The Naked Heroes

I made this drawing for The Naked Heroes upcoming Iberian Tour in January. They're using it as their gig poster and as a t-shirt design.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 12. Use the 180-Degree Rule for Blocking a Scene

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

12. Use the 180-Degree Rule for Blocking a Scene

• If a character is on the left of another character at the beginning of a scene, they should remain be on the left of that character for the duration of the scene. 

• For the sake of clarity in organizing the blocking of a scene, the camera shouldn't exceed the 180-degree span between two characters. 

• The characters can move anywhere in a space, but they should always remain in the same relation to each other within the panel, to the left or right of one another.

• There are exceptions, for instance when a character jumps over another and changes the dynamic.

Review | BLADES & LAZERS | When Words Collide

Tim Callahan compares and contrasts BLADES & LAZERS with Justice League #24 in his column When Words Collide this week over at Comic Book Resources. Check it out here. I like this line from the column:

Both offer savagery from beyond the stars and plenty of posturing and threats of violence. They are so fully drenched in the glorious trash of their respective genres that they can be read as ironically detached or as thrillingly sincere. Or both. Or neither. Or maybe.

Hip Hop Family Tree Pin-Up | DMX

Here's my pin-up of DMX for Volume 2 of Ed Piskor's Hip Hop Family Tree. DMX may be my favorite rapper ever.

THE NIGHT SERIES

These were discarded image ideas for my the Bromance album art I did several months ago. I liked the ideas so I made them into final drawings called THE NIGHT SERIES. One was used as artwork for the recent Kaytranada EP.

BLADES & LAZERS SOLD OUT | 2nd Printing

The first run of BLADES & LAZERS has sold out, so Ian Harker's Sacred Prism went back to press for a second printing. You can order your copies here at the Sacred Prism online store.

Album Art | Kaytranada EP AT ALL / HILARITY DUFF

I provided album art for the new Kaytranada EP, "AT ALL / HILARITY DUFF." Vinyl copy coming soon. But you can check out the tracks here.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 11. Use Thought balloons

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

11. Use Thought balloons

• Use Thought Balloons because they intrinsic to the language of comic books. 

• They are like a letter in the alphabet of the comic book language. 

• Use Caption Boxes to convey information you can't with Thought Balloons or Speech Balloons.

• Use Thought Balloons for internal monologues of characters, for the things you can't convey with Caption Boxes or Speech Balloons.

• A lot of mainstream books don't use Thought Balloons because they want comic books to be more like movies, where thought balloons can't exist. They want comic books to be pitches for movie content. Who can blame them when these movies make billions of dollars? The movie executives they're pitching to don't like thought balloons I guess. (It's also the reason why you see a lot of mainstream comics using "widescreen" panels. This makes it easier for movie executives to envision the comic book panels as storyboard or compositions on a screen).

• They don't use Thought Balloons because they don't want comic books to be hokey, corny or cheesy. They think Thought Balloons are dated. 
- (Side thought: I believe the lack of Thought Balloon usage in mainstream comics is evidence of the medium's inferiority complex in relation to other mainstream media—movies, TV, video games. Mainstream comic books try to forsake what makes them different and unique, like Thought Balloons. Instead they try to emulate other media elements.)

• Thought Balloons are essential.

• To not use Thought Balloons is to deny comic books' true nature and language.

• To not use Thought Balloons is to deny comic books' true power.

Best American Comics: the Notable Comics of 2013

Two comics I helped make made it onto the Best American Comics: the Notable Comics of 2013 list. One was FAUNAMANCER DOMINATION: ASCENDENCY, which I wrote and Michael DeForge drew. It was in an issue of Smoke Signal. The second was also in an issue of smoke signal. It's called TREEANSFORMERS OF LIFE. Matthew Thurber wrote it and I drew it.

