Brian Michael Bendis: Writing for Comics

This was probably the panel I was looking forward to most. I love listening to Bendis talk about comics and creating. He teaches a graphic novel writing class at PSU. I would love to sit in on that awesomeness!!

He started the panel with a clip from Adaptation, the somewhat autobiographical Charlie Kaufman movie.  It was the scene where Nicolas Cage, portraying Charlie Kaufman, goes to a writing seminar and Brian Cox tears into him.





And it’s true. There are crazy ass things going on every day in life.So many people don’t even realize all the amazing, crazy experiences they are having every day. Open your eyes every once in awhile and see the wonderful world, good AND bad, all around yourself!!

“Why do you want to write?” This is one of the first things Bendis asked. “Why?” Are you doing it for fame? For money? To have people like you? There are always people that are going to hate you, that are going to send you hate mail. Someone once said, If you haven’t pissed someone off then you aren’t doing it right.  I agree. You shouldn’t worry so much about making people upset. Haters are gonna hate.

He also talked about keeping it real. A friend of mine was once telling me about some new songs he was writing and I stopped him and asked, “What does this have to do with your kids or your divorce? Where’s the song about your Mom passing away?” “Aw, people don’t want to hear about that.” BULLSHIT!!  People LOVE to hear about that. That stuff is real! People can relate. Express yo’self!!

Bendis said that there is no need to follow trends and try to break in that way. One week blue may be the rage and you decide to write about blue. By the time you write about it and make your book people don’t care about blue anymore and love orange. Orange is the new craze. Just write about what you want to write about. Again, keep it real and don’t worry about writing that perfect novel.

This is one of the things that I tell people ALL the time, but have not been following myself. I always tell people to just draw, just write. Don’t worry about continually rewriting and editing and making the perfect story or piece of art. The more you write, the more you draw, the better you get. Write some crap. Draw a horrible picture. Then do it again. Over time you will start picking out what works and what you don’t like. Only by making mistakes can you learn how to avoid them. Over time you will grow to become a much better creator.

He also talked about how writing for comics is quite different than writing for other mediums. You can leave a lot out and let the artist flourish and they will add aspects to the story you never thought of. “You flourished all over the place!”

He showed scripts from various writers to show how different they are. Writing comics isn’t like writing screenplays. There is one standard for screenplays and if you don’t follow it then people won’t even look at it. Everyone writes comics differently. Dan Slott includes photo references right in his script and writes very “kinetically.” Geoff Johns writes out lil paragraphs for each character and for each place and anything else for the script before he even gets to page one panel one. Alan Moore? He hits the caps lock button and writes PAGES for each panel describing EVERYTHING he can think of that pertains to the panel. Dave Gibbons would go through the script and underline the one thing he needed to know to draw the panel. One line among MANY!

He also said that the colorist gets cover billing on his comics. And I can see why. Coloring does as much to create mood as the writing and the penciling. I’m looking forward to painting my comics.

He talked about reading something in print that he had written months ago and thinking, “Who rewrote this? Did some intern rewrite this? This is crap!”  Then going back and realizing it was exactly how he wrote it, but he had written so much since then he had completely forgotten what he had written.

“Give your script to someone that doesn’t give a shit about you.” This is the only way to get a true evaluation. He said it may be the scariest thing to do, but you can’t just show your mom and friends and take their praise seriously.  If this person that doesn’t give a shit about you says something doesn’t work, then it probably doesn’t work. Be willing to change, to let go of that “perfect” scene if it doesn’t add to the whole. I don’t know who I would show my script to. It seems even acquaintances would also try to portray your work in good light. Even someone that comes through your line at work or a freakin’ barista. Where do you find these people that don’t give a shit about you?

If you are interested in the creation of comics or writing in general then I suggest listening to Bendis every chance you get. I does podcasts with Word Balloon, The Bendis Tapes, which are always a pleasure to listen to.  He is full of great advice and always gets me pumped up about comics!!