Comic Book Resources

bandito · 05-13-2009, 04:06 AM

What's up everybody. So I grew up watching TAS now and then and always liked Batman. I'm a (non-professional - yet) writer and I have to take a break from what I'm writing sometimes; this time I decided to write Batman stories until my writer's block on my bigger project goes away. Anyway I decided to get a little deeper in Batman than the series and bought TDKR, TLH, Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke, and have been lurking around, reading reviews and checking out boards like this one. My question is this - how concerned with continuity should be with plots I develop? I'm asking on the offchance that I ever have the opportunity to publish in any form. I was thinking things would be more or less like the show, but in the comics Poison Ivy's some kind of green witch and Bruce Wayne is supposed to be dead? If you're writing plots that might turn into comics, do you have to follow all the latest that's happening in Batman or can you write the equivalent of a TAS episode (villain goes wild, Batman reigns him in, nothing catastrophic occurs that would alter continuity - or something like that) Just wondering.

bandito

Crowforge · 05-13-2009, 04:22 AM

As a fan I ignore what I don't like (killing joke!!!). If you're writing a standalone story it's not important to follow continuity at all really, it just won't be canon (unless it is), which is freeing. Some of my favorite Batman stories have been elseworlds stories.

Lorendiac · 05-13-2009, 02:41 PM

My advice would be: At this early stage, just write whatever sort of Batman stories you feel like writing, for fun and for practice. If and when you someday meet a DC editor who actually wants to see some of your ideas for Batman plots, that will be soon enough to ask yourself: "Should I show him some of what I already wrote for fun, way back when -- or should I come up with something 'new and improved' for the occasion which fits with whatever the current continuity is supposed to be, this year?"

But if you tried to "tailor" your early efforts to whatever is happening "right now" in the DC books (such as Bruce Wayne currently being Missing in Action, Presumed Dead, from the viewpoint of his friends), you'd probably just end up with something that was already "obsolete" by the time you finally made friends with an editor who might someday want to publish one of your stories. After all, everybody and his brother can reasonably guess that Bruce Wayne won't be "gone forever" from the Batman titles. So don't force yourself to write stories set "in a Gotham City where everybody thinks Batman is dead now" unless, for some reason, you really, really, really want to practice writing stories that way, for your own reasons!

Crowforge wasn't kidding when he suggested that plenty of published Batman stories of the last couple of decades have not been written to conform to every nitpicking detail of whatever is happening "right now" in the main titles (such as "Batman" and "Detective Comics").

Heck, "Legends of the Dark Knight" (LOTDK for short!) was a monthly title which lasted for over 200 issues, and it was all about "not rigidly adhering to the details of modern continuity."

Every once in awhile there was an exception -- such as an issue of LOTDK which was specifically labeled on the cover as being part of "Knightsend" or some other big event happening in the other Batman titles at the same time -- but most of its arcs were just "something which might conceivably have happened to Batman once upon a time, or maybe it all happened in its own little world instead of the mainstream DCU -- who knows? Why worry about it?"

After one writer had written, say, a 3-part arc or a 5-part arc or whatever, and had it published as a "self-contained" story in LOTDK, he'd immediately leave the title and someone else would come along and write a story which had nothing to do with the previous guy's story! So you might say that the LOTDK title was tailor-made for guys in your position (although usually they were already established professionals) who had one Batman story they wanted to tell, and didn't want to make all the details fit squarely with whatever was happening "right this minute" in the mainstream continuity. (Often it was stated or implied that the story was basically set "a long time ago," sometime in the first couple of years of Batman's costumed career, before he'd even met Dick Grayson, but that wasn't always the case and it didn't really matter!)

bandito · 05-13-2009, 04:01 PM

Cool, thanks man.

nepenthes · 05-13-2009, 10:49 PM

banditio, the books you mentioned - Long Hallowen, Killing Joke, DKR and Arkham Asylum - were all originally published outside of normal contemporary continuty at their respective times. It was only after positive fan reactions that TLH and Killing Joke were brought into the main timeline. DKR is a discredited future now, but still perhaps the greatest batman story ever, and Arkham Asylum really has no bearing on anything outside of its own pages.

in short, write whatever the hell you like. however that said, the more grasp you can demonstrate on various themes and/or events, and use them to your unique advantage in your own take, I guess that would also be evidence of a good writer. especially in comics.

(btw Poison Ivy was turned into a "green witch" only relatively recently in 2003. before that she was prettysimilair to what you might know in TAS.

)

If you liked TAS consider picking up the Detective tpb, also written by series writer Paul Dini. Alot of the issues in that and the next two trades in the series are one-shots, single issues. if you can fit a story into a punchy little one issue you've got alot more chance of being read by an editor i guess....

dancj · 05-14-2009, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepenthes

banditio, the books you mentioned - Long Hallowen, Killing Joke, DKR and Arkham Asylum - were all originally published outside of normal contemporary continuty at their respective times. It was only after positive fan reactions that TLH and Killing Joke were brought into the main timeline.

I'm pretty sure The Killing Joke was always in-continuity

T Hedge Coke · 05-14-2009, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancj

I'm pretty sure The Killing Joke was always in-continuity

Moore has mentioned that he had not intended, as of the writing, that it would be.

