NEIL GAIMAN CHAPTER 15 MASTERCLASS

Comics
NEIL GAIMAN MASTERCLASS

CHAPTER 15

Comics
“When you get to comics you have a whole different
area of territory….We get to use the pictures and the
words to try and do things inside the head of the reader
that you might never be able to do in prose or in film.”

Comics are a visual form of storytelling that pair READING LIST

images with text. They are often presented sequentially
in panels, which are self-contained frames that tell one From journalism to literary fiction to cancelled seasons
story beat (for example, one moment, one look, one of television shows, contemporary comic books can
establishing shot of the scenery). The medium is con- spotlight any subject. They are bold and dark, funny
ducive to innovation and artistic expression, allowing and poignant, and have the same narrative power that
comic creators freedom to experiment with the real other mediums do to move you to tears, make you
estate on each page. laugh, or break your heart. The following comic books
are considered seminal works; most are available for
Like stories, comics span all types of genres. The purchase or as PDFs online. Flip through them to gain
Golden Age of Comic Books, from 1930 to 1950, a better understanding of how the various aspects of
introduced the superhero archetype to the canon comics—from illustration style to lettering and typog-
with the creation of some of the most well-known raphy—have evolved throughout the years.
comic book characters of all time: Batman, Superman,
Captain America, and Wonder Woman, to name a few. • God’s Man by Lynd Ward (1929)
After World War II, however, the superheroes gave • Action Comics #1 by DC Comics (1938)
way to other genres including romance, Westerns, and • The Spirit by Will Eisner (1940)
science fiction. The Modern Age of Comic Books • Two-Fisted Tales, No. 25 by Harvey Kurtzman (1951)
(aka, the 1980s through present) has experienced a • The Acme Novelty Library No. 6 by Chris Ware
dramatic expansion of form, as independent publishers (1965)
and the internet have paved the way for previously • Fantastic Four, No. 51 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
underrepresented voices to shine through. (1966)

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• Wimmen’s Comix No. 1 by Trina Robbins (1970) 1. Gather paper. Anywhere from a handful to 15
• Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary by Justin sheets, and staple the pieces down the spine.
Green ( 1972)
• Watchmen by Alan Moore (1986) 2. Create a numbered list of your pages. This will
• Maus by Art Spiegelman (1980) help give you an idea of what should go on each
• Cerebus No. 26 by Dave Sim (1981) page. As long as you have a beginning and end
• The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil jotted down, you’ll be able to navigate the rest.
Gaiman (1989)
• Icon No. 1 by Dwayne McDuffie (1993) 3. Determine the beats of your story. A good start-
• The Walking Dead No. 1 by Robert Kirkman (2003) ing point is to allocate one page per beat, though
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2006) some beats can occupy more pages. Jot down the
• Lumberjanes No. 1 by Grace Ellis and Noelle story beats next to the corresponding page numbers.
Stevenson (2014)
4. Turn story beats into panels. Starting at the
beginning, determine how you will use each panel
“My little stick figures are to tell that specific part of your story. Be mindful
of the amount and type of information you need
instructions to me. They are only to present on each page, and try to attribute space
seen by me. If you do it like this, accordingly (play with panel size to give more room
for beats like establishing shots and less room for
your thumbnails will only be seen beats that don’t need to present as much detail).
by you. You don’t ever have to show
5. Sketch out action and note dialogue. These
them to anybody else. You definitely sketches are seen by you and you only; they can be
don’t have to show them to an artist stick figures or symbols, as long as they make sense
to you and show an estimate of what should be in
who can actually draw.” each panel. Think of what your dialogue needs to
do to help the reader transition from panel to panel.
Write notes to accompany the images in each panel.
WRITING EXERCISE
6. Write your script! Using your thumbnails as a
Refer back to Chapter 14: Genre to learn more about reference, write a script for your story which will
the conventions and characters that could populate the eventually be turned over to your artist. Work
world of your comic. Select any archetypal character panel by panel communicating things like framing,
or existing story you might want to retell. Or, if you are point of view, scene and character description, and
already working on a novel, try adapting your charac- dialogue. Think of this script as a letter to your artist
ters and setting to comic form as a creativity exercise. in which you give them all of the information they
will need to visually create the story you have in
your head.

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NEIL GAIMAN CHAPTER 15 MASTERCLASS

“So there are geniuses in comics Artist. The artist translates the writer’s instructions
into panel illustrations. The artist has the power to add
who write and draw and letter and
subtle dimension to simple direction; for example, the
color and do everything themselves. line “the character looks away” can be shown in myriad
different ways, with either a sorrowful expression on
People like Chris Ware or Art the character’s face, the character’s face in shadow, or
Spiegelman. They are brilliant. I perhaps, the back of the character’s head angled just so.
The artist enhances the writer’s script with her creative
am not that brilliant. So in order to interpretations.
create comics, I need people who
Letterer. A letterer conveys the story via typefaces and
can do things.” sizes, and calligraphy. Story titles, sound effects, and
speech balloons are all part of the letterer’s domain.
While it is entirely possible to construct a comic book The letterer also fills in the artist’s pencil lines with ink.
by yourself, like Neil says—that’s a rare talent indeed.
Most writers create the story, then collaborate with Colorist. After the story is drawn and the ink set, the
other artists to bring that story to the page. Consider colorist fills in the black and white lines with color.
the various collaborators who contribute to a comic Historically, this was done with brushes and dyes.
book: While some colorists still opt to do things by hand,
others use digital tools; neither is better, it just comes
Writer. The writer develops the elements of story: plot, down to personal style and preference.
setting, characters, conflict, and dialogue. They also
create an outline as well as a script, which serves as a
roadmap for the other collaborators.

Editor. Fitzgerald and Hemingway had Maxwell

Perkins. Hempel and Chandler had Gordon Lish.
Every good writer needs an editor, and Neil’s editor
is the reason Sandman #19 is a story with real heart.
Ideally, your editor will know you and understand your
objectives, but still be able to offer thoughtful criticism,
especially if something isn’t quite resonating within the
story.

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