First, Your Verbose and Hopefully
Trusted Narrator Talks About a Favorite Comic From Which He's Learned
So if you know me in real life, you
know that in the past two years I have been getting more and more
into comics. And there's a good chance that you also know over the
past year I've started writing poems as/about superheroes. And that
recently I've been obsessed with writing about fake superheroes. As
someone who is focused writing wise on poetry, but is constantly
trying to learn and play with other genres of art, it is fitting that
this is a trick that I learned from a comic series: Astro City.
Part of what makes Astro City (a comic
best described as often being “slice of life” in a super hero
world) pack the very human, very emotional punch it does, stems from
its usage of fake superheroes that will very instantly remind you of
the ones you know. The Samaritan, a very clear stand in for
Superman, dreams of flying as something he just did for fun and not a
constant rushed act he must do to save the day. Sasha Furst, the
daughter of the First Family, a clear stand in for the Fantastic
Four, runs away form home so she can learn what Hopscotch is.
Junkman, less a clear stand in for one specific character and more so
an amalgamation of various failed inventors turned eccentric villains
as necessity, narrates a whole issue from his perspective, and you
can't help but cheer for him when he is about to go free. And
sometimes the heroes are barely even focused on, in stories of
everyday people where the heroes only appear briefly in the
background, somewhat like celebrities or politicians might in ours.
While a writer working in the same
medium (comics) would have more to worry about with copyright
infringement, the use of stand ins allows for more artistic freedom.
Specifically
- creative liberties: As the writers of Squadron Supreme, Watchmen, or almost any other classic mini-series could tell you, there's a lot you can do when you're not worried about maintaining a franchise and merchandising. This means one character whose life story might steal your heart in one issue can be killed off in less than half a panel in the next.
- archetypal nature: Sasha Furst is both a superhero, but also a sheltered little girl wanting a normal life. The story is able to jump right into that reality of her nature. A Teacher once told me that poets almost never invent characters, as it's a waste of time when there's so many pre-existing characters, and you can use them to jump right into the heart of your work. Well, Astro City does in comics what persona does in poems.
- building of a new cohesive universe: While Astro City draws from both Marvel and DC mainstays, it also draws from pulps and other pre-superhero medium. There is an interesting, welcoming, meta nature to watching a world move from one period to another, and watch them reference each other.
And Now, the Writing Prompt!
Oh, good, you're still reading this
after my literattti fanboy rambles. Or, like a little kid holding a
comic, you skipped ahead to where it looked like the action scene
was. Either way... Here be the prompt(s).
Prompt 1: Seriously, why aren't you
reading Astro City?
It can inspire so many prompts, such
as:
- short piece as a sympathetic villain
- incorporating fantastical, surreal imagery for use in every day, otherwise mundane scenes
- portrait of a neighborhood
- stand alone pieces in a series that add together to make a strong, cohesive world
- and I'm sure you'll find a million other things that work for you
Prompt 2: Write a poem in the form of a
comic Script.
It does not have to deal with
superheroes. If it does, high five, but not needed. Anyway, for
those not familiar with comic scripts, they're somewhere between a
play script and a movie script, but also with more freedom, as long
as your collaborating visual artist(s) will gleam what they need to
from it. A brief page on how to write them:
http://2012.scriptfrenzy.org/howtovformatcomicbooks
and a resource for sample scripts:
http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/,
and while we're at it, some fun technical terms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_comics_terminology.
Okay, now that this part is out of the way, use the form of a comic
script to write a poem.
A suggestion of things to learn from
includes:
- borrowed voice
- setting apart image and dialogue as two things played off each other
- using the concept of panels to force concision
- panels as a way to break apart parts in ways that jump from moment and image to moment and image, yet feel cohesive, while also working in a system of snapshots
- play with ways image and dialogue play off each other
- use of in media res
- delay defining origin, or don't explain the origin of the speaker. Trust your audience to figure out, or be interested and trusting in your world enough to not care.
But of course, break the rules. This
is a poem in the form of a script, not a script you need to plan to
use, just as writing a poem in the form a shopping list that unfolds
into a story does not mean you need to plan to fit all of said things
into your backpack.
Excelsior!
