John Rozum.com for Kids

Writing Without Words

2011-02-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

I've been asked by students several times if a scene in a comic book, such as the one page story from Little Lulu shown above, counts as writing if there are no words in it?

In comics, the creation involves a number of disciplines such as writing and drawing which work together to do one thing called storytelling. We use both words and drawings, occasionally shown separate from each other, but usually combined, to tell a story.

In the above sequence the writer and artist are the same person, a cartoonist named John Stanley. For him, writing and drawing are the same thing, whether there are words or not. He came up with an idea for the one page story and composed it using drawings rather than words.

The two page sequence above from Owly also uses mostly images, and only a couple of sound effects to show what's going on. All of the Owly stories are like that. Again, the writing and drawing is done by one person, cartoonist, Andy Runton. I suppose he probably writes brief outlines of what he wants to have happen in his stories before he starts drawing them. But he still has to work out the plot and all of the details even if he does it as he goes. This counts as writing.

I always work with an artist separate from myself. For every story I work on, I write a complete script which tells the artist everything that needs to happen in the story, whether anyone is speaking, or not. Sometimes when a scene is silent, or doesn't have any words to read, I have to give the artist more detail. Often, when there is dialogue, the artist can determine what the expressions of the characters should look like, or which character is more important in a panel just by reading the dialogue for the scene. When there isn't any dialogue, they'll need more clues to let them know what expressions a character should be showing.

Below are three pages of a script I wrote for a scene from a Dexter's Laboratory story that uses almost no words. The script pages are followed by the corresponding finished comic book pages so that you can compare the two. You can see that there are written descriptions for all of the panels shown, and what information is contained in the descriptions. You can also see where the artist changed things a bit. Click on any image to view it larger.

Now that you know that a comic book without words in it still needs to be written, did you know that it's still called reading a comic book even if there are no words in it?

Examples used in this post were taken from:

Little Lulu - volume 9 "Lucky Lulu" by John Stanley. published by Dark Horse Books.

Owly - "Helping Hands" by Andy Runton. Published by Top Shelf Productions. 2007.

Dexter's Laboratory - "It Lurks in the Night" in Cartoon Network Block Party #24. October 2006.

John Rozum - writer, Scott Roberts - penciller, Scott McRae - inker, Ryan Cline - letterer, Heroic Age - colorist, Rachel Gluckstern - assistant editor, Joan Hilty - editor.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #5

2011-01-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #5, which became available at comic book stores on January 5, contains one of my earliest Scooby-Doo stories. "Sound Stage Spook" has the Mystery Inc. gang visiting Freddie's actor uncle on the set of his latest movie and discovering that what appears to be the ghost of a famous actor of silent films trying to keep it from getting made. This story was a lot of fun for me to write and featured a couple of characters, the movie director Tom Burden and the make-up artist, Tim Sevine, who would go on to appear in a number of other Scooby-Doo tales I wrote over the years (including the splash page shown at the beginning of this post).

This story originally appeared way back in Scooby-Doo #18 from January 1999. It was later collected in the paperback collection, Scooby-Doo: The Big Squeeze.

Now Available

2010-12-17T22:07:00.000-08:00

The most recent issue of SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (#4) contains a story of mine. It's not a new story. In fact it's a reprint of a very old one going back to SCOOBY-DOO #17 from December 1998. "The Ghost of Christmas Presents" is actually the first Scooby-Doo story I ever wrote. At the time I thought it was going to be a one time deal. Little did I know that it would lead to more than a decade and well over 100 more stories featuring the Mystery Inc. gang. SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #4 actually came out over a week ago, but you should still be able to find it at a comic book store near you or wherever you find comics sold.

Depicting Speed in Comics - Part 2

2010-11-09T01:20:00.000-08:00

Now that you've looked at some examples of how movies and tv shows depict speed, it's time for us to look at how it's done in comic books. Remember that movies have the benefit of movement, camera work, quick editing, sound effects, and music to help give the impression that the action occurring within a scene is happening really fast. Comic books don't have any of those devices to use, so writers, and especially artists and even letterers had to create some devices of their own to make what is depicted in a frozen image, or series of frozen images, appear to not only be moving, but moving really fast if that's what they want.

In the panel above, there are three things that help make it look like the motorcycle and its rider are moving rapidly across the panel. The first thing is the rider's position. He's leaning forward, almost horizontal, and parallel to the motorcycle, much like the Coyote on the rocket that you saw in Part 1. The second thing that lends the idea of speed to this panel is how the motorcycle is framed. notice the front tire is cut off a bit. This gives the impression that the motorcycle is moving too fast for the panel to contain it. The third, and most important thing here are what is called speed lines. Do you see those straight lines just behind, below, and alongside the motorcycle and rider? Those are speed lines. They are a storytelling device meant to visually suggest something that's invisible. In this case that would be speed, or momentum. Just like you can feel air rushing past you if you pedal your bike really fast, or ride in a car with the windows open, the speed lines are meant to convey that air rushing past as something speeds through in a comic book panel. They can also suggest a blur of movement which is also an indication of something moving rapidly.

Take a look at that panel again. Now take a look at the following panels of motorcycles in motion. You can click on any image to make it bigger.

These motorcycles probably seem to be moving a lot faster than the one at the top of this post, don't they? Why is that? You'll notice that there are not many speed lines like we saw in our first example. Instead, the street itself and the walls and ceiling of the tunnel become speed lines. They are drawn to look like a blur of motion. Look at how many diagonal elements there are in the panels above. Remember what we said about diagonal lines in Part 1, they give the impression of movement or tension. The streets, walls, motorcycles, and even some of the panel borders are all angled to increase the impression of speed. What about our point of view--where we are viewing the action from? In most of the panels we are right on the ground (worm's eye view) while the motorcycles zoom by almost above us. This lends a lot of power to motorcycles. Power in the case of vehicles usually means fast engines and speed. The large "VVVRRRMMM!" sound effects in warm colors reinforces that sense of power and speed.

In many of the panels the motorcycles don't even seem to be touching the ground. They are moving so fast they seem to be flying. Remember in part one where we talked about the physical effects of gravity and speed, such as when you go around a corner on a bike, or inside a car, and you lean into the turn, or how the air rushing past you will blow your hair, or coat back? Look at the panels again. See how the riders and motorcycles lean into their turns (except the two panels of motorcycles skidding to a halt which do the opposite)? Look at the panel of the two girls standing in the crosswalk as the motorcycles zoom past. See how their hair and skirts are being pulled in the wake of rushing air which follows the motorcycles? All of these things come together to emphasize the notion that the motorcycles, and the action in general, is moving fast in these panels. Compare them to the frames from the speeder bike chase from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi in Part 1. You'll probably see some similarities.

Here are a couple more examples of fast moving vehicles.

In the example above speed lines, down hill diagonals and defying gravity all lend a sense of speed to the mine cart. In the first panel the downhill angle and the depiction of all four of the cart's wheels being off the tracks really give the impression of speed. In the second panel, even though it's a medium shot of the characters, and not the vehicle, their poses and the downward aiming diagonals, combined with the speed lines give this panel its feeling of speed.

This sequence is full of diagonals. There are the speed lines, the backwards leaning sound effects, and even the tops and bottoms of the panel borders which all seem to be radiating from a central point a few inches to the left of the page. This sequence also demonstrates the comic book equivalent to quick editing in a movie. In a movie a scene will appear faster is it is made up of really short shots of action, quickly run, or edited together. In a comic book you can almost match this effect by the size of your panels and by how much information you put in them. Aside from the sound effects, there is no text in this sequence, so you don't have to slow down to read anything. The sound effect words get absorbed by your brain the same way the drawn visual elements in the panel get absorbed. You don't really stop to read "Whoosh," you read it in almost the same way you see something out of the corner of your eye. The pictures in each panel are also very simple and very direct which means you don't spend a lot of time looking at them. Your eyes move rapidly from one to the next making the sequence happen faster.

Now that we've seen some examples of speed applied to vehicles, it's time to look at living things. Take a look at the following panels and see if speed is demonstrated using any of the same tricks as were used for the vehicles above. Remember, you can make any image larger by clicking on it. Go.

Did you notice all of the diagonals and downhill pointing lines and action? Did you notice the speed lines and blur lines? What about characters depicted with both (or all four for the horses) their feet off the ground? Was anyone leaning forward into the direction they were running? Good. If you look at the fourth panel showing legs running from left to right, you'll notice that we can still "hear" a number of his previous footsteps while he runs forward. This implies speed, much like the trails of dust we saw in some of the examples in Part 1. He's moving fast enough that his feet are touching the ground fast enough that we can hear the sound of his fresh steps before the sound of the previous steps has faded. What about that last sequence showing Donald Duck on a horse? Does it remind you of anything? No? Go back to Part 1 and look at the series of frames showing Wile E. Coyote riding the rocket.

Those characters up above are going pretty fast, but not super fast. When you want to show someone moving at super speed you have to add in some other tricks. Compare these with the frames of Dash running in The Incredibles that can be found in Part 1.

Above, The Flash accelerates to high speed. In the first two panels speed lines and blur lines meant to represent his legs in motion give us a sense of his increased speed. Notice how the position of his arms and torso changes showing that he's using his whole body to build momentum just as you never see a jogger with their arms hanging straight down at their sides. In the third panel his legs are depicted less realistically. Their shape is mostly suggested by some coloring and lots of blur lines marking the motion of his legs. In the final panel he's really running. He's going so fast that the back half of his body blends into the blurred wall of speed lines he leaves in his wake. If you read the last thought balloon you'll learn just how fast he's running.

Here, not only is the Flash leaving a blurred wall of speed lines in his wake, but he's going so fast he's run right out of the first two panels before we could see him. The thought balloons and sound effect let us know he's running faster than the speed of sound which is 1,126 feet per second (343.2 meters per second) or 768 miles per hour (1,236 kilometers per hour) or 1 mile in five seconds (1 kilometer in 3 seconds).

The character above is going fast enough that he's not simply leaving speed lines behind him, but is actually partially drawn using speed lines. This gives him a nice motion blur. His extreme leaning forward pose makes him look even faster.

Here's that downward facing diagonal combined with speed lines and a great pose.

The panel above is an interesting use of speed lines for a blurred motion effect. The Flash is racing to match speed with a high velocity vehicle. Notice as he gets closer to running the same speed as the vehicle that the vehicle becomes less blurred and more distinct. If you've ridden inside a car on the highway you'll notice a similar effect as the car you are in catches up to a car in the next lane. Once your car and the car next to you are going the same speed it will almost look as if the car next to you has slowed down, or is completely still next to yours. This sequence of panels tries to capture that same effect in a series of drawings.

