Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 8 (Edited from the transcript of a 1994 seminar) Around the turn of the 20th Century, two new media were invented. Okay, some scholar is going to correct me and say the first movie was actually made in the 1860’s, and Scott McCloud thinks hieroglyphics were comics, but work with me, here. As […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 7 (Edited from the transcript of a 1994 seminar) I want to get onto the artwork. Writers pay attention. A lot of this applies to you as well. This is a two-part medium. It’s visual and verbal. We’re in the business of storytelling. Because of the unique combination of the visual […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 6 (Edited from the transcript of a 1994 seminar) I’m going to walk you quickly through a movie called Rocky. I’ll just touch on a few scenes from Rocky that basically will illustrate some of what I’m talking about in terms of building these things into the story. Rocky’s not high […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 5 (Edited from the transcript of a 1994 seminar) Let me tell you a little bit about some other structural things that you may need to know. You heard me say, “Introduce your characters” a couple of times. What does that mean? What I mean by that is, whenever you are […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 4 (From the transcript of a 1994 seminar) (JayJay here. I posted this blog straight from the transcript, but once Jim got a bit of a break, he touched it up. Here is his edited version.) I like Mark Twain. He was good. Take Huckleberry Finn for example. That’s a great […]
Jens H. Altmann commented on your link. Jens wrote: “I used to think that there was roughly a 10 year turnover in comics creators — every ten years or so, some new names would appear and some established names would phase out. What’s your observation in that regard?” Most of the people I worked with […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 3 (From the transcript of a 1994 seminar) Today I’m going to show you how to make the Little Miss Muffet example from yesterday better and then next week I’ll discuss some of the craft of being a writer. How can we make it better? We could add some character. Wouldn’t […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 2 (From the transcript of a 1994 seminar) All right, so you’ve got this concept that’s built into our language and therefore built into our brains. That’s why there is a definition of story. So why can’t everybody just sit down and be a writer? Well you can. Just let yourself. […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Part 1 (From the transcript of a 1994 seminar) Story is probably the most fundamental and important element of entertainment in the world. It’s a basic building block. It comes into play in virtually every creative medium. Storytelling is the oldest profession. Don’t believe what you’ve heard. People were telling lies long […]
Storytelling Lecture Series, Introduction (From the transcript of a 1994 seminar) The comics business went into a steep decline in the ’50s and early ’60s. During that time a lot of companies folded, a lot of comic book professionals were unemployed, and so, if you were an editor at a surviving comic book company you […]