– I build an outline for each arc with major story beats, some specific scene notes, maybe some important dialogue.  For an issue, I start by just numbering 1 through 22 and writing a brief description of each page.  Sometimes after that I’ll go through and breakdown each page into very brief panel descriptions and build from there.  Other times I’ll just start at the beginning and build the whole thing as I go.  It usually just depends on how long I’ve had the story in my head and how nailed down I’ve already got it.  My best days of writing, when I can churn out 12 or more pages, are always preceded by several days of no writing at all, but instead just a lot of thinking, so by the time I’m actually sitting down to write, the story is already nailed down and all I have to do is get it on paper.

– The first five pages and the last five pages of any script are usually pretty easy.  It’s always that shit in the middle that’s hard.

– I always aspire to have something memorable on every page, whether a line of dialogue or an action or what. I certainly don’t always achieve that, but I try.

– I write people throwing up a lot. I write sour looks and stern stares a lot.  I use “fuck” a lot.  Just making note of all that.

– I try not to dictate camera angles or set up shots.  I always figure that’s best left to the artist.

– I can’t listen to music or watch TV while I write.  I’m too easily distracted.

– I try to always talk my dialogue out, to say it out loud.  Would sometimes make for an interesting listen, no doubt, if someone happened to be passing by the window.

– I break the supposed dialogue rules all the time, in terms of how many words you shouldn’t exceed in a given balloon or panel.  Maybe I shouldn’t, but fuck it, if the story needs it, it needs it.  I don’t feel like I’m overly wordly overall though.  Maybe I was a couple years ago when I was first starting out, but these days  I truly appreciate a great silent beat.  It may sound weird, but I love being able to take out dialogue or narration from a page because you realize that you don’t need it, that it’s all there in the art.

– I suck at coming up with character names. I’ve reused lots of the same names, usually of people I know.  When I was in college I would always flip through CD liner notes to find good names, but these days all my CDs are packed up in boxes in the basement.  I try to keep a list where I jot down interesting names I encounter.  The sheriff in SCALPED takes his name from a road sign I passed years ago in Ohio for the town of Wooster.  I used to also keep a notebook for jotting down interesting bathroom graffiti, though I’m not sure anything useful ever came of that.

Okay, enough of this. I should be doing actual writing now.

–Chief Red Crow was originally called Chief Crow Dog, and before the reservation was the Prairie Rose Rez, it was called Jumping Bull.

–In the original pitch, Dash Bad Horse was not the undercover FBI agent on the rez.  He was the same sort of disgruntled rebel-without-a-cause, but he came back to the rez only after his mother’s murder, looking to collect whatever money she’d left him in her will.  The undercover fed was a completely different character, and it was editor Will Dennis’ idea to combine the two. I won’t say much about that other character, since I may still bring him into the series, though in a different role.

–Looking back over my original emails with Will from 2004, when we first started bouncing the idea around, our main reference points for how we wanted the book to feel were Michael Mann’s “Crime Story” series and the Phil Joanou film STATE OF GRACE. At the time, I hadn’t yet started watching “The Wire,” which of course turned out to be a major influence on what I wanted to do with SCALPED.

–When I first conceived of SCALPED, it was going to be a relaunch of the old DC western hero Scalphunter. I can’t find the document now, but if I remember correctly, the book would’ve been split between stories set in the Old West, utilizing the original Scalphunter character, and stories set in the present, focusing on Scalphunter’s descendant, who was caught up with a crime boss running a casino on an Indian rez. Not sure how I would’ve ever made that work, but I would still love to write some straight-up western stories set within the world of SCALPED. And I know Guera would love to draw them.

2:00pm MARVEL: MONDO MARVEL
They come from all corners of the Marvel U to talk to YOU! The most star-studded panel of Emerald City is here. The jam-packed gust list includes C.B. Cebulski (X-Infernus), Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man), Ed Brubaker (The Marvels Project), Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men), Marjorie Liu (Dark Wolverine), Rick Remender (Punisher), Daniel Way (Deadpool), and Jason Aaron (Wolverine: Weapon X) as they discuss everything from X-Men to Ultimate to the Marvel Heroes.

By Francesco Francavilla. The issue is part three of “High Lonesome” and is titled “The Ballad of Baylis Earl Nitz.”  Look for it in March, where ever finer funny books are sold.

And also names R.M. Guera the artist of the year.  Rock on, Philly.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/36556324.html

Brian Wood: LOCAL. The best thing I’ve done, and hopefully the first of many Ryan Kelly collabs. And the first NORTHLANDERS book, which not only got me out of my comfort zone but did the same for a lot of people who thought they knew what a comic book about Vikings was.

G. Willow Wilson: I’m proud to have written almost 500 pages in 2008. (AIR, VIXEN, and two drafts of The Butterfly Mosque)

David Lapham: YOUNG LIARS, definitely. Actually this was a huge year for me. Did a ton of work and finally feel like “I’m back” (even though I didn’t go anywhere) for the first time since STRAY BULLETS went on hiatus. YOUNG LIARS was something I had been working on for almost a year and a half before the first issue hit the stand. I felt it evolve from what I thought was going to be a Tomb Raider-esque chick action book to something that was completely twisted, dark, funny, tragic, real, fantasy, and just plain gonzo. It turned into everything I’d like to see in my comics all at once!