Do you remember those frames from Part 1 that showed the Road Runner as just a roughly Road Runner shaped blur of color, or the frame of Speedy Gonzales arriving in the foreground with his long dust trail winding its way into the background? The above panel of the Flash coming to a stop is very much like those. Here the motion of his hair, the blown papers, and the whirl of speed lines and color behind him, show that he's arrived so fast that the image of him is still catching up.

This time the Flash is in a hurry to leave. A crackle of energy helps blur together a series of overlapping images of the Flash changing into his costume and running off faster than the speed of sound.

The above examples are all great for showing someone running (and in one case flying) at super speed, but what if they are doing something else really fast?

In the above panel, super fast Johnny Quick is acting as a one man assembly line hand copying and stacking a vast number of music scores. The artist has depicted this by drawing a group of Johnny Quicks each seated at a different place around the table performing a separate task. Notice how there is only one speech balloon in the panel, but that this one speech balloon has a bunch of pointers, each aimed at a different image of Johnny Quick. This is done to let the reader know that they are looking at one person talking and performing all of those tasks and not a group of clones. It also lets the reader know that he's performed all those tasks in the time it took him to speak those two sentences. Look again at the two Johnny Quick's on the left foreground. Do you notice anything unusual about them? They both share the same set of legs. This gives the impression that while sitting in that chair he is taking something from the composer then turning and writing really quickly.

Above, a very speedy typist, his hands a blur of motion while vast numbers of pages fly up out of the carriage of his typewriter, types away while Johnny Quick rapidly gathers together all of these freshly typed pages, staples them together and stacks them in a bunch of piles. We can see four upper torsos of Johnny Quick, each performing a separate task, but all sharing the same set of stationary legs. This lets us know that he's standing in the same spot, only moving his upper body to perform all of these tasks.

Above repeated overlapping Johnny Quicks let us know that he is repeating the same identical task over and over again at super speed.

Above, Johnny Quick is seated in place while his hands perform a number of tasks at fast speed. The artist chose to show this by drawing a series of overlapping arms, each positioned at a different point in the task, creating a sense of blurred motion. Johnny's speech balloon lets the reader know that he does only have two arms and did not suddenly mutate into a human octopus.

Similarly, the Flash whirls his arms in a circle, using them like a fan. The motion of his rapidly spinning arms creates a wind that blows away his enemies. Here a combination of speed lines and arms depicted at various points in the circle create the illusion of speed.

Compare the above panel to this image here. Color, speed lines, and multiple depictions of the Flash's fist lend the impression that he's hitting the super villain, Gorilla Grodd dozens of times a second. The effect is enhanced because we can still see The Flash's fists hitting Grodd from directly in front of us even though the Flash has already moved completely to the other side of Grodd and is now facing us.

The two panels below use the opposite approach to what we've seen already. Instead of using all sorts of effects like speed lines and multiple limbs to demonstrate extreme speed in a single frozen image, these examples show extreme speed by making the Flash look like he's moving at normal speed. How is that done? Take a look.

A bullet can travel from between 600 feet per second and 5000 feet per second. That's faster than you can see with your eyes. In the panel above, the Flash is moving so fast that the bullets appear to be frozen in the air, allowing him to pluck them out of the air. By slowing down time, we get a sense of what moving at super speed must be like from the Flash's perspective. Anyone watching the Flash would just see a red blur of motion.

The above sequence uses a similar effect. The Flash is chasing after a villain who can move at least as fast as he can. We learn from the captions that the villain has taken apart a complicated machine and left the scene, moving so fast that he's gone before gravity has had a chance to pull any of the machine parts to the floor. The Flash arrives on the scene, missing the villain, but is fast enough to figure out how to put the machine back together and actually rebuild it while the parts are still suspended in the air waiting to fall. Multiple limbs were added to this to make it seem even faster. I don't know how fast he's going, but it's super fast.

The two page sequence below uses a few of the techniques mentioned above. How many can you spot?

Did you notice the speed and blur lines? The diagonals? The man running faster than a car? The effect his speed has on objects around him, such as blowing off his hat? What about the objects seemingly frozen in the air while he quickly moved among them? Good.

Now, quick, go make some comics.

Panels in this post were taken from:

Tintin in America - Hergé. Little, Brown and Company.

Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo. Epic Comics.

"Land Beneath the Ground" - Carl Barks. Uncle Scrooge #13. March 1956. Dell Comics.

Astroboy book 1 - Osamu Tezuka. Dark Horse Comics.

"The Secrets of Atlantis" - Carl Barks. Uncle Scrooge #5. March 1954. Dell Comics.

"Raider of the Copper Hill" - Don Rosa. Uncle Scrooge #288. October 1994. Gladstone.

“The Speed of Doom” - John Broome story, Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia art. The Flash #108. September 1959. DC Comics.

“Giants of the Time World!” - Robert Kanigher story, Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia art. Showcase #14. June 1958. DC Comics.

“Menace of the Super Gorilla” - John Broome story, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella art. The Flash #106. May 1959. DC Comics.

“Lightning Strikes Twice” - Geoff Johns - Writer, Ethan Van Sciver - Artist, Rob Leigh - Letterer, Alex Sinclair - Colorist, Chris Conroy asst. Ed, Joey Cavalieri - Ed. The Flash #1. 2009. DC Comics.

"The Day That Was Five Years Long" - Dan Barry art, Helen Vesik colorist. Adventure Comics #144, Sept 1949. DC Comics.

“”The Pied Piper of Peril!” - John Broome story, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella art. The Flash #106. May 1959. DC Comics.

“Return of the Super-Gorilla” - John Broome story, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella art. The Flash #107. July 1959.

The Flash: Time Flies - John Rozum - Writer, Seth Fisher - Artist, Tom Orzechowski - Letterer, Chris Chuckry - Color Separations, Joey Cavalieri - Editor. . 2002. DC Comics.

Depicting Speed in Comics - Part 1

2010-11-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

If you've ever watched a movie that has a chase scene in it, then you know it can be pretty exciting, right? A hero driving really fast as he pursues a badguy also driving really fast while they weave in and out of traffic, or an X-Wing fighter zipping through the trenches of the Death Star, or even a kid running away from a group of bullies are all really exciting to watch on the screen.

What makes these scenes exciting is that you are watching objects moving at high speed, and this speed looks even faster through clever editing, camera moves, sound effects, and music. If you don't believe me think about the scene in the first Iron Man movie where Iron Man is zooming through the air being chased by military jets trying to shoot him down. If you've seen this movie, and know this scene, you'll remember it as being fast paced and thrilling. Take a look at the frame below which is taken from that sequence. You can click on any image to make it bigger.

Not so exciting, or fast paced is it? That is because it is a frozen image; a single photo taken from a scene with lots of movement, really short quick shots of action edited together and combined with dynamic sound effects which make the action seem to be moving faster as well as making it more exciting, and a musical score that makes it still more exciting. But looking at a frozen image from this scene, without the sound, music, motion, or editing, it's pretty bland. For one thing you don't really get a sense that Iron Man, or the jets behind him are moving fast at all.

This is what comic book writers, and more especially, comic book artists have to deal with whenever they have to depict a scene that has a lot of fast action, or shows a vehicle, or character moving at high speed. How do you draw something so it looks like it's moving really fast, especially when you can't control how long someone looks at an image, or when you can't play sound effects or music over the scene to speed up the tempo. When you are dealing with images that are frozen how do you make things look like they are going really fast?

Before we get to the comic book part of this let's take a look at some scenes showing speed from movies. All of the scenes I chose used some sort of special effects, whether it was using models and miniature sets, or CGI, or traditional animation, all of these scenes are manipulated to make them then seem like they are depicting incredibly fast action, and each of them use tricks that have been used in comic books for decades, or tricks that can be replicated in comic books.

Back to Iron Man and that same exact scene with the fighter jets. We've agreed that the single image above is pretty boring to look at. Compare it to the frame below which happens within a split second of the one above.

It's still a still frame and still hard to get a sense of how fast both Iron Man and the jet are moving through the sky, but it's a little more exciting that the frame we looked at before. For one reason, the jet and Iron Man are moving across the frame in a diagonal path from one corner towards the other. A diagonal line always adds a level of tension or excitement to a composition. A diagonal line also suggests motion or speed. It does look like things are moving faster than in the first frame.

Now look at the one below.

This frame is even better at suggesting high speed. Why? Again, there is the diagonal angle of Iron Man's pose, as well as that of the jet on the right, which is shooting at Iron Man, creating diagonal lines across the frame. Even the cloud adds a diagonal. The second jet is tipped on its side giving it a more dynamic pose as well. The image is composed so that the left side has more elements, making it seem unbalanced, like the imaginary weight in the frame is all being pulled to the left. Think about what happens when you go around a corner on your bike, or in a car. Your body leans into the direction that you are turning in. By pulling everything to the left the image above creates an impression just like that. Finally, Iron Man is slightly out of focus as if blurred because he is moving by us really fast, or moving so fast that the person operating the camera is having trouble keeping him in focus.

Finally, from the same movie, take a look at this panel. It's a pretty straight forward side view composition of Iron Man flying from right to left. What gives it a sense of speed are his pose, the boot jets pushing him forward, and the sky in the background is a blur speeding past him from left to right.

On to our next movie. The following frames all come from the speeder bike chase from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.

This is pretty much just like the frame from Iron Man above, only moving from left to right. Notice that the characters and the bikes they ride are in focus, but the background is whizzing past them in a blur of speed.

Again, the characters and their bikes are in focus, while the landscape they move through zips by in a rapid blur. Notice the diagonal composition, which is repeated below.

In this frame, the background is still, while the bike flying closest past us is blurred and stretched out, making it seem like it's traveling at a great speed.

Here, the characters speed towards us, while their surroundings zip backwards past them at a high rate of speed. Notice that the trees to the side of them are more heavily blurred than the trees right behind them. This is what you experience in a car.

The next frames all come from the scene in The Incredibles where Dash is being chased by bad guys through the jungle.

Like the last frame above, the plants closest to Dash, on the right side of the frame, blur past him, while those behind him remain in focus. Notice the diagonal composition made more interesting by the angles that the flying saucers chasing him are positioned in. Also, notice how Dash's hair is being blown back by the wind caused by his speed, and take a look at his arms and legs which are moving so fast they appear as blurs themselves.

Again we have diagonal action across the screen. Dash's pose, where he's leaning forward also indicates he's running fast. This idea is also reinforced by his being blurred, and the long dust trail that he leaves behind him.

Because the images for this movie were created on a computer that means that the frame above was designed to be out of focus on purpose, and not because the cameraman didn't know what he was doing. On the screen, moving, this edit is really quick and you probably won't notice it's out of focus. Blurring the movement from left to right and making both Dash and the saucer out of focus also makes it seem like they are moving at an incredible rate of speed, as if the camera, or the naked eye, can't keep up with them.

