Paul’s out of town again, so I spent the better part of the day alternating between rewarding my muse and bludgeoning it to produce work. I’ve a gnatlike attention span right now, due in large part to the fact that I usually spend several hours a day on the internet, and it’s a pretty hard time staying focussed when I’m typing.
I got about 20 pages dialogued today, and most of them were pretty difficult scenes. I’m in a wierd position with this book, in that I’m working from rough script, doing the art, and then filling in the specifics of the dialogue when I letter the pages. This is proving really, really difficult for me. The method is, in large part, the traditional “Marvel Way” of making comics: Writer roughs in the script, gives it to the artist, then the artist turns over the art to the writer, who’s theoretically finished the dialogue, and then proceeds to trim or expand the verbiage as necessary to make it flow with the art.
Verdict? I don’t much like it. I worked from a pretty polished script on the first book (primarily because I had a writer at the time) and I prefer that method greatly. Problem is, I’m in this bind because I needed to see the art and feel its flow before I could tell specifically how the characters were going to react. I think, having gone through this particular thumbscrew routine one evening too many, I’m going to force myself to complete the next script (whatever it is) before I start the art on the next book.
Blargh. Off to bed.