compare with the finished comics I imagine.
I have a stack of old scripts, the majority of those I have worked on wth the unfortunate exception of Mike Barr, because he
always asked me to return a script with the finished art so that any working notes could be incorporated.
professional assignment. Written by
Paul Neary the 'Orion Watch' was to be
a sci-fi story for inclusion in one of
Marvel UK's magazines. This was just
prior to Captain Britain. If I can dig out
the art I began to draw I will post it,
scripts.
The opening pages from an
episode of Captain Britain
and one of DR & Quinch.
few questions that I'll take this opportunity to address here.
I agreed to work with Jamie as a favour to Alan Moore when he quit Captain Britain. I did like Jamie a
lot but he didn't know much about comics (I think his real ambition was to write novels). I supplied
the basic plots for our early collaborations on Captain Britain but when Jamie went solo I felt his text
was limiting the story and not exploiting the visual potential of the medium. I was ruthless in my
reworking of Jamie's scripts but felt it was right for the book, or at least my vision of the characters
and Captain Britain. I believe I did my best to make it work with Jamie but ultimately, we had
opposing goals so, because I had more clout, I took over the writing myself.
When 2000AD attempted to team Jamie and I up on the DR & Quinch problem page I had hoped
that we may be more successful but once again we were at odds. On the right are two examples of
Jamie's original script (left) and my reworking (right). Essentially, Jamie had written a text page to be
illustrated with spot illustrations but I wanted to tell a story. I'm sure Jamie's version could have
worked but I'm a storyteller and I think comics should be about storytelling.
This is all really ancient history now and I'm sure of interest to true zealots only.
Captain Britain, sample of my
plotting(left) and script(right)
.The final text being
rationalised after the pencils
were completed.
Excalibur by Chris Claremont .
Working with Chris was really my first
experience of 'the Marvel way'. It took a bit of
getting used to because, with full scripts, you
tend to think that the writer has everything
nailed down and you can waste time figuring
out what isn't working.
Chris's stream of consciousness plotting is
terrific to work from. Every piece of information
about the characters, their motivation and the
action itself is included but the looseness of the
structure allows an artist to fully understand
the story without being limited to a particular
pacing or visualisation.
Claremont, and was amused when I spotted
my note at the top to make a request a
reference for the courtroom scene in the story.
This was long before the internet and, after an
exhaustive search of my local library I asked if
the editor could send a ref. Time ticked past, I
drew the pages leaving space to add the
background.
Finally the deadline was imminent and with no
time to even bluff out a background the pages
had to be sent for publication. Which is why
the courtroom looks more like a warehouse
with a panel of judges and lecturn!
Excalibur fan. I was credited
with having contributed to the
plots of Excalibur 15 and 16--
which I didn't, other than
stating a desire to have
Excalibur visit an ERB world.
It was actually Excalibur 14
that utilised an idea I had
considered during my tenure
on Captain Britain at marvel
UK.
first few issues of
ClanDestine I was
asked to prepare a
short two part story for
inclusion in the Marvel
Comics Presents book.
This, my first synopsis
was rejected, and as
time was very short so
the second submission,
that saw publication,
was just one instalment.
Scott Lobdell used to take
delight in mocking my lack of
typing skills but, in the time
before laptops, I used to do most
of my writing on trains, planes or
in between and Terry Kavanagh
was happy for me to mail
photocopied pages from
wherever I was-- to keep things
moving, and ahead of schedule.
It certainly made life easier for
me.