Look at how the ground streaks by underneath Dash. Also notice his legs. They're moving so fast we really can't see them. They don't even appear solid.

Here, Dash is hitting one of the bad guys, over a dozen times in less than a second. Sound effects help get this across in the movie, but here it looks like Dash has about as many hands as an octopus, which indicates great speed, since the illusion is that our eye is registering his hands being in several positions at the same time. The transparency of his arms and hands lets us know that it's because his arms are in motion and not because he suddenly mutated and grew extras.

Like the trails of dust behind him in some of the earlier frames, this one shows Dash's high speed running impacting on his environment. Not only is he creating a wake on the surface of the water, and a plume of spray behind him, but each of those splashes behind him is from one of his foot steps. He's moving so fast that the impact from a dozen steps earlier hasn't had time to settle. He's also moving so fast that each of his steps only touches the surface of the water for a split second, not even long enough for him to sink. What direction is he traveling in across the frame? That's right, diagonally.

Compare the frame below, which comes from an episode of Speed Racer, with third frame from Iron Man up above. Do you notice any similarities?

That's right, this one is heavy on the left side of the frame. Not only does the white car (the Mach V) seem to be pushing its way right out of the frame, but both cars, and the track they drive on, are canted at a diagonal to the right, adding more tension and giving a feeling of motion towards that direction as well. The other diagonal lines on the track, which move front to back and are blurred lend the frame forward speed, as does the blur on the Mach V's tire.

Here we have another diagonal composition, where the surface of the roadway is painted with blur streaks to make it seem like the cars are moving even faster.

Like the frames of Dash running from The Incredibles, the above frame from a Speedy Gonzales cartoon, gets across Speedy's speed mostly by his impact on his environment. We can follow his dust trail all the way back to the distant mountain from which he came. He's moving so fast that the dust from his footsteps hasn't settled for miles. Note the multiple diagonal movements and the streak of yellow behind Speedy suggesting the blur of his hat at high speed. His leaning forward pose also accentuates the idea of his velocity.

If there was ever a series of animated cartoons that depicted high speed action, it's those starring the Road Runner.

Here's the Road Runner moving so fast that you can't even see him. He's simply a blur of clor and motion with a dust trail.

Here, his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote, is moving so fast that his feet, like Dash's arms earlier, appear to have multiplied within a turning wheel blur. Notice that the rest of him doesn't appear to be moving at all.

Here, like the Coyote, you can see the Road Runner's upper body, but his legs are nothing more than a wheel shaped blur. Which character appears to be running faster? Why?

Here the Road Runner has run into the far distance so fast that his dust hasn't even settled in the foreground. Look at all those diagonals too, and and how the road is broken up into seperate lengths over their own different colored bits of terrain. This helps accentuate the sense of distance between the foreground and the background, making the Road Runner seem to be running even faster.

To finish this post, I want to share with you a series of individual frames taken from a split second section of action from the Road Runner cartoon, "Ready, Set, Zoom!" Take a look at each frame in the sequence and see if you can tell what it is in the drawings that makes the action seem to be happening really fast.

In the top frame, we are waiting for the moment of acceleration. We know it's going to happen because the Coyote is sitting on a rocket, and we all know rockets travel fast. Also the rocket is positioned diagonally, which we've already decided adds a sense of speed or motion and excitement to an image, and it is pointed down, which our minds tell us means that it will go faster since it's working with gravity instead of against it. Compare this with the other diagonal compositions in the rest of this post. How many diagonal lines are aimed down? How many are aimed up?

In the second frame, the Coyote also positions himself in a downward angle while he waits for the fuse to burn down. Notice how his change in position already makes the image appear faster than the first image where the Coyote is sitting upright and facing in the opposite direction to where the rocket is pointed.

The third frame is full of downward diagonal lines. The rocket has taken off so fast that it's already out of frame, leaving only it's trail of fire behind. It's also zoomed forward so fast that the Coyote's hands and feet, which hold the rocket, have launched forward with it, while the rest of the Coyote still hasn't moved, or had a chance to catch up. Notice the exagerated stretched arms and legs.

The fourth frame is very similar, only the rocket is now much further ahead since we can no longer see its exhaust trail, and the Coyote's body seems poised to suddenly spring back as his arms and legs contract back towards his hands and feet.

In the fifth frame, the Coyote's body has snapped forward so fast that it's just a blur of brown. Not only that, but his body has not accelerated ahead so fast, that his tail has been left behind, the acceleration pushing most of his fur up into a bunch at the very tip.

In the sixth frame, the Coyote's body is now almost completely gone, with his tail remaining stretched out behind him.

In the seventh frame, his tail finally snaps forward to join the rest of him.

In the final frame that is really fast motion we are looking at. The Coyote's body is stretched, and his face is compressed by the gravitational forces being exerted on it from the high rate of speed the rocket is traveling at.

Take a good look again at all of the images above, and come back for part two where we look at how high speed is depicted in comic books.

New on DVD

2010-11-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

The Super Hero Squad volume 2 DVD goes on sale today. This DVD includes six episodes of the hit tv series, including the first episode I wrote for the show, "Night In The Sanctorum" . The DVD also has a bunch of cool bonus features. You can read more about the DVD here.

Coloring Your Comics

2010-11-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

Cartoonist, Brian McLachlan has posted an excellent instructional coloring tutorial on his blog. He talks about color theory, choosing colors for your characters and their foes, making characters and objects stand out from their surroundings, light sources, reduced pallettes, and other things. Even if some of it is too technical for you, there are still plenty of valuable tips that will help you, not only with your own comics, but any other artwork you make, or even choosing what to wear. You can read it by going here.

Arthur Episode About Comic Books and Graphic Novels

2010-10-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

You'll need to check your local PBS listings for the time, but the October 25th episode of Arthur contains a pair of stories centered around comics.

In the first story, "Falafelosophy" author, Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book) guest stars as himself (himself if he were a cat) he provides inspiration for one of the characters (Sue Ellen it looks like) who is trying to write and illustrate her own graphic novel.

UPDATE: You can watch this portion of the episode by going here.

The second story, "Tales of the Grotesquely Grim Bunny" is a story that centers around the local comic book store.

Anatomy of a Comic Book Page

2010-09-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

If you're going to make comic books, especially if you are going to be writing them, then it's important to know what everything is called so you can describe it to your editor and to your artist.

Traditionally, the first page of a comic book was a big full panel which took up the entire page and contained the title of the story, the credits, and a bunch of other stuff. Nowadays, the splash page is not always the first page of a story, sometimes it's the second, third, or even the last page of a story. Some people say it can only be called a splash page if it's the first page. I'm not one of those people. If it has the title of the story and the credits and it takes up the full page, I think of it as the splash page. It's usually a pretty exciting image, too.

This part above is called the title of the story, for obvious reasons.

Above is what are called the credits. Just like in a movie, the credits give the names of everyone who worked on this particular story and also what their jobs were.

Often times now, comics that contain several shorter stories, rather than one longer one, will place the title and credits in one or more panels on a page, rather than in a single panel page. This is done mostly because a short story doesn't allow for a full panel page due to space. On those stories we usually need all the panels we can get.

This oddly spelled word running along the monster's back is called a sound effect, because it is spelled and written in a stylized fashion meant to convey a sound. In this case it is the sound of a monster roaring.

A full page panel (or single panel page) which does not contain the title and credit information, and can fall anywhere in a story is NOT a splash page but is simply a single panel page. They are great for showcasing a big dramatic moment such as the one above from SCOOBY-DOO #96. It has another great monster roaring sound effect, too.

A typical page of a comic book looks like the one above. Each of the "squares" or "boxes" no matter what shape it's in is called a panel. Each horizontal row of panels is called a tier. Each panel on a page is called in order, panel one, panel two, panel three, and so on.

The bunch of text at the very bottom of the page is called the indicia. It includes publishing information for the particular issue it's found in. Traditionally this was always found at the bottom of the first page of a comic book (as it is above) at the bottom of the splash page. Now it can be found in different places such as at the bottom of a letters page, or on the inside of the cover, depending on the publisher and the comic book. The publisher adds this information and the writer is not responsible for it.

The blank white space that you find separating the panels are called the gutters.

You'll notice that the first two panels of our sample page don't have gutters between them. Panel one seems to be resting on top of panel two. This is called overlapping panels.

The rectangular boxes you see that have text in them are called captions, or sometimes narrative captions. These contain description of what might be happening in a scene that is not, or cannot easily be conveyed in the drawing such as "Batman is down to his last batarang." They can also tell us the location a scene is set in, as does the caption above, or the passage of time such as "meanwhile..." or "the following day." Sometimes the caption will carry over dialogue from the previous scene, or show what the character is thinking.

These are more sound effects.

The above is called a speech balloon and contains dialogue spoken out loud by characters in the story.

The part of the speech balloon that points to the character talking is called the pointer. It's job is to indicate who is talking.

Balloons that have what looks like a stream of bubbles leading to a character instead of a pointer are called thought balloons. They are often more cloud shaped as well. These show you what a character is thinking. The bubbles pointing to the character thinking are called bubbles. It's rare to find thought balloons in comic books these days. Most people use captions instead.

Go back to our sample page and look at the first panel which shows the city of Townsville. This panel is called an establishing shot because it shows the location where the story (or part of it) takes place. The text that runs sideways along the outside of the panel which reads DCPPG49 is something the publisher has included to keep track of what this story is for. I don't know what this is called, so ignore it. Instead, here is another establishing shot of Townsville from a different story.

Panels, such as the two above, that show a character or object up close, are called close-up shots, just like in photography, or filmmaking.

If you move back a bit and can see more of the characters and their backgrounds, these are called medium shots. They typically show the characters from the waist up, but can even show the full figures. These are often used for scenes in which two or more characters need to appear, either speaking, or performing an action. We get a better sense of their surroundings as well.

A long shot shows a scene from far away. This is often done when the scene, or location surrounding the characters is more important than the characters, such as in an establishing shot which sets the scene for a story. The three panels above are all examples of long shots.

In the sequence above, panel one and panel two are medium shots. Panel three and panel four are close ups. Panel five and six (which actaully form one larger panel) are extreme close-ups. What do these panels in a sequence suggest to you? Why do you think the writer and artist chose to use them like this in this scene?

We can also describe the angles of view chosen for a panel. Above are some examples of what are called a down angle, or bird's-eye view, because you are looking down, seeing the scene much as a bird flying over would see it, from high above the scene. In the third example, the circular panel which overlaps the orange, down angle panel, and the pink medium shot panel is called an inset panel. This is because it is set into another panel. Inset panels are often used to show a detail in extreme close-up of something seen in the larger panel, to bring attention to it in a way that the composition of the large panel does not.