DEATH | ARCANA Show at Telegraph Gallery

Above is my piece for the ARCANA show opening this Friday at Telegraph Gallery in Charlottesville, VA. The show features depictions of the Tarot's Major Arcana from Yuko Ota, Simon Hanselmann, Julia Sonmi Heglund, and The Little Friends of Printmaking. I chose DEATH for my own piece. It will be available as a 18x24, limited-edition, 7-color silkscreen poster. I believe it will be available on the Telegraph Store here.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 10. Write Panel Captions in the Present Tense and in the Active Voice

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

10. Write panel captions in the present tense and in the active voice 

• The reason being the action, the scene, the event, is happening as the reader reads it.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 9. Make the Words and Pictures Convey Different Information

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

From "I GUESS," by Chris Ware, (I'm not sure what year or issue of RAW), Page 1

9. Make the words and pictures convey different information

• I am not a big fan of Chip Kidd's work, but I heard him tell a good story about the essentials of design in an interview. He said in the first design class he took in college the professor drew an apple on the chalk board, then the professor wrote the word "apple" underneath it. Then the professor pointed at the board and said "Never do this."

• This cardinal sin of design applies the same exact way to comics.

• I'm not a great fan of Chris Ware's work either. When Mazzucchelli used this strip Ware did for RAW as an example of words and pictures doing separate things as an example in class it resonated for me.

• Ware's strip is an extreme example. The words and pictures convey completely different stories. The separation between the two narrative information delivery systems is rarely as opposite as this, but the point is made, words and pictures should provide separate information threads.

• This is the true power of comic books. Words and pictures synthesize to create something larger than their sum. Through the tension and interaction between words and pictures is where comics derive their magic.

New York Times Illustration

I have an illustration in the New York Times today to go along with a piece for the Draft column in the Opinionator section about how a journalist-turned-novelist came to love breaking away from his journalistic background of writing just the facts and create lies writing fiction. Here's the article.

Interview | Newsarama covers BLADES & LAZERS

I talk with Zack Smith over at Newsarama about the upcoming BLADES & LAZERS. Check it out here.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | Interrupt: THE HAMA RULES

Via The Beat, Larry Hama has posted on his Facebook page his rules for creating a comic book page. They're perfect and succinct. Here they are:

These are my ten rules for drawing a comic book page, that sums up what I have learned in forty odd years in the biz. They are not universal, they are my own personal guidelines, so there is nothing to disagree about.1. Don’t have people just standing there.
2. ANY expression is better than a blank stare.
3. Avoid tangents, and any straight line that divides the panel.
4. If you use an odd angle in the shot, there has to be a reason for it.
5. If you don’t have at least one panel on each page with a full figure, your “camera” is too close.
6. Plan out your shots in “Lawrence of Arabia” mode rather than in “General Hospital” mode.
7. Don’t think of backgrounds as “things to fill up the space after the figures are drawn.”
8. If you know what something is called, and you have an Internet connection, there is no reason to draw it inaccurately.
9. If the colorist has to ask if a scene takes place at night, you haven’t done your job.
10. If you can’t extend the drawing beyond the panel borders and still have it make visual sense, you’ve cheated on the perspective

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 8. Never break the panel border

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

8. Never break the panel border ...

• ... ever.

Zatoichi Illustration for Criterion

Here is the illustration I did for the Criterion Collections Blu-ray Box set of the Zatoichi series of films.

Workspace

VIGILANTE CITY GANG

Recent private commission.

BLADES & LAZERS

Debuting at this year's SPX, the first issue of BLADES & LAZERS. Published by Ian Harker's bi-monthly risograph endeavor, SACRED PRISM, this issue introduces readers to the Gearson brothers. One a mute barbarian blade master. The other, a sweet-talking las-slinger. Together they kidnap wizards to summon and slay Galacto-Demons. The brains and hearts of the Galacto-Demons are a tremendous resource amongst the planets of The Periphery and the Gearson's are the best Galacto-Demon hunters in all the Inter-Galaxies. Advanced orders are now available at the SACRED PRISM Store.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | Interrupt: THE MAMET METHOD

Below is David Mamet's memo to the writers of the television show The Unit, which Mamet was an executive producer on, along with Shawn Ryan of The Shield fame. Mamet's writing oeuvre needs no introduction. The memo below is an interesting glimpse into his priorities as a screen writer. But it also can be applied to comics, particularly the part where he suggests writers construct a scene as if it were for a silent film. This technique has long been suggested and practiced for comic book writers, to tell the story with the pictures. If the story can be easily conveyed through only pictures in a comic book, you have succeeded.    

