IINNSSIIDDEE:: SSUUCCCCEESSSSFFUULL SSEERRIIEESS PPIITTCCHHEESS !! 11994 --2004 # $595 In the USA MAGAZINE 7 May JJEEPPHH LLOOEEBB 2004 CHUCK DIXON s c i m o C C D 4 0 0 2 © & M T n a m o w t PLUS: MORE a C WRITING TIPS! TThhee MMaaggaazziinnee AAbboouutt Wriitiinngg For Comiics,, Aniimatiion,, and SCI-FI MAGAZINE Issue #7 May 2004 Read Now! Message from the Editor-in-Chief . page 2 Challenger of the Unknown Interview with Jeph Loeb . page 3 Who He Is and How He Came To Be Interview with Chuck Dixon . page 21 An Epic Saga Interview with John Jackson Miller . page 33 Building a Monster: How I Created the Frankenstein Mobster Mark Wheatley tells how his Image series came to be . page 50 An Animated Career Interview with Yvette Kaplan . page 58 Comics Into Film: A Cautionary Tale Platinum Studios’ Lee Nordling and Aaron Severson tells This issue is dedicated to the memory of you the good news and the bad news about Hollywood’s JULIUS SCHWARTZ , 1915–2004 interest in your comics property . Page 65 Conceived by In Praise of Marvel-style DANNY FINGEROTH Editorial by Danny Fingeroth . page 72 Editor in Chief Designer Feedback CHRISTOPHER DAY Letters from Write Now ’s Readers . page 74 Transcriber STEVEN TICE 1994 --2004 Nuts & Bolts Department Publisher Script to Finished Art: SUPERMAN/BATMAN SECRET FILES #1 JOHN MORROW 1 Pages from “When Clark Met Bruce,” by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale . page 6 Cover by Script to Pencils to Polished Script to Printed Comic: SUPERMAN/BATMAN #5 TIM SALE Pages from “State of Siege” by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines . page 10 Special Thanks To Script to Pencils to Polished Script to Printed Comic 2: BATMAN #618 ALISON BLAIRE Pages from “Hush: The Game” by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, and Scott WIlliams . page 16 CHUCK DIXON ADAM PHILIPS Script to Printed Comic: BRATH #11 PATTY JERES CHRIS POWELL Pages by Chuck Dixon and Alcatena . page 24 MIKE JUDGE BEN REILLY Script to Printed Comic 2: EL CAZADOR #4 YVETTE KAPLAN TIM SALE Pages by Chuck Dixon and Steve Epting . page 28 JEPH LOEB AARON SEVERSON Script to Pencils to Printed Comic: IRON MAN v3 #73 JOHN JACKSON MILLER VARDA STEINHARDT Pages from “The Acquisition” by John Jackson Miller & Jorge Lucas . page 36 ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON NEIL VOKES A Successful Pitch: CRIMSON DYNAMO DENNIS O’NEIL MARK WHEATLEY John Jackson Miller’s proposal for a new series that was accepted and MARIFRAN O’NEIL MIKE WIERINGO produced by Marvel Comics . page 43 “It’s Alive!” Danny Fingeroth’s Write Now! is published 4 times a year by Mark Wheatley’s first notes on Frankenstein Mobster . page 52 TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, Script to Thumbnails to Printed Comic: FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER #1 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Fax: (919) 449-0327. Danny Fingeroth, Pages from “Made Man” by Mark Wheatley . page 56 Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Write Now! E-mail address: [email protected] . Single issues: $8 Postpaid in the US Episodic Animation Script: BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US Pages from “Manners Suck,” by Kristofor Brown . page 60 ($40 Canada, $44 elsewhere). Order online at: www.twomorrows.com Comics 101 or e-mail to: [email protected] All characters are TM & © their More enlightening lessons in comics storytelling from Dennis O’Neil . page 70 respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © the respective authors. Editorial package is ©2004 Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. Write Now! NEW ADDRESS FOR TWOMORROWS: is a shared trademark of Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 • PHONE 919/449-0344 • FAX 919/449-0327 Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. READ Now ! Message from Danny Fingeroth , Editor in Chief fter last issue’s Write Now! In Depth , focusing on how two different artists ( Steve Powers , I was wondering how we could top it. But, you Epting and Alcatena ) interpret A know, I think we just might have. How? Chuck’s scripts, resulting in Well, to begin with, this issue’s interviews. Check out the stories of vastly different roster: moods. • Jeph Loeb , who’s writing some of the best and • JJ Miller ’s action-packed Iron highest-selling comics of recent times, including Man script is powerfully interpreted by Jorge Lucas . Batman: Hush and Superman/Batman . And the guy is • Platinum Studio’s Lee Nordling and Aaron Severson also on the writing staff of the Smallville TV series. pull the curtain back and give some extremely You can’t help but learn things from him. valuable advice on how to react should Hollywood • John Jackson Miller , who tells us about his path from want to make a movie or TV series out of your comics comics industry journalist to regular writer of Iron property. Man . JJM was the winner of the “Epic experiment,” • And Dennis O’Neil is back with more of his comics but his experiences are relevant to anybody trying to storytelling lesson. This is the real deal, straight from put an idea across to an editor or publisher. the source, folks. • Chuck Dixon is another guy who writes an extraor - And you have to be back next issue! That’s the big Write dinary quantity of high quality material. From Batman Now!