The opposite of a down angle, or bird's-eye view is an up angle, or worm's eye view. In this view you are looking up at the action from below, almost as if you were watching it from a point on the ground like a worm would see it -- if a worm had eyes.

Look at the all the different panels shown in this entry. What does the choice of view do for the scenes depicted in each of the panels? Would they be as effective if they were done using a different perspective? Would a close-up be better as a long shot? Why or why not? What does a worm's eye view do that a bird's eye view doesn't, or even a regular straight on view the way we usually look at things?

Almost everything that was identified in this post will be discussed in more length in future posts, so keep checking back. If you have any thoughts, or questions, please leave them in the comments area below.

Artwork used to illustrate this post came from:

SCOOBY-DOO #145 (see story title and credits at the top of this page) published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #96 "Follow That Monster!" John Rozum: writer, Joe Staton: penciller, Horacio Ottolini: inker, Nick J. Napolitano: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Rachel Gluckstern: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

THE POWERPUFF GIRLS #22 "My Fair Fuzzy" John Rozum: writer, Bill Alger: penciller, Mike DeCarlo: inker, Jenna Garcia: letterer, Dave Tanguay: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

WALT DISNEY'S UNCLE SCROOGE #210 Carl Barks: writer and artist. Published by Gladstone Publishing, Ltd.

THE POWERPUFF GIRLS #14 "Gone Squiggly" John Rozum: writer, Phil Moy: artist, Ryan Cline: letterer, Dave Tanguay: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #96 "Another Mystery All Wrapped Up" John Rozum: writer, Robert Pope: artist, Nick J. Napolitano: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Rachel Gluckstern: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor.

Published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #60 "The Dragon's Eye - part 2: Russian Into Danger" John Rozum: writer, Joe Staton: penciller, Horacio Ottolini: inker, Tom Orzechowski: letterer, Paul Becton: colorist, Digital Chameleon: separations, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. published by DC Comics.

CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #39 The Secret Saturdays in: "The Cave of the Cacus" John Rozum: writer, Will Sweeny: penciller, Mike Manley: inker, Heroic Age: colorist, Travis Lanham: letterer, Sean Ryan: editor. Published by DC Comics.

CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #47 The Secret Saturdays in: "Attack of the Lake Monster" John Rozum: writer, Scott Jeralds: penciller, Scott Awley: inker, Rob Clark Jr.: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Sean Ryan: editor. Published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #37 "Witch Pitch" John Rozum: writer, Cameron Stewart: penciller, Andrew Pepoy: inker, John Costanza: letterer, Paul Becton: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

SCOOBY-DOO #92 "The Curse of the Living Statue" John Rozum: writer, John McCrea: artist, Nick J. Napolitano: letterer, Heroic Age: colorist, Harvey Richards: assistant editor, Joan Hilty: editor. Published by DC Comics.

Robert Greenberger On His Return to Writing Comics

2010-08-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Robert Greenberger has been many things in his career. He's been an editor of magazines, newspapers and comic books. He's written for magazines, newspapers, comic books and websites. He's written non fiction books for kids and for adults. He's written novels, and he's been involved in local politics.

Today is a special day for Robert Greenberger. Today, at a comic book store near you, BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20 goes on sale. This exciting issue was written by Robert Greenberger, and what makes it so special is that this is the first comic book he's written in TWENTY YEARS!

Robert has generously agreed to tell us about what it was like for him to return to writing comics as well as how he approached writing his story and the challenges he faced making it happen.

Here's the cover art for BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20. You can learn more about this cover's art here.

Here's Robert:

I have not written a comic book in nearly 20 years so was delighted when I was offered a chance to write an issue of Batman: The Brave and The Bold. All through my career in comics, I was either an editor or administrator, letting others do the writing. These days, I am a fulltime freelance writer so wanted to see what I could do with writing some comics.

Here's two of the last comics Robert wrote 20 years ago.

While the comic initially replicated the television show’s format, a teaser with a different team-up then the main story, I arrived as the comic book’s format was being altered. Since DC Comics sells foreign language rights to their stories, they take feedback from their international clients and for many; a 22-page story aimed at younger readers was too long.

They wanted shorter stories so it had been decided to eliminate the teaser and reduce the main story into two 10-page chapters. As a writer, this changes how you write the story since you now need to find a point where one chapter can end with an exciting cliffhanger and then open the second part with a quick recap and resolution to the cliffhanger before completing the story.

The term "cliffhanger" comes from old movie serials. Serials were episodic movies shown in chapters each week before the main movie at a movie theater. The filmmakers would try to make people want to come back to the theater to see the next chapter by ending each episode with the hero in a dangerous situation that seemed like he could never escape from it such as hanging from a cliff. The above panel from "The Amazing Spider-Man #26 by Stan Lee and Steve Dikto shows the comic book equivalent of a cliffhanger. The issue ends with Spider-Man being captured by the villains. The reader, just like the last man speaking in this panel, wants to know "What's gonna happen next?" and hopefully buy the next issue. Stay tuned for a future post devoted to entirely to cliffhangers.

In my case, I had Batman and Big Barda on the hunt for the missing Mister Miracle and the altered story structure meant I needed more action than actual detecting, which meant introducing the real threat earlier than I planned, setting up the cliffhanger.

In order to accomplish my creative goal of Batman seeing a successfully happy married super-hero couple, I decided to tell the story from a first-person perspective. From beginning to ending, he comments on their situation and Barda’s near-panic over her husband’s fate.

Here's a panel with Batman commenting on Big Barda's marriage to Mister Miracle. Because Batman is the main character in this story, and also serves as the narrator, the narration is refered to as "first-person narration." The main character is usually the first person that we meet in a story which is why narration from their point of view is called first-person narration.

Had I been able to include the teaser, I would have had Batman and Huntress stop minor criminals Punch & Jewelee, a happily married pair of villains so it set up a subtle theme that would carry into the main story.

If you watch BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD on television, the "teaser" is the sequence before the main titles at the beginning of the episode which shows a portion of one of Batman's adventures that leads into the main story, but maybe features different characters than the main story. You can see from this splash page from the beginning of BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20 that Robert was able to take everything he wanted to tell in his teaser and condense it into three narrative captions. This entire issue is an excellent example of how narrative captions can be used to convey information to the reader about the characters and situations without intruding with the flow of the story. Robert tells you exactly what you need to know so that you can read the story with full enjoyment. This is the result of his long career as both a writer and an editor.

In the end, I think we rushed some of the ending because of the space issues (you lose panels for storytelling by adding a second splash page to open part two). Robert Pope did a marvelous job with the packed adventure, from his imaginative cover to the final panel. It made for an excellent reintroduction to the world of comic book writing.

Thank you, Robert Greenberger for taking the time to talk about writing BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20! If you have any questions for him, or want to let him know what you thought of BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20, please leave a comment below.

Parents and teachers can learn more about Robert Greenberger by visiting his website.

Choosing a Cover

2010-08-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just in time for when BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #20 hits stores, artist ROBERT POPE returned to tell me a little bit about how he illustrates the cover. Here's what I learned.

Robert also drew the story inside the comic which was written by talented Bob Greenberger. This makes it easier from him when designing a cover since he already knows what all the characters, settings, and props that are in the story look like since he's already drawn them. First Robert begins with the plot of the story. In this story the world's greatest escape artist, Mister Miracle goes missing and Big Barda enlists Batman to help her find him. He could have chosen to pick a single exciting scene to put on the cover, but wanted to do something different. In this case he wanted to choose an image that suggested what the plot of the story was about, but without giving anything away including who the villains might be.

Then Robert set about coming up with a few thumbnail sketches [small rough drawings that give an idea of what the finished artwork will look like, but without concern for detail and clean lines. These are made mostly to get a sense of the composition--how all the elements of the drawing are arranged in the drawing. The name "thumbnail" comes from the fact that these drawings are often tiny--about the size of an adult thumbnail.] of ideas he has for what images might look good on the cover.

Take a look at the thumbnails below. You can make them larger by clicking on them. Which of them do you think would make the best cover? Think about what made you decide on your choice. What was it about the covers you didn't choose that made you not pick them? These are the decisions that the editor makes when Robert sends in his thumbnails for the cover. The editor will take a look at all of them, and then decide which one would work best for that story. Sometimes they will choose one but ask for small changes, such as the size of the characters, or maybe reversing where they are in the image, or maybe a prop will be added, or taken away.

You'll notice in each of the thumbnails that there is a lot of empty space at the top of each image. Almost a third of each cover image is empty space. The reason for this is that that's where the big title logo of the comic book goes (in this case: Batman: The Brave and the Bold) along with the DC Comics logo, the information which tells you which issue number this is, how much it costs, maybe some descriptive slogans of what's inside. Robert also makes sure to leave a space for the UPC codes (the white box with the stripes and numbers that gets scanned at a cash register) or to make sure that it won't cover anything essential in the artwork. You can actually see the rectangle for the UPC codes sketched into some of the thumbnails below.

Now, the editor has chosen the image he wants for the cover. Robert then works from his original thumbnail and creates a larger image with more detail and nice clean pencil lines. Before you continue, did you choose which thumbnail you thought should be the cover? If you did, then keep reading because the finished pencils for the cover image are shown below.

Robert's pencils are then sent to the inker (in this case the phenomenal Scott McRae) who adds blacks as well as texture and shape depending on the thickness of the line he uses. You can compare Robert's pencils above to his pencils with Scott's inks over them below. Then the colorist adds the color to the image.

All it needs now is to have all of the lettering and UPC codes added to it and it is finished. You can see what the final cover looks like by visiting a comic book store near you on Wednesday, August 25, 2010.

Special Guest Robert Pope on Drawing Comics -- Part 2

2010-08-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Above: Robert Pope hard at work drawing a page from one of your favorite comic books. Now he's going to tell us more about what goes into drawing a comic book story.

If you haven't done so already, make sure you read Part One of our Q & A with penciller extraordinaire, Robert Pope before we continue here with Part Two.

8. What goes into your decision making on panel layout?

Amount of space needed for word balloons. Juxtaposing camera shots to create variety on a single page (so that we see a close-up, then a medium shot, then maybe an extreme close-up, just to mix it up a bit.) What the layout of the previous page was, so as to avoid repetition, unless the script's tone calls for it, as it sometimes can.

Above: Here is a page which shows what Robert means when he's talking about using close-ups, extreme-close ups, medium shots and long shots. The top panel uses an extreme close-up of the newspaper to bring us the details of the photograph and the accompanying headlines. The third panel is a medium shot showing the speaker at a podium on a stage. the flag is an important detail showing that this story takes place in England. The next panel of the speaker is a close-up used to show us the award trophy he is holding. The final panel is a long shot showing the speaker, the stage, the banner above him, the audience he is speaking to and a new character in the foreground. Credits to this story also appear in this final panel. Notice in all of these panels, Robert leaves plenty of room for dialogue balloons and the credits so that they don't interfere with the artwork, or the way that you read the story.

