Checking it Thrice - Revisions (Update 1/11/20) (Patreon)

I wanted to let folks know I've received a number of responses to the commissions list post (thanks very much), and will get back to everyone in the next few days. 

Work got hectic this week and then got even more nuts yesterday after pages, layouts and lettering dropped from all three projects I'm currently working on. So I figured I'd take the opportunity to discuss what happens behind the scenes when you're working on comics insofar as the "dull" stuff goes. Revisions, finding errors, melding art to script where they might not comply as intended, emphasizing words for the lettering, wondering if we need a sound effect to arrest the eye in a silent panel that isn't working as hoped,  going over the lettering, finding a few problems there, patching the seams with glue and bubble gum. The edits and fixes and headaches. Often last-minute, always annoying but always necessary -- the "oh, shit, we forgot that"-type stuff that. This stuff doesn't get discussed much because it isn't sexy or fun, most fans don't seem to want to read about it, and most creators and editors want it taken care of and buried deep enough in the memory to forget it. 

Sometimes the process eats up a lot of "invisible" work time, and it doesn't pay a dime, it's part of the process and the page rate. I'm sure there are creators who are happy to have decisions made by others as to how to fix the cracks that appear, and I'm sure there are creators who are told by editorial how things are going to get fixed -- but everyone I know dips back in and starts manning the bucket brigade to fix typos, color issues, script eff-ups, missing details, and sometimes things that stump the crap out of everyone and you wondered how the hell it passed by everyone all these weeks (or months, even). 

Even, then, mistakes happen and mistakes see print. I hate seeing it in books, I really hate seeing it in one of mine. I hate a mistake like I hate a plot hole or lapse in logic, like I hate a tangent or a balloon tail that goes behind another balloon. My anxiety issues really flare up during this stage of the game, I get antsy, I micro-manage sometimes, my OCD comes a-calling, and I spend a lot of time looking over everything for problems to fix and ways to improve the work. 

This can mean removing or cutting dialogue if the artist made the dialogue redundant. On the other hand, sometimes the panel needs a helping hand with a revised or added line to prop up or clarify a plot point or emotional beat. Some revisions are technical -- get the tangent removed, match the color, fx the typo, we need the magic fire balloon for Miranda's spell in panel 3. Those are the easy things to correct, but often something can slip through even with six pairs of eyes going over everything. And sometimes it's a case of tweaking the storytelling or dialogue to punch things up. And sometimes it's just "this isn't working, why the fuck isn't this working?". I hate those most of all, and they usually crop up because I overworked a concept of idea or wrote towards a panel, forcing the page to conform to it, , something I try to never do. There are pages in print I still wish I could revise one more time, usually because of a clinker line or awkward attempt at naturalistic dialogue or a dumb over-explanation from a character because I didn't trust the script and art enough. 

So, here's an idea of a busier-than-usual week. This might not be interesting, by the way. 

BLACKWOOD

Veronica and Andy Fish turned in layouts for BLACKWOOD: THE MOURNING AFTER #4 right after completing the art for #3. And Greg McKenna turned in the lettering for #3, as well. So that all needed going over for revisions and tweaks and kicked up several rounds of notes. Veronica realized she didn't have a back cover drawn for #3, so we figured out a substitute and what the #4 cover will be. I couldn't remember if we signed off on #2 and needed a refresher, so Chuck Howitt at DHC sent me the finalized PDF, and ayy, it was fine. I was just overwhelmed and needed to double-check. I went over the #4 layouts and wrote up a list of notes and questions. After all those #3 notes I found a few things that still needed addressing during the approval stage -- even with editors you can still find typos when you're the overprotective den mother of a creator-owned book. And sometimes having everything together -- lettering and colors -- helps you to see something that all of a sudden sticks out like a sore thumb, something not as evident in the inks. A panel where we don't have a background element we needed, so the dialogue will have to supply the information for the reader. A transition panel where the sky coloring makes a descriptive piece of text unnecessary. Then you catch that a new character's last name "sounds" (and looks, as lettered) too close to an established character's name and you have to address that. 

We also all went over inside front cover designs and cover treatments and logo colors for two issues. Veronica wondered if the art for #3 cover needed a revision based on something in #4. It goes like that.

BEASTS OF BURDEN

Benjamin Dewey dropped the finished colored pages for Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory #2 this week, which Sarah and I wrote together. Ben's pages are fucking gorgeous, btw, what a sweet-looking issue. Assistant Editor Chuck Howitt has some questions about the script before it gets sent off to Nate Pikeos for lettering. I realize the script hasn't had a revision based on the art because we wanted to wait for colors, and here are the colors, so I take that up because Nate needs the pages. I make a face at myself because we could've done a lot of the work in the inks stage, but moved it off because of other work that couldn't be pushed off. 

We still needed dialogue revisions  -- Ben added a panel in one place and we hadn't noticed how it affected the flow of dialogue and information. Not a big deal, but it definitely needed addressing or the sequence would have been made awkward. Caught two instances where we needed art revisions, small but very noticeable things for logic and continuity. Chuck notices another small instance, again, not a huge deal, but if it can be handled, all the better for the comic. I double-checked notes we had from our adviser on the yokai/Japanese material to make sure we did right by them. Added/revised the magic spell stuff we still needed, any missing sound effects, underlined words for Nate to emphasize in the lettering. Meanwhile, Ben's working on layouts for #3., which I'm terrified he'll drop because --

MARVELS SNAPSHOT: THE FANTASTIC FOUR

-- Ben just dropped layouts for the first third of the comic, with optional takes on several pages as is his wont. And we're still revising material on these pages, because we were going through about thirty comics from 2003 to base material in the opening two pages on. Page one requires visuals for three panels -- preferably something big and bold to kick off our story, which is not action-oriented plot can use some visual snap peppered throughout. But everything has to be based on MCU events from the summer of 2003 that, in continuity, was public knowledge. Turns out, there ain't much there for us to go on. Everyone was slapping villains around or getting smacked around by villains in secret, in another dimension, on private grounds, or -- gasp -- didn't smack any villains around at all. When did superhero comics get so big and yet so small? Everyone was sitting on couches or behind computer terminals or talking tight-lipped in hallways. Talking. Talking, talking, talking. I like the talking, sure, but Marvel superheroes shouldn't be sitting on couches talking for multiple pages in consecutive issues. I'm sorry, but that is true. 

Anyway, reading comics is fun, but it's also work, and you're not paid to read the comics, you're paid to make the comics based on what you're reading. And man, do I hate reading comics off a computer, it hurts my eyes and I read very, very slowly and have to take breaks. I know, we should all have such problems, free goofball comics to chew over and reference in your script. We also had to go through the Silver Age STRANGE TALES run with the Torch, which I did once already, I think should award us medical coverage for a year for what that did to my brain. I had to run thorough those again for a few bits of reference to answer a few editorial questions and catch anything Kurt Busiek didn't find. Which wasn't much -- if you think this sounds like work, Kurt bleeds this stuff and as coordinator on all the Snapshot issues, sends out reams of reference to everyone. Which helped a lot, because I was already making a list and thought I'd have to scan this stuff. 

Where was I? I dunno, I'm off topic, I think. Anyway, Ben's layouts are great, but there's a lot to go over, and Kurt has to go over everything, our editors at Marvel have to go over everything, we have to go over everything, there's a lot of eyes and a lot of ideas and some notes. Can't use Dragon Man in the origin splash, he's more of an ally these days, not a villain (I'm happy to hear that, actually, hooray for Dragon Man, I love him). This character doesn't look like that now, this character is in Portland, that character had an arc in this mini-series that we didn't catch before but now it has to be addressed and switched out. When did this happen, when did that happen? Is there room for dialog, does Ben have reference for that, here's a villain from more recent times we can include if we want to, wait a minute, forget that, we can go back to the way it is in the script because etc etc etc. Continuity is a monster, and this MARVELS project is heavy on the stuff. I had no idea about 2003 MCU events, which is when this comic takes place, and it took time to get up to some sort of speed. And Benjamin doesn't know all the Silver Age stuff, which I'm all about, and which Kurt embodies (that's a compliment, by the way, my Zod does he know his onions). 

So, anyway, things got to a point where we had so many e-mails and PDFs and files to deal with this week on just the first ten pages that I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. Last night I revised a chunk of our script, after I type this mess up I'm going to work on that page 1 situation which I think we have nailed down, and I have a layout rough to scan and send Ben. Yikes. 

One reason this stage of production gnaws at me is because my scripts tend to be dense and complicated, I like detail, I like atmosphere, I like setting and surroundings and clothing that help describe character and create a sense of place. I like background jokes, lots of characters, and if there's shelves in a room, I want it to look like the person who lives there filled them with "their" stuff. Everything tells the story, and everything has to be looked over. Beyond that, I'm slow in going over these things, and making the notes, because I am so terrified of missing things. I'm more relaxed than I used to be these days, which tells you something about how bad I was before. Sweated this stuff, avoided it until it couldn't be avoided. Scared I'd fuck up and a mistake would get into print. Editors catch a lot of things, but everyone has too many books and too little time, and these things are important to me. Everything and everyone involved tells the story. I want to make sure it's the best it can be. 

I don't know how the big-time writers handle five or six or whatever titles per month without losing track of everything. Maybe they have better memories than I do, better software, better skills all-around. I drown. I know it doesn't help if you write as densely as I do. Someday, I hope to find a better balance. I think Sarah and the artists I collaborate with would like that, too!

All right, speaking of writing too much, I better cut this unplanned fifty car pile-up off and get back to work.