DEFIANT DitkoIn the summer of 1992, days after I was ousted from VALIANT, Frank Miller called me. He said he’d heard what they said. He asked me to tell him what really happened. Frank was very sympathetic and supportive. Not too long after that, I got a call from Steve Ditko. The new management at […]
First This JayJay the obstreperous Blog Elf yelled at me for not including a more personal story involving Steve Ditko Monday. You know what? That’s just what I need in my life, more people yelling at me. Here’s a picture of JayJay. She’s the mean-looking one at the bottom: Anyway…. Here’s a Ditko at Marvel […]
I first met Steve Ditko sometime in 1977. For the life of me, I can’t remember where. It might have been at Continuity, Neal Adams’ studio. Continuity was the crossroads of the comics industry. Besides the people who actually worked there, a lot of artists would show up looking for freelance advertising or storyboard jobs, which […]
David Michelinie’s check didn’t come. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 1978, I think. Marvel Comics was still sorting out its payment procedures, which went through several changes during the first year I was Editor in Chief. You can read about it here and here. The deal was supposed to be if your voucher was received […]
QUESTION: Dear Jim, I hope this isn’t a silly question, but what differences do you see between comics writing and writing for TV or movies? Would you say that comic book story structure is less rigid and formulaic? Pete Marco ANSWER: Writing for television means adhering to many strictures and limitations — things like building […]
The Great Cover After the Best Cliffhanger Ever At the request of Lincoln G, here’s the cover of the Amazing Spider-Man #33. Not surprisingly, the best cliffhanger also made for a terrific cliffhanger cover. Long Term Teases, or This Better Be Good…. The best long term tease, the best tease of any kind is consistently […]
Excerpted from “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” by Mark Twain.JayJay here. Over the years Jim has had a few classic sources of advice on writing that he would refer writers to. Here is one of them. Good things to keep in mind. And I recommend reading the essay that these guidelines are taken from even if you […]
The Best Cliffhanger Ever I remember buying this comic book at Churchill’s Pharmacy, corner of South Park Road and Brightwood Road, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. It was October, 1965. I had just turned fourteen. I read the book in the store, after paying for it. They were nice at Churchill’s but like everywhere else, if you […]
Continued Stories I was taught that if a story continues in the next issue, end with a climactic cliffhanger. Well, duh…. And yet…. And, as I learned on my own, that “rule,” taught to me by Mort Weisinger, like pretty much all rules applied to creative work, is far from absolute. There are plenty of […]
Dire Premonitions Sometime in early February of 2001, in the middle of the night, I woke up from an intense dream. I dreamed that my father was gravely ill. Dying. Just a dream, I told myself. It became a recurring dream. It happened five more times before March 14th, my mother’s birthday. I hadn’t been […]