Scott Snyder's LIVE Script Critique on Creators Workshop!

On March 13, 2012, Comics Experience Creators Workshop member, Don McMillan, received a live, web conference critique of his work by highly-acclaimed writer, Scott Snyder!

The Creators Workshop is an on-going community of writers and artists all dedicated to getting published and improving their craft.

Our members post their work, critique each other, and discuss all aspects of creating comics in our members-only forums.

But in addition to all that, members are eligible each month for critique by our instructors and special guests!

This month's special guest script critiquer was Scott Snyder, the red-hot writer of Batman and Swamp Thing from DC Comics, American Vampire from DC/Vertigo, and the horror title Severed from Image.

Scott not only agreed to provide a guest critique to this month's winner, but further volunteered to do it LIVE with Don.

Scott provided in-depth feedback on Don's script, "Down by the Pond," during a session that lasted over an hour and a half!

After it was all over, Don tweeted, "Thank you @Ssnyder1835 for the incredible feedback and for taking the time out of your crazy schedule to talk."

With Scott and Don's permission, the session was recorded so that all Workshop members could learn from Scott as well.

The recording will be available to members for several weeks.

Our past guests, who have provided written critiques of our members' work, include:

• Peter David
• Jason Aaron
• John Romita, Jr.
• Wil Moss, DC Editor
• Jim McCann
• Andy Lanning
• Pablo Raimondi
• Tom Feister
• Nathan Edmondson
• Jody LeHeup, Marvel Editor
• Allan Heinberg
• Jim Cheung
• Mike Raicht
• Charles P. Wilson III & Nick Pitarra
• Chuck Dixon
• Joshua Fialkov
• Jim Zub
• Michael Alan Nelson
• Paul Tobin
• as well as Scott Snyder!

This past month, members were eligible for a script review by Cullen Bunn or an art review by Brian Hurtt, the collaborators on books like The Sixth Gun and The Damned from Oni Press, among many other individual credits with Marvel, DC, and more.

Each month, a member also receives critiques from our staff members and professional contributors like: Comics Experience founder Andy Schmidt (writer, and former Marvel and IDW Editor); professional penciler and Comics Experience art instructor, Robert Atkins (Snake Eyes, GI Joe, Heroes for Hire); former Marvel Editors Alejandro Arbona and Nicole Boose; and other comics professionals like IDW Editor Bobby Curnow, pro artist Sean Chen, and pro writer David Gallaher.

The Creators Workshop is the ideal place to receive honest and helpful feedback on your work from both like-minded colleagues and professionals!

Comics Experience thanks Scott Snyder -- and ALL our guest reviewers -- for being so incredibly generous with their time and knowledge!

---

If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook

WORKSHOP GUEST: Scott Snyder on Narrative Captions!

In this month's Comics Experience Creators Workshop Book Club, special guest Scott Snyder discussed his work on the DC/Vertigo Comics title American Vampire. He also shared his thoughts on several aspects of the comics-writing craft, including the use of narrative captions.

Snyder comes from a prose background; before his comics career began, he earned an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and wrote a collection of short stories called Voodoo Heart. Snyder said that early on in his comics career, he realized that narration could be used to carry his writer's voice and sense of wordplay over from prose to comic books. It also allowed him to use unreliable narrators, and create a conflict between the words and images on a comics page.

Most of Snyder's prose writing is done in first-person, from "narrators that were very unreliable," he said. "So there was often a discrepancy between what they would be telling you, and what would really be happening. They'd be telling you, 'this person is in love with me,' and you'd be hearing dialogue from that person, or someone else, that would imply (the narrator) is not right."

But in prose, there are no images, and the entire story is communicated through narration. By contrast, in a comic book the narration and the images are separate, allowing creators to provide contradictory information in a single panel.

"That conflict of what you're hearing in the narration and what you're seeing is something that was so exciting about comics," Snyder said. "It's something I'd like to do in prose, but in prose it's so tricky whereas in comics it's so glaringly fun."

