Creative thinking for a comic book script
These are a few rather random notes I’ve taken while planning to write this specific comic book script which I mentioned a few days ago. It’s mostly an internal monologue because I’m playing with a few ideas before I sit to put the baby down to paper per se.
For those who came in late
Not really. We are talking about characters that have a story dating all the way back to 1989 but this should be brand-new.
We are not ditching past continuitty; in fact we’ll be making a rather extensive use of it- as long as it seems totally new to the reader. Both new and old readers alike should have the same impressions out of the story.
The setting
Montgomery Peer and Lightpath are off to outer space; most of issue #1 happens in outer space. They have gone off to space for a reason, to seek something.
The return
The return should be very organic, very down to Earth, none of that “in the nick of time” crap. Peer will enter the scene having made the decision already. Then he should e-mail or phone somebody else. I’m thinking Lightpath not really because she’s his best friend, but because she’s kind of like the last one of the gang, the one who didn’t quit.
Only, this is not Superman Returns. The Centurion's quit before back in '92, then '96, then '01. It's not really about his one-big-comeback, insomuch as about his inconsistence, his self-doubting, that kind of stuff.
The MacGuffin
They are after something that cannot be found on Earth, something that cannot be replicated neither with their powers nor via advanced technology, hence something unique.
I want to make it a run for something… time is essential… maybe it’s something that will heal somebody?
I’m thinking something in the line of a rare flower or herb or stone that will heal someone special to them. Or is that too corny?
Anyway, it should be a quest for something special.
The protagonist / The Centurion
This is Montgomery Peer about five years later, five years older, after letting go of the Centurion. He’s in his late-20s, no longer a kid and no longer the Centurion and despite the fact he’s going back and helping out his former friends, there’s no love lost between him and them, and he isn’t willing to don the uniform again- we’re talking no uniform, regular clothes (jeans, sneakers, etc), no alter-ego, no secret-identity, he’s just a regular guy, really, but he happens to (still) have most of his special powers.
Path
Lightpath should be called “Path” for most of the story.
She’s no longer just a pretty blonde and should be given more of a plot-device aspect as we go along. We’ll refer to her as Path only because that’s what she is, metaphorically speaking, a path to Peer’s self-re-discovery.
In a sense she’s not unlike Virgil to Peer’s Dante, she’ll end up becoming- without even knowing it- his spiritual guide.
Apropos of that- I have just realized how cool “Path & Peer” sounds.
The secondary characters
Montgomery Peer and Path are the main characters, obviously. If we’re going for the healing thing, then we’ll also have to need somebody who’s just fallen ill or something like that. If so, it’s a girl. An old character, or a new character related to a new one. I was actually thinking of Elizabeth Foster (previously Stardust), maybe she married into Faerie royalty and they had this little girl? And the little girl is ill? Something in that line.
Having other secondary characters is important as well because of the sub-plot they automatically generate. But who? The story per se is still to be decided upon, but we need the downtime from Peer and Path every now and then. I need to be able to cut from the scenes for dramatic impact.
The antagonist
I really, really, really don’t want to do a super-villain. ‘Nuff said. I don’t know what I’m going to do about an opposing force to the protagonist, but I’m not writing a super-villain. Ever. Too silly. Even for me.
The leitmotif
There’s a recurring theme that’s a question from Path to Peer and etches Peer’s theme in slate (so to speak). She’s always asking him these introspective questions that will automatically prompt a half-assed reply from him, much to everybody’s frustration and chagrin, up until the last couple of pages.
Hence, #1 is to be called “I’ve been waiting for this moment just to hear you say…”
The questions I’m thinking about are, “Where were you during the 9/11 attacks?”, “Why did you choose the name Centurion in the first place?”, “Why did you come back”, and ultimately, “Why did you leave in the first place?”.
Along every half-assed reply Peer will smile like a kid but in the last. In the last one he will reply seriously, looking a little sad and lonely against this huge backdrop of space, all very wonderful, and he’ll say it in one word. Path will remain quiet, maybe hug him, then cut to the title.
It’s a story about people, after all.
The script
Definitely doing full-script because that’s the only way to go for me.
Past experience has made me much for… ego-savvy? Is there such a thing? I mean to say that the highly-detailed structure I used for “The Fox” scripts a few years ago was so off, read more like intellectual masturbati*n than anything else. Hence, it’s gotta be a simple script, more along the lines of the Batwoman serial I did last year.
The screenplay (?)
…Hey, what if I did it not like a comic book but like a movie? Not write a comic book script per se but a screenplay?
I do know how to write a screenplay, Hollywood-style. The metrics and the rules, I mean, at least the very, very basic rules.
Aww, scratch that. Maybe next time. Definitely next time.
I want to go back to writing comic book scripts now.
Plot structure
Centers on Path and Peer, those are our main characters. They should use about two-thirds of the book.
The last third should be split between two parallel sub-plots that will eventually merge into the main storyline right before the climax.
Length
There about five issues or is that too ambitious? The Fox was supposed to be 32 issued long and I only wrote three.
Anyway, each book should be 22 pages long, that’s the standard for the industry so who am I to say otherwise; I’ll stick to the classics.
Of course we’re talking about more than a hundred pages after it’s done, which will probably mean nearly two hundred pages of written material after all’s said and done.
Plus keeping up with the blog, plus well, my job.
I think I’m gonna call it, “Project Icarus”, because I can feel the sun sipping away the wax on my wings…
Deadline
Nope. None. Not really.
I’m doing this for the sheer thrill and fun of it.
I mean, it’s not too scary, right? To be thrilled by writing crap that will never see the light of day?
File it under, and the file’s way too thick by now, intellectual masturbati*n. Again.
Writing’s cool. It’s a hobby, really.
For those who came in late
Not really. We are talking about characters that have a story dating all the way back to 1989 but this should be brand-new.
We are not ditching past continuitty; in fact we’ll be making a rather extensive use of it- as long as it seems totally new to the reader. Both new and old readers alike should have the same impressions out of the story.
The setting
Montgomery Peer and Lightpath are off to outer space; most of issue #1 happens in outer space. They have gone off to space for a reason, to seek something.
The return
The return should be very organic, very down to Earth, none of that “in the nick of time” crap. Peer will enter the scene having made the decision already. Then he should e-mail or phone somebody else. I’m thinking Lightpath not really because she’s his best friend, but because she’s kind of like the last one of the gang, the one who didn’t quit.
Only, this is not Superman Returns. The Centurion's quit before back in '92, then '96, then '01. It's not really about his one-big-comeback, insomuch as about his inconsistence, his self-doubting, that kind of stuff.
The MacGuffin
They are after something that cannot be found on Earth, something that cannot be replicated neither with their powers nor via advanced technology, hence something unique.
I want to make it a run for something… time is essential… maybe it’s something that will heal somebody?
I’m thinking something in the line of a rare flower or herb or stone that will heal someone special to them. Or is that too corny?
Anyway, it should be a quest for something special.
The protagonist / The Centurion
This is Montgomery Peer about five years later, five years older, after letting go of the Centurion. He’s in his late-20s, no longer a kid and no longer the Centurion and despite the fact he’s going back and helping out his former friends, there’s no love lost between him and them, and he isn’t willing to don the uniform again- we’re talking no uniform, regular clothes (jeans, sneakers, etc), no alter-ego, no secret-identity, he’s just a regular guy, really, but he happens to (still) have most of his special powers.
Path
Lightpath should be called “Path” for most of the story.
She’s no longer just a pretty blonde and should be given more of a plot-device aspect as we go along. We’ll refer to her as Path only because that’s what she is, metaphorically speaking, a path to Peer’s self-re-discovery.
In a sense she’s not unlike Virgil to Peer’s Dante, she’ll end up becoming- without even knowing it- his spiritual guide.
Apropos of that- I have just realized how cool “Path & Peer” sounds.
The secondary characters
Montgomery Peer and Path are the main characters, obviously. If we’re going for the healing thing, then we’ll also have to need somebody who’s just fallen ill or something like that. If so, it’s a girl. An old character, or a new character related to a new one. I was actually thinking of Elizabeth Foster (previously Stardust), maybe she married into Faerie royalty and they had this little girl? And the little girl is ill? Something in that line.
Having other secondary characters is important as well because of the sub-plot they automatically generate. But who? The story per se is still to be decided upon, but we need the downtime from Peer and Path every now and then. I need to be able to cut from the scenes for dramatic impact.
The antagonist
I really, really, really don’t want to do a super-villain. ‘Nuff said. I don’t know what I’m going to do about an opposing force to the protagonist, but I’m not writing a super-villain. Ever. Too silly. Even for me.
The leitmotif
There’s a recurring theme that’s a question from Path to Peer and etches Peer’s theme in slate (so to speak). She’s always asking him these introspective questions that will automatically prompt a half-assed reply from him, much to everybody’s frustration and chagrin, up until the last couple of pages.
Hence, #1 is to be called “I’ve been waiting for this moment just to hear you say…”
The questions I’m thinking about are, “Where were you during the 9/11 attacks?”, “Why did you choose the name Centurion in the first place?”, “Why did you come back”, and ultimately, “Why did you leave in the first place?”.
Along every half-assed reply Peer will smile like a kid but in the last. In the last one he will reply seriously, looking a little sad and lonely against this huge backdrop of space, all very wonderful, and he’ll say it in one word. Path will remain quiet, maybe hug him, then cut to the title.
It’s a story about people, after all.
The script
Definitely doing full-script because that’s the only way to go for me.
Past experience has made me much for… ego-savvy? Is there such a thing? I mean to say that the highly-detailed structure I used for “The Fox” scripts a few years ago was so off, read more like intellectual masturbati*n than anything else. Hence, it’s gotta be a simple script, more along the lines of the Batwoman serial I did last year.
The screenplay (?)
…Hey, what if I did it not like a comic book but like a movie? Not write a comic book script per se but a screenplay?
I do know how to write a screenplay, Hollywood-style. The metrics and the rules, I mean, at least the very, very basic rules.
Aww, scratch that. Maybe next time. Definitely next time.
I want to go back to writing comic book scripts now.
Plot structure
Centers on Path and Peer, those are our main characters. They should use about two-thirds of the book.
The last third should be split between two parallel sub-plots that will eventually merge into the main storyline right before the climax.
Length
There about five issues or is that too ambitious? The Fox was supposed to be 32 issued long and I only wrote three.
Anyway, each book should be 22 pages long, that’s the standard for the industry so who am I to say otherwise; I’ll stick to the classics.
Of course we’re talking about more than a hundred pages after it’s done, which will probably mean nearly two hundred pages of written material after all’s said and done.
Plus keeping up with the blog, plus well, my job.
I think I’m gonna call it, “Project Icarus”, because I can feel the sun sipping away the wax on my wings…
Deadline
Nope. None. Not really.
I’m doing this for the sheer thrill and fun of it.
I mean, it’s not too scary, right? To be thrilled by writing crap that will never see the light of day?
File it under, and the file’s way too thick by now, intellectual masturbati*n. Again.
Writing’s cool. It’s a hobby, really.
posted by 186282mps at 7:50 AM
<< Home