The below memo was copied from this post on Movieline.

I was led to this post via another post on io9 about required reading for television writers. It's a very good post.

"TO THE WRITERS OF THE UNIT

GREETINGS.

AS WE LEARN HOW TO WRITE THIS SHOW, A RECURRING PROBLEM BECOMES CLEAR.

THE PROBLEM IS THIS: TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN DRAMA AND NON-DRAMA. LET ME BREAK-IT-DOWN-NOW.

EVERYONE IN CREATION IS SCREAMING AT US TO MAKE THE SHOW CLEAR. WE ARE TASKED WITH, IT SEEMS, CRAMMING A SHITLOAD OF INFORMATION INTO A LITTLE BIT OF TIME.

OUR FRIENDS. THE PENGUINS, THINK THAT WE, THEREFORE, ARE EMPLOYED TO COMMUNICATE INFORMATION -- AND, SO, AT TIMES, IT SEEMS TO US.

BUT NOTE:THE AUDIENCE WILL NOT TUNE IN TO WATCH INFORMATION. YOU WOULDN'T, I WOULDN'T. NO ONE WOULD OR WILL. THE AUDIENCE WILL ONLY TUNE IN AND STAY TUNED TO WATCH DRAMA.

QUESTION:WHAT IS DRAMA? DRAMA, AGAIN, IS THE QUEST OF THE HERO TO OVERCOME THOSE THINGS WHICH PREVENT HIM FROM ACHIEVING A SPECIFIC, ACUTE GOAL.

SO: WE, THE WRITERS, MUST ASK OURSELVES OF EVERY SCENE THESE THREE QUESTIONS.

1) WHO WANTS WHAT?

2) WHAT HAPPENS IF HER DON'T GET IT?

3) WHY NOW?

THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS ARE LITMUS PAPER. APPLY THEM, AND THEIR ANSWER WILL TELL YOU IF THE SCENE IS DRAMATIC OR NOT.

IF THE SCENE IS NOT DRAMATICALLY WRITTEN, IT WILL NOT BE DRAMATICALLY ACTED.

THERE IS NO MAGIC FAIRY DUST WHICH WILL MAKE A BORING, USELESS, REDUNDANT, OR MERELY INFORMATIVE SCENE AFTER IT LEAVES YOUR TYPEWRITER. YOU THE WRITERS, ARE IN CHARGE OF MAKING SURE EVERY SCENE IS DRAMATIC.

THIS MEANS ALL THE "LITTLE" EXPOSITIONAL SCENES OF TWO PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT A THIRD. THIS BUSHWAH (AND WE ALL TEND TO WRITE IT ON THE FIRST DRAFT) IS LESS THAN USELESS, SHOULD IT FINALLY, GOD FORBID, GET FILMED.

IF THE SCENE BORES YOU WHEN YOU READ IT, REST ASSURED IT WILL BORE THE ACTORS, AND WILL, THEN, BORE THE AUDIENCE, AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE BACK IN THE BREADLINE.

SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE THE SCENE DRAMATIC. IT IS NOT THE ACTORS JOB (THE ACTORS JOB IS TO BE TRUTHFUL). IT IS NOT THE DIRECTORS JOB. HIS OR HER JOB IS TO FILM IT STRAIGHTFORWARDLY AND REMIND THE ACTORS TO TALK FAST. IT IS YOUR JOB.

EVERY SCENE MUST BE DRAMATIC. THAT MEANS: THE MAIN CHARACTER MUST HAVE A SIMPLE, STRAIGHTFORWARD, PRESSING NEED WHICH IMPELS HIM OR HER TO SHOW UP IN THE SCENE.

