If you're familiar with my work, you probably identity me as a cartoonist--and thank you for that. I'm worked a long time for the distinction. But it may slip your definition to think of me as a writer. With only one exception, I've always written my own comics, and I'm as proud of that fact as I am the art side of it. My friend
Alicia VanNoy Call is also a writer and artist, and called upon myself and others to answer some questions about their writing. For anyone interested, here's what I had to say:
1. What are you working on right now?
I'm writing the
script for issue #2 of BODIE TROLL: FUZZY MEMORIES--the newest Bodie Troll
mini-series. Writing may be overstating a bit. I have the plot in a notebook
and tumbling around in my head. I just need to take the next step and put it to
paper. I'm also writing the next gag for NECRONOMICOMICS, though the term
'writing' is even more overstated in this case. I haven't a clue what I'm doing
yet, but it'll come to me.
2. How does it differ from other works in its genre?
I think the main reason BODIE TROLL differs from other all
ages comics is that many (though not all) all-ages comics on the mainstream
market these days are based on existing properties--toys, cartoons, and such. BODIE,
by comparison, is just from me, my interests, my emotions, my experiences. That
makes Bodie a tougher sell to new readers, I think. But it allows me to keep
BODIE more personal, and to do things the way I feel is best for my comic
without a corporation telling me what to do and how to be most marketable.
Having said that, I am a contributing artist on the MY LITTLE
PONY comic book, which is based on a toy, and does fall under corporate scrutiny.
but I am pleased to say that I haven't experienced any pressure or interference
in what I've done on that book at all. It probably doesn't hurt that I'm not the
book's writer, who is much more in the gaze of the licensor. Plus, my style
naturally jibes with the established Pony style, at least enough to please the
licensor while maintaining my own artistic identity.
3. Why do you write what you do?
I entered the comics industry with my sights set on
continuing the bawdy humor traditions of the underground comics movement of the
60's and 70's. I maintained that status quo on my first graphic novel, DEAD
DUCK, for a few years. Gradually, I came to realize that that sort of humor wasn't
really who I was. I was a shy, emotional person who loved stories with
characters you could really love and root for. That changed my whole
perspective on what I wanted my professional identity and creative output to
be. That's why I created BODIE TROLL.
4. How does your writing process work?
The spark of an idea
comes first, and never when I'm trying to find it. I'll be on a walk, in the
car, even in the shower, wherever it's least convenient to grab a piece of
paper to jot down my inspiration. Once I do get it on paper, the development
process comes slowly, often in the form of loose scribblings devoid of any proper
sentence structure, spelling or punctuation. Doodles follow--LOTS of doodles,
that will sometimes wind up in my notebook, but mostly in a separate sketchbook.
The best ideas come to me when I'm in a diner, ideally ones with paper
placemats that are blank on one side. Most of my comic creations started on
placemats. All this rough development eventually gets piled into a typed script
that also has very little proper script form initially. I write in a stream of consciousness,
trimming away the fat, adding more fat, scrapping whole sections of story that
I'd previously thought were brilliant, until I find the best way to tell my
story. Inevitably, chunks of dialogue will get changed when I'm drawing the
actual comic page, if I find a gag that's funnier, or a name or word that seems
to fit better than what I'd originally written. There is no straight path or
set formula for my writing. It's a very organic process that, inexplicably,
works for me every time, and always within the constraint of a set page count
and whatever deadline I may have.