9. Do you ever do things differently than what's in the script?

Very rarely will I deviate from the writer's intentions, and only for good reasons. Sometimes, a certain shot is called for (long, close up, ect.,) and the nature of the characters will make this either impossible or clumsy. For instance, a wide shot works well for showcasing a lot of characters from the chest up, or a panoramic take on a cityscape from the distance, but if you want to show a entire figure from head to toe vertically and spotlight something like clothing details, a medium-shot would be more in order.

Sometimes very rarely I will be compelled to change something based on how I consider I "know" the characers. I once drew a "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" story where, at the story's end, Bloo was supposed to punch Cheese in the face. Even though they had been at each other throughout the story, I felt this oddly violent and out of character, as Bloo is, to my way of thinking, more of a sneaky slacker, mischief-maker and prankster. I drew the panel with Bloo kicking Cheese in the butt, sending him flying. The panel was much more tolerable drawn this way, as to my mind a kick in the butt seemed less violent than a punch in the face. I e-mailed the page to my editor, noted the change, and offered to draw it the way the writer wanted it if I had overstepped my bounds. My editor agreed that the face punch was too visceral, and the butt kick stayed. This sort of correction is extremely rare.

One thing that DOES force the penciller to tinker with the script on a fairly regular basis is a situation that happens when multiple characters are talking in a single panel and, reading from left to right, the character at the far left of the panel has to deliver another line of dialogue AFTER the character that is at the far right, which should be the natural "end" of the panel. In this instance, I either have to A) make space in the layout for another word balloon and hope that the reader can follow the narrative flow in spite of having to double back "into" the panel, or B) break down the panel into two separate panels to ensure that the narrative flows correctly. Obviously, "B" is a better solution, but it makes more work for the penciller as you have now added a new panel that must be shoehorned into the page layout and not require you to draw so small that the reader has to look at your art with an electron microscope to figure out what is going on.

Above: Some panels taken from the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends story "Color Me Bloo" written by Scott Cunningham, pencilled by Robert Pope, inked by Jeff Albrecht, lettered by Travis Lanham, colored by Heroic Age, and edited by Ian Saddler for CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #45. Notice how Robert placed the characters in each panel so that their dialogue would read smoothly from left to right without crisscrossing word balloon tails. Even when characters speak more than once the arrangement allows for the balloons to be placed in such a manner that reading them is easy and not confusing. This is tricky for the artist and something the writer should also be thinking of when writing a scene.

Further, it is also difficult when a character or characters in a single panel are written doing multiple actions. This also happens quite often, as in "Page 1, panel 5: Johnny Bravo runs down the street, bursts through the door of his home, and lifts his couch to look for his missing date." This would work much better as at least two, or maybe even three panels.

10. What are your favorite characters/ comic book to draw?

I love cartoony comics, and the Scooby gang are of course faves. Working recently on "Batman the Brave and the Bold" has been great as well, due to the fact it's a weird hybrid of mainstream comic book theory and of course a translation of an animated property to the page, something I think I'm pretty good at.

I have drawn stories based on many animated shows: Fosters Home, Grim Adventures, Johnny Bravo, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and drawn covers featuring most of the "modern" Cartoon Network properties. While they are all challenging, I love them all for various reasons.

Above: The first story of mine drawn by Robert Pope featured Space Ghost for CARTOON NETWORK STARRING...#18. It was inked by Dan Davis, lettered by Ryan Cline, colored by Digital Chameleon, and edited by Joan Hilty and Harvey Richards.

11. What comics did you read growing up?

Carl Barks' Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. Fantastic Four (John Buscema's run, I got my Kirby by way of Marvel's Greatest Comics, as I was born in '67) Amazing Spider-Man, Any Gold Key comic I could find, most anything with Ben Grimm or Victor Von Doom or heck, Super Goof on the cover, any Richie Rich title, any Archie title drawn by Dan DeCarlo (I could tell) Herb Trimpe Hulk comics, Kirby's odd run back at Marvel circa '75, any Flash drawn by Carmine Infantino, Green Lantern as long as Joe Staton was pencilling, Superman, Batman if Don Newton or Dan Atkins or Jim Aparo were in there somewhere, Justice League of America (some fun runs by Perez, to be sure) and Wonder Woman when Ross Andru was pencilling. And that's just the short list!

Above: A page from an Uncle Scrooge story written and illustrated by Carl Barks.

Above: A Fantastic Four cover by John Buscema featuring both Dr. Victor von Doom and Ben Grimm, also known as the Thing.

Above: Green Lantern by Joe Staton.

Above: Wonder Woman by Ross Andru.

12. What made you decide to be an artist?

I loved the medium, and could honestly do very little else.

13. What made you decide to draw comic books?

I got in totally by accident, kind of sideways. I got into animation in '88-'89, and some years later ('95) was animating for my pal C. Martin Croker, who was the animation director for the Cartoon Network show "Space Ghost Coast to Coast." Some time after THAT ('99, to be specific) DC, by way of Cartoon Network, approached Clay about pencilling a adaptation of the show. Clay, who is really an amazing talent, probably THE most naturally talented animator I know, knew he would need help, so he got me and animator Matt Jenkins (who had also animated on SG) to assist on the first issue, which was edited by the very great Heidi MacDonald. I helped Clay on a couple of subsequent issues, we were co-pencilling, more or less, and when the work slowed, I approached then editor Joan Hilty (who was my first big booster at DC and incredibly patient with how stupid I was at the time) about additional work and ended up doing some sample pages for Scooby, among other things. When Clay later wrote a Scooby script, I got to pencil it, and moved from there onto other properties, doing interiors and later cover, which I consider to be a lot of fun.

14. How long does it take you to draw a comic book story?

When I get the script, I read it the first night and do thumbnails. Then I blow the thumbnails up to 1/2 size to create tiedowns. I can do 5 of these in a night, so a 20 page book takes me 4 nights. THEN, I take a night to rule boards and blow up the 1/2 up tiedowns at Kinko's. Then onto the final pencils; I can pencil between 1/2 and 1 page a night, including spotting blacks. So 20 pages takes me on average 23 or 24 days. All in all, I average about 30 days to get through a full-length book, working 7 nights a week. If I had the luxury of doing comics for my "day" job, I am sure that I would be much faster. Whenever I draw on weekend days I am startled at how much faster I can produce. However, starting in on pencilling after a full day of work and then dealing with family and other responsibilities means a drop in energy that inevitably takes a toll on speed, but hopefully not quality.

15. Do you get to pick the inker?

No, but over the years I have been asked my opinion on possible inkers by various editors, and this chance for input has been very gratifying. My fave regular inker, Scott McRae, is a great artist and a swell guy. And he doesn't cheat my details.

Above: The cover to SCOOBY-DOO #118 by Robert Pope and Scott McRae.

16. Do you work at home?

Yep, home studio. I animate during the day in an office, but my comics are produced in the wee small hours, so being right there at home is crucial.

Above is the animation desk that Robert Pope works on when drawing comics at home.

17. How long have you been working in comics?

Eleven years and counting. Here's hoping for eleven more!

Thank you Robert Pope for taking the time to share so much valuable information with us. If you have any questions for him, please ask in the comment section below.

Special Guest Robert Pope on Drawing Comics -- Part 1

2010-08-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Robert Pope is an animator and a fantastic comic book artist. Robert has provided the pencils for numerous stories that I have written as well as many more written by other people. You've probably seen his artwork on the covers and inside of comic books such as Scooby-Doo, Batman The Brave and the Bold, as well as stories featuring Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends in Cartoon Network Block Party and Cartoon Cartoons.

He has generously agreed to answer some questions about what it is he does as a penciller, how he works, what inspires him, and many other things. He's provided such great detailed answers that we can't fit them all into a single post. Here is Part One.

1. How do you interact with the writer (if at all) the editor, the inker, letterer, and colorist?

Most of my interactions are with the editor. Typically, the editor will call me up and say he or she has a script that they think would work for me. This can be due to any number of reasons, including the subject material, number of pages I can do in any given month, etc. Sometimes I call the editor up and ask for work before they call me. The editor describes the story to me over the phone, then they e-mail me the script for my review. The editor tells me how long I have to draw the script, and once I have read through it if I need more time, I ask for it (usually no more than a day or two, sometimes an extra weekend.) If I am given a long script, I will "feed" the editor pages in batches of five or ten, and upon his or her approval, ship those pages to the inker to keep the process in motion.

Most of the writers I work with have very specific visuals in mind, and often provide useful reference to help me "see" props, supporting characters, and settings. Aside from reviewing these materials, I have not had much regular interaction with my writers over the years concerning scripts. Sometimes, I will adjust panel layouts, move dialogue bubbles from one panel to another, break up a single panel into multiple panels and other small things to help the narrative flow and make for smoother reading and recognition. If I become concerned that I may be altering or compromising the writers' vision, I'll shoot the editor a quick description of my intentions and make sure they're O.K. with my actions. Usually, my goal is to get the writer's idea across in a way that's fun to read multiple times. I think the best comics are the ones you can return to and keep finding new bits of visual and verbal interest.

If I have suggestions for the colorist, I usually send them via the editor, but unless I feel a panel or page has a very specific or necessary coloring effect, I have no stomach for telling other pros how to do their job. My regular inker Scott McRae and I talk quite often, but again, unless I'm asking him something specific (like to fill a space scene with stars made of white correction fluid) I wouldn't presume to direct him. Once the story is completed up to inking and lettering, the team (writer, editor, penciller, inker) get a copy via e-mail and have the chance for correction. Usually, there are very few flubs, most often a dialogue balloon pointer aimed at the wrong character, something like that.

2. What do you do when you get a script for a story?

The first night I get a script (and it's always at night, comics are my night job!) I read the script all the way through, and note any reference I may need above and beyond what the writer has provided. The internet, and specifically Google images, have made this much easier than it used to be as we now no longer need to keep massive "swipe files" [ a swipe file is a collection of reference material that artists collect. These are images of anything they might be asked to draw from horses and army uniforms to old cars and airplanes and monkeys and clothes from the 1500s or the 1960s] on hand at all hours to provide examples of the many new and different things we draw in our comics. After I have read and re-read the script, I do thumbnail sketches [ a thumbnail sketch is a small (about the size of an adult thumbnail, or bigger) drawing without a lot of detail that artists use to try out compositions for finished drawings] right on the script page, just to get a sense of flow and to get a good idea of how much work each individual page will take. After a few years, you get good at estimating how much energy certain things take to draw.

Above is one of Robert Pope's thumbnails for a panel with Bloo talking to Mac from a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends story. There isn't much detail but it shows where the characters are in the panel and where the word balloon will go. It also show's Bloo's expression.

3. Does the finished artwork veer from those thumbnails?

For a twenty page script, I figure on average I re-think at least one or two pages when I blow up the thumbnails. But mostly, I stick with my first instinct, my first try.

4. For new characters do you do sketches of them separately, or do you just make them up when you get to them?

If the character is going to appear in just a few panels, I'll probably make them up on the fly. However, if he or she (or it) has a bigger role in the story and shows up repeatedly, I'll create a model sheet for myself to maintain the look throughout (recent stories like "Howling Good Time" and "Monster of 1000 Faces" had several important characters that popped up throughout and had to be very clearly defined-the director in "Monsters" was based on, in part, Jim Steranko!) And of course the writer often has an idea of how these ancillary or new characters should look, and forward helpful reference.

Above is the real Jim Steranko, an innovative comic book artist best known for his work at marvel Comics in the 1960s. He also did some illustration work for the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Here is the movie director from "Man of a Thousand Monsters" from SCOOBY-DOO #145. Do you see the resemblance?

5. What about backgrounds, props and locations?

I like to get as much reference as I can stomach before I begin and really absorb it. Some stories are fun to draw because the backgrounds are vague and nondescript enough to allow you to concentrate on the characters themselves and their "acting." DC editor Joan Hilty considered any Scooby story that featured a beach practically a gift to the penciller, because it's something that's very easy to draw. I am not one of those cartoonists who can draw much "out of my head," and reference plays a BIG part in my work. Unless it's a very imaginary setting, prop, or set piece, I feel better with reference.

6. Do you have favorite things you like to draw?

I love drawing characters in motion. I have staged Shaggy and Scooby running from ghosts and monsters more times than I can count, and I always love the challenge. Same with Batman swinging or throwing a punch. I love drawing characters that are more or less grounded in reality, but still very cartoony. The great designer Iwao Takamoto, who worked for both Disney and later as Hanna-Barbera's main man for character design, was one of my big heroes and best personified this kind of cartooning. His creations are both cartoony and realistic at the same time, sort of like Alex Toth, but even more rubbery and skewed for animation. As the bulk of my career has been translating animated characters to the printed page, my personal "style" has been deliberately subverted and it's main outlet is in the elasticity and momentum of the characters themselves.

7. Things you hate to draw?

Buildings. Cars. Crowd scenes with masses of incidental characters that are both generic and specific at the same time. Most of my heroes or influences (with the exception of Charles Schulz) were cartoonists who filled the page with copious amounts of details both relevant and incidental (Jack Kirby, John Byrne, George Perez, John Romita Sr., to name a few) and while I love packing in the bells and whistles, it certainly can be regarded as much more like work than staging the foreground characters.

Above is a panel where Robert Pope really packs in the details. This is also from "Man of a Thousand Monsters" from SCOOBY-DOO #145.

Before we continue, here is some information about the people that Robert mentions in his responses to questions 6 and 7.

Iwao Takamoto (1925-2007) worked as an animator on Disney movies such as Cinderella and 101 Dalmations, but is best known for designing the characters on Scooby-Doo, as well as Astro on The Jetsons. He also directed the animated adaptation of Charlotte's Web.

Alex Toth (1928-2006) was a comic book artist and a character designer for animated television series such as Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Jonny Quest, Super Friends, and other "realistically' styled shows. He drew in a very clean high contrast style using mostly white and black, and is a favorite of many comic book artists and animators. You can see some of his character designs below.

Charles Schulz (1922-2000) was the creator of "Peanuts" the long running newspaper comic strip starring Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

Jack Kirby (1917-1994), John Byrne (b. 1950), George Perez (b. 1954), and John Romita Sr. (b. 1930) are all comic book artists popular for their styles of drawing and their approaches to visual storytelling. Some exciting panels by Jack Kirby can be seen below.

Check back tomorrow for part two with Robert Pope!

In Comic Book Stores Today

2010-07-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

SCOOBY-DOO #158 hits stores today and features three of my "Velma's Monsters of the World" segments. Velma will tell you all you need to know about zombies, the pricolici, and the azeman. Don't know what these monsters are? Now's your chance to find out and impress your friends. Fabio Laguna, Leo Batic and Horacio Ottolini provide the artwork. Swands provides the letters and Heroic Age the colors. Harvey Richards edited. Published by DC Comics.

Ray Harryhausen

2010-06-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

This falls under the category of inspiration. When I was a kid I watched a lot of movies. The movies I liked best were the ones that featured special effects by Ray Harryhausen.

In the days before computer generated special effects, everything had to be done by hand. Spaceships and fantastic cities had to be made, either as miniature models or full sized sets. Strange creatures were either realized by an actor wearing a costume, or the way Ray Harryhausen did it which was through stop-motion animation. Stop-motion animation is similar to the animation that you see in cartoons, such as "101 Dalmations" or "Cinderella," only instead of using a series of slightly different drawings filmed in sequence to create the illusion of movement, in stop-motion animation you are moving a solid three dimensional object.

Ray would create miniature set pieces which he made to match the full sized sets used by actors. He'd position these sets in front of a small movie screen on which a single frame of the already filmed scenes from the full size sets so that the two blended seamlessly together. Then, he would take a miniature creature, skeleton, or dinosaur and position it so that it appeared to be interacting with the live action actor projected on the screen. He'd then photograph this new combination using one frame of movie film. He'd then advance the film projected on the screen one more frame, carefully adjust the position and pose of the miniature creature very slightly and photograph that new pose with a single frame of movie film. After hours of work and twenty four of these actions had been repeated he'd have exactly one second of film. Of course for a feature length movie of about ninety minutes in length, Ray had to create many, many minutes of animation, each minute equalling sixty of those seconds of work, or 1440 single frames, or adjustments for each minute of film.

His work required a lot of patience, and he also had to keep in mind what the entire action of the creature would look like projected at normal speed in the finished movie, so that it appeared not only natural, but as a living, breathing creature with its own distinct personality when people later watched the movie. If he made a mistake, such as bumping the miniature, or knocking over the creature, he'd have to start all over.

For me, his movies were, and still are, complete magic. When I was a kid, there was very little written about how special effects in movies were made, and most of what was written was wildly inaccurate. It wouldn't be until "Star Wars (episode IV-A New Hope)" was released in 1977 that special effects secrets would suddenly get a lot of attention. As a kid, I understood that when I saw the Wolfman, or the Frankenstein monster I was really seeing an actor wearing incredible make-up, but Ray Harryhausen's creatures and dinosaurs were definitely not actors in costumes. They were something else entirely, but they seemed to be very real and very alive. I was even more impressed with them once I knew how they were created.

I did make some stop-motion animated films of my own beginning in junior high school, but never became a professional stop-motion animator. Even so, there are lessons I learned from the work of Ray Harryhausen that I've brought to my work in comics. The first thing I learned is that if you are going to tell stories using non-existent creatures in them, it's incredibly important to make them seem real. You need to convince the reader that these are living, breathing creatures with their own personalities and behaviors, that live in their own habitats and behave in a manner that suggests that they are interacting with their world in a believable way. Ray learned this from another stop-motion animator named Willis O'Brien who was responsible for the special effects in the original (and best) "King Kong" (1933). In "King Kong" there is a famous scene in which Kong fights an allosaurus. O'Brien could have just had the two creatures grapple with each other and still impressed people, but he went an extra step. Not only does Kong use wrestling and boxing moves to fight the dinosaur, but my favorite detail is the way the allosaurus swishes its tail back and forth when it's getting ready to pounce. O'Brien made his stop-motion puppets characters and actors, something Ray Harryhausen did as well. My favorite detail of Ray Harryhausen's is in "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957). It's a scene where someone turns on a light and disturbs the baby alien Ymir, who blinks and starts rubbing his eyes at the brightness of the light. This detail makes the Ymir seem even more like a living creature reacting with its environment.

The second thing I learned from Ray Harryhausen is that your work and your play don't have to be two different things. As a writer, or any kind of artist, your workday never really ends. Even if you are not actively writing, or drawing, or playing music, you are thinking about it, generating ideas, and reading, watching and encountering things that might inspire your next big idea. I write about the things that I enjoy when I'm not working, and enjoy the sorts of things I write about when I am.

Today is Ray Harryhausen's 90th Birthday. If you've never seen one of his movies then watching one is a great way to celebrate. I recommend "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts" most of all. While you're watching, pay special attention to the creatures in the movie and try to notice details about how Ray Harryhausen made them seem like they were alive and not just moving.

You can also see all of the different creatures that Ray Harryhausen has animated by going here. By clicking on the photos you can see brief bits of animation for each creature.

Here are some of Ray Harryhausen's other movies you might enjoy:

"Mysterious Island" (1961)
"First Men in the Moon" (1964)
"Mighty Joe Young" (1949)
"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953)
"One Million Years B.C." (1966)
"Clash of the Titans" (1981)
"The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1974)
"Earth Vs the Flying Saucers" (1956)

Working with Artists

2010-06-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

Some of the questions I asked most frequently by kids (and often adults) involve working with artists as a writer. "Do you get to choose the artist who illustrates you story?" is one and "Do you and the artist work separately, or together?" is another.

The answer to both is "it depends."

Generally, the person I work with most closely is the editor. For most projects the editor will decide who will draw the story I've written. For example, some of the questions that might run through the editor's mind when choosing an artist are: How they choose the artist depends on a number of things. has the editor and artist worked well together on previous stories? Has the artist worked well with the writer on previous stories? has the artist drawn these particular characters before? Does their style fit the mood of the story? can they draw fast enough to meet the deadline for the story? Is this artist currently available to draw this story?

Most of the time, the editor will assign an artist to illustrate a story without even telling me who will be drawing it. This is how it is most often done on the various Cartoon Network titles I've worked on. For each of these titles, the editor will choose from a small group of artists who have demonstrated an outstanding ability to draw the characters and situations to reflect the look and feel of the television show that inspired them. If you look at the credits in several issues of SCOOBY-DOO, CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK, CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY, or any of the other titles, you'll see the same names appear over and over again. On these titles, we've all been working together for so long that we know that our combined efforts will come together in a fun story.

For other comic book projects I've written, the artist is usually assigned at the same time I am, and if I'm familiar with their work, I can write my script to showcase their strengths as an artist. For projects that I generate myself, I work with the editor in choosing an artist who is best suited for that particular project. In this case the editor and I will each come up with a list of artists we think would be good for the project and then decide on one we both like. If they are available, and like the project, they're hired. If we can't get them, we pick one of the other artists we liked.