THIS NEED IS WHY THEY CAME. IT IS WHAT THE SCENE IS ABOUT. THEIR ATTEMPT TO GET THIS NEED MET WILL LEAD, AT THE END OF THE SCENE,TO FAILURE - THIS IS HOW THE SCENE IS OVER. IT, THIS FAILURE, WILL, THEN, OF NECESSITY, PROPEL US INTO THE NEXT SCENE.

ALL THESE ATTEMPTS, TAKEN TOGETHER, WILL, OVER THE COURSE OF THE EPISODE, CONSTITUTE THE PLOT.

ANY SCENE, THUS, WHICH DOES NOT BOTH ADVANCE THE PLOT, AND STANDALONE (THAT IS, DRAMATICALLY, BY ITSELF, ON ITS OWN MERITS) IS EITHER SUPERFLUOUS, OR INCORRECTLY WRITTEN.

YES BUT YES BUT YES BUT, YOU SAY: WHAT ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF WRITING IN ALL THAT "INFORMATION?"

AND I RESPOND "FIGURE IT OUT" ANY DICKHEAD WITH A BLUESUIT CAN BE (AND IS) TAUGHT TO SAY "MAKE IT CLEARER", AND "I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM".

WHEN YOU'VE MADE IT SO CLEAR THAT EVEN THIS BLUESUITED PENGUIN IS HAPPY, BOTH YOU AND HE OR SHE WILL BE OUT OF A JOB.

THE JOB OF THE DRAMATIST IS TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE WONDER WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. NOT TO EXPLAIN TO THEM WHAT JUST HAPPENED, OR TO*SUGGEST* TO THEM WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

ANY DICKHEAD, AS ABOVE, CAN WRITE, "BUT, JIM, IF WE DON'T ASSASSINATE THE PRIME MINISTER IN THE NEXT SCENE, ALL EUROPE WILL BE ENGULFED IN FLAME"

WE ARE NOT GETTING PAID TO REALIZE THAT THE AUDIENCE NEEDS THIS INFORMATION TO UNDERSTAND THE NEXT SCENE, BUT TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO WRITE THE SCENE BEFORE US SUCH THAT THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTERESTED IN WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

YES BUT, YES BUT YES BUT YOU REITERATE.

AND I RESPOND FIGURE IT OUT.

HOW DOES ONE STRIKE THE BALANCE BETWEEN WITHHOLDING AND VOUCHSAFING INFORMATION? THAT IS THE ESSENTIAL TASK OF THE DRAMATIST. AND THE ABILITY TO DO THAT IS WHAT SEPARATES YOU FROM THE LESSER SPECIES IN THEIR BLUE SUITS.

FIGURE IT OUT.

START, EVERY TIME, WITH THIS INVIOLABLE RULE: THE SCENE MUST BE DRAMATIC. it must start because the hero HAS A PROBLEM, AND IT MUST CULMINATE WITH THE HERO FINDING HIM OR HERSELF EITHER THWARTED OR EDUCATED THAT ANOTHER WAY EXISTS.

LOOK AT YOUR LOG LINES. ANY LOGLINE READING "BOB AND SUE DISCUSS..." IS NOT DESCRIBING A DRAMATIC SCENE.

PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR OUTLINES ARE, GENERALLY, SPECTACULAR. THE DRAMA FLOWS OUT BETWEEN THE OUTLINE AND THE FIRST DRAFT.

THINK LIKE A FILMMAKER RATHER THAN A FUNCTIONARY, BECAUSE, IN TRUTH, YOU ARE MAKING THE FILM. WHAT YOU WRITE, THEY WILL SHOOT.

HERE ARE THE DANGER SIGNALS. ANY TIME TWO CHARACTERS ARE TALKING ABOUT A THIRD, THE SCENE IS A CROCK OF SHIT.

ANY TIME ANY CHARACTER IS SAYING TO ANOTHER "AS YOU KNOW", THAT IS, TELLING ANOTHER CHARACTER WHAT YOU, THE WRITER, NEED THE AUDIENCE TO KNOW, THE SCENE IS A CROCK OF SHIT.

