece or Doctor Doom Celebrity Special to Marvel.

From the article you can really tell that to become a big time comic book writer these days you got to be multi-talented and successful in another field. It seems more and more the big companies want to pull their talent from TV, movies, literature, and wide world web.

Barack Obama meets Spiderman!

Did you get your copy?

Well if you haven't heard, Barack Obama appears in this weeks Amazing Spiderman #583, in a four page back up story. Marvel releases this issue just the week before Obama's inauguration.

It's already been rumored that the issue will sell more copies than death of Superman.

The one in ten variant issue (the one with Barack on the cover that people are going nuts for) is selling on Ebay easily around one hundred dollars. Go check it out, bid on one if you didn't reserve your copy. Sellers are even posting copies for the 2ND edition of variant for sell before they've reached the newsstands.

I went to my LCS(local comics shop) Earth 2 yesterday to grab my copy. I was scared they might have tossed my copy away to a higher bidder; also I would not be shocked at all if they just held the non-variant edition for me. But my LCS kicks ass and they kept a variant just for me (I feel special).

Well the comic shop was buzzing with people, but not the typical comic nerd but young African-Americans. They all were hovering around the spiderman issue, or at least the few that were left. Groups of them convincing each other it's worth it to spend forty dollars on the one of a kind comic book. It was fun to hear them ask the clerk questions from "what's your most expensive comic in the store" to "why isn't spiderman fifty something now? he's been alive that long right?"

I hovered for a bit to hear these entertaining questions and also i was afraid to check out. Was going to also have to dish out forty bucks? If not, are these guys going to get piss if they learn I'm paying covering price? (It's not a race thing but I would be pissed if i found out I was paying more for something without understanding the cause, save my buddy Justin the clerk some hassle). well the store cleared out I payed for my comic and indeed I got my cover price and 20% off subscriber discount.

BOO YA!

I rushed home, excited as a little school girl to see what fun Marvel packed into the issue.

Disappointment.

I love some of the stuff Mark Waid has done(Hunter Killer very cool superhero stuff). He's a big name; he has some pull as a writer in the comic industry. Yet, this story just didn't pack the punch I was expecting.

In short Peter goes on a series of dates with Betty Brant; Betty the whole time narrating the story. They speed date, try to hook each other up with friends, and watch a movie together. Betty comments on her past with Peter, and declares him and best friend but they are never meant to be together. In the end Betty learns Peter try to plan her a B-day party but no one would come due to her traitorous ways from the Daily Buggle story line of the past year. But Peter was there to wish her a happy birthday. The End.

It was a backup story, to show Peter hitting the dating scene. No big villain action; No big conflict; No spiderman Dillemas. It was an all around snooze fest.

This upsets me cause Marvel had a HUGE opportunity to draw in new comic readers. A story like this, even by the great MArk Waid, just didn't deliver for Spiderman. I wanted super villains galore, spiderman saving the day while blowing a chance at romance (some classic spider stuff). The story wasn't very fun or even witty for that matter. Not much from Spiderman at all. Well... in truth, the Spiderman stuff was there: the banter, the running off to save the day; but it was all done in the background and at a minimum.

If I was not a regular reader of Spiderman I would most definitely find this issue really boring if not hard to understand.

The Obama story on the other hand was alright.

Obama is about to be sworn in as president; Peter Parker is there to take pictures. A second Obama appears claiming the other to be an impostor. Spiderman shows up and quizzes the Obama's with a question only the real one would know. The fake is the chameleon and spiderman lays him out with a punch. The day is saved and Barack and Spidey fist bump (how hip!).

The story felt rushed and a little trite but it was still in good fun.

In conclusion, it's fun to see so much excitement over one comic, to bad an opportunity, to me, felt miss to really deliver a fun, action packed, spidey story to Amaze the potential new readers.

Six Word Stories

My apartment-mate Pete Berg just created a great new web site. sixwordstories.net

The name of the site is exactly just that: Stories told in six words.

The sight is brilliantly simple, Pete has selected famous six word stories to post on the main page and has a submission page for new aspiring six word story writers (in which the submission page has blown up with new stories and ambitious writers)

As pulled from the site:

The original short short story and the inspiration for this website (was): In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn't’t write a complete story in just six words.

For sale: baby shoes, never used.

—Ernest Hemingway

They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.

I see the Six Word Story as a great exercise for any writer. The trick to the Six Word Story is to convey as briefly as possible a Beginning, Middle, and End (Basic Story structure). Although not each of these parts are necessarily written you want your reader to find the subtext and be able to draw out these missing conclusions.

So try it out! And feel free to check out the submission page of the Six Word Sight and post your new masterpiece(s).

Comic Resolutions '09

Hey it's 2009 woot!

First, as a writer, time to look back at 2008 and say: Did I accomplish everything I wanted to?

Personally I did alright: wrote some full 22 pagers, wrote a spec half an hour cartoon pilot, and almost finished my Teen Comedy feature "Loser's Night Out."

Disappointed that I didn't push to have more of my works drawn. The forums are out there crawling with artists looking for work. They may not be professional status, but nonetheless I'm sure there is some real good talent out there (That I should have capitalized on).

So a clear goal for my 2009 is to get some of my scripts penciled. I think the route I am looking at comic wise is to create some Mini-comics (more details to come on Mini- Comics).

Honestly I'm focusing on my screenwriting, but I do hope to further create more comic scripts and post regularly on this blog.

So aspiring writer's, get off your ass and make some writing resolutions. Start small if you have to. For instance, set a goal to write one 8 pager in comic format within a month, two, six, or even the whole year. I know i can write one in at least two months, you probably can too, but think about how much you wrote in '08. Now double that for '09. If you wrote nothing in '08 than do the 8 page assignment. Stop aspiring and write.

Another good goal for Aspiring writers: read a script. Read lots of them if you can. Check out the different styles and techniques the pros are using to write the books you love. You can get scripts from creators at cons, some are posted online, bookstores have some collections of comic scripts. Do some learning this year to fill your head with the know how to write the scripts.

So look back in '08, be disappointed like everyone else that you didn't do as much as you thought you would, and make the commitment to do something in '09.