Snyder said that in his Batman work, "Bruce (Wayne) is a totally unreliable narrator, which is fun. Bruce keeps everything close to the vest. He doesn't tell you anything that he's feeling." By contrast, Snyder said that Dick Grayson "is not very unreliable, Dick is very open and confessional."

But Snyder said that aside from having an unreliable narrator, there is another, more important reason to use narration.

"Make it personal," he said. "It doesn't get any more personal in comics than a character talking to you." And yet, he noted, narration is often used for exposition; for characters to provide backstory or fill in the plot.

"Use it to try and tell stories or give confessional details or things that surprise people. Use it to establish character," Snyder said. He noted that in Bruce Wayne's narration, "he tells you things that are metaphorically very personal, even if he's talking about a tripwire, or even if he's giving you an information lesson about the history of a building in Gotham. He's really telling you something about how he's feeling."

Most importantly, Snyder said, narration can be used to build a link between the character and the readers; to make the reader emotionally invested in the characters from page one.

"If you tell an emotionally gripping, or at least an emotionally enveloping story, if you get the reader to love that character on the opening pages, they'll follow you through the rest of the book, even if it doesn't have explosions and vampires and all that stuff, because they'll know it's coming, and they'll feel a sense of engagement with that character," Snyder said. "So for me, narration is a really powerful tool for that. Not for exposition, not for catching up the reader – but to be incredibly intimate."

This was just one of many topics in the 90-minute book club session. A recording of the full session will be available to Creators Workshop members for the next few weeks.

Those interested in learning more about Scott Snyder can check out some of his other work, including Batman and Swamp Thing from DC Comics, and Severed (with Scott Tuft) from Image Comics and Iron Man Noir from Marvel Comics, as well as Voodoo Heart, a collection of prose stories.

Creators Workshop Book Club sessions take place every month, featuring guest writers and artists discussing the craft and art of comics, as well as the business side of the comics profession. Additionally, monthly workshop sessions feature special guests giving members real-world knowledge that will help them succeed in their comics career.

Our next live Workshop will be held Tuesday, February 28, 2012. We'll be joined by special guest Drew Gaska to discuss how he single-handedly acquired licenses to Planet of the Apes and Space: 1999 from Fox.

Read more about this great upcoming guest right here.

There's still plenty of time to sign up before the next session. We hope to see you there.

-- Posted by Paul Allor

Scott Snyder Joins Creators Workshop LIVE Tomorrow Night! (1/10/12)

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, January 10, 2012, writer Scott Snyder, will be joining us for an online Creators Workshop Book Club discussion of American Vampire, Volume 1 from Vertigo/DC Comics!

Volume 1 of American Vampire follows two stories: one written by Scott Snyder and the other by Stephen King, with art by Rafael Albuquereque.

In Scott's story, set in 1920's Los Angeles, we follow Pearl, a young woman who is turned into a vampire and sets out on a path of revenge against European Vampires who tortured and abused her.

Scott is the red-hot writer of Batman and Swamp Thing from DC Comics, as well as the horror title Severed from Image.

Join us at the Creators Workshop to take part in this sure-to-be great discussion with Scott!

---

If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook

WORKSHOP GUEST: Terry Moore on the Importance of Great Characters!

In this month’s Comics Experience Creators Workshop Book Club, special guest Terry Moore shared a wide range of knowledge about the craft, art and business of comics.

Moore’s work is known for its strong characterizations, and realistic, vividly-drawn protagonists. During the book club discussion of Echo: The Complete Edition, writer/artist Moore discussed the role characters can play in attracting new readers, and in creating a body of work that will stand the test of time.

"Katchoo is more famous than SiP," said Moore, referring to one of the protagonists of his legendary series Strangers in Paradise. "And that’s the point. Whether you read the book first or hear about Katchoo first, it all leads you to my book. And I want you to read my books."

During the session, one attendee asked if all of Moore’s stories take place in the same universe, and Moore replied that they do.

