Paul Kupperberg's Illustrated Guide to Writing Comics

paul kupperberg's illustrated guide to writing comics by Paul Kupperberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Industry veteran Paul Kupperberg dishes up 100+ pages of advice for writing comics. What's not to like?

Nothing, it turns out. This reminded me quite a bit of Lawrence Block's writing books. There's no arcane talk about harnessing the power of myth, no will-sapping preparation techniques, no lengthy biographical section that proves to be more interesting than the technical bits - I'm looking in your direction, Stephen King!

Anyway, Paul dishes out some common sense, this-is-what-works-for-me style of tips. Leading with "No one cares how your script is formatted" does a great job of setting the tone.

Paul runs down advice on the advantages and disadvantages of plot first, full script, and synopses and provides tons of examples from his decades of experience. Other comics professionals offer tips at the end of each chapter. There are also exercises which I intend to do on my second read.

Plot, scenes, characters, and behaving like a damn grownup are among the other topics covered. The appendix is a script for a Digger Graves story side by side with the finished product from an issue of Charlton Arrow, nicely illustrating the lessons taught along the way.

Paul Kupperberg's Illustrated Guide to Writing Comics is a great look behind the curtain and is a great starting point for someone interested in writing comics.

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