Guys Not Writing Comics
Why no updates?
In a word; motivation. In another word; depression. I started this project with two people because I needed a bit of support and competition to make sure I stayed on track. But with Matt falling off the wagon and me going on one of my periodic downturns, everything just ground to a halt. If I were writing for money, I’d have the motivation to put bread on my table and an editor giving me pointed looks. As it is, it’s all too easy to get out of the habit and just think “why bother”?
But this project is not dead. I’ve dragged myself out of my hole and am reevaluating things. Firstly the timeframe. Writing a script every 2 weeks might have been overambitious, given that I’m juggling a full time job and attempting a social life. From now we’ll be moving to a schedule where a script is posted every two weeks, allowing us a month to actually write them. I DID manage to stick to the old schedule for a while, but long term it might be too much (if not for me then for my co-contributor).
Which brings me to my second point. Matt’s keen on the project but I don’t think he can keep up. He’s got too many things on his plate as it is, and I need that other person to make me say “oh I can’t let them down / let them one-up me”. So Matt’s going to drop to an occasional contributor, posting a script whenever he feels like it, and Aaron Caskey will be taking over regular script posting duties.
I still have a million things I want to write about, so this project isn’t going away. Next script will be posted by Aaron on the 1st of June.
A script is forthcoming, but not today
…I’m running incredibly late.
Two one-page scripts
Life’s been kicking Matt in the crotch a bit lately, so I’m covering him by posting a couple of scripts I did for the Transformers Mosaic project. The aim of the project was to write one page scripts that explored a particular Transformer, then have artists write them. Originally posted on the Allspark, it soon moved onto the IDW forums, the company that currently holds the comic rights.
In my mind, it was not a success, for the simple reason that the quality of both the art and the scripts ran the range from “good” to “wouldn’t use to wipe ass with”, and most of them were overly wordy or overly dramatic or just plain sucked. I think it’s still going, but I haven’t bothered to check.
I’m not going to say my two contributions to the project (only one of which was ever finished) were that great - in particular my script about Ravage was too wordy by half - but I’d also like to think that they were top tier at least. The challenge of trying to squeeze a bit of story and a lot of characterisation into one page was also fun.
So included here are my Mosaic scripts, exploring the characters of Beast Wars Ravage and Octopunch respectively. Yes, it’s massively nerdy, but it’s comics. What do you expect? As a bonus I’ve also included the art for the Ravage piece, by the ever talented Heather O’Connell.
All characters are (c) Hasbro
London Calling, Issue 2
In which more is revealed about Michael Darrow, and Bad Things begin to happen.
Download "London Calling - issue 2" as .pdf
PAGE 1
PANEL 1:
INT. TROCADERO ARCADE, DAY
We’re inside the Trocadero arcade on Shaftesbury avenue, two
floors of game machines inside a shopping/cinema complex. A
group of 5 friends are clustered around the controls of a
fighting game, BOY 1 and BOY 2 intent at the joysticks.
They’re a pretty good subsection of London teenagers. Black,
Indian/Asian, White. Dressed in fashionable street clothes.
They’re around 16-17 years old. One of the group is Danny, a
young asian man pretty indistinguishable from his friends.
PANEL 2:
Closer on the group. BOY 1 is looking pissed off in a
good-natured kind of way, BOY 2 laughing as he beats him,
BOY 3 and BOY 4 laughing with him. Danny is in foreground
turned away from them, taking out his cellphone which is
ringing/vibrating in his hand.
BOY 1
What! No! You BASTARD. You
cheating… BELLEND.
BOY 2
Hahahaha
SFX
*musical notes from phone*
PANEL 3:
Small panel. CU. on Danny’s phone, he’s got a text message.
PHONE DISPLAY
~SARAH~ Just got off tube at
Leicester sq
PANEL 4:
Danny is walking away from his friends, raising one hand as
he calls back at them. BOY 2 looks over his shoulder from
the controls of the game while BOY 3 takes BOY 1’s place, 1,
2 and 4 all grinning as they taunt their friend.
DANNY
Gonna go pick up Sarah from the
station, back in a bit.
BOY 4
Oooooooh, SARAH!
BOY 2
Haha, take as long as you want,
mate.