One of the best part of writing comics is getting to work with so many different talented people, and seeing how they take my written scripts and translate them into illustrated stories. The finished result is always a surprise, even when you've worked with someone many times.

As to whether an artist and myself work together, or separately, it varies from project to project and from artist to artist. Most often, the artist and I will never meet, or even email each other until long after a project is finished. There are still so many people I've worked with, often for years, whom I've never met or even spoken too. We only know each other through our work together.

For some projects I will send the artist some reference material to help them. These can be photographs of locations featured in the story, or hand drawn maps I've made of how the characters should move through a location, or even sketches of new characters and creatures. All of this is done to make their job easier, and to help them get a better sense of what I imagined in my own mind when I wrote the story.

On a few occasions the artist and I worked very closely. We would talk on the phone several times a week. These conversations were often not about work at all, but simply us getting to know each other. This helped a lot. My scripts for these artists would get shorter over time, because so much of teh detail would get covered in conversation, and because I knew what movies or artists they liked, I could instruct them simply by comparing a scene in the script to a scene in a movie they'd seen, or a book they'd read, and say something like; "the house in this story should look something like the house in that movie," or "when the characters walk through these woods, the art should create the same feel as that part of that book where the characters were lost in a strange neighborhood." The artist will understand what I mean by this and it will help guide them when illustrating a scene in our project.

I've been really lucky. In all the years I've been writing comics, there have only been a couple of stories where I really didn't think the art fit the story well. Out of all the artists I've worked with, there have never been any whose work I haven't liked, and out of all of those that I've met, I'm friends with them all. I'm even friends with some I've only ever met through email.

I'm also happy to say that I've never had any real arguments with any artist I've worked with about how something should be done.

Below you can read a very tongue in cheek example of a comic book artist and writer working together. This was by writer, Stan Lee and artist, Steve Ditko about creating Spider-Man and comes from THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1 from 1964.

Making a Comic Book -- Step by Step

2010-06-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered how a comic book story was made from start to finish, now is you chance to find out. Using a page from "The Dragon's Eye - Part 2: Russian into Danger" from SCOOBY-DOO #60 I will take you through the steps from start to finish. You can click on any image below to make it larger.

Step 1: Everything starts with a story, or at least the idea of a story. Every story begins with what's called a pitch. In the pitch, a story is broken down to its most basic elements in about three or four sentences. In the case of the story here, it was one chapter of a six part story, and was probably pitched as something like this:

The Dragon's Eye - part 2: As the mystery of the Dragon's Eye deepens, the Mystery Inc. gang travels to Russia where they encounter Baba Yaga, a witch from Russian folklore. Baba Yaga is after a jewel encrusted Faberge egg. Can they stop her?

As you can see this is very basic, but gives the editor enough information to decide whether they'd like to develop the story or not. Maybe they've already done a story about Baba Yaga, or one set in Russia and don't want another one. In this case the story was approved and then I got to move on to step 2.

Step 2: Now that the story is approved the writer (in this case me) writes a script for that story. The script tells the artist everything that he will need to draw for the comic book story. The script describes the locations where the action takes place, who the characters are and what they look like, what the characters are doing in each panel, what they are saying, and even how many panels are on a page. Scripts vary in length depending on the story. I have written scripts for a 22-page comic book story that were over 50 pages long, and scripts for a six page comic book story that were only 2 pages long. Below is a page of the script for "The Dragon's Eye - Part 2: Russian Into Danger"

Step 3: The script now goes back to the editor. The editor will read it and decide if anything needs to be changed by the writer. If everything is okay then the editor sends it on to the artist who is going to draw the story.

Step 4: The person who draws the story is called the penciller. In this case the penciller is the talented Joe Staton. The penciller reads the script and then decides how they are going to draw everything based on the writer's script. The penciller also thinks about the best way to make the action flow smoothly from panel to panel, and to keep the dialogue easy to follow between one character and another. Below are Joe Staton's pencils for this page. Compare his drawings to the descriptions in the script page above.

Step 5: In the old days, before computers, lettering was done directly on the page of art containing the pencils. After the lettering was done, the art would be passed on to the inker. Now both these steps are done more or less at the same time, but we'll start with the lettering for the sake of tradition. The lettering is the process in which all of the dialogue, including the balloons that contain them, the descriptive narrative captions, and the sound effects are added to the artwork. Oftentimes, to make things clearer for the letterer, the editor or writer will mark a copy of the script and the pencils like this:

and this:

If you look at the copy of the script page just above, you'll notice that numbers have been placed next to each line of dialogue. If you look at the copy of the pencils just above, you'll notice that rough balloons have been drawn over the art with numbers inside them. The numbers in the balloons go to the numbers on the script. This shows the letterer which lines of dialogue should go in which balloons, and where they go on each page so as to not block out important bits of artwork and so that the dialogue is easy to read across the page. It also makes it less likely for mistakes to be made where a character will be speaking the wrong dialogue.

Step 6: Now that the letterer (in this case Tom Orzechowski) has these marked versions of the script and pencils, he can use them as a guide to add the actual lettering to the story. This used to all be done by hand, so a letterer had to have excellent penmanship. Now it's mostly done on computers.

Step 7: It used to be that the inker wouldn't do their job until the letterer had done theirs, but that's no longer the case, since the lettering is no longer done directly onto the pencilled artwork. The inker is the person who goes over all of the pencils in ink so that the artwork reproduces better when it's being printed. Many people think that all an inker does is trace the pencils. This is not true at all. An inker adds areas of black, and varies the thickness of their line to help make certain parts of the artwork stand out, and to make other parts sort of fade into the background. They can add atmosphere and texture to the art as well. Below is the inked artwork by Horacio Ottolini over Joe Staton's pencils. Compare this with Joe's pencils back in Step 4.

Here is the inked page with Tom Orzechowski's lettering.

Step 8: The final step is adding the color. This work used to be done by hand using special dyes on copies of the inked and lettered artwork. Now most coloring is done on computers. The colorist can use their skills to create mood and to bring emphasis to a character or object in a panel. For example, in the page below, colored by Paul Becton, notice how in panel 4 only Scooby-Doo and the egg he's trying to catch are colored in detail. The other characters are all colored in one pale shade of purple. This is because even while the other characters are present, they aren't what's important in this panel, so they are colored to fade into the background while our attention is in Scooby-Doo.

There you have it, the entire process from beginning to end in creating a comic book story. In future posts I will go into even more detail for each of these steps and will even have various editors, writers and artists talk about their parts in bringing a comic book story to life.

On Sale Today

2010-06-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Head to a comic book store near you for SCOOBY-DOO #157 which features 2 installments of my popular "Velma's Monsters of the World" series. This issue Velma spotlights Yama-Uba and the Griffin. Both stories were drawn by Fabio Laguna with Travis Lanham providing the lettering, Heroic Age the colors, and Harvey Richards editing. The creepy cover is by Vincent Deporter.

Putting the Words in the Bubbles

2010-06-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

The response I hear the most when people find out that I write comic books for a living is "Oh, you put the words in the bubbles."

The person who actually, physically writes all of the words into the bubbles (actually called word balloons) is the letterer. This job used to be done completely by hand, but is now more often done using a computer. I don't do this job, and I don't think this is what people mean when they respond about me putting the words in the bubbles.

Instead I think their assumption is that I just write the dialogue which appears in the balloons, and that the artist comes up with all of the visuals all on their own and somehow the two elements come together to form a complete story.

The truth of the matter (and this in no way is meant to suggest that the artists don't make valuable contributions of their own) is that I also have to describe everything that goes on in each panel on ever page of a comic book story, usually including how many panels are on each page, so that the artist knows what to draw. That means I have to describe the locations where the story takes place, whether it is night or day, raining, snowing, or hot and sunny, what the characters look like, what they are doing, what their expressions are like, if they are holding anything I need to describe what those things are and how important they'll be for the rest of the story and so on.

Since this is the part of creating comics that I know the most about, most of my posts here will concern different aspects of writing comic book stories. For right now, compare the panel above, (which was taken from "Man of a Thousand Monsters" written by me pencilled by Robert Pope, inked by Scott McRae, lettered by Swands, colored by Heroic Age, and edited by Harvey Richards) with the except from the script for the very same panel shown below. You can make the images larger by clicking on them.

Next week I will walk you through the entire process of how a comic book story is created from beginning to end.

Behind the Scenes of "The Missing Mummy Mystery"

2010-06-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

"The Missing Mummy Mystery" appears in SCOOBY-DOO #156 which can probably still be found at your favorite place to buy comics. I wrote this story. Scott Neely drew the art. Heroic Age colored it, and Travis Lanham provided the lettering. Harvey Richards was the editor.

A couple of posts back, I mentioned my fondness for old monster movies and how I liked reference them in various Scooby-Doo stories. "The Missing Mummy Mystery" is no exception. As you might have guessed, for this story, my inspiration came from "The Mummy" (1932).

This movie features Boris Karloff as a living mummy who believes that the woman he loved thousands of years ago has been reincarnated as a modern day woman. The most famous scene from the movie comes near the beginning when an archeologist played by Bramwell Fletcher translates an ancient scroll which brings the mummy to life. The mummy shuffles over to him, takes the scroll, and shuffles away leaving the poor archeologist cackling with insanity. When his fellow archeologists ask him what's wrong he points to the empty sarcophagus and declares "He went for a little walk" before cackling with madness once more.

That very scene (shown above) was what inspired the entire story of "The Missing Mummy Mystery" and the idea of a valuable mummy seemingly vanishing from a museum collection by simply walking out the door under his own power. I also included a similar scene in which the night security guard, David Manners, stumbles across the walking mummy.

I also named several characters after characters and actors from "The Mummy." First was David Manners, the night security guard. In the movie, David Manners played Frank Wemple, son of Sir Joseph Wemple. David Manners was also in the movie "Dracula" (1931). Here's David Manners in "The Mummy."

Below you can see David Manners as the night security guard, along with Sir Wemple the museum director as they appeared in the comic book.

I named the daytime security guard, Steve Banning, after a character from "The Mummy's Hand" (1940) which also featured a living mummy on the loose. Steve Banning was an adventurous archeologist played by Dick Foran. Here's what he looked like in the movie. (He's the one NOT wrapped in bandages).

Here he is as he appears in "The Missing Mummy Mystery."

Now you know the story behind the story "The Missing Mummy Mystery."

In Stores Now

2010-05-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

SCOOBY-DOO #156, published by DC Comics is now available at a comic book store near you. It features a story written by me with art by Scott Neely, colors by Heroic Age and letetrs by Travis Lanham. This time the Mystery Inc. gang investigates a mummy that apparently got out of it's own sarcophagus and escaped from the museum -- or did it?

