Comic vs. The Written. Anyone do both?

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:26 pm

It's rare for me to do much with internal monologue other than a sentence or two every couple of comics, but I can see how they could really lead to an interesting story line. Mweh heh heh.

The only reason I started to illustrate my story was to get people to read it. People still read it, but no one cares to look at the perty pictures. Eh, so long as I have fun

.

Oh, Joel, are you sure you can't publish stuff after it's been up on the internet? I've had to 2 friends publish their written works after they were already up, and know of a comic artist who has also. I think as long as it's not professionally published, someone will publish it just so someone gets money (usually not the artist

).

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:36 pm

I've mentioned this in other various related threads, but it's sort of come up again. I was already composing/writing/moulding together a 90 minute musical for my primary school to perform when a friend of mine told me I was going to draw a comic that he was going to write.

Well...I took the characters from the musical and drew them as cartoons, and basically the comic evolved out of that. The kids from the musical made the transition, but the teachers and other characters in the comic were created solely for that medium. There are other characters in the musical though that I do intend to bring across when the time is right, but yeah, School Spirit was originally a primary school musical production which was adapted to a webcomic.

We only just finished performing it a fortnight ago.

That possibly means School Spirit is the only webcomic to have its own original soundtrack!

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:37 pm

warofwinds wrote:Oh, Joel, are you sure you can't publish stuff after it's been up on the internet? I've had to 2 friends publish their written works after they were already up, and know of a comic artist who has also. I think as long as it's not professionally published, someone will publish it just so someone gets money (usually not the artist ).

I'm pretty sure and it makes sense, too. The comic is a different situation but the other two... Could you provide more details? Were they short stories? Were they still online when they were published or were they taken down first? Did they tell the publisher? Etc?

- Joel Fagin

Collapse · Post by **Collapse** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:51 pm

Wait, what? You can't publish something you put on the internet? Even if it's own your own site?

But I've got stuff on my site I plan to attempt publishing someday!

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:00 pm

There's Kelen, who's short story Dragon's Blood, even though it we all got to read it, was going to be published for a contest. There's Directions of Destiny, who's redoing a lot of stuff to get it published. I know a couple of writers who's stories on FictionPress are getting published. I think you don't sell first publication rights, you sell royalty rights. Whatever money they make off of you, well, they get the huge majority of it. And then you don't get any after a certain number of years. Or so I've been told.

I just bought this huge book of publishers for 2001, who they all are, what they want, the rules, everything, but I haven't had the time to read it yet. If I find anything, I'll be sure to post it. It should contain publication rules for all mediums.

Ymmot · Post by **Ymmot** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 9:06 pm

hmm...write? as in sit down and make a script before drawing all the pictures?

hah! writing is obsolete! I have evolved beyond such things.

in other words I make up dialog as I go along... following no guide but the rough outline I have planned out in my mind!

hah! explains a lot don't it...?

-ymmot

Escushion · Post by **Escushion** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 9:32 pm

I do both at once. I know what I need to be expressed in the specific strip, so I draw and come up with dialogue as I plan it.

Of course, the plans are just little scribbles. I don't draw the real thing unless I know exactly what's what.

Seigun · Post by **Seigun** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:33 pm

I do both ^^
I've been writing stories, drawing and painting for... oh, man, I'm old... since Jr high. (I'm halfway through college, now.) I think the drawing/writing combo was all I used to do. I had--and have--no life.

People always told me that my writing is really good, and my drawings are... well.. it really depends on who looks at them

But, I loved drawing, anyway.
The comic I'm working on now started as a story idea that I really wanted to see, instead of imagine as I read along. So, I stepped out on a limb and am using my webcomic to see what I can do with a graphics pad and a lot of patience.

So far, I'm getting the hang of it, but it will take a while before I'm decent, I think. But at least I have faith in my plot. 8) I have to say that it's really strange not being able to write out scenes and nuances... it makes the comic storytelling sort of difficult when you realize you can't set scenes, moods, and characters in the same way.

This year, I'll be writing in NaNoWriMo, and see how far I can push myself before I explode. I think I'll end up writing my comic plot in book form, although I already have it all mapped out.
I guess I'm cheating now.

But really, nothing beats creating a good story, no matter how it's done ^^

Fadedflame · Post by **Fadedflame** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:17 am

Both, at least once I get settled into the new place and have my computer up and running again.

Honestly if I had to choose between the two i'd probably go with writing. Though I hope that never has to happen because I love to do both. Sometimes I think of stories that can only be expressed right in visual form, my art isn't quite up to it but I'm working on it, and other times I have stories that work right solely in language.

