Writing

In a break with tradition, two living authors have been given the 2014 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing for 2014, but since the committee just couldn't decide who are we...

Just So Happens By Fumio Obata Published by Jonathan Cape Buy This Book Upon first impression of Fumio Obata's new graphic novel, Just So Happens, I was struck with a lot of similar impressions that arose whilst reading...

If you wonder who is the hardest working man in comics biz, there is only one answer: Charles Soule, currently scripting seven monthly titles and running a law firm. As he admits in this post, people are always asking him "HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS???"—in fact I asked him that the last time I saw him—so he has written a blog post to explain so he doesn't have to waste precious time answering that question any more.

Details here.

  The winners of the Bill Finger Award for 2013 have been announced and they are Steve Gerber and Don Rosa. The award was created in 2005 to recognize writers—one living, one deceased—who have yet...

Sitting down to describe Larry Hama’s career it a pretty overwhelming task. Do you talk about his start in comics at the age of 16, his service in Vietnam, his work as a penciller...

Part of yesterday's "March Surprise" for DC Comics—confirmation that two popular writers were walking off their books due to editorial interference—was another odd fragment found lying around‚ the issue of Supergirl with one team...

The “titles” of Batman Begins showed the symbol of a bat formed in a swarm of bats, the titles of The Dark Knightshowed it in fire, now The Dark Knight Rises shows it in ice. The bats in Begins were a symbol of fear, the titles a metaphor for an identity forming out of shadows. The fire of The Dark Knight was like a wall of fire for that bat, that symbol, pushing through the chaos inflicted by the Joker. Now, the bat is, literally, the cracks in the ice formed by the isolation of Gotham City at the hands of Bane.

Good news from Peter David, the popular writer who had a stroke while vacationing at Disneyland. Because of the incredibly unfortunate timing (not that there is ever a good time to have a stroke) he has been rehabbing in a Florida treatment center, far from his New York home. Wife Kathleen has been updating everyone on his progress and David has been using Dragon Dictation to post to his blog and keep up with work. He's been making good progress, and now some very good news.:

The Oscar nominations were announced the other day. To no one’s surprise, the screenplay for The Avengers was not among them. That’s a shame, because the screenplay for The Avengers is a startling model of precision, density and propulsion. It manages to juggle no fewer than ten wildly disparate main characters in its ensemble cast and give each of them weight, clarity and purpose. Dear readers, I’ve worked on many a comic-book movie, none of which ever got near production. To get one superhero narrative to work is damn near impossible; The Avengers soars with seven.

When I first began writing this column, my intent was to help creators and comics publishers understand the methods to the madness of landing a book on the bestseller lists. After the November 8th...

In response to a reader, Warren Ellis passed along the following notes for writing dialog which strike us as very useful. With apologies, here's the whole thing: