(Boy, I think I rewrote that headline five or six times to get proper grammar as well as the correct number of words in that headline. Stay in school, kids!)
While my laptop is making a trip to the doctor’s office (or the scrap heap), “The Loaner” and I found an interesting post on Wired via Fables writer Bill Willingham on storytelling in six words.
The inspiration? Hemingway’s favorite short story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” So Wired asked tons of writers — including some of the best and the brightest comics storytellers — to give their spin on the six-word story. Here are three of my favorites, from comics and sci-fi luminaries:
Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.
- William ShatnerMachine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan MooreWith bloody hands, I say good-bye.
- Frank Miller
Considering brevity is a virtue for comics — one description has been writing “newspaper headlines in poetry” — it’s a fun read. For all you writers and artists (aspiring or not) in the house, what would be your favorite six-word story? Let us hear it!
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
It’s an oldie but a goodie. They’re all pretty excellent. I even liked Frank Miller’s work, which no one has said in what, 20 years?
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:03 am
Here I sit. Thanks Taco Bell.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
Door opens. Her father’s home early.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:25 am
The results are in. Oh damn.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 am
“Drink me” the bottle read. Whoops.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Parent killed. Trained hard. Became vengeance.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
I lied, sh*t was so cash.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:40 am
“Sookeh is mahn.” Eric then frowned.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Nothing left to say but, “goodbye.”
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I can’t think of anything clever.
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Stop screaming now! OK, I’m coming.
October 24th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Silently, pride wounded, he walked away.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:52 am
From dusk till dawn, I hunt.
October 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am
A Goof But A Better Hero
October 24th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Forry Ackerman wrote the shortest Sci-Fi story ever – One letter, if you don’t count the title.
“Cosmic Report Card – Earth”
F.
October 25th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
“Honey, the rubber broke….”
October 26th, 2009 at 12:48 am
A soldier dies, a mother cries.