Warren Ellis on Comic Scripting

The always interesting Warren Ellis had some wisdom to share over on his blog, particularly on the art of comic book scripting. The whole thing is a must read, but the part I wanted to highlight was this...

Even if you and the artist have previously agreed on content and scenes and set-pieces, clear and specific notation of the mechanics of the comic is down to you. You are telling the artist what to do. The trick is to get the artist to like it

You are, in many ways, writing a love letter intended to woo the artist into giving their best possible work to the job. A bored or unengaged artist will show up on the page like a fibrous stool in the toilet bowl, and that’s not their fault — it’s yours.

It is probably because of this attitude that Ellis seemingly always collaborates with top notch artists. He is a master seducer of the top illustrators of the field. Can you think of the last time you read an Ellis comic and thought to yourself "I wish he would have gotten a different artist"? Probably not. He always gets his man/woman/illustrating machine, even if it takes years to complete the courting process, such as it was the case with Planetary.

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