05-13-2009, 04:06 AM	#1
bandito New Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 3	kind of a weird question... What's up everybody. So I grew up watching TAS now and then and always liked Batman. I'm a (non-professional - yet) writer and I have to take a break from what I'm writing sometimes; this time I decided to write Batman stories until my writer's block on my bigger project goes away. Anyway I decided to get a little deeper in Batman than the series and bought TDKR, TLH, Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke, and have been lurking around, reading reviews and checking out boards like this one. My question is this - how concerned with continuity should be with plots I develop? I'm asking on the offchance that I ever have the opportunity to publish in any form. I was thinking things would be more or less like the show, but in the comics Poison Ivy's some kind of green witch and Bruce Wayne is supposed to be dead? If you're writing plots that might turn into comics, do you have to follow all the latest that's happening in Batman or can you write the equivalent of a TAS episode (villain goes wild, Batman reigns him in, nothing catastrophic occurs that would alter continuity - or something like that) Just wondering. bandito

05-13-2009, 02:41 PM	#3
Lorendiac Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 3,489	My advice would be: At this early stage, just write whatever sort of Batman stories you feel like writing, for fun and for practice. If and when you someday meet a DC editor who actually wants to see some of your ideas for Batman plots, that will be soon enough to ask yourself: "Should I show him some of what I already wrote for fun, way back when -- or should I come up with something 'new and improved' for the occasion which fits with whatever the current continuity is supposed to be, this year?" But if you tried to "tailor" your early efforts to whatever is happening "right now" in the DC books (such as Bruce Wayne currently being Missing in Action, Presumed Dead, from the viewpoint of his friends), you'd probably just end up with something that was already "obsolete" by the time you finally made friends with an editor who might someday want to publish one of your stories. After all, everybody and his brother can reasonably guess that Bruce Wayne won't be "gone forever" from the Batman titles. So don't force yourself to write stories set "in a Gotham City where everybody thinks Batman is dead now" unless, for some reason, you really, really, really want to practice writing stories that way, for your own reasons! Crowforge wasn't kidding when he suggested that plenty of published Batman stories of the last couple of decades have not been written to conform to every nitpicking detail of whatever is happening "right now" in the main titles (such as "Batman" and "Detective Comics"). Heck, "Legends of the Dark Knight" (LOTDK for short!) was a monthly title which lasted for over 200 issues, and it was all about "not rigidly adhering to the details of modern continuity." Every once in awhile there was an exception -- such as an issue of LOTDK which was specifically labeled on the cover as being part of "Knightsend" or some other big event happening in the other Batman titles at the same time -- but most of its arcs were just "something which might conceivably have happened to Batman once upon a time, or maybe it all happened in its own little world instead of the mainstream DCU -- who knows? Why worry about it?" After one writer had written, say, a 3-part arc or a 5-part arc or whatever, and had it published as a "self-contained" story in LOTDK, he'd immediately leave the title and someone else would come along and write a story which had nothing to do with the previous guy's story! So you might say that the LOTDK title was tailor-made for guys in your position (although usually they were already established professionals) who had one Batman story they wanted to tell, and didn't want to make all the details fit squarely with whatever was happening "right this minute" in the mainstream continuity. (Often it was stated or implied that the story was basically set "a long time ago," sometime in the first couple of years of Batman's costumed career, before he'd even met Dick Grayson, but that wasn't always the case and it didn't really matter!) __________________ Long-Lost Amazon Tribes

05-13-2009, 10:49 PM	#5
nepenthes deep green Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 3,941	banditio, the books you mentioned - Long Hallowen, Killing Joke, DKR and Arkham Asylum - were all originally published outside of normal contemporary continuty at their respective times. It was only after positive fan reactions that TLH and Killing Joke were brought into the main timeline. DKR is a discredited future now, but still perhaps the greatest batman story ever, and Arkham Asylum really has no bearing on anything outside of its own pages. in short, write whatever the hell you like. however that said, the more grasp you can demonstrate on various themes and/or events, and use them to your unique advantage in your own take, I guess that would also be evidence of a good writer. especially in comics. (btw Poison Ivy was turned into a "green witch" only relatively recently in 2003. before that she was prettysimilair to what you might know in TAS. ) If you liked TAS consider picking up the Detective tpb, also written by series writer Paul Dini. Alot of the issues in that and the next two trades in the series are one-shots, single issues. if you can fit a story into a punchy little one issue you've got alot more chance of being read by an editor i guess.... __________________ *Action Comics, Batman, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Batwoman, JL Dark, Frankenstein, Birds of Prey, All Star Western, The Flash!* Last edited by nepenthes; 05-13-2009 at 10:57 PM.

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05-13-2009, 04:22 AM	#2
Crowforge Diablo Classico Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Chicago Posts: 4,188	As a fan I ignore what I don't like (killing joke!!!). If you're writing a standalone story it's not important to follow continuity at all really, it just won't be canon (unless it is), which is freeing. Some of my favorite Batman stories have been elseworlds stories.

05-13-2009, 04:01 PM	#4
bandito New Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 3	Cool, thanks man.