Follow along with Brett Wood and Eric Rampson, the creators behind The Silver Bullet, as they make the comic and complain about all the work they have to do.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Over at The Redeemers Blog, I just posted some script pages with the accompanying art. I feel like there is very little of that happening (outside of Bendis and Kirkman releasing scriptbooks or putting parts of the script in the back of issues) and I think it can be a great help to those who want to write comics.

On The Silver Bullet, I don't write full-script. I give Brett a small paragraph per page to outline the action of the page and leave it up to him to draw it whatever way he wants. I don't actually "script" it until the artwork is done and I go into the lettering phase - I come up with all the captions and dialogue as I go. It's a bit more arduous but I get to use my improv comedy muscles and I'm finding that, while it is a bit "messier" than the stuff I full-script, I've gotten some really fun moments out of the process.

Without further ado, here are the page blurbs for the first four pages of Silver Bullet #1 with the accompanying art and scripting/lettering by me and Brett.



Page One
An astronaut stands on the moon. The Earth is reflected in his visor. He is conversing with Houston about finally getting to step foot on the moon – he thought we’d never go back. He asks why they stopped going up there. Suddenly, there is a slimy, creepy tentacle reflected in his visor.




Page Two
At Houston Control Center, people are running around crazy as the astronaut screams for help. Only one man, CMDR. JERRY JINDLEBECK, stands still, a single spot of calm in the chaos. He is pointing in two different directions, hollering orders. A radar tech yells out that they are reading something launching from American soil at a ridiculous speed heading straight for the moon. JINDLEBECK hopes it isn’t (but knows it is) THE SILVER BULLET.




Page Three
A single “hero-shot” image of SB streaking from Earth to the moon. Leave a lot of room for thought bubbles – I want to do lots of thought bubbles.

TITLE: The Silver Bullet in: A.S.T. – Alien Standard Time, Part One!




Page Four
The ALIEN (whose tentacle we saw on the first page) towers over the astronaut, several tentacles raised above its head. It actually looks more scared than angry. It is speaking in its weird alien language. There is a large, watch-looking device on one of its tentacles. The astronaut is cowering in front of it. SB slams into the ALIEN, pulling it up and out into space. The astronaut tells Houston what is happening as we see SB ripping off one of the ALIEN’S TENTACLES reflected in his visor.



Something I noticed right off the bat - NASA's Houston Control became the Nebraska Space Association (there's an asterik in SB's thought balloon on p.3 that is missing the editorial note about what NSA stands for, dammit!), which I think was brought about becasue Brett forgot an "A" on the bulding's sign on p.2 and I was too lazy to make him redo it.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Nothing for months and then BLAM two posts in one day! I just had to post up the cover for issue #3 because Brett and colorist Jeremy Colwell knocked this one out of the park.


Who wouldn't want to read whatever is wrapped in that beautiful cover? A commie, that's who!

Silver Bullet #3 Coming Soon!

The Silver Bullet #3 should be going to the printer very soon. Here's a page from the 3-page back-up story "All You Need Is Hate!"


See that guy on the right of the bottom two panels? That's the notorious Mon Oncle Monocle, Evil French Semi-Genius.  Expect big things from him in the future because he's got the Silver Bullet's number and he isn't afraid of long-distance roaming charges!

Brett and I will be at C2E2 in April with copies of Silver Bullet #1, #2, and #3 as well as (hopefully) an awesome full-color Silver Bullet poster. Brett will most likey be drawing sketch comissions and I will, of course, be doing my patented Stories for a Buck all weekend. If you're in Chicago, come on out to the show on April 16-18 at McCormick Place and say hello!