Jock: Comics wise I’ve not had much in print, apart from my SCALPED covers. Always proud to be part of that book. Outside of that I did a load of concept art for Pete Berg’s movie DUNE for Paramount, and I’m really proud of a lot of that. Very different to comics work, but very rewarding.

Cliff Chiang: GREEN ARROW & BLACK CANARY #4 came out in early January, and though it was a bear to get through (imagine drawing an issue about a hospital while a loved one is IN the hospital), I’m proud of how it turned out.

Will Dennis: I love all my children equally.

Brian Azzarello: 100 BULLETS lasting 100 issues with the same creative team. The impact JOKER had in not just the direct but the book market too ain’t so bad, neither.

Jason Aaron: The “Dead Mothers” arc of SCALPED. I think it’s the best thing I’ve done on the title, and I’m looking forward to the challenge of topping it in 2009. Also, the PUNISHER MAX CHRISTMAS SPECIAL and GHOST RIDER #26 (featuring the debut of the all-new Orb) were probably my favorite single issues to write.

WHAT WORK ARE YOU THE MOST EXCITED ABOUT FOR 2009?

Brian Wood: A few upcoming NORTHLANDERS one-shots should be excellent, if only for the artists we have lined up coughRissocough. Seeing how the new DEMO books come out, and writing issue #50 of DMZ. 50! Reaching fifty issues of a series is sort of like when I hit 30 years of age. I never thought I’d make it that long.

G. Willow Wilson: I hope not to have to work quite as hard in 2009. But I’m excited to keep writing AIR and branch out into new genres, to be disclosed forthwith.

David Lapham: Sales willing, hopefully a second year of YOUNG LIARS. I have another–still super secret–project coming up from Wildstorm. A big high concept idea I came up with (and I don’t get many of those). I enlisted a young artist to partner with, who I can’t wait for everyone to see his work because he’s going to be a great one. Every page looks better than the one before. As soon as I can I’ll post about it. Stay tuned…

Jock: Drawing SNAPSHOT, a mini series with Andy Diggle, but I’m also looking forward to working with some writer by the name of Jason. Jason Aarskrak or something? Aarnon?

Cliff Chiang: I’ll be finishing the Neil Young epic GREENDALE soon and it should be coming out later in the year. Hopefully, we’ve taken a cool concept album and made some good comics out of it. Also, excited to work with Azz again in 2009.

Will Dennis: I know I said I love all my children equally but that’s a bit of a fib. Cause this year I have two things that stand apart. First up in Feb(ish) is the final issue of 100 BULLETS. Hard to believe. A monumental achievement by any measure. And quite literally I would not have the career I’ve had without the generosity and blind faith shown to me by Brian, Eduardo, Trish, Dave and Clem all those years ago. I was a totally unknown assistant editor who inherited that amazing book. Azz had little to go on other than one night we spent drinking in some divey bars in nyc. It just goes to show that everything yer parents told u about drinking was dead wrong. One good night of boozing can change yer whole life forever. Now nearly 9 years later we have made it to the end. I think we told some pretty goddamn good stories (spent a lot of sleepless nights in that time too!) and I couldn’t be more proud of the work that everyone has done. It’s sad to see it go and I’m humbled by my association with this book

The other big event is the launch of the Vertigo crime line in September. A lot has already been said about this and more will be revealed at NYCC but the first two books are deadly. One is an occult thriller written by international best selling author Ian Rankin called DARK ENTRIES and the other is a nasty noir called FILTHY RICH from the man, Brian Azzarello. They’re about 200 pages each in glorious black & white digest size hardcovers! Hopefully folks will check ‘em out.

Beyond that I have a new monthly that we’re going announce at NYCC as we’ll as the usual goodness from Scalped, DMZ and Northlanders!

Brian Azzarello: I really don’t get excited unless I’m in a stadium. I’m looking forward to the debut of Vertigo Crime, and really proud to be part of it. Also some prose work will be published in the fall…

Jason Aaron: “The Gnawing” in SCALPED, Tony Moore drawing the mother of all trucker horror stories in GHOST RIDER, and the debut of my new WOLVERINE series, plus an as-yet-unannounced super-cool Marvel project.

WHAT’S YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?

Brian Wood: I don’t make them. Each year, each week, each day I just try to make forward momentum, and improve in everything if only a little bit.

G. Willow Wilson: My New Year’s Resolution is to play more. I’ve gotten too serious.

David Lapham: Kick heroin. After that everything else is easy street.

Jock: I never have them. I’m flawed, but I know it.

Cliff Chiang: 2008 kinda threw me for a loop, but 2009 is all about taking charge. We’ll see where that takes me.

Will Dennis: To never read blogs

Brian Azzarello: My New Years Resolution is to not be so invisible, and post regularly.

Jason Aaron: To make Brian Azzarello post regularly.