Short Story Steps

On Saturdays when I was in high school, my mom, my brother Josh, and I would get in the car and drive up Route 5, and in fifteen minutes, we would be in Northampton, Massachusetts. One of Massachusetts’s great cities, a beautiful college town, the city where my mom went to High School (she technically grew up in the small town of Florence directly connected to Northampton, she’d be disappointed if I didn’t make that clarification), the city where a great deal of early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics were made, and the place that gave me my greatest education in comics.

On those Saturdays, we went to two main destinations: the beautiful Forbes Library and the unfortunately Modern Myths, which was my local comic store during my most formative years as a reader, it’s no longer there much to my disappointment. At Modern Myths, I dove head first into the current landscape of comics. At Forbes, I would get as many graphic novels as possible to catch up on series I wanted to read in issue (series like Ultimate Spider-Man and Y: The Last Man) and read the classics (Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, the Seth Cohen starter pack from The OC).

When I ordered Watchmen to read, Forbes Library provided me with the Absolute edition, so my first time reading that work was in the largest format possible which was a gift. It’s also the place where I would read V: For Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Batman: The Killing Joke, Top Ten, and most of Moore’s work. As a young comic reader, I was delighted to get these books from Northampton, Massachusetts knowing Moore was living in Northampton, England.

My favorite Alan Moore book, or at least the one I return to the most and has been the most influential on me creatively is Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore. There’s more than a few printings of it. My favorite is the Dave Gibbons cover I ran above, but there are also versions with great covers by Brian Bolland and Frazer Irving. This book collects the short stories, smaller arcs, and annual-sized stories that Alan did for DC. It was a revelation to me because I think of Alan writing long epics, but finding this book and seeing all these great short stories taught me that one of his greatest skills as a writer is that he could tell a fantastic story with any amount of pages that he was given.

In an annual, he could tell one of the greatest Superman stories of all time “For The Man Who Has Everything” alongside artist Dave Gibbons, with Curt Swan and George Perez and only two issues of space he could tell another with “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, with Kevin O’Neil he made me care deeply about Abin Sur with the short story “Tygers”, and told a story that poked at the soul DC’s ultimate liberal Green Arrow in the short story “The Night Olympics” tremendously drawn by Klaus Janson. Regardless of the amount of space provided, these stories cut to the core of the characters and expanded on them in beautiful ways.

To date, the majority of my career has been short stories. As of the writing of this post, I have done twenty-four, and this year, I think I might get close to thirty. Eight pages, ten pages, twelve pages, and sixteen pages are the units I’ve worked in the most. This year I would like to do some full-issue length stuff, annuals, and a mini-series, I see those as the next steps in my career. I love the short story, I’ve written so many and edited hundreds of them. And collection of Alan Moore short stories empowered me to always make the most of the amount of space I am given to make a comic. If you gave me two pages, I would still try to make it one of the best stories a character ever had, I think it’s the right attitude to have.

I thought this week I would break down how I go about putting a short story together from pitch to finished product. I’m going to be using the story “God’s Chosen Man” that I did with artist Sid Kotian, colorist Patricio Delpeche, letterer Tom Napolitano, and editor Andrew Marino for DC’s I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST CRISIS.

Step One: Pitching

As previously mentioned in other posts on this Newsletter, I was approached by editor extraordinaire Andrew Marino to pitch stories for DC’s 2024 Halloween Anthology DC’s I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST CRISIS. The premise? All the stories needed to be horror stories that were set during DC’s major crossover events. Andrew tasked me to pitch stories set during the Final Crisis event by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Doug Mahnke, Carlos Pacheco, and Marco Rudy.

The first thing that makes this a little different than any short story I had done previously was that I was adding a new portion to a story that had been done for years. The upside being I had this whole finished work by some of the best comic creators ever to draw from, the downside was that I didn’t want to screw that up and that I wanted to build a story that you could enjoy if you had or hadn’t read the source text that was Final Crisis.

