Welcome back to our interview series with Jamila Rowser, founder of Black Josei Press, about writing comics scripts! Part One addressed the nitty gritty of writing scripts — how many visuals to include, maintaining good communication with your artist through the drawing and editing process, and when to include fields of horses and complicated machinery.
Part Two is all about the pre-writing stage: what should you do before even reaching out to an artist? If you’ve never even written a comics script before, what kinds of resources will help you get started? We also cover a crucial piece of collaborating on a comic: building a healthy working relationship with your artist. Rowser kindly provided a full resource list that we’ll include in the third and final part of the interview.
Alenka Figa: For newcomers to comics writing, before they even start talking to an artist, how should they study and prepare to write effective scripts?
Jamila Rowser: Read a lot of comics and study them, looking especially at some of your favorite kinds of comics. Look at the panels, look at how things are laid out, look at the pacing, how the transitions from page turns go. Just analyzing a comic in that way can give you a lot of information. There are a lot of free resources and free examples of scripts that comic writers have written that have a lot of great knowledge. You can see what kind of information is included in a script and also in a panel. You can see different ways writers have formatted their scripts.
Also books: Scott McCloud’s books. Those are just honestly the greatest — Making Comics and Understanding Comics. Those are extremely helpful, and it’s not just about reading books that talk about how to write a comic, but reading books about how to make a comic. You’re getting the information that the artist would need and the information that a writer would need: how to make a whole comic. It’s important for you to know what the artist is thinking about and what they would have to do when it comes to creating the art of the comic. The whole process is essential to know.
I would also say: figure out and understand what your style of writing is. Not that your style has to always stay the same, but, for me, I found it was really helpful to ground myself in a writing style that I gravitated towards the most, that felt most like me and felt most natural. A lot of that came from my favorite manga and comics, and they’re all kind of very similar, with slower pacing, fewer words. Very slice of life. A lot of that is seen in my comics and that feels very natural to me. As you analyze other comics, see what you gravitate towards and why. Make it feel authentic to yourself, because you know how you wanna tell the story. Of course, when it comes to the artist, they’ll be translating how you’ve written the script.
If you’re new to writing comic scripts but you’re not new to writing — maybe you write prose or you’ve done storyboarding — don’t assume you know how to write comic scripts. Don’t do that! Still study and learn because they are very different from how you write anything else. [Prose] doesn’t have the information and the details that the artist would need to know what is in a panel.
Assuming that this is an independent comic – no publishing house – once you have hired a cartoonist, what’s the best way to lay good groundwork to start off your relationship?
That’s one of the most important things — lay really good groundwork with the artist. If you are talking to the artist before you start the script, ask them what they like to draw and what they don’t like to draw. If they have different types of styles talk about the style that you’re thinking would be best for this project.
Thinking of more admin type stuff, ask what their communication style is like. Are they somebody who likely won’t answer on the weekend? Do they prefer communicating on Discord? Finding that out in the beginning is really helpful because in addition to creating a comic as a writer, a lot of it is admin work and project management, especially if you’re self-publishing a comic. You yourself need to be organized, but also helping make sure the timelines and all those kinds of things are staying on track.
Once the script is done and you share it with the artist, a few days later meet with them and go over the script together. You don’t have to go over every single thing, but if there are certain parts of the script that you think need more explanation or you just want to discuss, have that ready. Make sure you give it to them in advance so they have time to come up with questions and see if there’s anything that isn’t clear in the script.
Don’t expect the comic to go exactly how you wrote it, because a lot of times the way you wrote it doesn’t work on the page. We are not artists, so we can try to imagine as much as we can, but when the artist is working on it trust their sensibilities. Trust their talent and allow them to have the freedom to make changes to make the story better. So, if you have a page that says there’s gonna be four panels but the artist thinks it’ll be better with six, have them try that. That’s part of the initial meeting you can have with the artist; say that this is a guide, these are suggestions. You don’t have to go by the book. You can, but also, if you see something that would be better, do it.
If writers are worried or hesitant about that, the beautiful thing about comics is there’s so many phases. The first part is thumbnails. You’ll be able to see in the thumbnails like, oh, this works way better than I would’ve thought. And you continue on. I’ve don’t think an artist made a change that wasn’t better than what I wrote. I’m always like, this is so much better. Or even: you look at what you wrote, they translate it very similarly and you’re like, this actually doesn’t work! I think that also helps it be more of a collaboration and gives the artist more freedom. They feel more part of the process because they should be more part of the process. It’s not just your story, it’s both of your stories. Be open to change.
When it comes to approaching an artist, if you have the time, start to engage with them organically. I always like to buy stuff from their shop because I probably like their work and I want stuff. Maybe they have comics that are only in print and I wanna read them. Comment that you like it so when you eventually do reach out to them, they may recognize your name and you’re not a complete stranger.
I didn’t know Robyn [Smith, who illustrated Wash Day] before, and when I reached out to her I was like, obsessed. I bought everything from her shop and commented and stuff! Then we became friends. She would say in interviews, yeah, she bought everything from my shop. I was like, all this stuff is great! I want it!
