This is in response to Pier’s post asking: how did I find Paul Azaceta, the artist for GROUNDED? What drew me to him? How does his style affect the way I’m telling the story?
I always hate to admit this, because it makes it sound like I just used comics to leverage myself into other media when in fact I’ve been a comics fan my whole life, but GROUNDED started out as a screenplay. (It was actually called POWERLESS, but since Marvel had a book out by the same name at the time I was pitching it, I had to do a name change. I should also point out that the screenplay was written well before “Sky High,” but that’s a story for another day and probably one my law degree should tell me os not worth telling).
So I essentially wrote all of GROUNDED before Paul was involved. In some ways this helped, because I think Paul could see I was serious and not just someone with a vague idea. In retrospect, I wish I’d departed from the screenplay’s road map more - for one thing, there wouldn’t be as much dialogue covering Paul’s beautiful art.
I hooked up with Paul through our mutual friend, Mark Powers, the longtime X-Men editor. He’d read the script, and I told him I was looking for an up and coming artist that was willing to work for the back end of the comic money, he introduced me to Paul. Paul had done some of Peter David’s Captain Marvel, and while it was clear he had talent, it wasn’t until I saw him do his own inks (which Marvel wasn’t letting him do) on our pitch pages that I could see what a genius he was. I needed someone who could not only draw superheroes, but who could draw teens who looked like, well, teenagers. Who could handle and action sequence but who could convey the same intensity in a close-up reaction shot.
Image saw Paul’s potential quicker than I did. Along with the synopsis, I put together 5 pages from what would become the 2nd issue (the dodgeball scene), and tried to make that sequence work as a short story with a beginning, middle and end (the pitch had different ending than the comics). I’m not sure whether all that effort was necessary - I pitched GROUNDED at Comic-Con in 2004 by handing Image Paul’s pages and stammering out a logline. Eric Stephenson took a brief look at the pages, said “I don’t see why we shouldn’t publish this”, and right then and there, we had a publishing deal.
I say the effort wasn’t necessary because while I think my concept was strong, I’m pretty sure it was Paul’s art that sold the book. A lot of people compare artists in comics to cinematographers or directors, and while those comparisons have some merit, I think they are more like actors. In part because they are responsible for bringing out all the emotion in a character’s facial expression (one of the first lessons I had to learn writing comics as opposed to TV in film is that you actually have to describe facial expressions in detail, something you’d never do for an actor. Although one of Paul’s strengths is that when I failed to do so, he was able to pick up on the subtext and find the appropriate mien).
But I also think the “artist as actor” analogy applies because the art is why most people pick up a book, just like it seems most people see a movie because Jonny Depp or Jamie Foxx are in it. Artists can dictate how a book “opens” - I knew, for instance, that by having a Mike Oeming cover, I was going to guarantee myself a certain audience (that it was Paul and my job to keep).
Now, having spent the past year and a half trying to find artists for my next Image projects offering the same deal I did to Paul, I realize how incredibly lucky I was. Not just because I found someone of Paul’s caliber. But because it’s just incredibly hard to find artists willing to work for back end. Just try and post on the drawingboard.org classified section and you’ll get hostile responses for even offering someone a job without a page rate.
Artist’s hostility towards those kind of offers isn’t unwarranted. I can write a comic in a week - it’s hard to find someone who can pencil and ink one in a month. Their time is valuable. (On the flip side, as a writer I wouldn’t be insulted if an artist came to me and asked me to pitch with him and didn’t offer to pay me. But I think writers, especially in Hollywood, are much more used to working on spec).
(Oh - comic book artists tend to be less narcissistic and prone to eating disorders than actors and actresses, so there’s that difference).
Once Paul was on board, it was his versions of the characters I began to picture as I wrote, and not the images I’d had in my head for years. It’s hard to articulate how that changed the book, other than to say that as time went on I probably learned to trust more in what he could do, and felt less of a need to over-direct the script.
Now that I’m doing work for DC, I’m having completely different experiences. For one project, I wrote the scripts in their entirety before I knew who the artist was, let alone had been able to discuss things with. For one of my upcoming projects, I’ve heard who the artist probably will be - someone pretty exciting I hope to announce soon - and I’m wondering, how should I write for him? Do I go back and buy all his comics to look for his strengths? Or would he prefer to try something new? I think there’s an interesting blog post to be written at some point about the difference between writing a creator owned book and working for hire, but the short version is, you’ve got to trust your editor, and at the end of the day I think it’s more important to be true to the story than to try and please your collaborator. Just like actors, once the script is out of your hands and in theirs, they’ll do whatever the hell they want with it anyway:)