I reread Final Crisis, as my editor pointed out maybe a few more times than necessary, and I made a list of the elements I liked about the event and the ones I thought could be expanded upon. As fans I think we’ve all had moments, with things we love and things we didn’t (in this case I was very much in the love category with Final Crisis) where we have gone “Wouldn’t it be cool if they did that?” and…that’s part of the mindset I took and I came up with these seven pitches that I am sharing with you. The very pitches I sent to Andrew Marino.

Lex Luthor and Libra in “God’s Chosen Man”

Libra was the mysterious villain, empowered by Darkseid to give the villains of Earth the power to get whatever they needed to recruit them to Darkseid’s cause. This led Libra to boss around all of the DCU’s premiere supervillains including Lex Luthor. During the event, we get some face time with Lex, questioning Libra’s motivations, but not a lot. Eventually, in Final Crisis #6 Lex Luthor kills Libra, but there is a lot in between that isn’t shown that Grant catches up on with a couple of brilliant monologues that you could build a hundred stories off of.

I want to show Lex seeing the world bend to Libra’s knee and have him lose his mind over it. Lex is not a mentally healthy person. He is one of the most petty people in the DCU and seeing someone else achieve his goals, and seeing someone take Superman off the board? He would go mad and I want to see him go mad and start putting together his plan to destroy Libra.

Black Canary in “Friend of Fury”

Wonder Woman was turned into Darkseid’s first new Female Fury before the time jump in the middle of Final Crisis. After the time jump we see that her full Fury team also includes Giganta, Batwoman, and Catwoman. If I was Wonder Woman, even a corrupted Wonder Woman, and I had to assemble a group of Female Furies? I am trying to recruit Black Canary first. And that’s exactly what this story is.

During the time jump where the Anti-Life Equation takes hold of humanity and everything goes to hell, Green Arrow and Black Canary are traversing a corrupted United States in the Arrow Car trying to reach the Hall of Justice to reunite with other heroes and to keep the Justice League alive, even in this nightmare (JL Teleportation technology was down during the event). As they get close they are accosted by Female Fury Wonder Woman who wants to recruit Black Canary. When Canary refuses, Wonder Woman traps Green Arrow in a Lasso of Truth torture device. Black Canary will have to defeat Female Fury Wonder Woman for her freedom and Green Arrow’s freedom. I also want to include flashbacks to Wonder Woman and Black Canary’s history and explore them as the two most prominent Justice League members.

The Seven Soldiers of Victory in “Seven Against the Storm”

As we discussed the metastory of Final Crisis started with the incredible Seven Soldiers of Victory. In the Final Crisis event we see Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E and Mr. Miracle are essential in helping the superhero army and Checkmate resist the Anti-Life equation, but the other five members are unaccounted for. I would love to do a story where we see where each of the Seven Soldiers were, not just because of their thematic Morrison connections, but because there are SO MANY Final Crisis plot threads, and we can drop a different soldier into each plot.

 Each soldier would each have one page dedicated to them. Essentially a one-page story/catch-up. The story is narrated, opened, and closed by Nebuloh the villain of Seven Soldiers of Victory. He tells the story of how seven separated superheroes all fought the same foe, him, and saved the world. But this time the threat is larger, and he can’t wait to watch them fail, from his prison outside of existence. He has a front-row seat. 

We will see

· Klarion the Witch Boy outwitting the wrath of the Spectre (connecting to Final Crisis: Revelations).

· Frankenstein working with the army of super heroes who would take their last stand in Blüdhaven.

· Zatanna is offered a deal by Libra, who tries to convince her that she is evil because of what was revealed about her in Identity Crisis.

· The Bulleteer helps the premiere scientists of the DCU break through the barrier the Alpha Lanterns imposed around Earth to keep the Green Lantern Corps OUT.

· Mr. Miracle rallies the Super Young Team to put on a show to take the last stand against Darkseid’s forces.

· Shining Knight on their mighty pegasus single-handedly doing battle with the Female Furies and their hell hounds.

· The Manhattan Guardian bringing the mad scientists of Command-D to justice.

Plastic Man in “Balance”

We open on the Justice League Watchtower during better times. Plastic Man is talking to Martian Manhunter very early into Plastic Man’s time with the JLA. Plastic Man is hyperverbal and expressive as usual, but J’onn can tell Plastic Man’s intention isn’t to be funny, he’s nervous. The Manhunter encourages Plastic Man to ask his question. Plastic Man: “Can you look at someone's thoughts and tell them if they’re a good person or a bad person.” J’onn pauses, concerned for his teammate, and says, “Our thoughts about ourselves are often the least trustworthy, Plastic Man.” Then we cut to the Martian Manhunter’s funeral on Mars after he gets killed. We see Plastic Man at the funeral, and a carryover caption from Martian Manhunter says, “It is what we do despite what we think of ourselves that matters.”

Plastic Man returns home, ready to help the rest of the Justice League find who killed The Martian Manhunter only to be met by LIBRA, the man who set up the murder. Libra comes and offers Plastic Man the same deal he offered to all of the villains in the DCU, the power and means to make their greatest desire come true. Plastic Man tells him he’s not a bad guy. Libra says he’s not, but according to the scales…he’s not a good guy either. Libra uses his powers to take Plastic Man through a “Defending Your Life” experience where he sees both the good and bad things he’s done. Plastic Man has to endure seeing how he used to be and double down that he’s making better choices now, and he’s a superhero. This will end in a climactic battle between the two. Me dipping my toes in the Plastic Man side of things…

The Justice Society of America in “Fascism By Any Other Name”

The Justice Society of America had a prominent role in Final Crisis. Specifically, Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern, took the lead and commanded the army of superheroes that was assembled. Final Crisis was Dark, the world truly seemed like it was ending and Cosmic fascism was taking hold. Friends were turned into evil brainwashed soldiers, the cities burned, and hope seemed lost. I think it would be worthwhile to show some of the younger superheroes seeming very defeated by this. Not thinking the world as they knew it is coming back. Alan Scott, Hawkman, and Wildcat (Jay Garrick was off doing Flash stuff) will stand and tell them the world as they know it isn’t coming back, but they need to save this one and be willing to do the work and build a better one. This one is the wettest clay but I think there’s something here with the older JSA members and the Army of Superheroes.

Aquaman in “Not Your King”

There was an Aquaman in Final Crisis that came in to help the heroes of the DCU. We found out that this was not our Aquaman, our king Arthur Curry would return in next summer’s event Blackest Night, this Aquaman was from another world and we didn’t get to learn a lot about him past that. It could be fun to expand on him a little bit.

Let’s show this younger Aquaman arriving on our world during Final Crisis, just desperately trying to get home, not wanting to get involved in the complicated situation, or the complicated legacy of this world’s Aquaman. But then Mera, who this young Aquaman still feels a connection with, says that this world needs an Aquaman, and this Aquaman needs a world. And we see him rise to the occasion and then at the end because of the Supermen traveling through the multiverse he gets to go home. Rough clay like the JSA one but we could do some crazy small Aqua-epic here.

I have mentioned before that I am an over-pitcher. I will always try to cook up one or two more ideas when I think I have plenty because I want to give the editor plenty of options, I want to show them that I can generate a lot of material, and in case they ever want to use one of the stories somewhere else? That could happen. Here that was more unlikely because I don’t know how many times we’re going to do stories set in past events/major crossovers.

Looking at all of these pitches again? Andrew chose the right one. “God’s Chosen Man” is the most straightforward, it has the most direct connection to the original story, and it leans the most into being a horror story. I like the Black Canary and Plastic Man stories a lot but they don’t have enough of a horror hook. The Seven Soldiers Idea is ambitious, and I still have a great desire to tell a story where each page is its own story, but it’s a little too ambitious and again not horror-y at all. The JSA and Aquaman stories are just ingredients, jumping-off points for discussions as to if they could be stories. They’re not lazy, I’m trying to take all the clay I had available to me and make something, but there’s just not enough in either one to be picked. But I’m still glad I tried.

Also, you might be saying “Whoa, Dave…you double-dipped on that Libra idea for Plastic Man and Zatanna?” I did. I thought at the time both characters had similar issues with things they had done in their past and I could have used that move on either character. I also don’t remember if Libra had tried to convince a hero that they were actually a villain in the original event and I thought THAT was a great idea. And because only one was going to get picked…I thought I’d try to sell it two different ways. It’s not cheating. If I had pitched that idea six different times as the main thread of a story with six different characters…that would have not been advisable.

Step Two: Tell Yourself The Story

Once I get a pitch approved I immediately go to my graph paper notebook, take a page, and draw rectangles that represent the pages of the story. And in those rectangles I just let my brain and creativity go and fill out what I think the story is going to be like visually. Sometimes I draw and other times I just write the plan out in the panels. This is the part of my process that is all instinct, I just tell myself the story.

No, I don’t do any dialoguing or captioning at this phase. I am the most comfortable and confident writing dialogue, I could do it all day. I start with the visuals because that’s the part I always feel I need to get better at, and without those visuals…there’s no comic. If I have the visuals down great dialogue, the dialogue I need will start populating those spaces. The dialogue comes from the scenarios I am creating.

Now this works for me. Some great comic writers write dialogue first and then do their visuals afterward, and I’m sure there are plenty who also don’t need to split the process at all. It serves me to do it this way. If you are just starting as a comic writer, try doing it a few different ways and see what is most comfortable for you. Take the best of what I do in my process and the best of what someone else you like does in their process, and smash them together to make your own process.

Step Three: The Outline

Once the planning stage is done, I flesh out my thoughts and turn them into an outline that you can read here. A page-by-page breakdown that explains my vision for what’s going to happen on each of the ten pages that make up the story.

Page One: This page is going to remind readers of the events of Final Crisis and Libra’s role in it. Our story takes place between issues 4-6 when the villains have won, the heroes are all in some way screwed, and Libra has all of the villains by a metaphorical leash. This opening page is narrated by the ghostly Superman in Lex’s mind haunting him.

Open on a shot of Libra selling himself and his ideas to the Secret Society of Supervillains, we see the heaviest-hitting villains in the DCU are a part of this group and none of them are buying what he’s selling. But then…Libra follows through…he gets the Martian Manhunter killed, Wonder Woman becomes a brainwashed soldier, Superman is taken off the board, and Batman is kidnapped. All while the DCU’s skies turn red and the world is on fire. The Secret Society changes its attitude and follows Libra, but Lex Luthor looks at Libra with contempt. The page ends with someone leaning on Lex’s shoulder saying “Are you going to let him win, Lex?” 

Page Two: A half splash reveal of the ghostly Superman haunting/taunting Lex, as Lex begins his preparations to take out Libra in his mind. We cut to Metropolis, Lexcorp Tower, we see monsters running through the streets of Metropolis to again remind people of how Final Crisis changed the DCU. Inside Lex is yelling at Dr. Sivana that they can’t find more information about Libra. Sivana says there isn’t much to know, he got defeated once by the Justice League a long time ago, he came back, and he beat everyone. Sivana says Libra succeeded where the two of them failed. Lex says there’s no way Libra has done all of this by himself. HOW did he get this power, WHAT is his endgame, and WHY won’t anyone listen to him?! Someone from off-panel tells Sivana he doesn’t have to keep following Lex’s orders.  