75 Years of the Bride of Frankenstein

2010-04-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

I use a lot of references to classic horror movies in my work, particularly SCOOBY-DOO. Old horror movies are something I fell in love with as a kid and something that has always inspired me and fuels the work that I do. The reason that I like to reference them in my work is because I love them so much and want to share that love with other people, especially you kids who may never have seen any of these movies.

One of the best, and one of my favorite classic horror movies is BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN which was released to movie theaters on this very day in 1935. Even if you haven't seen it, you probably know what the Bride of Frankenstein looks like, and if not just look at the picture above.

There are lots of great things about this movie, from the acting and direction, the beautiful music, the great characters and story, and the fact that not only is the Frankenstein monster in this one, but he's asked Dr. Frankenstein to create for him a wife. Let's just say that things don't go exactly as planned. This is the first movie to feature TWO monsters in it, even if they don't really fight each other. The Bride is also one of the first female monsters of all time.

The main reason I wanted to mention BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN here, is because of the great sets featured in the movie. The horror movies made at Universal Studios in the 1930s and 1940s are considered classics for many reasons, but one of their most lasting influences is on the look of not only horror movies that have been made since, but other spooky and eerie things like tv shows, the Haunted Mansion at the Disney theme parks, comic books, and cartoons like SCOOBY-DOO.

Take a look at these photos of spooky sets from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and see if you think that they look a lot like places the Mystery Inc. gang has visited on SCOOBY-DOO. If you want more I recommend you watch some old Universal horror movies like BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN, and THE WOLF MAN. For some good laughs try ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.

Car Talk meets Car Chat

2010-04-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

This showed up in my mail today from Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the entertaining hosts of NPRs "Car Talk" and inspiration for their counterparts, Tim and Roy, hosts of "Car Chat" (shown below) from SCOOBY-DOO #153, published by DC Comics.

This story was written by me with Matt Jenkins handling the drawing, Rob Clark Jr. doing the lettering, Heroic Age tackling the colors, and Harvey Richards editing the whole thing.

Tom and Ray were delighted by their appearance in Scooby-Doo. I figured that with all of the problems that Freddie has with the Mystery Machine, that he'd not only be a big fan of their call-in car repair radio show, but he'd also be regularly calling in to the show to get their advice. Now you can see the faces of the real men who inspired the story.

New SECRET SATURDAYS Available Today!

2010-03-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #47 is out in comic book stores today! It contains two stories starring "The Secret Saturdays." The first one, written by me with artwork by Scott Jeralds, features an investigation into recent attacks by the Thetis Lake Monster. You can get a good look at this man-fish cryptid on the exciting cover by "Secret Saturdays" creator, Jay Stephens.

I was not involved with the second story, but if you are a fan of "The Secret Saturdays" then you should not miss this issue.

SCOOBY-DOO #153 Available Today

2010-02-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

Available today is SCOOBY-DOO #153 which features a story I wrote with Matt I. Jenkins handling the drawing, Rob Clark, Jr. on lettering and Heroic Age on colors. This story should appeal to kids and listeners of NPR alike as the Mystery Inc. gang comes to the aid of a thinly disguised pair of brothers who host a popular car repair radio show. SCOOBY-DOO is published by DC Comics.

New Today at a Comic Book Store Near You

2010-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

If you picked up CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #44 last month, then you've probably been dying to know what happened next to THE SECRET SATURDAYS. Today you can find out! CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #45 goes on sale at a comic book store near you. This issue features the exciting conclusion to "The Lost King of Africa" as the Saturdays fight for their lives against Kasai Rex, a Tyrannosaurus rex-like dinosaur cryptid.

This story was written by me with art by Scott Jeralds and a cover by Jay Stephens.

SUPER HERO SQUAD - "Stranger From A Savage Land" Airs Again Today

2010-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

My second episode of THE SUPER HERO SQUAD: "Stranger From a Savage Land" will be shown twice today on the Cartoon Network. This episode features Ka-Zar, who travels from the primitive, prehistoric world of the Savage Land to Super Hero City to rescue his pal Zabu, a sabretooth tiger who was brought to the zoo by scientists. Ka-Zar is not the only one interested in Zabu. Dr. Doom sends some of his minions after the sabretooth tiger, and Ka-Zar gets some help from the squaddies and Captain America leading to an action packed showdown.

The episode airs at 8:30 AM (EST) and again at 2:00 PM (EST).

Tomorrow Morning on Cartoon Network...

2009-12-17T13:52:00.001-08:00

In case you missed it, "Night in the Sanctorum," the first episode of SUPER HERO SQUAD that I wrote will air again tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM (EST) on Cartoon Network.

In this episode the Squaddies need to find a place to spend the night after Falcon crashes the Hellicarrier. The episode features guest characters Dr. Strange, the Punisher, Baron Mordo and the Enchantress, and a lot of belching.

This Saturday on Cartoon Network

2009-12-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, December 12, at 7:30 PM (EST), Cartoon Network will be broadcasting my second episode of SUPER HERO SQUAD. This episode, "Stranger From a Savage Land!," guest stars Kevin Sorbo as Ka-Zar who journeys to Super Hero City in search of his missing sabertooth tiger, Zabu. Don't miss it.

Available Today

2009-12-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

A journalist tags along with the Mystery Inc. gang as they investigate a bizarre painting which seems to be coming to life and stealing valuable items from the stores around the gallery where it is displayed in SCOOBY-DOO #151, written by me with art by Fabio Laguna, Heroic Age, and John J. Hill. SCOOBY-DOO #151 can be found at a comic book store near you starting today.

Behind the scenes of "The Lost King of Africa"

2009-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

If you've watched THE SECRET SATURDAYS you know that the Saturdays are cryptozoologists; scientists who study cryptids. Cryptids are hidden, or unproven animals. The most famous cryptids are Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, the yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster. Whether any of these elusive creatures exist, or not, in the real world remains unproven, but other animals that we've all heard of at one time were cryptids themselves. Gorillas, pandas, okapis, the megamouth shark, and the komodo dragon were at one time all believed to only be legendary animals that didn't really exist. Unknown animals are being discovered all the time, and while none are as mysterious and otherworldly as the Loch Ness Monster, there's still a chance that someone will prove that something like Bigfoot really does exist.

In "The Lost King of Africa" (published in CARTOON ACTION PACK #44, by DC Comics) the Saturdays venture to the Congo in Africa to search for a cryptid known as Mokele Mbembe. Mokele Mbembe means "the one who stops the flow of rivers" and to the people who live in the Congo and who claim to have seem this cryptid, it is said to look a lot like a sauropod, a long-necked dinosaur similar to the Apatosaurus, or Diplodocus. It is also supposed to be hostile to hippos, as depicted in this painting.

Below is a drawing in the mud of what local witnesses say Mokele Mbembe looks like. Could a prehistoric dinosaur still be alive in the jungles of Africa? It's unlikely, but who knows for certain?

There has been some recent speculation that Mokele Mbembe could actually be a huge, surviving, prehistoric mammal such as the Indricotherium seen below. This animal, which lived in Central Asia and China during the Oligocene, was related to the modern rhinoceros. It was about 27 feet long, the largest land mammal that ever lived, and was as long as some sauropod dinosaurs. If this theory had appeared before I wrote this story, then most likely I would have used this really cool looking mammal as the focus of my story.

Because I was thinking of Mokele mbembe as a dinosaur, I decided to combine it with other dinosaur cryptids from Africa in this story. All three of the dinosaurs are creatures that are said to exist in the Congo. The first dinosaur the Saturday's meet in the story is Emela-Ntouka, whose name means "killer of elephants." Below is a sculpture of what African witnesses say this creature looks like. Could those large floppy ears actually be the frill of a ceratopsian dinosaur?

If so, then the Emela-Ntouka probably looked something like this:

That's roughly what the Emela-Ntouka looks like in our story. Finally, we come to Kasai Rex, the lost king of our story. "Rex" means king. Kasai rex was reportedly witnessed in 1932 attacking a rhinoceros and also elephants. It was described as something similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex, but some say may have been a Tarbosaurus, like the one shown below, a slightly smaller relative of the Tyrannosaurus, which lived in Mongolia.

Again, it is unlikely that any dinosaurs are still alive, particularly a large predator like tarbosaurus, which never lived in Africa to start with, but since THE SECRET SATURDAYS wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't include all cryptids as actually being real, existing, creatures, we just made them real living creatures for the purposes of this story.

Will the Saturdays survive their encounter with Kasai Rex and find Mokele Mbembe? You'll just have to wait until part 2 in January. In the meantime, here's some trivia about the story. The boat that the Saturdays travel in was meant to like like the boats from the Jungle Cruise, one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I was originally going to have them pass some of the familiar animals seen on the Disney ride as well, but it didn't help the story move forward so I cut those bits out. Now, the Saturdays don't see any animals for some time in the story.

The name of the boat, "R.P. Mackal" is named after Roy P. Mackal, a biologist and cryptozoologist born in 1925, who searched for both the Loch Ness monster and Mokele Mbembe (where he also learned about Emela-Ntouka). He is also one of the founders of the, now defunct, International Society for Cryptozoology. He has written books about both expeditions and about cryptozoology in general.

New Today at a Comic Book Store Near You

2009-12-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

If you are a fan of THE SECRET SATURDAYS tv show then you may want to check out the new issue of CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK. Issue #44 is available today. The Saturdays travel to Africa and encounter living dinosaurs in "The Lost King of Africa" part 1. The story was written by me with artwork by THE SECRET SATURDAYS television director, Scott Jeralds, and a cover by THE SECRET SATURDAYS creator, Jay Stephens. Published by DC Comics.

Welcome!

2009-12-01T19:54:00.001-08:00

Greetings. I decided that since so much of my work was aimed at kids, that it was time that I created a blog just for young audience. If you're a kid and you like comic books, animation, art and storytelling in general then there will probably be something here that will catch your interest, and hopefully, on occasion, excite you to go out and create your own works.

Who am I? As you may have guessed from the name of this blog, my name is John Rozum. I write comic books for a living. If you've ever read an issue of SCOOBY-DOO, or CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK, CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY, DEXTER'S LABORATORY, or THE POWERPUFF GIRLS, then you've probably read one of my stories. I also write cartoons for tv every now and then. Most recently I contributed stories to the tv series SUPER HERO SQUAD. I even create some artwork too.

This blog will be a place where you can learn about what goes into making a comic book story, or an episode of an animated television show. I'll talk about how I approach my work, where the ideas come from, how I collaborate with the artists I work with and my editors, what things inspire me, and answer any questions you might have about any part of the process.

Please let me know what you'd like to see, what you like, or don't like, and feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

Enjoy!