Comic book writing - a perspective from Chris Piers

Chris Piers

Illustrator and writer Chris Piers has a creative niche in today’s comic books, both in DC and with out of state publishers. Originally hailing from Massachusetts, the Virginia resident has been writing and illustrating comics for ten years. Chris is a creator who can-do and can-teach, as he also instructs a class for comic book writing at the Writer’s Center. 

 

He found time to talk about writing comics, and give some insight on comic books in general.

 

Examiner: When did you initially develop an interest in writing comics?

 

Chris: I’ve always enjoyed creative writing but during college I took a class in scriptwriting. Screenplays. It prompted me to read more and more books about structure and the development of character. Joseph Campbell’s books about myth. I combined this with the fact that I’ve been reading comics every week since I was a teenager. The actual nuts and bolts of assembling a story and working through the revisions fascinates me. Everyone has creative ideas, but shaping it into a well-structured story takes time and effort.

 

Examiner: How was it transitioning styles; from scriptwriting to comic books?

 

Chris: Scriptwriting helps you with structure and pacing which can certainly translate. But you’re writing for two very different audiences. Specifically, when you write a comic book script, your first audience is your artist. You need to make it clear to them which details are important in terms of setting, character, and action, without deluging them with detail. Every collaboration is different and unique, but the artist is responsible for as much of the storytelling as the writer, since comic books are a visual medium. You need to help the artist break up the story into moments.

 

Examiner: What are your favorite comic books? Say your top three?

 

Chris: My all-time favorite comic books are Watchmen, Preacher, and Bone. Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips would be a very close fourth. Only Watchmen is a superhero book, and that’s really a deconstruction of the superhero. I’ll always have a certain amount of nostalgic affection for Batman and Spider-Man and they’ve had some wonderful stories, but in general, I’m more interested in crime, war, religion. I think it’s important to explain that comics are a medium, not a genre. They’re incredibly versatile and the ‘favorite comics’ I listed help show that diversity.

 

Examiner: You’re part of the local comics site the DC Conspiracy. How did you become a part of that group?

 

Chris: About five years ago, I saw a flyer for the DC Conspiracy - a local comics artist collaborative group - meeting at the late Dr. Dremo’s in Arlington every month. I came to something like their third or fourth meeting and have been attending ever since. I quickly became involved in some of the group projects we’ve produced. It’s a fantastic sounding board where we show our latest scripts or artwork, work on projects together to stretch our creative muscles, and it gives us an excuse to meet at a bar once a month and have fun.

 

Examiner: What titles have you worked on at DC Conspiracy?

 

Chris: The first ongoing project the DC Conspiracy did was a free-flowing comic book following the fictional character of Dr. Dremo, a cosmic being. It used the ‘exquisite corpse’ style of storytelling, where one person does whatever they want for 4 or 5 pages, then the next person continues the story doing whatever they want. It’s surreal and fun. We produced 4 of those. I wrote and drew segments in books 1 and 4. I’ve also written and drawn stories in each of our genre anthologies: Horror, Sci-Fi, War, and Crime. We try to produce 2 of those a year and they are about 72 pages or so apiece.

 

Examiner: What’s the most difficult part for you when writing comics?

 

Chris: The most difficult part of writing comics is forcing yourself to write the first draft. There’s always a temptation to edit or perfect the story as you write, but that’s a mistake. You end up procrastinating and it’s never perfect anyway. There are numerous short exercises you can find online or in creative writing books to help come up with ideas.

 

Examiner: What’s your method of pushing past that?

 

Chris: In my opinion, it’s best to force yourself to sit down and just type out the story, give yourself a break, and come back to it with an objective eye. Being willing to rewrite is what will improve and focus your story. When you write your unconscious mind may make you decide your hungry, or you have an even better story idea, or maybe this one isn’t worth developing after all. Once you’re aware that your mind will do this, it’s easier to ignore and push past all that.

 

Examiner: Any new, upcoming projects you can talk about here?

 

Chris: I drew a story for the Trickster anthology which was organized by DC Conspiracy co-founder Matt Dembicki. That has several DC Conspiracy artists in it. The book is a collection of stories by members of various Native American tribes relaying their tribe’s version of a trickster legend. Fulcrum Press will be publishing that next year. I’ve seen the galley and it’s an absolutely gorgeous book full of interesting stories, many of which have never been shared on such a large scale before. I have a spy comic I drew coming out on actionagecomics.com in the next month or so. I help proofread all of my friend Robert Kirkman’s Image books – Invincible, the Walking Dead, and the Astounding Wolf-Man. I’m also working with a couple artists to develop pitches to some comics publishers.

 

Examiner: You have a background as an artist, also. When working with another artist, how do you as a writer communicate effectively?

 

Chris: The artist and the writer split the work of being the “director” and envisioning the scene. Knowing both sides of the equation helps to simply write clearly. Breaking down the story page by page, panel by panel and letting the artist understand the key details.

Because every collaboration is unique, you can tailor your script to your artist’s strengths or at least what they enjoy.

If you as a writer describe every camera angle and detail, you’re robbing the artist of the opportunity to use their imagination and add something to the story. Once you’ve worked on the other side of the collaboration as an artist, you understand how to leave your co-worker with room to add their mark and enhance the whole story. The key is to have a very easy to read script. Get rid of superfluous bolding, italicizing, capitalizing and overly-verbose descriptions. Your reader won’t see any of that and it just slows the artist down.

 

Examiner: There’s a class at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda where you teach about writing in the comic book style. What’s the biggest discrepancy any new student may have about comic book writing?

 

Chris: The students that come to the Writer’s Center to learn how to write for comics are from all walks of life. Some are big comics fans, some want to adapt an existing story - either their own or non-fiction - into comics, and some want to fine-tune their process and learn how to find artists and pitch to publishers. Universally, though, they need to learn the unique way of storytelling that comics use. We teach them about all of the various panel to panel transitions you can use and how to keep everything as clear as possible. We have 2 levels of classes, each about 6 weeks, so there’s a fair amount to go over. Students need to learn not only how to write understandable comics for their audience, but also for anyone they collaborate with – artists, letterers, colorists, editors.

 

Examiner: I was surprised to see a class for comic books. Is this a new program at the Writer’s Center?

 

Chris: My fellow DC Conspiracy member Jason Rodriguez and I have been teaching this class at the Writer’s Center since 2007 but we take breaks between semesters. We’ve taught around 7 semesters at the Center. We get pretty big classes, but because it’s a niche field we don’t want to burn out the potential audience.

 

Examiner: What advice can you give aspiring comic writers reading this?

 

Chris: There is no single way to break into comics but talent and persistence are universal. Learn how to network. Networking is huge. The more people you know that are in the field or are trying to be in the field, the better your chances are for a collaborative opportunity at some point.

 

Examiner: Thank you for taking the time to share some words.

 

Chris: My pleasure. Thanks, Mark.

 

 

DC Conspiracy is a collective of writers and artists of the Greater DC Metro. Members collaborate on comic books and other literary forms from many genres and instigate creative ideas with each other through online forums and live discussions. DC Conspiracy also sets aside time to host workshops, barbecues and conventions integrated with groups from other art forms. Namely, the Counter Culture Festival held last May.

 

The Writer’s Center, located in Bethesda, Maryland, is a non-profit organization that hosts a community of writers, several classes and workshops. Published works from local artists can be purchased here as well.