Warren Ellis offers the public service of explaining to would-be comic writers exactly what the purpose of a comic script is:
This set of instructions must surround your story to the extent that you feel necessary and comfortable. Some writers produce reams of panel description because they require fine control of the artist, letterer and colourist to meet their vision of the story. Some writers boil their description down to a telegram because they require only that the most basic requirements of the panel be met in order to achieve their goals.
Both methods, however, and everything in between, are about manipulation of the artist. That sounds grim, doesn’t it?
Is it strange that I hope that this is the first installment in a series of posts commenting on/teaching comic writing skills by Ellis? The lack of his voice in the comic criticism/analysis continues to feel like a noticeble absence, even all these years after he last wrote about comics on a regular basis.
