Ascript is a document describing the narrative and dialogue of acomic book in detail. It is the comic book equivalent of atelevision programteleplay or afilmscreenplay.
In comics, a script may be preceded by a plot outline, and is almost always followed by page sketches drawn by acomics artist andinked, succeeded by thecoloring andlettering stages. There are no prescribed forms of comic scripts, but there are two dominant styles in the mainstreamcomics industry, thefull script (commonly known as "DC style") and theplot script (or "Marvel house style").[1]
The creator of a script is known as acomics writer.[a]
In this style, the comics writer breaks the story down in sequence, page-by-page and panel-by-panel, describing the action, characters, and sometimes backgrounds and "camera" points-of-view of each panel, as well as all captions and dialogue balloons. For decades, this was the preferred format for books published byDC Comics.
Peter David described his specific application of the full script method: "I break down each page on a panel by panel basis and label them as PANEL A, PANEL B, and so on. Then I describe what's in each panel, and then do the dialogue, numbering the balloons. I designate the panels with letters and the word balloons with numbers so as to minimize confusion for the letterer".[9] In addition to writing the scripts,Jim Shooter drew layouts for the artist in his early work for DC.[10]
In aplot script the artist works from a story synopsis from the writer (orplotter), rather than a full script. The artist creates page-by-page plot details on their own, after which the work is returned to the writer for the insertion of dialogue. Due to its widespread use atMarvel Comics beginning in the 1960s, primarily under editor-dialogistStan Lee and writer-artistsJack Kirby andSteve Ditko, this approach became commonly known as theMarvel method orMarvel house style.[11]
Comics historianMark Evanier writes that this "new means of collaboration . . . was born of necessity—Stan was overburdened with work—and to make use of Jack's great skill with storylines. . . . Sometimes Stan would type up a written plot outline for the artist. Sometimes, not".[12] As comic-book writer-editorDennis O'Neil describes, the Marvel method "requires the writer to begin by writing out a plot and add[ing] words when the penciled artwork is finished. . . .[I]n the mid-sixties, plots were seldom more than a typewritten page, and sometimes less", while writers in later times "might produce as many as twenty-five pages of plot for a twenty-two page story, and even include in them snatches of dialog. So a Marvel Method plot can run from a couple of paragraphs to something much longer and more elaborate".[13]
The Marvel method was in place with at least one artist by early 1961, as Lee described in 2009 when speaking of his and Ditko's "short, five-page filler strips ... placed in any of our comics that had a few extra pages to fill", most prominently inAmazing Fantasy but even previously inAmazing Adventures and other "pre-superhero Marvel"science-fiction/fantasy anthology titles.
I'd dream up odd fantasy tales with anO. Henry type twist ending. All I had to do was give Steve a one-line description of the plot and he'd be off and running. He'd take those skeleton outlines I had given him and turn them into classic little works of art that ended up being far cooler than I had any right to expect.[14]
The October 2018 issue of DC Comics' in-house previews magazine,DC Nation, featured a look at the creative process that writerBrian Michael Bendis and artistsRyan Sook,Wade von Grawbadger and Brad Anderson employed onAction Comics #1004, which included pages of Bendis' script that were broken down panel by panel, albeit without dialogue.[15]
Advantages of the Marvel method over the full script method that have been cited by creators and industry professionals include:
Cited disadvantages include:
In a variation of the plot script, attributed toHarvey Kurtzman, the writer breaks down the story into page roughs or thumbnail sketches, with captions and dialogue jotted down inside the roughs. The artist (who is often the comic's writer as well) then fleshes out the roughs onto full-size art board. Writer/artistsFrank Miller andJeff Smith favor this style, as didArchie Goodwin.[1]
Attributed toWilliam Gaines (Kurtzman's publisher atEC Comics), the EC style is similar to the Kurtzman style, except the writer submits a tight plot to an artist, who breaks it down into panels that are laid out on the art board. The writer writes all captions and dialogue, which are pasted inside these panels, and then the artist draws the story to fit all of this paste-up. This laborious and restrictive way of creating comics is no longer in general use; the last artist to use even a variation of EC style wasJim Aparo.[1]