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:40 pm

I try to do both, but lately I've been so busy that only the comic gets done.

Fullcircle · Post by **Fullcircle** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 2:38 am

Both

Full Circle was originally just written stories KW and I wrote together, and I would draw characters just to help us get an idea of what they looked like. It was actually ElfQuest that inspired us to combine the two ideas. Then we got into more and more comics and became obsessed. And that was before we even knew doing it as a webcomic was a possibility!

We still do a lot of just the writing stuff too though, and I'm currently trying to give life to a novel that's been stuck in my head for a long while, completely non Full Circle related. I think I'm a writer first and foremost... but I try to keep it balanced between words and pictures these days.

~SR

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:12 pm

I ADORE elfquest! I was so happy that the Pini's decided to bring back out the graphic novels!

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 3:23 pm

It seems that a lot of comics' writers get into writing comics because it's a gig in writing. They don't really consider themselves comic storytellers, they consider themselves literary writers, and if they get the chance to do a 'proper' piece of writing, they tend to snap it up and leave comics behind, at least for awhile.

I find this to be a very unfortunate circumstance for comics in general. This is a dynamic that was created when comics began to be churned out, factory-style, by larger studios and pulp publishers, and it still continues to this day. I think there's always been an elite few who haven't subscribed to that kind of practice, and have committed themselves to exploring comics themselves as a storytelling medium. The 'underground' movement started to open up the exploration of the comic artform to more people, and thanks to advances in printing and communication technology, there are a lot more people out there who work specifically in comic storytelling, and seem to define themselves as comic storytellers than ever.

That's a good thing, because comics are a language all their own. The literary approach to storytelling is not the same as the comic approach to storytelling. To treat them as if they are one and the same often leads to inferior stories by both literary and comic standards.

I could say the exact same thing about illustrators who approach comics as merely a drawing gig, and aren't terribly interested in telling a great story using the comic artform. The industry's continued reliance on the method of employing literary writers to do comics and pairing them with normal illustrators who don't really understand how the visual narrative of comics works, in my often flawed opinion, is one of the reasons why the industry is not very healthy right now. It's an outdated method. Just looking at all of the comics that continually come out featuring poorly designed pages, a surplus of one or two panel pages, and really crappy dialogue tells me that, tragically, it's a method still very much employed.

I'm personally very happy to stick with comics. Comic storytelling is still a pretty unsettled frontier that has a lot of regions to explore, and that's very exciting to me. I've spent my whole life, since I was ten years old, learning the nuances of how comics form their unique narratives, and I'm happy to stick to that. Of course, my proclivities are much more visual, and I just like to draw pretty pictures a lot, too. Just as I, as a visual artist, love to explore the visual narrative of comics, I happily welcome writers who love to explore the method of telling a story in comic form. As long as it's about making a great comic in the end.

Pimpette · Post by **Pimpette** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 11:42 pm

Usually I create something first, as a joke or just something to pass the time. But then it evolves, almost on its own.

Pimpette started out as a joke. Just something I drew in english media to amuse some friends. We threw in some hos during some dull classes (two of which are based off actual friends of mine - Jon and Niche - Jon because he dropped science and someone decided that being employed by Pimpette was his only future option, and Niche... well, let's just say he was the running joke of our group and apparently enjoyed it, because everyone calls him Niche to his face now).
I don't remember when the comic started - I think it was just to see if I could do one. I meant for it to just be a gag comic.. but then backstories seemed to appear out of nowhere. Suddenly Pimpette has a long history with Satan and Hell, and has an evil twin sister.. hell, even Turkish has a past.
Weird how that kind of happens.

I'm an "artist" by choice, a writer by accident.

Fullcircle · Post by **Fullcircle** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:47 am

warofwinds wrote:I ADORE elfquest! I was so happy that the Pini's decided to bring back out the graphic novels!

In *beautiful* color *or* portable black and white no less! /(^v^)\ I'm still waiting for decent collectible action figures though. I want my Winnowill!

I picked up my first comic book thanks to that beautiful evil Elf!

~SR

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:58 am

collapse wrote:Wait, what? You can't publish something you put on the internet? Even if it's own your own site?

Sorry for a late reply. I missed this.

Anyway, yes, that's right. A publisher will want to make money off the story and if you're giving it away for free, he can't do that. I'm sure exceptions can be made but not for the un-published wannabes.

How much do you have to change something to make it re-publishable? Dunno. Not a clue.

- Joel Fagin