CBR: C2E2: Waid & Fraction's Comic Craft 101

[CBR News]

Mark Waid and Matt Fraction provided fans at C2E2 with insight on their writing process, preferences and experience in the industry during a spirited back-and-forth conversation during their Comic Craft 101 panel.


Full article here.

[Sean Fahey]

Good article. Some good nuggets in there from Waid and Fraction. Never thought to "reverse engineer" a comic as practice.

[Maestro]

Good article. Some good nuggets in there from Waid and Fraction. Never thought to "reverse engineer" a comic as practice.

the storytelling in Batman: Year One is so smooth and one of the best. if you can't write a script for that, I don't see how you could write one for anything else!

[Sean Fahey]

the storytelling in Batman: Year One is so smooth and one of the best. if you can't write a script for that, I don't see how you could write one for anything else!

Very true. It's one of those books where you almost don't need a line of dialogue. Fortunately though, this is some of Miller's best superhero prose.

[Predabot]

Write to please yourself -- do not write to please an editor or an audience. Your audience doesn't know what they want, otherwise they wouldn't be an audience.

Never have truer words been spoken.

Loudest fans, you are -not- writers!*


*Above message only applies to those questionable few who appears to be unable to grasp this simple truth, year in and year out.

[HeroxMatt2.0]

What does it mean 'reverse engineer'?

But another great article, and great idea for a panel. I wonder what Fraction just released? Casanova Gulag #3? Or was he referring to IIM 502? Really surprised to hear how many titles he was writing a week, maybe a bit of hyperbole, but still, he's doing pretty good schedule wise.

[StoneGold]

What does it mean 'reverse engineer'?

I'm assuming he filled in all the direction that Miller gave Maz. Recreated the script, not just the dialogue, using the book itself.

[Zawisza]

I would like to use this forum to apologize. I mis-typed Mr. Wilson's first name as "Matt" initially and did not change it back to "Nathan" as it should be.

My apologies and my thanks to the editors for fixing that mistake.

[Vijinand]

This sounds like it was a great panel.

It's always nice to hear writers (and artists) talk about their craft when it's obvious how much they love what they do and love sharing it with the fans. I've been to cons and heard people speak, that come across as snobs or jadded. I never though meeting someone would influence how much I like their work. I've found it difficult to read books when I've just met the person writing it and they didn't really seem interested to do it. On the flip side, I find I'm much more willing to accept things when it's obvious the writer is excited about what their doing.

Fear Itself is a good example. The only thing that has me excited about it is Fraction. The man just seem so genuenly psyched about it.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

I should really bookmark this post. There are some really good nuggets there.

The reverse engineering of a script is actually a pretty brilliant idea for getting a feel of scripting.

[snarkbunny]

What does it mean 'reverse engineer'?

Reverse engineering is when you take a final product and figure out what had to be done to make it and break it down to its basic parts. If you do it right, then when you rebuild it you should end up with something almost identical to the original.

And what Stonegold said.

[Pizawle]

Love the insight, as always.