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DOING THE WORK
by Harris O'Malley
March 21, 2004
And Now For Something Completely Different
It started with a phone call.
I’ve got a friend out in Los Angeles who’s having a go at making a life for himself in the entertainment biz. Started out in acting, got to a minor level of notability for those of us who would go actively looking for him and then went into music. The standard progression really.
But that’s not the point.
The point is I get a call from him and he mentions that he’s knows a person who knows a person who knows a person at Tokyopop and have I ever heard of their whole Rising Stars thing-a-majigger, because he knows a person who knows a person who… well, you get the picture.
For those of you (well… both of you, anyway) who read Doing The Work back in the Savant days might vaguely recall when I went off on a tear about Dark Horse’s Strip Search contest, with their grand prize of publishing the best of the submissions or such. In true wanna-be style (as I had yet to publish more than the first mini-comic of Between The Cracks ), I vented into a bloody froth about how people don’t need a damn contest to get into comics, they just need some free time, a marker, some paper and a couple Krispy Kreme’s to bribe the night-manager at Kinko’s. I ranted. I raved. I drooled. I think I even chewed on the carpet.
Rising Stars of Manga is like that; you send in a 15 – 20 page finished story, they read through it, judge it and if it’s deemed good enough you get published in the next Rising Stars compilation and a couple bucks. As an added incentive, the Grand Prize Winner also gets to pitch a book to Tokyopop.
Now, rather than explaining my stance on such things to my friend, I mentioned that I had heard of such a thing, but since my style isn’t what one could even charitably consider manga (even with the inclusion the much more realistic works of Takehiko Inoue or Ryouchi Ikegami), I didn’t really think it was worth my time or theirs to enter, but thanks very much for mentioning it, I appreciate it.
That’s when I remembered…
I’ve got a friend who’s recently moved back to Texas from Los Angeles. She’s an incredibly talented artist and a trained animator and I’ve been determined to get her to do comics even if I had to write the damn thing myself….
It wasn’t five seconds after he hung up that I called him back. “Changed your mind, huh?” he said. I could hear the smirk on his face.
“Yeah, kinda. I just remembered my friend who does do manga and I think I could get her to do a story for it.”
“Well that’s nice, but I don’t want to help her get published, I want to help you”
”Well, who do you think would be writing it?”
And so, since I’m never one to understand the words “over-booked”, I have committed myself to a new project. As the writer this time, instead of the artist or the sole-creative visionary.
This is going to be an interesting experience for me, I think just in terms of the technical aspects of the project. When I write out scripts for myself, they’re incredibly loose and informal beasts; it’s the bare bones with which to hang the art on.
Witness this sample from the story Still Waters from Between The Cracks: All Miracles Have A Price:
PAGE 2
Grant's eyes lock with Erin's. Everyone else is suddenly faded and indistinct. Grant smiles, grounds out his cigarette and starts forward to meet her.
PAGE 3
He gets distracted by a voice from off panel.
JACK DAWSON (OFF PANEL)
GRANT BUDDY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS DEN OF INIQUITY?
Grant looks back to see Jack grinning at him.
GRANT:
JACK. DO YOU MIND?
I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING.
Jack slaps his forehead.
JACK:
OF COURSE! GIRL HUNTING. HOW STUPID OF ME.
JACK:
YOU GO OFF AND CHASE THAT
ALL-MIGHTY TAIL.
JACK (YELLING):
AND IF YOU HAPPEN TO
REMEMBER YOUR OLD BUDDY,
ASK IF SHE'S GOT A SISTER!
PAGE 4
Grant works his way through the crowd and approaches a woman who looks somewhat like Erin from behind. He touches her shoulder; she looks back over at him and is obviously not Erin.
Grant goes off to another table and lights up another cigarette and looks pensive.
PAGE 5
It's the interior of an bustling pub. Grant and Jack are sitting at a table. Grant's holding his head in his hands.
JACK
OK, WE'VE BEEN HITTING EVERY DAMN CLUB IN ABBOT FOR A WEEK NOW.
JACK
I LOVE A GOOD MYSTERY, BUT THIS SI STARTING TO GET TEDIOUS, GRANT.
JACK
WANNA CLUE ME IN HERE, BUD?
GRANT
I'M LOOKING FOR A GIRL.
JACK
AREN'T WE ALL? SO WHO IS THIS
SPARKLING JEWEL OF FEMININITY?
GRANT
I DON'T KNOW.
Jack stares at him from over his glasses.
JACK
YOU. DON'T. KNOW.
JACK
I JUST BLEW $50 ON COVER CHARGES ALONE AND YOU! DON'T! KNOW?!
JACK
I NEED A DRINK.
Jack signals the waitress.
#####
What shows up in the script isn’t necessarily what shows up on paper. I tend to eschew panel descriptions or even set numbers since I’ll only ignore them anyway. I edit on the fly and it’s never really set until I’ve actually sent it to the printer. I’ll re-write the dialogue when I letter to suit the scene as I drew it, rather than as I wrote it, or else I’ll suddenly have a much better idea hit me from nowhere and just cram it in. The script itself isn’t a formality; for all of it’s mutability, it’s still fairly crucial. The one time I decided to improv my way through a story from start to finish was in the second half of Night of Ghosts and Shadows and it shows. The flow of the story is incredibly uneven and I found myself having to completely rework parts of the story to make up for elements that were too rushed or were dropped at the last minute.
At the very least, I need the script to establish the framework and set the pacing.
But with the current (and, at the moment, nameless) project, I don’t have that liberty. Since neither of us has worked with the other before (and since this will be, in fact, her first actual comic work ever), the two of us will be having to endure a precarious balancing act at the beginning as we try to establish an equilibrium over just how much of detail I should include and how much leeway I should give her to interpret the action of the story.
This is going to be an interesting experience, I think.
Like I said, I don’t know the meaning of “overbooked”, so I’m plugging away on my current project Berserker: The Wild Hunt with writer Jens Altmann. Anyone who would like a free preview ashcan should drop us a line at berserker2004@web.de with your snail-mail address and Jens and I will ship you out a copy.
And do let us know what you think, ok? It’s only fair. 
Harris O'Malley is a writer/artist/publisher of BETWEEN THE CRACKS. Find out more at http://www.studiounderhill.com
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