Pablo is nearing completion of issue two. Once his portion of the work is done we pass it on to Bryan to color and then Nic to letter and finalize before sending everything to the printer.
Printing is a pretty crazy thing we had to learn from scratch when we were working on issue one. We thought we were going to go with one printer but China's Golden Week really threw our timeline for a loop. We had to scramble to find a new printer last minute and in the end only got our books by the skin of our teeth - I picked up the books on a Monday morning and flew out to New York for Comic-Con the next day.
We, uh, don't want to go through that again so that means better planning! We're going to try a new printer this time and hopefully have things set well in advance. The goal is to debut Issue Two at Wonder-Con this year.
Speaking of which, issue Two is coming along really, really nicely. I mean look at this:
We, uh, don't want to go through that again so that means better planning! We're going to try a new printer this time and hopefully have things set well in advance. The goal is to debut Issue Two at Wonder-Con this year.
Speaking of which, issue Two is coming along really, really nicely. I mean look at this:
It's a privilege working with such a talented team, and Pablo in particular deserves special praise. It's been amazing seeing his talent evolve over the past couple of years (we've been working on Skies for a while now) and we can't wait to see where he goes. New heights and all that :).
Hopefully Pablo isn't the only one refining his skills. Vince and I feel like issue two is really where the story starts to pick up. One of the neat things about working on comics instead of, say, films, is the ability to continually write until the letter goes down the book. Nic, our letterer, gives us grief for it sometimes but we love him and y'know sometimes you gotta see things before you know they don't work ;).
But in all seriousness, people do it in film too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not something we really embraced until doing this project and that's been an incredible, incredible blessing. Over the course of a script Vince and I will rewrite that thing maybe over 50 times if not more. We still have a roadmap but at this point the issues are veering further and further from the screenplay, and believe us that's a good thing.
Writing 'The Glow'
That process has sort of transferred over to the new project too, which we're tentatively calling The Glow. We first outlined the story before moving on to screenplay format, but this time with a better understanding of the translation between film and comic. From our observation (and I'm not sure if this is universal..) 15 pages of screenplay will result in about 26-30 pages of comic, give or take.
Knowing that, the way we're writing is to have little mini act-breaks every fifteen pages or so. We kind of got there by following Pablo's advice; his suggestion was to focus on the first four issues in a single arch. 15x4 = 60 pages, which is about what they ask for in a teleplay. Okay, cool - 60 pages, IV acts.
Toolwise, it's important that both of us can see the same screen while working. We stick primarily with Google Drive but when it's time to draft the teleplay we switch over to Writer Duet.
Hopefully Pablo isn't the only one refining his skills. Vince and I feel like issue two is really where the story starts to pick up. One of the neat things about working on comics instead of, say, films, is the ability to continually write until the letter goes down the book. Nic, our letterer, gives us grief for it sometimes but we love him and y'know sometimes you gotta see things before you know they don't work ;).
But in all seriousness, people do it in film too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not something we really embraced until doing this project and that's been an incredible, incredible blessing. Over the course of a script Vince and I will rewrite that thing maybe over 50 times if not more. We still have a roadmap but at this point the issues are veering further and further from the screenplay, and believe us that's a good thing.
Writing 'The Glow'
That process has sort of transferred over to the new project too, which we're tentatively calling The Glow. We first outlined the story before moving on to screenplay format, but this time with a better understanding of the translation between film and comic. From our observation (and I'm not sure if this is universal..) 15 pages of screenplay will result in about 26-30 pages of comic, give or take.
Knowing that, the way we're writing is to have little mini act-breaks every fifteen pages or so. We kind of got there by following Pablo's advice; his suggestion was to focus on the first four issues in a single arch. 15x4 = 60 pages, which is about what they ask for in a teleplay. Okay, cool - 60 pages, IV acts.
Toolwise, it's important that both of us can see the same screen while working. We stick primarily with Google Drive but when it's time to draft the teleplay we switch over to Writer Duet.
At this stage we kind of rewrite things a bunch of times. Some of it's good, some of it is not so good. The important thing is we can see where it's going. As long as we have that we can always make it better. When we're happy enough with where the script is we turn it into comic book format.
For us, comic book formatting means really thinking about the story visually. We try and break things down into what we feel like are the most important shots using the screenplay as a guideline.
For us, comic book formatting means really thinking about the story visually. We try and break things down into what we feel like are the most important shots using the screenplay as a guideline.
Our shorthand is based on camera angles, so we'll say things like TWO / SHOT - CASZY AND KOKEN but sometimes the comic vernacular will slip in with something like a HALF-PAGE or (our favourite words) SPLASH PAGE! We probably would never pass any sort of standard for formatting but as long as the artist gets what we mean I think we're okay. We act as our own editors, for better or worse.
In terms of direction, we're kind of loose about the specifics unless we have something particular in mind. We try to give our artists enough freedom to express themselves and bring ideas to the table while at the same giving enough direction so they can "see" the story, if you will.
Right now we think the first issue is in good shape. The artist search, on the other hand....
- Ray
In terms of direction, we're kind of loose about the specifics unless we have something particular in mind. We try to give our artists enough freedom to express themselves and bring ideas to the table while at the same giving enough direction so they can "see" the story, if you will.
Right now we think the first issue is in good shape. The artist search, on the other hand....
- Ray