DO NOT WRITE A CROCK OF SHIT. WRITE A RIPPING THREE, FOUR, SEVEN MINUTE SCENE WHICH MOVES THE STORY ALONG, AND YOU CAN, VERY SOON, BUY A HOUSE IN BEL AIR ANDHIRE SOMEONE TO LIVE THERE FOR YOU.

REMEMBER YOU ARE WRITING FOR A VISUAL MEDIUM. MOST TELEVISION WRITING, OURS INCLUDED, SOUNDS LIKE RADIO. THE CAMERA CAN DO THE EXPLAINING FOR YOU. LET IT. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERS DOING -*LITERALLY*. WHAT ARE THEY HANDLING, WHAT ARE THEY READING. WHAT ARE THEY WATCHING ON TELEVISION, WHAT ARE THEY SEEING.

IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA.

IF YOU DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF THE CRUTCH OF NARRATION, EXPOSITION,INDEED, OF SPEECH. YOU WILL BE FORGED TO WORK IN A NEW MEDIUM - TELLING THE STORY IN PICTURES (ALSO KNOWN AS SCREENWRITING)

THIS IS A NEW SKILL. NO ONE DOES IT NATURALLY. YOU CAN TRAIN YOURSELVES TO DO IT, BUT YOU NEED TO START.

I CLOSE WITH THE ONE THOUGHT: LOOK AT THE SCENE AND ASK YOURSELF "IS IT DRAMATIC? IS IT ESSENTIAL? DOES IT ADVANCE THE PLOT?

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY.

IF THE ANSWER IS "NO" WRITE IT AGAIN OR THROW IT OUT. IF YOU'VE GOT ANY QUESTIONS, CALL ME UP.

LOVE, DAVE MAMET

SANTA MONICA 19 OCTO 05

(IT IS NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KNOW THE ANSWERS, BUT IT IS YOUR, AND MY, RESPONSIBILITY TO KNOW AND TO ASK THE RIGHT Questions OVER AND OVER. UNTIL IT BECOMES SECOND NATURE. I BELIEVE THEY ARE LISTED ABOVE.)"

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 7. Each panel is both a question and answer

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

7. Each panel is both a question and answer

• Marcos Martin once told me the overheard his friend Javier Pulido say to an aspiring comic book artist at a convention "Every panel is both a question and and answer."

• It sort of knocked me out.

• Each panel should both serve to answer the question posed by the previous panel, while also posing a question that will be resolved in the following panel.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 6. Work off the six-panel grid

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

6. Work off the six-panel grid

• If it's good enough for Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood and Steve Rude, it's probably good enough for you and me.

• It's the clearest way I've found to convey information on a comic book page.

• I can't remember the exact quote, but it was from somewhere in the Strunk and White Elements of Style I believe (I think White was quoting Strunk), saying, "the reader is in a sea of confusion and it is up to the writer to save them." The point being it's the job of the comic book writer/artist to use every tool of clarity to save the reader from confusion.

• It's flexible enough to customize and accommodate multiple solutions to narrative information problems.

• Do not focus on complicated or inventive formal techniques of comic book storytelling, focus on the story itself, for Story is God.

• Do not focus on the shape of the panel frame, focus on the content of the panel, what information is being communicated inside the panel.

• I don't like comics that have crazy page layouts. I find it self-indulgent and not in support of the story. I've heard comic artists in interviews say they create wild page layouts to support the story. I don't see how this can be true since it just creates confusion. I believe they create these confusing page layouts as a reaction to the story.

• I read comics to read the story and look at the drawings, not marvel at the page layouts. Layouts that don't follow a system like the 6, 8 or 9 panel grid impede the readers absorption of the story.

Interview | AQNB

I'm interviewed over at the art-and-design, culture site AQNB (Atractivo Que No Bello, I believe). Check it out here.

XOXO

Robin McConnell's XOXO anthology, comprised of stories inspired by the TV show Gossip Girl by various comic book artists, is up over at the Study Group website. Included is a story I did. I'm a big fan of Gossip Girl so this was a lot of fun to do.

Red Bull Creation Poster

This is my poster art for the Red Bull Creation team i3 Detroit, from Detroit, MI, for the Northside Festival in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The festival just concluded over the past weekend.

Galactic Breakdown Pin-Up

Above is my pin-up set to appear in the upcoming issue of GALACTIC BREAKDOWN A.K.A. SPACE BATTLEGROUND 666 by Keenan Marshall Keller for his Drippy Bone Books publishing house. Below are my sketch and a couple of in-process images.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 5. Do Not Decompress

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

5. Do Not Decompress

• Just like in prose where a scene, a description, an action, simply require the necessary amount of words to be communicated, a scene, a description, an action, in comic books require the precise amount of panels they need to be communicated. No more, no less.

• Do not decompress. But also, do not compress these narrative elements too much either. Find the balance. Find what is necessary.

• It became common in mainstream comics to decompress stories for the financial benefit of the writers and artists working on the books, but in the long run it hurts the medium and the legacies of those creators.

• It makes economic sense for the writer (or artist), who gets paid by the page, to stretch a story that could be told in three issues to six issues. But the practice is to the detriment of the readers' experience. The other adverse effect is to the amateur comic book creator who is being influenced by the mainstream comic book professional.

• Another reason for mainstream decompression was the rise in trade paperback collection sales. Stories were padded or extended to six issues—when fewer would suffice—to fit the trade paperback format.

• These techniques are an affront to the Story.

• You do what the Story requires, you answer to the Story and nothing else.

• Strunk believed the key to successful writing is efficient writing: Cut needless words. It is the same with comic books. You cut needless panels, needless pages, don't draw needless lines and cut needless words, too. You use exactly the amount that is required to tell the Story.

Comics Alliance Review

Over at the recently resurrected Comics Alliance website, Chris Sims reviews his haul from the weekend at Heroes Con, including the TRADITIONAL COMICS comics he picked up. Check it out here.

Heroes Con Commissions

My buddy Shannon commissioned two pieces from me over the last weekend at Heroes Con in Charlotte. I ended up doing two Kirby-related characters: Orion and Thundarr. Orion is probably my favorite superhero design ever. Thundarr is the best Saturday Morning Cartoon ever. 

Creative Review Article

Creative Review wrote a piece about Bromance Records album artwork and the cover I recently created for them. Check it out here.

Heroes Con 2013

I'll be at the great Heroes Con this weekend, June 7th through the 9th, in Charlotte, NC. Heroes Con is an amazing convention. If you're in the area swing by. I'll be at table AA-1115 (see the above map). I'll have the usual TRADITIONAL COMICS books. Matthew D. Smith will be next to me at table AA-1116.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 4. Write an Outline. Then Draw the Pictures and Write the Words Next.

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

4. Write an Outline. Then Draw the Pictures and Write the Words Next.

• If memory serves, Joe Casey got his outline method from Stephen Grant, who said, everything that takes place on the page of a comic can be told in one sentence.

• You may use two short sentences for one comic book page in outlines, but the "one sentence = one comic book page" is a good formula.

• Make a list of page numbers on the left side and then write the sentence of what occurs on each page.

• Sketch out the page layouts in 6" x 9" boxes (approximately printed size), telling the story with the pictures first.

• Convey, using pictures, the narrative information that is to take place on each page based on the sentences written in the outline.

• Then use the pictures in the layouts to inspire the words, writing them in the space you've provided: caption descriptions, speech balloons, thought balloons and sound effects.

• Comics should not be made from a prose script. In addition to delivering narrative information, the words on the page are a design element and the space they occupy MUST be accounted for as they are written. In employing prose script—like a play or screenplay—the comic writer cannot visualize the necessary space the words occupy on the page.

• A prose script gives undue superiority to the words in comics, when they must work in unison for the benefit of the Story. Comic book writers must draw the layouts of the pages.

• I do not see how any comic books could be successful any other way.
- (Side thought: Did Alan Moore provide Dave Gibbons with layouts for Watchmen? I know he did for Bart Sears in the Violator limited series).

• The Marvel Method is my evidence against prose scripts and for drawing pictures first, then entering words, in creating comic books. The Kirby/Lee collaboration, particularly on their Fantastic Four run, are perfect comic books.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 3. "You know the story, the reader doesn't"

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

3. "You know the story, the reader doesn't"

• In his comic book workshop class, David Mazzucchelli told us the secret to making good comics is that you, the writer and artist know the story and the reader doesn't.

• You, as the writer, are charged with revealing the narrative for the reader to absorb without confusion, methodically using formal techniques.

From "Vida Loca Part 3: The Death of Speedy Ortiz," by Jaime Hernandez, 1987, Page 8, Panel 3

Bromance Album Artwork

 

Above is the art I provided for the newest release from Bromance Records, Bromance #10 with the artists  Kaytranada and Suicide. Listen to it here for the preview tracks.

Below is an alternate, day-time version of the art and the black-and-white line art.

Cyberpunk

TCAF 2013

This weekend, May 11th and 12th, I'll be at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF). I'll be at table 155 (see the floor map above) along with the immortal Ryan Sands and his books from YOUTH IN DECLINE, including the brand new FRONTIER, by the immeasurable Uno Moralez. I'll have the usual catalog of TRADITIONAL COMICS comic books as well as a few other ancillary items.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 2. If You Introduce a Gun ...

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

2. If You Introduce a Gun ...

• "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." - Anton Chekhov

• "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." - Anton Chekhov

• "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." - Anton Chekhov

• Writing fiction is about posing questions within the narrative, then answering them or resolving them later.

• After you think of a beginning to a story, think of the ending. If you don't have an ending there's no purpose for anything to happen in the middle. Events in the story should move the narrative toward the ending.

• Everything—events, character, description, dialog—in the story must have a reason in advancing the story.

• I read Stephen King's book "On Writing" recently. In it he discusses his process. King doesn't plot out his stories, rather he discovers them as he goes along, like he's uncovering a dinosaur fossil from the earth. I disagree with is approach and it's why his work ultimately fails me as a reader. I believe in plotting out a story—making the connections between the narrative questions, problems and conflicts and their later answers, solutions and resolutions counterparts in advance of the execution.

Google Image Search of "Chekhov's Gun"

Stumptown Comics Festival 2013

I'll be at the Stumptown Comics Festival this weekend, April 27th and 28th. I'll be at the booth P09. Swing by if your in the Pacific Northwest area.

The Marra Method: Traditional Comics Techniques for Visual Storytelling | 1. Story is your GOD

An on-going, evolving series collecting my thoughts on the craft of telling stories through comic books. These posts do not document rules; these are the ideas passing through my mind when I'm making comic books.

R. Crumb's depiction of God

1. Story is your God

• Everything serves the story. Your choices, the tone, all decisions, structure, formal aspects, the drawing, all words, page layout, panel composition, every narrative event, everything must serve the story. It rules over everything.

• Art—or in this case, making comic books—must be your religion.

• Deliver the narrative information clearly above all else to serve the story. In the introduction to "Elements of Style" White quotes Strunk. Strunk says the reader is drowning in confusion and it's the writer's responsibility to save them with clarity.

• Anything not needed to advance the narrative should be cut.

Red Bull Music Academy Poster

I found the poster I made for the Red Bull Music Academy plastered on a piece of plywood outside a construction site.

The Motivation Poster

Here's the poster I illustrated for the upcoming documentary The Motivation, directed by Adam Bhala Lough. Badass Digest had a brief write-up about it. The film is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday April 25th.

Black Eye 2: The Anthology of Humor + Despair

The above image is from the video accompanying the Black Eye 2: The Anthology of Humor + Despair Kickstarter campaign. I like it because it might be the only time my name will share a screen with David Lynch. Black Eye 2 has been fully funded. The series is edited by Ryan Standfest. Be on the lookout for it Black Eye 2 when it comes out!

MoCCA 2013

I'll be at the MoCCA Festival this weekend, Saturday April 6th and Sunday the 7th, being held at the 69th Armory, 68 Lexington Ave. in New York City. I'll be at table A26 with a few of my Mammal Magazine Bretheren. All of the TRADITIONAL COMICS catalog—that hasn't yet sold out—will be available with a few extra surprises.