If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for this moment for a looooong time! Marc worked extra hard to do this one up right as his last strip heading into the two week break that will be the SuperFogeys 5th Anniversary Celebration. Be back here on Wednesday to see the finished print I drew up and we’ll kick it all off together!
Once I’m confident that each strip will make a proper contribution to the larger whole of a chapter (and each chapter makes a proper contribution to the larger whole of the story), I can set the macro aside and focus on the micro: making the strip WORK.
And what do I mean by WORK? I mean that the strip is:
a) Satisfying as a whole. The strip MUST, above all, provide for a complete experience for the reader, especially new ones. This doesn’t mean that new readers will understand everything going on, but they will understand the central idea in the strip itself and whatever tiny little story is being told in the strip will be paid off by the last panel.
b) Funny or not funny. Not every strip has to be funny, but if it’s not funny then it should be REALLY not funny. What I mean is, just because a strip isn’t funny doesn’t mean you can let it be boring. Strips can always be either funny or thought-provoking or emotionally satisfying. Preferably all three at once, but if you can do any one of them solidly then I think you’re doing well.
So let’s look at a script. SF 177, from the beginning of Chapter 6. Actually, let’s take another look at the breakdown I wrote for 177:
CS remarks that almost everyone is there, but not Jerry. He doesn’t see Li’l Miss Missle. Surely she’d show herself for her own father’s funeral? Swifty wonders aloud if Tom would show up for CS’s.
The breakdown tells me what I need to accomplish with this strip. For 177, it looks like I wanted to point out the reader that both Jerry and Li’l Miss Missile are not at the funeral—both clues to later reveals. Then there’s the bit about Tom, who has been mentioned before, in Chapter 5. I wanted to keep Tom’s name alive in the story because he was going to show up in the very next Chapter and I wanted to remind the reader in some small way of both who he is and that his relationship with his father is strained.
Pretty small goals for a comic strip, which gives me lots of room to improvise and add some funny. Maybe a bit too much room:
177 –
1: Swifty and CS talking. We can see other heroes and villains mulling about(?)
CAPTAIN SPECTACULAR
I haven’t seen Li’l Miss Missle anywhere, have you?
SWIFTY
Nope.
2: still talking. CS looks to the left.
CAPTAIN SPECTACULAR
I assume they had some sort of falling out,
never have seen her at Valhalla. Still, you’d think
she’d show up for her own father’s funeral.
SWIFTY
You think Tom would show up for yours?
3: Swifty Looks past CS to see what he’s looking at—it’s Spy Gal glaring at him.
CAPTAIN SPECTACULAR
I-I would hope.
4: CS back on Swifty
SWIFTY
Why wouldn’t he? Who else can
say their super-powered dad let a psychopath
beat up his woman and kill his oldest friend?
5: Swifty with a notepad, licking his thumb as he prepare to take notes. CS not looking too happy.
SWIFTY
Lay some more on me. When I hear
a scream from a dark alley, do I take the old lady’s purse
first or do I have @#$% tea and crumpets with
the mugger?
Gosh, that’s wordy. Sometimes, these early scripts are tough to read. Take a look at how crowded that all ended up being in the final strip:
Setting aside the wordiness for a minute, you’ll see that the thing that emerged in the final script that just wasn’t in the breakdown was probably the most important component of comics writing: character. Swifty is barely present in the breakdown, but in the script? He’s all over it. He gets the most lines.
In the end, the strip ended up with a script that was funny (Swifty’s joke at the end), thought-provoking (hey, why ISN’T Dr. Rocket’s adopted daughter Li’l Miss Missile at his funeral?), AND emotional (Things are clearly not right between Spy Gal and Captain Spectacular, nor between him and Tom—there’s a longing there). If only I’d been able to find a way to do it with less words, it could have been much more successful.
