These notes include affiliate links.

Today, Fable and the Verbivore are thrilled to open our summer of Marvel storytelling with a brief introduction to comic book storytelling.

In this episode, we explore some of the storytelling lessons we’ve can gleaned through studying comics as a form, looking at story adaptations, and through reading or watching specific graphic novels and comic related films.

Here are a few of the lessons we feel reading comics can teach about writing:

• Boiling down a story to its essence and containing only the essentials

• Writing dialogue where every word pulls its weight

• Getting comfortable with including unexpected and everything-and-the-kitchen-sink elements

• Interacting with examples of outside the box thinking can spark some of our own

• Creating Dynamic visual descriptions that include the feeling of movement

• Exploring stories where the stakes are often extremely high and making them feel real

Throughout the conversation, we bring up several graphic novels and comic related film examples. These include Twilight the graphic novel, Marie Kondo’s manga on how to tidy, The Killing Joke and Birds of Prey graphic novels, and the new film The Batman starring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to touch on the vast landscape of the genre. There’s so much out there and we’d highly recommend exploring what might be for you.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

This exploration of comics is a brief exploration of a diverse and far-reaching genre. It’s not meant to be exhautive, but to touch on the vast landscape and a little of what we’ve found and enjoyed. There’s so much out there and we’d highly recommend exploring what might be for you.

Here are some articles and videos that we found helpful in preparation for this conversation:

• MasterClass Article “7 Tips for Writing Your First Comic Book”

• Alison Learning At The Primary Pond - Writing Lessons “4 Writing Skills To Teach Using Comic Books As Mentor Texts”

Fable references Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. Here is a link:

• https://mastersreview.com/tips-pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling/

The Verbivore mentions hearing Todd Mcfarlane, the creator of the comic Spawn, speak at Phoenix Fan Fusion/Comicon. One of the recommendations he gave to artists is to consolidate their stories down by having their art contain the element of movement in it, to avoid images that feel static.

The crazy comic we mention that feels like a blender of ideas, including a cop and dinosaurs, is called “Axe Cop”.

The Verbivore references the visual elements and story hook in the opening scene of the noir film Sin City based on the comic of the same name. Please note that this film in general has graphic violence and disturbing images, but not in the first scene. A video clip can be found on YouTube under “Sin City opening scene”.

We touch on several of our previous podcast episodes. They are as follows:

Pixar Storytelling

• Episode 35: Let's talk about Inside Out

• Episode 37: Pixar Storytelling Part 1

• Episode 38: Pixar Storytelling Part 2

Star Wars

• Episode 97: Star Wars (part 1)

• Episode 98: Star Wars (part 2)

• Episode 99: The Hero's Journey

• Episode 101: The Heroine's Journey

Books, Movies, and Graphic Novels Mentioned:

• Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 – Written by Stephenie Meyer, Adapted and Illustrated by Young Kim

• Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 2 – Written by Stephenie Meyer, Adapted and Illustrated by Young Kim

• Pride and Prejudice Graphic Novel – Written by Jane Austen, Adapted by Nancy Butler, Illustrated by Hugo Petrus

• The Lightening Thief Graphic Novel – Written by Rick Riordan, Illustrated by Attila Futaki and Jose Villarrubia

• The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story (The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up) by Marie Kondō

• The Hunger Games – Directed by Gary Ross

• Sin City – Directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

• AntMan – Directed by Peyton Reed

• The Batman – Directed by Matt Reeves

• The Killing Joke - Written by Alan Moore & Brian Bolland

• Birds of Prey Vol. 1 – Written by Chuck Dixon & Jordan Gorfinkel

• Fables: Legends in Exile, Vol. 1 – Written by Bill Willingham, Illustrated by James Jean and Alex Maleev

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)