Page Three: Libra alongside Warp (the teleporter), Gorilla Grodd, and the Thinker has teleported into the Lexcorp building and says Dr. Sivana is needed. Lex tries to blast Libra for trespassing, but his suit won’t execute any defensive procedures against Libra. Libra taps Lex’s warsuit with his staff and tells Lex that he’s doing a bad job of falling in line, and he understands, it’s hard to have failed so consistently and see someone else achieve such great things. Libra then gestures towards Gorilla Grodd and the Thinker and explains that while Lex is the smartest man in the world, there are plenty of other great minds who when put together can figure out how to make Lex’s machines useless against Libra. Sivana leaves with Libra and his crew, Libra says they need to prepare to destroy the human spirit once and for all, Lex starts losing his fucking mind. The ghostly Superman returns to tell Lex everything is going to be okay. Things are changing.

Page Four: Lex starts ripping the pieces of his war suit off his body like it’s full of bed bugs and throwing them all around the room. Disgusted that Libra and what used to be his cronies, jailbroke his armor. Superman floats around and tries to tell Lex that it might be time to throw in the towel. Admit that someone else beat him to the punch. Make life simple for himself. Lex, overwhelmed, exhausted, and defeated sits on the ground, for one of the first times ever not sure what his next move is going to be. Saying that he couldn’t have done all of this on his own. There’s no way Libra could have either…

Page Five: Exterior establishing shot of the Hall of Doom, Lex asks what these are. Inside we see Libra surrounded by the helmeted anti-life soldiers from Final Crisis, he is giving Lex his own team of them, Libra initially just referring to them as loyal subjects. Lex says he would prefer to be working with his former Secret Society teammates. Libra says that he hasn’t earned that privilege and to make matters worse, none of them want to be barked at by Lex anymore. They much prefer Libra’s management style. Libra says the “Anti-Life” soldiers are much more his speed. Something snaps in Lex’s mind when Libra says “Anti-Life”.

Page Six: Lex is on the ground again, surrounded by his armor, but this time he is meditating. We go inside Lex’s mind, think of some of the fantasy/mindscapes from Rick and Morty where Rick does dumb stuff like use the bathroom. Lex’s is reviewing all of the elements of Final Crisis. Superman arrives and asks where they are. Lex explains that his mind is the only place he’s safe from Libra’s menace. Superman says that he doesn’t think Lex’s mind is a very safe place before Luthor silences him. Lex says he’s figured out the truth behind Libra, he didn’t do any of this on his own, he’s not a self-made man. Worse…he’s not looking to serve the human race…Lex and Superman look off panel. We end the page on a large shot of Darkseid looming over them and Lex says Libra is getting ready to serve all of humanity to Darkseid.

Page Seven: Lex proudly pounds his chest and says Libra isn’t like him at all. Lex fights aliens and gods. Libra is nothing more than a puppet. As Lex does this Superman watches him and starts laughing. Lex snaps and says “What are you laughing at?!” And Superman tells Lex to finish his equation. Sure, maybe now with this knowledge Lex can take out Libra, but what is he going to about Darkseid? Lex starts saying that he can figure out how to take down Darkseid, he’s come close before. And Superman says no you haven’t, but who has? Lex crumbles and says “But Superman has.” Superman laughs and says “Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll come back and save you.” Lex wakes up from his meditative state more angry than ever.  

Page Eight: Lex is with Sivana telling him everything about Libra, and how he is just a servant to gods. As the mortal enemy of the Shazam Family this should boil Sivana’s blood. Sivana says that he has seen Libra use the Anti-Life equation to break more people’s will. Libra has used it on Sivana’s daughter, and he wants Libra’s blood on his hands. Luthor is taken aback by Sivana’s bloodlust. Sivana asks what he needs to do. Luthor says they need to send a message using the Undernet…

Page Nine: These last two pages we connect to Libra’s end in Final Crisis. Darkseid has RISEN in front of an army of people who are possessed by the Anti-Life equation. The Super heroes are all showing up to this location and they are showing up because Luthor and Sivana sent them a signal. Libra knows someone betrayed him, and at first assumes it’s the Calculator, but then Libra sees Lex and Sivana are responsible. Libra and Lex have their argument, Libra thinking Lex can’t do anything. But then Sivana activates a signal watch that disables both the Anti-Life equation and Libra’s jailbreak of Lex’s armor (from the original story).

Page Ten: Luthor blasts and kills Libra. Sivana asks Luthor what is next as Luthor looks up to the sky. Luthor says what always happens. We cut away to see Superman return to the Final Crisis story, flying through Metropolis, kicking ass and taking names, a caption from Lex says “Superman will save the day.” And we cut back to Lex with his ghostly Superman behind him “And tomorrow when the dust settles I will save the world from him.” HIS Superman smiling.

Step Four: The Notes

This was my first short story back at DC in a year. I was very nervous, and I got in my head about the assignment. I spent too much time in the outline trying to make it clear that I had read Final Crisis, and you could trust me that I had my facts straight, instead of telling the story I wanted to tell. As a a great editor, Andrew knew that immediately and gave me the following notes that got me back on track.

Notes from Andrew on “God’s Chosen Man Outline”

• Pages 1-2 and 10 work, they highlight how Superman motivates everything that Lex does, and how Libra finally does what Lex could not.

• The idea of Superman and Lex doing battle in Lex’s mind is good, but we don’t need Lex in the Warsuit.

• Look at the story as a psychological thriller, less like a slasher. Someone else has finally accomplished everything that Lex could not. Superman is GONE and he didn’t get to do it. Now he’s being haunted by the vision of Superman in his head and there’s this mysterious masked figure attributing their success to everything Lex despises. Lex got what he wanted in the worst ways possible. It makes him furious.

• Cut the Libra, Thinker, and Grodd scene. We don’t need to show Libra’s might that way.

• MORE Lex going mad as the pages continue, until we get to the end and he’s back to being the Lex we know.

• We don’t need to see that much of Libra in the comic, he’s going to loom over the story anyway. It’s more about “Why not me? Why couldn’t I make all of this happen?”

I had a beginning and an ending, but I had gone astray with the middle. Andrew’s great notes got me back on track. Once I establish and remind readers about Final Crisis, tell them who Libra is/what he did, and let them know the headspace Lex is in, I have all the real estate to tell the new story I want to. And while I cut Libra and most of the other Secret Society of Villain members, I realize it allowed me to hone in on Lex’s relationship with Shazam’s greatest enemy Dr. Sivana, who is a very similar mad scientist who has constantly been denied the chance to win. I made them Pinky and the Brain in this story (Lex being Pinky, and Sivana being the Brain), for those of you who can appreciate that reference. Except Brain says to Pinky “I don’t think us ruling the world is ever going to work out, and we need to give up.”

These notes didn’t level me, they didn’t destroy me, they gave me my confidence back because I knew they were all true. And they afforded me the immense opportunity to go back and not tell Grant Morrison’s story, but my own. So I took these notes and got to work on the script.

Step Five: The Script

Andrew and I have worked together a lot over the years so instead of having me revise my outline, he recommended I redo my visuals and get to the script. Again, because he had gotten my confidence back for me, that was easy to do. The story started falling into place in my head and it was a joy fixing it and getting it where it needed to be. I did redo the visuals from Pages 3-8 and then I took all of those visuals and I wrote all the panel descriptions for the story.

Comic scriptwriting can be kind of a mystery to folks. It’s not like screenwriting where there’s a standard format. There’s been a lot of very healthy discussions over the years advocating for an industry standard, and people saying why that would or wouldn’t work.

As someone who has edited hundreds of comic scripts, and written many on his own, here’s the important information your comic book script needs.

• The Page Number.

• How Many Panels are going to be on the page.

• Descriptions for the action/central image of each panel.

• The dialogue and captions that are going to go in that specific panel. I also recommend centering the dialogue/captions so they are clearly seperated from the panel descriptions, and the art team, letterer, and production folks who are going to see your script can clearly tell the difference.

I’m going to show you Page Six from the script for “God’s Chosen Man” It’s the page where the ghostly Superman who has been torturing Lex Luthor enters Lex’s mindscape, the inside of his head. I picked this page because I find these bigger ambitious pages scare newer writers and they go “Well how do I make that happen?” And the truth is…you should have fun trying to do it: you convey what you think it should be like on the page to your very talented artistic collaborators, and then they bring it to life to the best of their ability and ideally improve on the idea because they know how to draw something way cooler than you could. If they have questions because you weren’t clear enough, they will ask you, but that shouldn’t be a reason for you not to try expressing the big imaginative ideas in your brain. I think that’s what stops people from writing in general, a fear of being misunderstood and made fun of. You won’t be.

Page Six. (Six Panels)

Panel 1. Close up on Superman’s face, he looks concerned.

1 SUPERMAN:
It’s much worse than I thought.

Panel 2. Pulling back for a big image that should anchor the page. We are inside Lex’s mindscape and it has seen better days. Imagine a valley full of the things that Lex thinks about. However Lex is thinking or feeling, the mindscape reacts accordingly. And right now his mind is fully dedicated to his HATRED of Libra. We see defaced Libra statutes, members of the Secret Society of Supervillains who have betrayed Lex in cages, and little Dr. Sivanas running around saying “I’m sorry, Lex, I’m sorry!” Superman is looking at all of this.

2 SUPERMAN:
MUCH, MUCH, worse…

Panel 3. The Dr. Sivana’s tug on Superman’s cape and he politely (but humorously) pushes them away from him.

3 DR. SIVANAS:

Will you tell him I’m SORRY?

4 DR. SIVANAS:

Lex is the BEST.

5 DR. SIVANAS:
I’ve just been hit in the head by so many children and tigers over the years, Superman!

6 SUPERMAN:
I will see what I can do with, Lex, Doctors Sivana, PLEASE! Let me through!

Panel 4. Superman flies past the cages and we see the villains begging for forgiveness and reaching out to Superman for help. Let’s have it be the crew from Page 1, with Vandal Savage looking the most desperate.

7 VANDAL SAVAGE:
Tell Lex I’m ready to serve, I can’t spend ETERNITY this way!

Panel 5. Superman goes higher in the air and sees a quarry where green/Lex Luthor-esque light is shining he knows that’s where he must go next.

Panel 6. Superman descends into the quarry and there stands Lex and around him he is reviewing all of the pieces of Final Crisis, on holographic screens in the sky we can see:

· Libra

· The mad scientists of Command D

· The Female Furies

· The Atomic Knight

· The Crime Bible

· Dan Turpin being turned into Darkseid.

Superman is curious as to what Lex is doing, and for the first time in this story the sinister smile of genius we know Lex Luthor for has returned to his face. In this dream sequence let’s have Lex wearing his Legion of Doom/Super Friends Purple and Green outfit.

8 SUPERMAN:
LEX? We need to go, things out in the real world are getting worse. 

9 LEX LUTHOR:
In a moment, all these JAGGED PIECES…they finally fit together.

10 LEX LUTHOR:
Libra, Command D, The Crime Bible, the death of Dan Turpin…

“What are the numbers in front of the dialogue for? And why do you capitalize certain words?”

I number the dialogue for the letterer. When you or the editor of the story get the story ready for the letterer it’s customary to go through and number the dialogue/captions on each page (it will also make sure that you are aware of how many words on a page you’re asking for) and then you take the art and you do balloon guides. This is especially helpful for books/stories where there are A LOT of named characters. This ultimately just helps the letterer save time so they’re not giving the dialogue to the wrong character, and of course, the letterer is way better at placing dialogue than you are, so what you’re giving them is just a guide. They’re going to innovate and make things look way more awesome, so long as you didn’t give them an unreasonable amount of dialogue/captions to play with.