/Draw! Crossover . My old Darkhawk collaborator, and to El Cazador , Chuck gives us insight into just how Draw! Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Mike Manley , and I are he’s able to do it. You want to know about profes - combining forces to create a brand new character! That’s sional attitude? This is the guy to ask. right— Nuts & Bolts is indeed going wild again! We’ll start the • Yvette Kaplan has worked many different jobs in process in DFWN #8 and finish it in Draw! #9, both due out animation, ranging from Head of Story on Ice Age , to this summer. Draw! will even have a pullout color comics director on Beavis and Butthead . Only recently has insert featuring the debut adventure of our new character . she taken on the official mantle of “writer.” In this As if that isn’t enough, Write Now #8 will also have the long- interview, Yvette shows how animation is truly collabo - awaited Don McGregor interview, an interview with Stuart rative when it comes to crafting story. It’s an eye- Moore , more great Nuts and Bolts , and of course, the usual opener. surprises! And we have another great first-person “making of” article. Mark Wheatley came up with an idea and ran with it. The SHAMELESS PLUG DEPARTMENT: result is the Frankenstein Mobster series. Mark tells us how My book, Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes his imagination worked overtime to bring the character to life. Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society (published by Continuum) is on sale now. It’s gotten some great reviews in The straight-on Nuts & Bolts are pretty awesome this issue, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal , among other places. too: It’s available at your local comics shop, as well as • We get to see John Jackson Miller ’s proposal that Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and finer bookstores every - ended up becoming the Marvel series Crimson where. Dynamo . Both in terms of structure and content, this And I’ll be teaching my Writing Comics and Graphic Novels is one that made the grade. Worth a careful read. course at New York University’s School of Continuing and • Much the same could be said for Mark Wheatley ’s Professional Studies in their summer session. Many of the exploration of the creative journey that ended up with students in my first two semesters teaching it are Write Frankenstein Mobster . You want to sell a series? Now! readers, which is very gratifying. People seem to enjoy Read this. it, if just for the guest speakers who show up regularly. So • We also explore how Mr. Loeb works with a variety of far we’ve had Dennis O’Neil , Axel Alonso , and Mike artistic collaborators, including Tim Sale , Jim Lee and Mignola , among other luminaries. You can go to the NYU Ed McGuinness . We get to see just how Jeph website ( www.scps.nyu.edu ) for more info. modifies a script even after it’s drawn from one of his full scripts. (And apologies for any misunderstanding Now that I’ve kept you so long with the hype, please, tarry no when we printed some other pages from Batman: longer. Go forth and enjoy this very issue! Hush in DFWN #5. We only had access to the Write Away! dialogue aspect of Jeph’s script, leaving it ambiguous as to who plotted the story. Jeph is indeed the plotter as well as scripter of those pages.) • We have some of Chuck Dixon ’s scripting style for Brath and the smash hit El Cazador . Again, we see Danny Fingeroth 2 | WRITE NOW Challenger of the Unknown The JEPH LOEB Interview I’d read. I remember once retelling Conducted via e-mail January 4, 2004 The Wizard of Oz to my entire Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Jeph Loeb high school cafeteria, essen - tially playing all the roles, but eph Loeb is a guy who can’t be pigeon-holed. He writes beefing up the comedy. The comics, he writes and produces television, he writes and writing was an extension of J produces movies, he writes and produces animation. He that. I did start a novel in does material like Batman: Hush that’s as current as 3rd grade called Me and The current gets as well as things like Superman: For All Seasons Chimp about a veterinarian that mine the past for neglected gems.