– 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.

Here’s a preview to the cover of SCALPED#36 from me, what’s everyone else been up to?

So in addition to exclusives like Cliff’s Atomic Bombshell Prints, Brian Wood’s SDCC miniprints and sketchbook, you can pick up Willow’s Air and Vixen, Josh Dysart’s Unknown Soldier, Azz’ Filthy Rich, Jason Aaron’s The Other Side, Jock’s Green Arrow, and Peter Milligan’s Greek Street.

Unlike a lot of online warehouses, Khepri is pure mom&pop, selling comics for over ten years to loyal customers like any other LCS.  And of course, you can order any of these titles through the local comic shop of your choosing.

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–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.

http://mcrorie.net/