Capitalizing words indicates that you want them bolded. Can you bold them instead to indicate that? Yeah, absolutely. I was just taught to do it by capitalizing the words in the script.

Step Six: Trusting and Supporting Your Artistic Collaborators

The script got turned in, and Andrew had a few minor notes for me, mostly including more details in the background for eagle-eyed Final Crisis readers. Now that I wasn’t obsessed with giving a book report, I had room to add meaningful easter eggs and other things that led back to that story in a way that felt beneficial and not overwhelming.

From there the script went to the brilliant Sid Kotian, whom I was working with for the very first time. And Sid was a dream. Sid had also read the original Final Crisis storyline and was ready to play. He took everything that was in the script and enhanced it. On most of the pages, he expanded or added beats to make the storytelling even stronger.

Let’s take a look at the process for Page Six from Layouts to Colors to see how it came to life. What Sid with his lineart, and then what the also brilliant Patricio Delpeche added with his colors.

Sid made two great additions to this page that are different from the script. He added the fourth panel where Superman has successfully gotten the baby Dr. Sivana’s off of him and he takes off to the sky. He also made Lex’s fortress in the sky, where I had imagined it in some deep cavern. This makes way more sense. Of course even in his mind Lex Luthor would be lording above everyone, and Superman FLIES, let him FLY.

This page also may be beneficial to show both comic writers and artists because again…these kind of intense imaginative scenes that you can only do in comics can sometimes throw people off. You don’t start at the ink phase with them. You think them up first, you plan them out in pencil or digitally so you can erase and move things around. It’s not until you’re confident with what you have that you ink them.

Sid’s inks on this were just beautiful. What could have been a chaotic/hard-to-read scene is very clear and fun to be in. We get the destroyed Libra statues, the little Dr. Sivana’s (Which he decided to make babies which is even funnier than the Muppet versions I had envisioned), get a clear look at Lex’s fortress, the Secret Society of Super-Villains Lex is keeping as prisoners, and all the details from Final Crisis Lex is investigating are clear while not pulling focus.

Patricio Delpeche is one of the most talented creators working in the industry right now. A brilliant cartoonist in his own right, he also colors other people excellently. When I imagined Lex wearing that pink and green suit I associate with his time in the Superfriends cartoon, Patricio brilliantly made the color palette of that costume the color palette of Lex’s mind. It’s just such a smart, creative move, and it makes you feel like you are somewhere otherworldly.

In the grand scheme of things there probably isn’t another person I have made more comics with than Tom Napolitano. He lettered all of Man-Bat and has lettered many of the short stories I have written. As I’ve told him personally, Tom letters with the spirit of a cartoonist (because he is a great one himself) and he does a lot of smart, inventive things that support the storytelling and never pull focus from it. Anytime we get to work together, it’s a gift.

In the extra panel, Sid gave me the chance to spread some dialogue around which then became a great gift to Tom because he got more space for the lettering too. I just really like the balloon and font style he went with on this one. It matches the art style really well, and I just know the story is always in safe hands with Tom.

Then, the comic was finished and it went to press. It came out in the fall of 2024 and many of you read it and were very kind about it.

I hope that this was informative and helpful. When I was growing up so much of the creative process of making comics was demystified for me, and by extension taught to me, by creators being willing to go behind the curtain about their process. Whether that was talking in-depth on podcasts about how things were done, the back pages of graphic novels/collected editions including scripts/process work from the artists, or the then rare book focused on the process of making comics. I think it’s important to share these things, to make it easier for the people who come up after you to make things, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I hope I tried my best to do that today.

Next week we’ll talk a little bit more about my next short story, my Hawkman story in DC’s Lex in the City before it comes out at the end of January.

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz