Full script method or Plot-art-dialogue?

[SuperBoyGold]

Which style of writing do artists prefer to draw from based on what the writer does> The reason i am asking is because I am trying to decide how to write my 1st comic and i read some help from a article by Barry Lyga which i quote here:

My understanding of full script method writing is this:

The full script method is exactly what it sounds like: the writer assumes the maximum level of control over the story and the page, writing a script that establishes how many panels per page (and sometimes how and where to place those panels), who is in each panel, what they're doing, and what they're saying. It's a more time-consuming, meticulous method, but it provides a high level of control. This method is preferred by writers such as Alan Moore (From Hell, Watchmen).



And my understanding of Plot Art Dialogue is this:

In plot-art-dialogue, the writer gives more control over to the artist. They write a basic plot synopsis of the story, giving an idea of pacing and movement, usually adding character descriptions and setting as appropriate. Often they add bits of dialogue to help make the story come alive for the artist. The artist takes the plot and breaks it down into panels and pages, making decisions about pacing and structure along the way. The finished art is handed back to the writer, who then writes the dialogue based on the flow of the pages. The legendary Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man and the X-Men, among many others) used this method.

So i really would like to know if it makes a difference...
it seems to me the full script method is also more like a screenplay
and the plot art dialogue is more like a book...

I need some input from some artists...will i be more or less likely to get an artist to draw my books if i write it in a certain style or does that even factor in at all? :confused:

[The Ray]

Whatever serves the project better. Give it careful thought. Do you trust your artists enough to have him dictate the plot, pacing and visualization of the story or would you rather have complete control of how the story is presented? Ultimately, it's to you, but I suggest use both and see which is more comfortable for you.

[Lorendiac]

Whatever serves the project better. Give it careful thought. Do you trust your artists enough to have him dictate the plot, pacing and visualization of the story or would you rather have complete control of how the story is presented? Ultimately, it's to you, but I suggest use both and see which is more comfortable for you.

I'm an aspiring writer rather than an aspiring artist, but I tend to agree with you that different approaches might work better in different circumstances.

As an extreme case that caught my eye once when I read about it, because it describes the process in some work that I think was superbly done:

I once read this summary, probably in an interview with George Perez (or possibly Marv Wolfman) regarding how they used to plot each issue of "The New Teen Titans" in the early 80s. Marv was the writer and George was the penciller, but they were commonly listed as "Co-Plotters." In practice, this was how they usually worked together:

1. Marv and George would get together in the same room and talk themselves blue in the face as they brainstormed back and forth about exactly what was supposed to happen in the next issue. Who'd be the main villain? How would he get his butt kicked by the end of that issue (or a longer story arc)? What hints would be dropped about what some other villain was plotting that the Titans had no inkling of yet? What romantic subplots would move forward? Etc.

2. After they had spent hours talking this over, Marv would go home and George would start drawing the story they had just talked about. The reason for this was that Marv agreed George had a better memory for all the dozens of nitpicking little details the two of them had hashed out in their brainstorming session, and trusted George not to try to derail Marv's ideas.

3. Marv would later look at the 22 pages of artwork that George had produced, and would write a "script" telling the letterer exactly what dialogue, captions, sound effects, etc., should be added to each panel so that it would all make sense to a reader when he bought the finished product off the newsstand.

So in that case, nothing -- not even a one-page plot outline -- ever got written down until after the story was already pencilled! But that was obviously a special case, dealing with two men on friendly terms who had been working together for awhile so that Marv had considerable trust in George to not suddenly turn a scene that needed to have lots of little conversational panels into two or three big splash pages instead. (And I gather they both lived in or near New York City at the time, so it was easy for them to get together and share ideas and so forth if any snags came up.)

As a general rule of thumb -- speaking from the viewpoint of an amateur writer -- I prefer to sweat it out and try to write "full scripts" because I have no idea what artist may someday get assigned to illustrate that script if I manage to catch the attention of an editor at Dark Horse (or wherever). So I'm hardly going to trust the judgment of a man or woman I've never even met, am I? If I ever got a regular gig as the writer on an established title, and if I became well-acquainted with the artist and trusted him to be creative within careful limits without totally ruining my ideas, then I could easily imagine myself telling him something like this:

"Okay, have the Hero fighting the Villain on pages 11-14, with the hero finally getting the upper hand and knocking the guy out cold. I'll leave the messy details to your imagination and then I'll fill in dialogue and stuff later after I look at how you drew their fight." But I really wouldn't want to do it that way with an artist I didn't know at all, or had only communicated with via e-mail a couple of times without ever meeting face-to-face . . .

[clayholio]

I'd suggest that, until you get more comfortable working with a specific artist, leave as little to chance as possible in your written scripts. Full description, full dialogue (and as an artist, I'd probably not want to work on something that didn't have dialogue included). At the same time, be a little flexible - if the artist can come up with a more dramatic or interesting way to visualize what you've written, don't immediately shoot him down.

Once you've worked with your artist a bit, you can probably start letting him/her have more leeway in panel count and pacing. Just make sure you cover your end and give the artist enough info to do a good job with.

The Marvel Method (plot/art/dialogue) is more of an outline than anything. I wouldn't trust anyone with that unless they really knew what they were doing.