Next: And Even When It’s Over, It’s Not Over…
AND EVEN WHEN IT’S OVER, IT’S NOT OVER…
The last thing I wanna mention is how difficult webcomics can make seeing your story as whole—even with tons of planning. I want to stress again how many times I’ve read back over a chapter I thought was pretty solid and realized it just didn’t flow right. I’ve gone back and re-edited almost every strip after its initial posting for exactly that reason. Flow—good flow—is very hard to get right when you’re creating things piecemeal.
I’m not saying you should get all George Lucas about it. Let your cruddy early art stand. Don’t obscure a panel with some weird creature walking by in front of it. For goodness’ sakes—don’t add a lame musical number.
My point is, with a good plan, tweaks and edits are usually minor.
THE MACRO AND THE MICRO
Good, serial webcomics can be done by anyone, I think. You just have to be willing to put the time in to break things down from the big idea to the much smaller ones. Tasty bites. The trick is not forgetting the larger meal you’re serving.
Serial webcomics have to work on two levels to be truly successful. They need to work well by themselves as an individual experience, but they also have to feed into the larger whole of the story in a natural way that moves the story along at a good pace. The macro and the micro.
And just think…all this BEFORE you start drawing!
So sweet, the robot looks awesome and I can’t get over all the details you but into this Mark. You two are a great team!
So what is a Jimmy Choo by the way?
(Side note, I am so trilled I get to be the first commenter on this page)
A crazy expensive women’s shoe.
So, for whatever reason, whenever I come to view today’s comic, it only shows up as the black and white outlines of everything. But when I refresh the page, I can see the color version.
Now let me say this–the outline looks really good.
But in color, this page is dang good. (Also, I prefer the “Not my Jimmy Choo” line to what was on the black outlined page. It works a lot better.)
Server problems last night prevented me from loading the final version on time. Glad you like the line change! That was Marc’s suggestion.
Nice robot design! Instead of trying to take over the world, I think Dr. Rocket should have just sold transformers. He could be ridiculously wealthy instead.
I LOVE this robot design. I asked Marc to do up something different and he delivered in spades.
That’s going to be a long walk back to Florida when their plane goes up in a giant fireball. Hope spaygal is impressed.
There’s always coach, right?
I want one of these. ‘Giant Donut-tron Robot’ is totally going on my nefarious christmas list. This is magnificent.
Ooh… yes. I want this as a toy. That would make up for all the Transformers I didn’t get as a kid.
Toy nothin.
I don’t want to insinuate that some religious subtext is going on, but that helicopter light flashing down on the cross shaped antenna has to mean something.
Still not too thrilled about that antenna. Such a weak spot. I wonder if it gets destroyed will the robot be all “Huh? What do I do now?” and flies off into to space to contemplate the universe.
Can’t say I ever thought of the antenna as a cross, but attach whatever significance to it you’d like!
I’m not going to do that if it doesn’t enhance the story in any way. It was just very coincidental that those elements came together that way. That’s all.
This is what I used to tell my English teachers in high school–not all of the “symbolism” in books was intentionally put in by the authors. We were creating our own meanings and inserting our own subtext. Unfortunately, although I still stand by that argument, it never did get me out of writing any papers. If anything, it made me realize that I could make up anything I wanted about what I was reading, so long as I could be creative enough to substantiate it.
#1 where did the robot come from? Unless there were a lot of people with a sudden attack of blindness or ‘whatever!’, something that big is going to be noticed way before it gets to the casino. Unless it was disguised. Me, I’m wondering if it is a transforming robot (notice the neat copyright avoidance there).
#2 Is this going to be a little like when Syndrome in The Incredibles could ‘miraculously’ manage to beat the robot he built himself?
#3 Holy bloody hell! Amazing artwork!
1 – We did see the robot transform a few strips back. Personally, I think until he started firing everyone assumed he was just in town for a show.
2 – Wait and see!
3 – Could not agree more.
I sure hope Dorothy and Sophia made it out safe’n'sound.
Hey….. Is it just me? Or does the robot have blue balls on its pelvis…..?