BOY 1
*mwah!* *mwah!* (kissing noises)
PANEL 5:
Danny makes his way though the crowded Trocadero, which is
bustling with people - it’s a Saturday so there’s schoolkids
and parents and tourists. Typical West End weekend mob.
PANEL 6:
CU on Danny pushing open a glass door, half out onto
Shaftesbury avenue, having walked through one of the
tourist-tat shops to get out. He’s shielding his eyes from
the light, his eyes not quite adjusting. Which is just as
well really given what’s coming on the next page.
Bow Before Birdbrain
A smaller piece today since I’m running behind schedule. Bow Before Birdbrain is a short spoof of the current IDW Transformers offering All Hail Megatron, but with more Pretender Monsters and Jumpstarters! Hopefully it stands up on its own well enough so that you dont’ need to read AHM, but who knows!
Bow Before Birdbrain
Page 1
Panel 1
The Deluxe Insecticons are busy stamping on an orphanage
Caption: EARTH.
Barrage: Crushing children is so fun and adult! I’m glad we made the PRETENDER MONSTERS joint Decepticon leaders!
Panel 2.
FULL-TILT runs up to a shadowy figure (Birdbrain)
Full-Tilt: Sir sir, I’ve had a letter from ALL THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD!
Panel 3
Full-Tilt opens the letter and reads it to the shadowy figure.
Full-Tilt: They say that they saw us smash this small American town and so are all totally surrendering without exception! Go team!
Panel 4
(Inset) We see Birdbrain’s pretender shell hissing open. He starts to step out
Birdbrain: Excellent….
Panel 5
Splash over the bottom half of the page. Birdbrain looking maniacal whilst the rest of his cronies stand about
Birdbrain: Now the Earth will learn to…
Title: BOW BEFORE BIRDBRAIN!
Thunderbirds Are Go
Looks like I’ve got the kinks worked out of the wordpress setup, so it’s full speed ahead on the scripts now. Still need to sort out a way to display the archives as just titles rather than the full posts - I like having the first page of the script on the main post, but it’s just not needed elsewhere.
One thing I’ve shamelessly stolen from the excellent comics blogs 4thletter and Mightygodking is the randomised title image. So far I’ve only got three, and while it would be easy enough to just scan in some interesting looking panels and slap the “…guys writing comics” box in the corner, it.. just doesn’t seem right.
What I wanted to do was use art that was comissioned by or explicitly drawn for me or Matt. It’s more personal, and ties the title into the theme of the site.
-
Title one
…is a cropped and colored picture of Kerr Avon from the cult British sci-fi series Blake’s 7, as drawn by the immensely talented Michael Avon Oeming. I fell in love with his style while reading POWERS, and comissioned this piece at DragonCon 2007 when I found out his middle name is a reference to the Blake’s 7 character (can’t find a link to this at the moment so you’ll have to take my word for it). I quickly dropped some colors + lettering on it in Photoshop.
-
Title 2
…is a selection of panels from a one page script I wrote for the Transformers Mosaic project and drawn by my good friend Heather O’Connell. Originating on the IDW forums, the quality of the entries was… erratic at best. Heather’s art is always supurb, and she turned my rather overblown script into something beautiful. Originally in amazing black and white tones, I added digital colors and a few contrast tweaks here and there.
-
Title 3
…is a quick sketch that I requested from the wonderful Kate Beaton at the recent UK Web & Mini Comix Thing. You are doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t following her comic about history and assorted other things.
Next week Matt’s either posting his absurd IDW-Transformers parody “Bow Before Birdbrain”, or something else entirely (he claims it is a secret). The week after that will be issue #2 of London’s Calling.
London Calling - Issue 1 of 4
This was an idea that I’d had kicking around in my head for a long time, a miniseries about a group of London-based metahumans with ambiguous powersets, a not-quite-superheroes story very much set in the city (thought having said that, I’ve put the first issue in Woolwich which isn’t exactly central). It’s the first issue of a miniseries, so I’ve tried to start strong and have an ending which suggests there is a lot more to come.
Anyway, enough blather, onto the script.
EDIT: I’ve just noticed that I’ve forgotten to include the description for Wace in the .pdf! I’ll upload a new version later.
Download "London Calling - issue 1" as .pdf
LONDON CALLING
ISSUE 1 of 4
PAGE 1
Ext. On top of st. paul’s cathedral, day.
The sky is the color of a bruise, a storm hanging heavy over
the capital. Weird lightning flickers from cloud to cloud,
like it was the end of the world.
PANEL 1:
CLOSE UP: EMILY PARFETT.
Dark, chin-length straight hair frames a pleasant,
heart-shaped face. Her makeup is ruined by the tears
rolling down her cheeks. She looks EXTREMELY pissed off.
PARFETT
You… you.. complete and utter
CUNT
(We might have to censor “cunt” but that’s the word she’s
using even under a black bar)
PANEL 2:
WIDE, but not quite wide enough to show how crazy it really
is for two people to be standing on st pauls (save the full
panorama for the splash)
We can see the low London skyline and the weird clouds and
lightning. EMILY PARFETT is confronting a younger MICHAEL
DARROW.
DARROW is wearing a smart dark suit in a 80’s style, no
ridiculous pastels or rolled up sleeves but it is slightly
dated. His hair is a light brown, medium length and wavy.
Darrow’s hands are covered in blood up to the elbows. A
long, straight sword is held in his right hand, in the other
he holds the lapels of TIM, a young man who he’s obviously
just stabbed, his body half-slumped onto the rooftop. His
tie and hair is whipped around by the high winds.
PARFETT is wearing similar styled clothing, expensive and
well cut business attire. Business jacket, skirt, stockings.
Attractive but not particularly revealing. She’s also
wearing a long beige coat that’s flapping around like a cape
behind her. No shoes as she took off her heels for purchase
on top of the dome.
CAPTION:1984
DARROW
Don’t be so Don’t be so NAIVE,
Emily…
PANEL 2:
Darrow lets go of the deceased Tim, who falls to the roof
with a THUMP.
DARROW
…I’ve just saved the WORLD.
The Montauk Project - Issue One
The Montauk Project Issue One
by Matt Marshall
Imagine if every single conspiracy theory was actually real. Every paranoid delusion actually is completely based in fact. Who is out there stopping a planet full of crazyness. Who runs… The Montauk Project?
Page 1
Panel 1
We see the swastika-shaped Denver airport building from the air.
Caption: Denver International Airport. 1995
Caption: Art. Art can change the world. It can reach into our souls and unleash our desires, can change the way we think, and can unite or divide us as a society. And it can happen in the most ordinary of places. In Denver Airport for example, there is a mural.
Panel 2
Inside the airport. Bored people milling about. A man in a post uniform is pushing a trolley. Dominating the picture is a huge mural full of screaming children and burning buildings
Caption: A mural that depicts a burning world, stalked over by faceless men in SS uniforms.
Panel 3
Close up on the image of a gas-masked SS man. The postman wheels his trolley past it
Caption: Authorities call it art.
Panel 4
The postman wheels the trolley into a lift.
Caption: Others call it a sinister plan. A warning
Panel 5
We see him insert a key. The floor number -13 lights up.
Caption: We ignore it. We love our humdrum world
Panel 6
We see the lift from above as it descends
Caption: We don’t want to know about what evils may lurk beneath.
1st EXCITING ISSUE!
Guys Writing Comics is a blog project that’s exactly what it sounds like - two guys writing comics and posting them online. The key word here being writing. We’re not artists, so while some scripts may come with rough panel outline, don’t expect a full color extravangaza. Except through the power.. of IMAGINATION. Of course you’re welcome to submit art/treatments/sketches of anything we’ve posted. That’s awesome. But the focus will always be on the writing.
The goals of the Guys Writing Comics blog are simple;
- To post a new script for a full-sized comic book (around 22-24 pages) every Monday. Sometimes these will be completely original works, sometimes we’ll be playing in other people’s sandboxes. Some scripts will be stand alone, others may be part of a larger arc. Whatever the case we will attempt to tell engaging and enjoyable stories. Even if, for whatever reason, we can’t post a full script on Monday, SOMETHING will be posted. Most likely a shorter length piece, or a one-pager with art.
- To improve our writing skills through sticking to this regular schedule. We’re not professional authors (not yet anyway), but there’s only one way to become a better writer - write, write, and write some more. Constructive, intelligent critique is both welcomed and encouraged. If you feel our writing sucks, that’s fine - provided you can break down exactly WHY this is the case. We’re big boys, we can handle criticism.
That’s it, nice and simple. The first script will be posted next Monday. I’m looking forward to it.