That sounds like a good foundation. If you’re gonna collaborate with someone, hopefully you like their art. And then on the ego side of things, I can imagine it’s a little harder to be precious with your writing if you’re like, oh, but you’re gonna make it better!
Yeah, exactly. When you reach out to them say, I really love your art, I’m a fan, I think your style would really work well with this idea. Also email, email, email! Don’t DM, unless you need to ask them for their email. I don’t think it’s professional.
Two things came out of that that are interesting: I don’t know a ton about the process for when artists and writers are working together under a bigger publisher, but it sounds like a lot of the time they don’t actually meet each other. From what you’re describing I think the face-to-face is important, even if it’s over Zoom or whatever. How can you establish a good understanding of your collaborative work ethic and your communication style if you’ve never met?
Yeah, I would definitely recommend at least one visual meeting, if you’re both comfortable with that, or at least voice.
The other thing is contracts! What advice do you have about contracts, either if you are hiring an artist yourself or if you’re presented with a contract, what you should be looking for?
Number one: make a contract. I don’t care who, if it’s your best friend from kindergarten — especially make a contract! It will just make things better, because you have specific deliverables and expectations written that you both agreed to. If anything goes wrong, you can revert back to the contract.
When I was starting out, I did a lot of research on comic book contracts and contracts in general. I think that both the artist and writer should own the rights. If you are a writer and you want to hold all the rights, ask yourself why? Why do you feel the need to do that? Why do you think not sharing the rights with the artist is a problem? You’re both creating the comic, you’re both collaborators, you’re both co-creators.
The advance you should be paying an artist should be in the contract; what the advance is and how the advance will be split. If you become an indie publisher, are there gonna be royalties? Things like that.
Also, the specific details of the comics. So if you already know the comic is gonna be X amount of pages, the writer is going to be delivering this, the artist is going to be delivering this, this is the timeline and it’s subject to change. If one of the parties wants to get out of the contract, this is how it needs to get done. If money is paid, maybe the artist has to pay a certain amount back. All of that information is really essential. There’s some state legalese that you can find online. Check to see if your area has like a pro bono lawyer resource; I thankfully have one so they can help me with my contract. That could be something that’s available in your area too.
I can throw in: if you are having a hard time figuring out if there’s a pro bono legal resource in your area, ask your local librarian. They might get asked that more than you think. If you have a big library system they might even have a business help desk; we used to have something like that.
I do wanna mention that when writing comics, especially indie comics, you will need disposable income to pay the artist. It is not easy for a lot of folks to have that, so that’s something to definitely keep in mind. If you need to start saving up, do that. If you need to figure out ways to get funding you can do a Patreon or something, but that’s the the burden we have to bear. I was able to pay a Wash Days advance because I had a job that paid me well, and that’s how I started Black Josei Press. Now, I am disabled and not working full-time. Could I do that now? No. There’s other ways that you can make it work, but that’s definitely something you need to take into consideration.
I know that comics is for the love. Don’t expect your comics to come out and you’re making bank. It is not gonna happen. The printing costs money. If you make it digital only, then that’s less money you’re making. Don’t expect the dough to be rolling in. You’re doing it because you love comics, especially if it’s indie.
If you are crowfunding the comic there’s also a few things I would suggest. I always suggest paying the artist in advance and then recouping those funds through the crowdfunding campaign. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. If you say: “after this Kickstarter I will pay you for this comic you worked on for a year,” you don’t know if the crowdfunding campaign will be successful. You could do all the work, promote the hell out of it, but you don’t know. So what’s gonna happen? What is your plan? If it’s not successful, is it in the contract that you will then pay them out of your own pocket or you’ll run another campaign and then you’ll pay them? You gotta pay them eventually. They should know that plan.
If possible, don’t start the campaign until the comic is almost complete or complete. If you didn’t even start it, I’m telling you that timeline is not going to stay the same. And so you have a bunch of backers who are like, where’s this comic? It’s been six months past due date. You don’t wanna go through that, you don’t want the anxiety, you don’t want the artist to have anxiety. You don’t know what’s gonna happen in that time frame, so do as much as possible in advance, have it done in advance so you are more likely to stick to your timeline more. It’ll be better for everybody involved.
I have seen crowdfunders where some of their stretch goals or other tiers will be bonuses to the artist.
Yes. I would always have like, if we reach a certain goal, the artists will get a bonus. I have seen it where the bonuses are expected to happen and the artist’s advance is not very good? I’m not a fan of that. I don’t think that’s right to assume something’s gonna happen and that’s how you’ll pay the artist. If you can’t afford the artist, save up. Find another artist that works within your budget.
Black and white comics, no color.
I love black and white comics! Yes. Or make it shorter. Maybe your 40 page story could be 20, or maybe make it two parts. There are ways to make it work. The way is not to not pay them fairly or pay them at all.
Stay tuned for the final part of the interview series.