"The plan is that all my stories happen in the same country at the same time, in the same reality," Moore said. "Any of these characters could encounter the other."

Moore said this idea came, in part, from Robert Heinlen, who wrote more than 100 books all sharing the same universe. Even if the characters didn’t cross paths, Moore said, the events in one book might create ripples that would be felt in the next.

Even as a child, Moore said, he was attracted to serialized work, particularly the books of Ian Fleming, Enid Blyton and Arthur Conan Doyle.

"I realized that if someone can make a cast of characters that people love, those characters last longer than someone who writes 20 unrelated books," Moore said. "Harry Potter is a good example of that. What if JK Rowling had written seven unrelated books? It would be different than seven books chronicling one set of characters."

By leaving behind one huge universe, Moore said, it will be easier for future readers to discover and to enjoy his work.

"I’m just one guy trying to write as many books as I can before I die, and I want the world to read my stuff," Moore said. "If I leave a lot of miscellaneous books in my wake, it’s gonna be very hard for people to ever find one or get attached to my work. If I leave a set of characters, it’s a lot easier for readers to get attached to the characters."

This was just one of many topics in the 90-minute book club session. A recording of the full session will be available to Creators Workshop members for the next few weeks.

Those interested in learning more about Terry Moore and his work (including Strangers in Paradise, Echo and the currently-ongoing Rachel Rising) can go to www.terrymooreart.com.

Creators Workshop Book Club sessions take place every month, featuring guest writers and artists discussing the craft and art of comics, as well as the business side of the comics profession. Additionally, monthly workshop sessions feature special guests giving members real-world knowledge that will help them succeed in their comics career.

For our next live Workshop session on Tuesday, December 20, 2011, we'll be joined by special guest Michael Alan Nelson! Michael is the writer of the hot new BOOM! comic book, Valen the Outcast, which has been described as an "undead Conan" story filled with sword and sorcery action.

And our next Book Club guest, on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, will be writer Scott Snyder, discussing his work on American Vampire from Vertigo/DC Comics.

Read more about these great upcoming guests right here.

There’s still plenty of time to sign up before the next session. We hope to see you there.

-- Posted by Paul Allor

WORKSHOP GUESTS: Michael Alan Nelson & Scott Snyder Coming Soon!

We have two fantastic guests joining us LIVE at the Comics Experience Creators Workshop soon, and there's still time for you to join us at these online sessions!

For our next live Workshop session on Tuesday, December 20, 2011, we'll be joined by special guest Michael Alan Nelson!


Michael is the writer of the hot new BOOM! comic book, Valen the Outcast, which has been described as an "undead Conan" story filled with sword and sorcery action.

The first issue just debuted on December 7, 2011, even garnering some controversy in the comics media related to burnings of a Joe Jusko variant cover.

Valen the Outcast is a new, ongoing series from BOOM!, but Michael has been writing comic for seven years, having produced over 120 single issues for dozens of series, including 28 Days Later, Hexed, and Fall of Cthulhu.

Michael will be joining us to discuss his path into the industry, his new work on Valen the Outcast, as well as his experiences working on a popular, licensed property like 28 Days Later.

Michael will also be critiquing a winning script, posted in December by a lucky member of the Creators Workshop.

And, we're pleased to announce that on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, writer Scott Snyder, will be joining us for a Creators Workshop Book Club discussion of American Vampire, Volume 1 from Vertigo/DC Comics!

Volume 1 of American Vampire follows two stories: one written by Scott Snyder and the other by Stephen King, with art by Rafael Albuquereque.

In Scott's story, set in 1920's Los Angeles, we follow Pearl, a young woman who is turned into a vampire and sets out on a path of revenge against European Vampires who tortured and abused her.

Scott is the red-hot writer of Batman and Swamp Thing from DC Comics, as well as the horror title Severed from Image.

Join us at the Creators Workshop to take part in these sure-to-be great discussions with Michael and Scott!

---

If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook