Writing Comics
Writing Comics (and Films): The Story of BLACK SANTA’S REVENGE (a.k.a. Ideas and Stories are Not the Same)
One of my best known creations, Black Santa’s Revenge, started out as a holiday greeting card. For more than ten years I had been designing my own greeting cards—this was back when I still had aspirations to be a comic book artist (but that never quite worked out). Even though I’d given up my dreams…
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Writing Comics: The History of THE ARMY OF DR. MOREAU
Of all the comic book projects I have worked on, The Army of Dr. Moreau has a very special place in my heart. Some of you have never heard of this book, and others have asked me questions about the writing and creative process of making comics…so I figured I could talk a bit about…
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WRITING COMICS: Letting Go of the Words
Writers…oh, how we love our words. The problem is that in comics it isn’t just about the words, it is also about the pictures. As a writer, sometimes I forget that the words aren’t as important as they seemed when I wrote them. When I got the gig writing PLANET OF THE APES: URSUS, it…
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WRITING COMICS: The Return of DISCOMBOBULATED
For the last few years I have been teaching ‘Writing for Comics’ at Portland State University (often co-teaching with my dear friend, Brian Michael Bendis). For the class mid-term the students are required to create their own web comic. After years of telling students to make a web comic, I decided to create my own,…
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WRITING COMICS: FUNKYTOWN and the Dolemite Comic That Never Was
My first full-length comic book story was a 32-page, self-published story called FUNKYTOWN that appeared in the pages of my magazine, BadAzz Mofo. FUNKYTOWN was my homage to blaxploitation, mixed with comedy (at least my idea of comedy at the time), and a bit horror. It was the tale of a private detective named Brick…
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WRITING COMICS: NIGHTHAWK, Part 3: Tilda Johnson and the Art of Compromise
The best part of writing NIGHTHAWK – the part that was always fun and gratifying – was the character Tilda Johnson (a.k.a. Nightshade, a.k.a. Deadly Nightshade). For decades, Tilda has been a ridiculous character – a genius robotics expert that works with werewolves, and frequently wore a leather bikini. When it came to black women…
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WRITING COMICS: NIGHTHAWK, Part 2: Finding the Villain
As I mentioned in my previous post, NIGHTHAWK was my first regular series at Marvel, even though it came out second. I started developing NIGHTHAWK back in May of 2015, but the first issue would not come out until May 25, 2016 – more than a year later. In that time, the series underwent considerable…
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WRITING COMICS: NIGHTHAWK, Part 1
NIGHTHAWK was my first series for Marvel, even though it did not come out first. As I was developing NIGHTHAWK, I also got the job writing POWER MAN & IRON FIST, which was given top priority. As a result, NIGHTHAWK went on the back-burner for a while, and came out after POWER MAN & IRON…
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WRITING COMICS: My First Work for Marvel
My first gig for Marvel was a short story for Secret Wars: Battleworld #2. Short stories like this are one of the ways Marvel tests out new writers. I was asked to pitch several ideas, and the one they picked was Blade the Vampire Slayer vs. Howard the Duck. This was actually an idea for…
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